Nabokov, Nicolas [Nikolay]

Newman, Randy (Gary)

(b Los Angeles, 28 Nov 1943). American composer, singer and pianist. He was born into a musical family: three of his uncles – Emil, Alfred and Lionel Newman – composed and conducted film scores in Hollywood. He started to write songs when he was 16 and became a staff songwriter for the Metric music company in California, and also studied music at UCLA but left during his senior year. Some of his early songs were performed by Gene Pitney, Dusty Springfield, the Fleetwoods and the O'Jays, but his first widely recognized song was I think it's going to rain today, recorded by Judy Collins in 1966. Newman began to record his own songs in 1968. On Randy Newman (Rep., 1968), the contrast between the lush orchestrations and Newman's drawling, deadpan vocal style heightened the irony of his lyrics. Formally his songs range from the standard pop structure of verse and chorus to through-composed pieces. 12 Songs (Rep., 1970), and all the later albums, use conventional rock instrumentation, and draw not only on rock styles but also on blues, jazz and show tunes, as well as classical sources.

Newman is a slow songwriter, recording an album every two or three years, and then making a tour. His ‘Short people’ – a wry, sardonic novelty song about prejudice – from Little Criminals (Rep., 1977) reached no.2 in the US pop chart in 1978. Born Again (WB, 1979) and Trouble in Paradise (WB, 1983) showed a familiarity with current pop styles, and the latter included parodies of the styles of Paul Simon (who sings on The Blues) and Billy Joel. Rickie Lee Jones, Bob Seger and members of Fleetwood Mac and the Eagles have recorded with Newman. He has also composed and arranged film scores, with Academy Award nominations for those to Ragtime (1981), Parenthood (1989), Avalon (1990) Toy Story (1995) and Toy Story 2 (1999).

BIBLIOGRAPHY

CBY1982

GroveA

P. Winkler: ‘Randy Newman's Americana’, Popular Music [Great Britain], vii (1988), 1–26

S. Dunne: ‘Randy Newman and the Extraordinary Moral Position’, Popular Music and Society, xvi (1992), 533–61

JON PARELES

Newman, William S(tein)

(b Cleveland, 6 April 1912; d Chapel Hill, NC, 27 April 2000). American musicologist and pianist. He studied piano at the Cleveland Institute of Music (1931–3) and composition and music history at Western Reserve University, earning the BS in 1933, the MA in 1935 and the PhD in 1939. From 1940 to 1941 he was enrolled at Columbia University as a postdoctoral student, working with Paul Henry Lang and Erich Hertzmann. He began teaching at the University of North Carolina in 1945; in 1962 he was appointed Alumni Distinguished Professor of Music and he was president of the AMS from 1969 to 1970. He retired in 1977.

Newman’s principal interest is the music of the 17th century to the 19th, particularly performing practice and the development of the sonata. His three-volume History of the Sonata Idea is a study of the term and its applications from the Baroque up to the early 20th century. Each volume examines the general nature of the sonata in the period under consideration – its social function, geographical spread, instrumentation and structure – then surveys individual composers and their works. The extensive references and large body of information contained in the History make it an indispensable bibliographical tool and a basic text for the student of instrumental music.

Newman has performed throughout the USA as a pianist, both in solo appearances and with chamber groups and orchestras. His interest as a pianist and a scholar in questions of performing practice is reflected in his later writings, which include two monographs on Beethoven (1971; 1988) and many articles.

WRITINGS

The Present Trend of the Sonata Idea (diss., Western Reserve U., 1939)

‘The Recognition of Sonata Form by Theorists of the 18th and 19th Centuries’, PAMS 1941, 21–9

‘Arthur Shepherd’, MQ, xxxvi (1950), 159–79

The Pianist’s Problems: a Modern Approach to Efficient Practice and Musicianly Performance (New York, 1950, enlarged 3/1974/R)

‘The Climax of Music’, MR, xiii (1952), 283–93

‘The Sonatas of Albinoni and Vivaldi’, JAMS, v (1952), 99–113

Understanding Music (New York, 1953, 2/1961)

‘The Keyboard Sonatas of Benedetto Marcello’, AcM, xxix (1957), 28–41; xxxi (1959), 192–6

