Biography: arts and entertainment Books
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Debussy's Letters to Inghelbrecht: The Story of a
Book SynopsisThe first English translation of the correspondence between two composers and friends. Désiré-Emile Inghelbrecht was a conductor and composer. His friendship with Claude Debussy began in 1911 (although they had met previously), and he soon became one of the Master's closest friends. This book is the first publication, in the original French and in English translation, of the correspondence between these two musicians. Beginning rather formally in 1912, with the salutation "Mon cher Inghelbrecht," the correspondence soon became much moreintimate, with Debussy addressing Inghelbrecht as "Mon cher ami" or "Cher Inghel." Although Debussy had a reputation for being cold and distant and for avoiding strangers, this was just his way of maintaining his privacy. This aloofness enabled him to express in private the warmth he felt toward those few close friends whose intimacy he needed and cherished. Inghelbrecht was in the forefront of this group. Their friendship was based not only on a mutual respect for each other's talents as artists and musicians, but also on the sharing of intimate secrets and warm feelings. Inghelbrecht's wife would later write that her husband retained the mark Debussy left on him. "For him, he was a beacon, a guide. And he had the deep joy of being able, up until his last days, to bring to life with passion, with all his talent-the works of a man who had been for a few years his friend." Margaret G. Cobb, the"doyenne of Debussy scholars," brings to life these two talented men. She enriches Richard Miller's idiomatic translation of the letters with copious notes and wonderful illustrations to illuminate a great musical friendship. Margaret G. Cobb is also the author of The Poetic Debussy, available from the University of Rochester Press. In 2002 she was awarded the title of Officier de l'Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French Government'sMinistère de la Culture et de la Communication.Trade ReviewA wonderful book, one that will be welcomed by everyone interested in French modernist music. The richness of the lives that unfold from the pages of these letters is engrossing, and the translation is superb. Margaret Cobb's meticulous work on Debussy has long been deeply admired by her devotees, and this book adds so much to our understanding of an enigmatic composer and of one of his close collaborators. -- -- Carolyn Abbate (Princeton University), author of Voices: Opera and Musical Narrative in the Nineteenth Century .The friendship recounted in this book is one that echoes in the legendary Debussy recordings of the 1950s and 1960s conducted by D. E. Inghelbrecht. Among the many endearing glimpses here of two strong artistic personalities is their shared love of Musorgsky and Chabrier, and a telling blend of wit with uncompromising artistic aims. This is a book to put an extra spring into our playing of Debussy. -- -- Roy Howat, pianist, author of Debussy in Perspective: A Musical Analysis , and Editorial Board member of the Oeuvres Complètes de Claude Debussy .Elegant and easily accessible. . . . By 1914 [the composer-conductor Inghelbrecht] had become the recipient of some of Debussy's wonderful revelations, such as the Jacques-Émile Blanche portrait showing him like 'a cream cheese that has had too many late nights' [p. 47]. . . . Beautifully produced and illustrated, and should be owned by all who love Debussy. -- Robert Orledge * MUSIC AND LETTERS *Table of ContentsList of Letters List of Illustrations Preface Acknowledgments D.E. Inghelbrecht: A Biography Letters from Debussy to Inghelbrecht Appendix A: Letter from Inghelbrecht to Debussy Appendix B: Letters from Inghelbrecht to d'Annunzio Appendix C: Letters from Chouchou Debussy to Inghelbrecht Biographies Bibliography Discography Index
£76.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd For the Enrichment of Community Life: George
Book SynopsisFor the Enrichment of Community Life is the first part of the history of the Eastman School of Music, beginning with the events that led to the establishment of the school in 1921 and ending in 1932 with the death of the school's benefactor, George Eastman. It was Eastman -- the founder of Eastman Kodak, and Rush Rhees -- the remarkable president of the University of Rochester, who really made it all possible. The story related here is not simply that of a music school. It also involves a symphony orchestra, an American opera company, a ballet company, a school of dance and drama, a music library, and a commercial radio station dedicated to broadcasting live classical music. It includes efforts to support the musical education of Rochester's elementary and secondary school children and the involvement of the symphony orchestra in their musical education. It is the story of the school's Eastman Theatre, which became the location of concerts and recitals by the world greatest musicians. Upon the facade of the Eastman Theatre is the inscription "For the Enrichment of Community Life," words selected by Rush Rhees to dedicate the theater to that purpose. In a broader sense also, these words embody the mission of the Eastman School of Music.
