THE POETICAL WORKS OF WILLIAM COWPER with Life

Edinburgh London: Gall & Inglis. Hardcover. Very Good. Published as part of the Landscape Series of Poets. No date of publication indicated, however, there is a poetic inscription written near the front of the book dated 1888. No chips, tears, creases or written inscription on pages. Blue, bevelled coverboards with embossed and gilt design. Text block is gilt edged. Front board features an inset, embossed gilt outline of an angel holding a harp. An association copy from the library of Geoffrey Payzant, with his music-themed book plate on front pastedown endpaper. Pages have decorative, illustrated borders. Steel engraving illustrations. Payzant was a teacher, philosopher, writer, organist, b Halifax, NS, 7 Mar 1926, d Toronto 31 Aug 2004; LRSM 1947, BA (Dalhousie) 1948, MA (Toronto) 1950, PH D (Toronto) 1960, honorary LL D (Mount Allison) 1991. In Halifax, he studied piano with George Little and piano, organ, and theory with Harry Dean. In Toronto he studied harpsichord with Greta Kraus at the RCMT. He taught English, music, and philosophy 1952-7 at Mount Allison University and philosophy (specializing in aesthetics) 1957-85 at the University of Toronto, where he also was chairman 1970-3 of the Dept of Interdisciplinary Studies. He was organist at the Sackville, NB, United Church 1952-7 and at Lawrence Park Community Church (Toronto) 1958-63.Payzant's activities included founding and editing the Canadian Music Journal,1956-62, conducting empirical research into musical perception using an apparatus he devised and constructed (reporting the results of this research on the CBC radio), and (with Stewart Duncan) he restored the Richard Coates barrel organ in the Temple of the Children of Peace at Sharon, Ont.Payzant's book Glenn Gould: Music and Mind is a rarity among treatments of performers in that it barely concerns itself with Gould's personal life and public appearances but focused on the nature of his philosophies and with the quality, depth, scope, and variety of his art as it was affected by those philosophies. The first (and for ten or more years the only) monograph on Gould, the volume was available in 1990 in English, French, and Japanese.In 1980 Payzant's research interests began to centre on the writings of the pioneer of musical aesthetics, Eduard Hanslick (1824-1904). He produced several articles and gave dozens of invited lectures on Hanslick. In 1991 Payzant published Eduard Hanslick and Ritter Berlioz in Prague, an English translation of Hanslick's philosophical classic Vom Musikalisch-Schönen (On the Musically Beautiful). This book led to a documentary study of the 1846 encounters in Prague between Hector Berlioz and the young Hanslick. Some edgewear to boards and fraying at head/tail of spine. Paper cover hinges is split, but binding remains tight and secure. A pocket with a borrowing card is attached to the rear pastedown endpaper. A list of publisher's titles in the Landscape Edition of the Poets series at rear of book. Size: Sm 8vo (7.5" to 8"). 516 pp.