The Sonata in the Baroque Era (Chapel Hill, NC, 1959, 4/1983)

‘Kirnberger’s Method for Tossing off Sonatas’, MQ, xlvii (1961), 517–25

The Sonata in the Classic Era (Chapel Hill, NC, 1963, 3/1983)

‘Wagner’s Sonatas’, Studies in Romanticism, vii (1968), 129–39

The Sonata since Beethoven (Chapel Hill, NC, 1969, 3/1983)

‘The Duo Texture of Mozart's K.526: an Essay in Classic Instrumental Style’, Essays in Music in Honor of Dragan Plamenac, ed. G. Reese and R.J. Snow (Pittsburgh, 1969/R), 191–206

‘Is there a Rationale for the Articulation of J.S. Bach’s String and Wind Music?’, Studies in Musicology: Essays … in Memory of Glen Haydon, ed. J.W. Pruett (Chapel Hill, NC, 1969), 229–44

‘Beethoven’s Pianos versus his Piano Ideals’, JAMS, xxiii (1970), 484–504

Performance Practices in Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas (New York, 1971)

‘Liszt’s Interpreting of Beethoven’s Piano Sonatas’, MQ, lviii (1972), 185–209

‘Tempofreiheit in Schuberts Instrumentalmusik’, Zur Aufführungspraxis der Werke Franz Schuberts: Vienna 1974, 37–47

‘Freedom of Tempo in Schubert’s Instrumental Music’, MQ, lxi (1975), 528–45

‘A Chronological Checklist of Collected Editions of Beethoven’s Solo Piano Sonatas since his Own Day’, Notes, xxxiii (1976–7), 503–30

‘The Performance of Beethoven's Trills’, JAMS, xxix (1976), 439–62

‘The Opening Trill in Beethoven's Sonata for Piano and Violin op.96’, Musik, Edition, Interpretation: Gedenkschrift Günter Henle, ed. M. Bente (Munich, 1980), 384–93

‘Das Tempo in Beethoven's Instrumentalmusik: Tempowahl und Tempoflexibilität’, Mf, xxxiii (1980), 161–83

‘Beethoven's Fingerings as Interpretive Clues’, JM, i (1982), 171–97

‘Haydn as Ingenious Exploiter of the Keyboard’, Joseph Haydn: Vienna 1982, 43–53

‘Mendelssohns Sonaten’, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, ed. G. Schuhmacher (Darmstadt, 1982), 201–18

‘The Beethoven Mystique in Romantic Art, Literature, and Music’, MQ, lxix (1983), 354–87

‘Three Musical Intimates of Mendelssohn and Schumann in Leipzig: Hauptmann, Moscheles, and David’, Mendelssohn and Schumann: Essays on their Music and its Context, ed. J.W. Finson and R.L. Todd (Durham, NC, 1984), 87–98

‘Yet another Major Beethoven Forgery by Schindler?’, JM, iii (1984), 397–423

‘Beethoven's Uses of the Pedals’, The Pianist’s Guide to Pedaling, ed. J. Banowetz (Bloomington, IN, 1985), 146–66

Beethoven on Beethoven: Playing his Piano Music his Way (New York, 1988)

‘Range as a Structural Determinant in Beethoven's Piano Music’, Music from the Middle Ages through the Twentieth Century: Essays in Honor of Gwynn S. McPeek, ed. C.P. Comberiati and M.C. Steel (New York, 1988), 190–200

‘Expressive Subtleties in Beethoven's Later Piano Sonatas’, De musica hispana et aliis: miscelánea en honor al Prof. Dr. José López-Calo, ed. E. Casares and C. Villanueva (Santiago de Compostela, 1990), ii, 213–26

‘Musicology among the Humanities’, Essays in Musicology: a Tribute to Alvin Johnson, ed. L. Lockwood and E.H. Roesner (Philadelphia, 1990), 292–304

‘Programmists vs. Absolutists: Further Thoughts about an Overworked “Dichotomy”’, Convention in Eighteenth- and Nineteenth-Century Music: Essays in Honor of Leonard G. Ratner, ed. W.J. Allanbrook, J.M. Levy and W.P. Mahrt (Stuyvesant, NY, 1992), 517–35

PAULA MORGAN