£16.14
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Letters I Never Mailed: Clues to a Life
Book SynopsisLetters I Never Mailed: Clues to a Life, by Alec Wilder, in a new, annotated edition with introduction and supplementary material by David Demsey, foreword by jazz pianist Marian McPartland, and photographs by Louis Ouzer. Letters I Never Mailed: Clues to a Life, by Alec Wilder, in a new, annotated edition with introduction and supplementary material by David Demsey, foreword by jazz pianist Marian McPartland, and photographs by Louis Ouzer. Alec Wilder is a rare example of a composer who established a reputation both as a prolific composer of concertos, sonatas, and operas, and as a popular songwriter [including the hit "I'll Be Around"]. He was fearsomely articulate and had a wide and varied circle of friends ranging from Graham Greene to Frank Sinatra and Stan Getz. Letters I Never Mailed, hailed at its first publication [in 1975, by Little, Brown], tells the story of Wilder's musical and personal life through unsent "letters" addressed to various friends. In it, he shares his insights -- and sometimes salty opinions -- on composing, musical life, and the tension between art and commercialism. Thisnew, scholarly edition leaves Wilder's original text intact but decodes the mysteries of the original through an annotated index that identifies the letters' addressees, a biographical essay by David Demsey, and photographs by renowned photographer and lifelong friend of Wilder, Louis Ouzer. David Demsey is Professor of Music and coordinator of jazz studies at William Paterson University and an active jazz and classical saxophonist. He is co-author of Alec Wilder: A Bio-Bibliography [Greenwood Press] and has contributed to The Oxford Companion to Jazz.Trade Review[This] is an excellent book that may well rekindle a broader interest in the composer, a Rochester icon. . . . The letters in Letters I Never Mailed were, of course, a literary device. Wilder hated writing about himself and used supposed correspondence as a way to discuss his life obliquely. For that reason, Demsey's introductory biography is helpful since it clarifies details that Wilder often left deliberately vague. The new edition includes one other welcome addition, the photos of Wilder's dearest friend, Lou Ouzer, the famed Eastman photographer. DEMOCRAT AND CHRONICLE, Dec. 2005 [John Pitcher] In Letters I Never Mailed: Clues to a Life, Alec Wilder wanted to reveal himself, but not entirely. And so he left unidentified the individuals to whom many of the letters were written. The detective work of David Demsey gives us a much better understanding of the enigma that was Alec Wilder. -- -- Marian McPartland, renowned jazz pianist, recording artist, and host for over 25 years of Marian McPartland's Piano Jazz (National Public Radio)Alec Wilder was one of the great composers of modern times. He wrote a suite for me with concert band. Nobody could play the last movement. When I asked him about all the difficult notes in my part, he said, 'That's what you would have played if you had improvised!' In this new edition, David Demsey has been responsible for allowing people to understand some of Alec's equally mysterious letters, helping readers to better know one of my favorite people. -- -- Jazz Trumpeter Clark TerryThis memoir is as odd, curmudgeonly, imaginative, funny, and charming as its author, who was one of the glorious eccentrics of American music. First published in 1975, five years before Wilder's death, it has now been annotated by David Demsey, who has managed to identify almost everyone addressed by Wilder. * WHOLENOTE *Table of ContentsForeword by Marian McPartland Preface to the Annotated Edition by David Demsey Introduction to the Annotated Edition: A Brief Wilder Biography by David Demsey Letters I Never Mailed Annotated Addressee List Selected Compositions by Alec Wilder Selected Discography Selected Bibliography
£36.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Maurice Duruflé: The Man and His Music
