Roger Sessions (1896-1985), one of this century's most highly respected American composers, was also a prolific and gifted writer. Besides authoring numerous books, essays, and articles, Sessions carried on lengthy written conversations with such noteworthy composers and musicians as Aaron Copland, Igor Stravinsky, Nadia Boulanger, Arnold Schoenberg, Ernest Bloch, Luigi Dallapiccola, Ernst Krenek, and his student David Diamond. Andrea Olmstead has edited and annotated.

More than two hundred of Sessions's letters, as well as letters from his correspondents, covering nearly seventy-five years of the composer's long and productive life, from prep school until his death in 1985. In addition, Olmstead has included thoughtful commentary that places the letters in their context. Sessions's correspondence provides a fascinating firsthand view of music-making in the twentieth century. Among the richest exchanges are the letters between Sessions.

And Copland in the late 1920s, when they decided to organize a series of concerts of new music in New York City. The volume also contains previously unpublished letters between Sessions and Thomas Mann on Mann's Dr. Faustus and letters from Ernst Krenek that vividly describe his escape from the Nazis and adjustment to life in America. Until now, many details about Sessions's life and work have been elusive. Here Sessions discusses the range of musical issues that touched.

Him personally. His letters also convey much about the nature of the artistic milieu in which he and his colleagues, both in America and abroad, made music. Sessions was a perceptive observer of the passing political scene. His correspondence provides a unique perspective on an important chapter in musical and political history. As Olmstead notes in her introduction, Sessions wrote letters much the way he composed music: "Long sentences are begun, spun out with elaborate.

Punctuation, and completed in virtuoso fashion without his crossing out a single word or phrase." He was a gifted stylist who merged beautiful form with thoughtful, and often moving, content. Consequently, The Correspondence of Roger Sessions makes for delightful reading.