Book SynopsisA new, deeply researched biography of the great French organist, who composed some of the best-loved works in the organ repertory -- and the masterful Requiem. Maurice Duruflé: The Man and His Music is a new biography of the great French organist and composer (1902-86), and the most comprehensive in any language. James E. Frazier traces Duruflé's musical training, his studies withTournemire and Vierne, and his career as an organist, church musician, composer, recitalist, Conservatoire professor, and orchestral musician. Frazier also examines the career and contributions of Duruflé's wife, the formidable organist Marie-Madeleine Duruflé-Chevalier. Duruflé brought the church's unique language of plainsong into a compelling liaison with the secular harmonies of the modern French school (as typified by Debussy, Ravel, and Dukas)in works for his own instrument and in his widely loved masterpiece, the Requiem Op. 9 for soloists, chorus, organ, and orchestra. Drawing on the accounts of those who knew Duruflé personally as well as on Frazier's own detailed research, Maurice Duruflé offers a broad sketch of this modest and elusive man, widely recognized today for having created some of the greatest works in the organ repertory -- and the masterful Requiem. James E. Frazier holds advanced degrees in philosophy, organ, theology, and sacred music from St. Alphonsus College, Mt. St. Alphonsus Seminary, Hartt School of Music, the Yale University Divinity School, and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. He served Episcopal churches in Hartford, Connecticut, and St. Paul, Minnesota, as organist and director of music. For ten years he was director of music for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.Trade ReviewA mine of information . . . a veritable tale of our times. -- Andrew Thomson * MUSICAL TIMES *Provides significant insight into Duruflé's works and the relatively secretive life he and his wife led. . . . Frazier's research is excellent. . . . An important contribution. -- Brian Doherty * CHOICE *Frazier's exploration of arabesque in architecture and music and his treatment of musical luminosity are memorably insightful and reveal a thoughtful understanding of Duruflé's work. . . . An interesting and well-constructed view of Duruflé's world, and a highly informative text as well. -- Steven Plank * CHOIR & ORGAN *A work of unprecedented scope and depth, . . . [Frazier's book] is a biography abundantly rich in detail; though it declines the tone of a hagiography, it is obviously a labor of love. . . . Frazier skillfully illuminates the contexts in which Duruflé's life unfolded . . . [and] Frazier's survey of Duruflé's compositions is particularly strong. . . . A special pleasure of the book is the chapter on [Duruflé's future wife, and a world-renowned organist,] Marie-Madeleine Chevalier . . . Frazier's book will no doubt stand as a defining work in Duruflé scholarship and nurture scholars of 20th-century French organ music for years to come. -- Lawrence Archbold * AMERICAN ORGANIST *One of the best musical biographies I have read for many years: sound in musical and, for the most part, in historical judgment . . . , sympathetic without being sycophantic, and most gracefully written. Duruflé deserves no less. -- Roger Nichols * GRAMOPHONE *[Frazier] sees Duruflé as a compelling figure, given over to the same foibles and doubts we all have. Frazier's ability to obtain primary sources lends credence to his observations. This is a superb work, one to be valued by music historians and organists alike. -- Donald Metz * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *This substantial study . . . although sympathetic . . . is not a work of hagiography. . . .[The author argues that] the somewhat short-lived revival of Gregorian chant in the French church . . . [during] Duruflé's composing life was a happy coincidence from which music was the main beneficiary [notably through the widely beloved Requiem]. . . . The very considerable value of this book lies in its personal evaluation of a man whose personality is likely to remain something of a mystery but whose music has already transcended his life. -- Bret Johnson * TEMPO *Table of ContentsDuruflé's Childhood and Early Education Life at the Cathedral Choir School Lessons with Charles Tournemire Lessons with Louis Vierne The Conservatoire Student Duruflé's Distinctions The Contested Successions at Notre-Dame and Sainte Clotilde Duruflé's Peforming Career The Orchestral Musician The Poulenc Organ Concerto Professor of Harmony at the Paris Conservatoire Marie-Madeleine Chevalier Overview of Duruflé's Compositions Duruflé's Compositions: Their Genesis and First Performance Duruflé's Role in the Plainsong Revival The Vichy Commissions The Requiem The Musical History of Saint Étienne-du-Mont The Organs at Saint Étienne-du-Mont Duruflé as Organist and Teacher Duruflé and Organ Design The Church in Transition The North American Tours The Man Duruflé
£103.50
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Frank Sinatra: The Man, the Music, the Legend
Book SynopsisA celebration of Sinatra's enduring impact on American entertainment and cultural life. For nearly sixty years, Frank Sinatra [1915-98] triumphed in concert, in the recording studio, on television, and on the big screen, refashioning his image to suit the temper of the times. Sinatra did it "his way," remaining bothelusive and alluring, and appealing to men and women alike. This collection analyzes the qualities that ensured Sinatra's staying power: his impeccable musicality, his charisma, his tough-mindedness, and even his peccadilloes. The contributors to this volume evaluate Sinatra's impact on all areas of entertainment, and examine many of the cultural forces he influenced and was influenced by, including Bing Crosby, Elvis, the "Beats," the Beatles, and Rock 'n' Roll. What emerges is a portrait of an artist, entertainment icon, and legendary symbol of popular culture. This appreciation of the Sinatra phenomenon celebrates his enduring impact on American entertainment and cultural life. Contributors: Blaine Allan, Samuel L. Chell, David Finck, Joseph Fioravanti Jeanne Fuchs, Philip Furia, Roger Gilbert, Ruth Prigozy, Walter Raubicheck, Lisa Jo Sagolla, Ron Simon, Arnold Jay Smith, James F. Smith, Patric M. Verrone, David Wild Jeanne Fuchs is Professor Emerita of Comparative Literature and Languages at Hofstra University; Ruth Prigozy is Professor of English at Hofstra University.Trade ReviewThe breadth of topics, discussed with concision, makes this book surprisingly brisk reading for those wanting to revisit quickly a number of aspects of Sinatra's career. * RONSLATE.COM, March 11, 2008 *A long-awaited collection of essays gathered from a famed 1998 conference at Hofstra University . . . probes various aspects of Sinatra's influence in his long career. . . . David Finck and Samuel L. Chell dissect Sinatra's vocal artistry in two succinct and exceptionally precise pieces in this collection. -- Benjamin Schwarz * ATLANTIC MONTHLY, June/July 2007 *It is doubtful that there will be another book dedicated so heavily to the nuts and bolts of what went into being Frank Sinatra.! -- Robert W. Rice * SING OUT! March 2008 *A kaleidoscopic view of a multi-faceted man, this compendium benefits greatly from its various viewpoints and offers fresh insight into the Sinatra legend. -- -- Michael FeinsteinFrom musical phrasing to comic strips, this compact but wide-ranging book marks a new stage in an emerging field that must now be called 'Sinatra Studies.' The variety of perspectives and topics has something to offer everyone who listens to, watches, and thinks about American popular culture. -- -- Jeffrey Magee, Associate Professor of Musicology, University of Illinois, Urbana-ChampaignTable of ContentsThe Musical Skills of Frank Sinatra - David Finck Frank Sinatra's Artistry and the Question of Phrasing - Kathryn Crosby Hanging on a String of Dreams: Delirium and Discontent in Sinatra's Love Songs - Joseph Fioravanti Jazzin' Sinatra: Three "Understated" Arrangers: George Siravo, Johnny Mandel, and Quincy Jones - Arnold Jay Smith They Can't Take That Away from Me: Frank Sinatra and His Curious but Close Relationship with the Rock and Roll GenerationGeneration - David Wild Dick Haymes: Sinatra Stand-In or the Real Thing? - Ruth Prigozy Singing in the Moment: Sinatra and the Culture of the Fifties - Roger Gilbert Frank Sinatra Meets the Beats - Blaine Allan Sinatra in (Lyrical) Drag - Philip Furia Sinatra Meets Television: A Search for Identity in Fifties America - Ronald C. Simon Frank Sinatra and Elvis Presley: The Taming of Teen Idols and The Timex Show - James F. Smith Frank Sinatra: Dancer - Jeanne Fuchs Dancing to Sinatra: The Partnership of Music and Movement in Twyla Tharp's Sinatra Suite - Lisa Jo Sagolla From Sam Spade to Tony Rome: Bogart's Influence on Sinatra's Film Career - Walter Raubicheck Sinatra Satire: Fifty Years of Punch Lines - Patric M. Verrone
£40.50
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Othmar Schoeck: Life and Works
Book SynopsisPlaces the Swiss composer Schoeck, master of a late-Romantic style both sensuous and stringent, in context and gives insight into his increasingly popular musical works. The work of the late-Romantic Swiss composer Othmar Schoeck (1886-1957) has in recent years enjoyed a surge of interest. His 300 songs with piano accompaniment are now all on CD, as are his orchestral song cycles and five of his eight stage works. Yet despite an impressive discography featuring names such as Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Lucia Popp and Ian Bostridge, no biographical study of Schoeck has ever been available in English. Chris Walton, authorof Richard Wagner in Zurich: The Muse of Place, charts the turbulent course of Schoeck's life and career with care and candor, from a rampant youth to midlife monogamy and an old age ravaged by fears of neglect. He tracesSchoeck's relationships to musicians such as Max Reger, Ferruccio Busoni, Wilhelm Furtwängler, Paul Hindemith, and Igor Stravinsky, and to writers Thomas Mann, Hermann Hesse, and James Joyce. New light is also shed on Schoeck's uneasy relationship with Nazi Germany and its culmination, for him, in public humiliation and private catastrophe. As an accompanist, Schoeck was an arch-Romantic master of rubato; as a conductor, he was a fervent champion of the new; and in his compositions, he moved from late-Romanticism through a modernist vortex to emerge in full mastery of an individual musical language both sensuous and stringent. In this thorough new biography, Waltonplaces Schoeck the man and the artist squarely in the context of his time. Chris Walton is Extraordinary Professor at the University of Stellenbosch in South Africa and Managing Director of the Orchestre Symphonique Bienne in Switzerland. He is the recipient of the 2010 Max Geilinger Prize honoring exemplary contributions to the literary and cultural relationship between Switzerland and the English-speaking world.Trade ReviewWalton replaces [Schoeck's] bland self-portrait with a veritable fresco in bright, contrasting colors. The visual images he has chosen to reproduce are equally revelatory. -- Georges Starobinski * DISSONANCE: SWISS MUSIC JOURNAL FOR RESEARCH AND CREATION *Chris Walton's . . . most readable monograph . . . combines profound scholarship with humour and entertainment, [and] succeeds brilliantly in bringing to life every area of its wide-ranging subject matter: the complex psychology of the composer, his fine musical oeuvre, the stimulating cultural context, the menace of Nazism during the 1930s and 40s, and above all the underrated country of Switzerland itself. -- Andrew Thomson * MUSICAL TIMES *Schoeck achieved in his best works an astonishing synthesis of Romantic and modernist styles. . . . Walton narrates Schoeck's tale in highly readable, occasionally witty prose...[R]eads as easily as a novel. . . . He has incorporated materials only recently released from private archives and had exclusive access to family members' personal recollections. . . . An unvarnished portrait of the man, yet one that still champions Schoeck the artist. -- Arlo McKinnon * OPERA NEWS *[An] unjustly neglected 20th-century master. Walton unearths vital links between Schoeck's wayward personal life and his creativity and -- best of all -- makes you want to hear the music. * FINANCIAL TIMES *Chris Walton narrates the tale of this important Swiss composer with a light touch, yet also with ample authority, backed by complete command of all the documentary sources. The result is a major contribution to our understanding of the contexts and forces-including modernism and resistance to it, and the complex cultural politics of the Nazi era-that affected art music during the first half of the twentieth century. -- : Tradition and Innovation and the Cambridge Introduction to Serialism -- Arnold Whittall, author of Exploring Twentieth-Century Music: Tradition and Innovation and the Cambridge Introduction to SerialismWalton writes superbly; his is a compelling narrative convincingly told. It will be of interest . . . to anyone engaged with the music and literature of the first half of the 20th century. . . . Highly recommended for any music collections serving the post-secondary level or above. The volume has been carefully edited, and the text is generously supplemented with copious illustrations and carefully chosen musical examples. -- John Schuster-Craig * FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Schoeck and the Swiss Childhood and Youth Wolf amidst the Sheep Leipzig, Munich, and an Awful Little Moustache Back in the Fold Hermann Hesse, via the Dentist Look Back in Melancholy Chamber Music The Art of Counterpoint Busoni The Picture on the Wall Touch of Venus Silent Bronze Sucking Sweet Folly Self Portrait, with Sandwich Elegy Goodbye to Geneva The Bee in the Rose Raging Queen Storms in the Pigeon Loft Into the Vortex Wrong-Note Rag Hildebill Variations and Fugue on an Age-Old Theme Put to the Wheel Gisela Lost in the Stars Whores and Madonnas ". . . he can write music all right . . ." Tea with (Ms.) Hitler Aryanizing Music Arms and the Man Castles in the Air Goering's Bullshit Collapse The People at Home The Reckoning Transfigured Summer Nights Silent Lights Fair Measure Rather Nice Horn Sleepless in Wollishofen Echoes and Elegies Running on Empty Epilogue Othmar Schoeck: Concise Work Catalogue and Discography Notes Bibliography Index
£114.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Widor: A Life beyond the Toccata
Book SynopsisBrings to light the life and work of one of France's most distinguished musicians in the most complete biography in any language of Charles-Marie Widor. Widor: A Life beyond the Toccata brings to light the life and work of one of France's most distinguished musicians in the most complete biography in any language of Charles-Marie Widor. He is considered one of the greatestorganists of his time, a prolific composer in nearly every genre, professor of organ and composition at the Paris Conservatory, academician and administrator at the Institute of France, journalist, conductor, music editor, scholar, correspondent, inspired visionary, and man of deep culture. An appendix constitutes the most complete listing ever compiled of Widor's oeuvre. Each work is dated as accurately as possible and includes the publisher, platenumber, dedicatee, and relevant commentary. Another appendix lists Widor's complete published writings, other than the scores of press reviews he penned over several decades. Widor: A Life beyond the Toccata illuminates the life and work of one of France's most distinguished yet neglected musicians of the belle époque. JOHN R. NEAR is Professor Emeritus of Music, Principia College.Trade ReviewA book to treasure. -- John Henderson * CHURCH MUSIC QUARTERLY *Invaluable. . . . In Near's genial, well-paced narrative, a portrait of a highly erudite and humorous man emerges -- Widor's intimate recollections of such luminaries as Rossini, Anton Rubinstein and Liszt fizz with vitality. . . . A rich source of contemporary material and . . . a lively picture of Parisian musical life from the 1860s to 1937. . . . Beautifully produced and designed. -- Jeremy Nicholas * GRAMOPHONE *Excellent translation. . . . A fruitful resource for scholars and Francophiles alike. * CHOICE *Eminently readable [with] photographs not to be found in the published sources. . . . A treasure chest. . . . The final word on the life of a truly great man. . . . A standard of reference and essential reading for all devotees of the French Romantic school. -- Harold Fabrikant * ORGAN AUSTRALIA *John R. Near has honoured his subject by combining powerfully muscular English prose with research so staggeringly comprehensive as to be what fashionable circles would call 'a game-changer.' . . . New insights aplenty. . . . A pleasure to read and to own. -- R. J. Stove Complete review reprinted at http://www.rjstove.net/articles/Widor-Organ_Salisbury.pdf * THE ORGAN *The definitive work about the composer of one of the two most famous organ pieces in the world [the Toccata from Organ Symphony No. 5]. John Near struck pay dirt when he located a 103-page manuscript of an unpublished 'Souvenirs Autobiographiques' [that] allows Widor to speak for himself and allows his biographer many opportunities to elucidate those events. Absolutely indispensable! -- Rollin Smith * THE AMERICAN ORGANIST *John Near -- editor of the critical edition of Widor's ten organ symphonies -- is unquestionably the authority on the organist-composer. In this book he gives us an encyclopedic memoir, containing many new details about Widor's life and work. Without any doubt this biography will remain the definitive resource in the organ world and beyond. * . *Daniel Roth, Organiste-titulaire du grand orgue de l'Église Saint-Sulpice, Paris * . *The documentation is wonderfully rich -- would that we had something comparable for earlier composers. . . . A major achievement. . . . A wealth of revealing information. -- Peter Williams * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *Detailed, richly documented account of Widor's long and fascinating life. . . Definitive. * MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION *Table of ContentsForeword by Kurt Lueders Preface Introduction: "Sunday Morning in a Paris Organ Loft," by T. Carl Whitmer Widor's Ancestry, Musical Education, and Heritage (1844-63) The First Creative Period (1864-79) The Years of Mastery (1880-94) The Twilight of Widor's Compositional Career (1895-1909) Mr. Widor, Member of the Institute of France (1910-37) Appendix One: Published Literary Works Appendix Two: List of Musical Works Appendix Three: A Cross-Section of Musicians during Widor's Life Appendix Four: Chronology
£120.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd First and Lasting Impressions: Julius Rudel Looks
Book SynopsisThe long-awaited memoir of Julius Rudel, the legendary opera conductor and arts administrator, gives insight into his ground-breaking repertory choices and his collaborations with Beverly Sills, Plácido Domingo, and others. As a seventeen-year-old Jewish boy, Julius Rudel escaped from Austria after the Nazi invasion and moved to New York, where he began his career as an unpaid musical assistant and worked his way up through the ranks of the newly formed New York City Opera, being named in 1957 as the company's general director and principal conductor. Later, he became the first artistic director of the Kennedy Center in Washington, DC. In his twenty-two-year leadership of New York City Opera, Rudel challenged audiences with new and unusual repertoire -- including fifteen world premieres and three seasons consisting entirely of American operas -- turning the popularly priced "People's Opera" intothe most influential and daring opera company in the United States. Rudel writes in detail of his unusual repertoire choices and of the political battles behind New York City Opera's move to Lincoln Center in 1966, and hereminisces about his legendary collaborations with Beverly Sills (on Handel's Giulio Cesare and Donizetti's "Three Queens") and Plácido Domingo (on Ginastera's Don Rodrigo) -- and about his work with other extraordinary talents including Norman Treigle, Phyllis Curtin, William Ball, Frank Corsaro, Tito Capobianco, Leopold Stokowski, Leonard Bernstein, Harold Prince, and Gian Carlo Menotti. First and Lasting Impressions givesa rare personal look into Julius Rudel's career as a conductor and administrator during the glory years of New York City Opera. Julius Rudel was general director and principal conductor of New York City Opera from 1957to 1979, and since that time has been a frequent guest conductor at the Metropolitan Opera and many of the world's other great opera houses. Rebecca Paller, a curator at the Paley Center for Media in New York, has written about the arts for publications including Opera News, Opera, Vogue, Playbill, Symphony, and American Theatre.Trade ReviewIn his remarkable career at New York City Opera, Julius Rudel enriched and enlarged the lives of music-loving New Yorkers. This book, coauthored with Rebecca Paller, is a fascinating account of how his devotion to music -- music, not marketing -- helped shape an era. I am particularly happy to have Maestro Rudel's version of his long and complicated working relationship with Beverly Sills. -- -- Brian Kellow, features editor, Opera NewsJulius Rudel offers us direct insight into his rise through the ranks to become the director of one of America's most vibrant cultural institutions in the twentieth century, the New York City Opera. Evident on nearly every page is that same abiding dedication, guiding spirit, and bold imagination that helped to transplant a largely foreign art form and root it deep in America's artistic soil. This book will prove fascinating to opera singers, lovers of opera, especially American opera, not to mention interested teachers, pianists, voice coaches, orchestra and choral conductors. -- -- Michael V. Pisani, Vassar CollegeHe looks back at his career with a good humour which suggests how he survived. . . . He and his co-author write engagingly. . . . Interesting for most opera-lovers, and, for those with transatlantic [i.e., American] viewpoints, fascinating. -- Michael Scott Rohan * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *Julius Rudel has a great tale to tell. . . . Any reader with an interest in Rudel, in New York City Opera, or in the running of an opera company will devour it cover to cover. -- Fred Cohn * OPERA NEWS *Highly informative, entertaining . . . autobiography by conductor Rudel and a biography in his words of the New York City Opera. . . . A loving memoir, brutally frank, but never vindictive. Powerful, even emotional working associations with great artists: Norman Treigle, Beverly Sills, Phyllis Curtin, John Alexander, Richard Cassilly, and dozens more. . . . A most humane gentleman. -- Charles H. Parsons * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Early Life in Vienna and the Shadow of the Swastika "The People's Opera" Takes Flight: The Early Years of New York City Opera The Flying Baton: A Company in Transition A Lighter Muse: Broadway Musicals Brush Up Your Shakespeare and Return to Vienna Inheriting the Wind All-American Intermezzo: The Company Way Politics and Acoustics: The Move to Lincoln Center Tintinnabulation: Don Rodrigo and a Young Star Named Domingo A Summer Idyll: The Magic of Caramoor Giulio Cesare and the Sills Phenomenon The Kennedy Center: From Concept to Opening Glory Days Jon Vickers: The Third Time Was Not the Charm Reversal of Fortune Life after New York City Opera Appendix: The Three American Seasons of New York City Opera Index
£45.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Anton Heiller: Organist, Composer, Conductor
Book SynopsisFirst English-language study of Anton Heiller (1923-1979), one of the twentieth-century's most influential organists Anton Heiller is one of the twentieth century's most renowned and influential organists. Born in 1923, Heiller was trained in Vienna and rose to prominence quickly, giving his first solo recital at the age of twenty-two. Before concentrating on the organ exclusively, he was a successful conductor of the symphonic repertoire, and, from 1945 until his untimely death in 1979, he was professor of organ at the University of Music and Performing Arts in Vienna.His interpretations of Bach, which included registration and articulation, as well as a consideration of the theological underpinnings, would change the way Bach is played. Anton Heiller: Organist, Composer, Conductorprovides an assessment of Heiller's works and teaching, while also examining his complex personality, one torn between strong religious devotion and the world of artistry. The narrative also offers a unique view of the organ worldin the decades after World War II, featuring the important organs, builders, and organists across North America and Europe. Peter Planyavsky was Anton Heiller's successor as an organ professor in Vienna, and organist of St. Stephan's Cathedral in Vienna from 1969 through 2004. He is also a prolific composer, improviser, and conductor. Christa Rumsey, a former student of Heiller's, translated the book from the original German.Trade ReviewHistory has already recognized Anton Heiller as a significant figure in 20th-century music, probably the most influential organist of his time. . . .Through his genius and personal charisma, he achieved what others could not: he brought the organ into the mainstream of music where it belongs. Planyavsky's biography delivers this message, while giving a complete picture of Heiller's life and work. . . . Belongs in the personal library of any serious organist. Through this book a great organist continues to interest and also to teach later generations of organists. A comparison . . . demonstrates not only an accurate but sensitive treatment of the original [German text]. * THE AMERICAN ORGANIST *The biographical chapters make . . . fascinating reading . . . [No chapter] is more gripping than the chapter devoted to 'Haarlem and the Rest of Europe.' . . . Christa Rumsey has done a sterling service for English-speaking readers by her elegant translation of an important book. -- Bruce Steele * ORGAN AUSTRALIA *A remarkable book [about] one of the greats of the mid-twentieth century. Packed with facts and stories. Christa Rumsey's excellent, flowing translation [is] a pleasure to read. * SYDNEY ORGAN JOURNAL *The text flows effortlessly. . . . The story is vibrant and gives extremely good insight into life between World War II and 1979 in Austria and life in Vienna in particular. Of interest to any interested in organ music and, in particular, developments in the early to mid-twentieth century. * ORGAN MUSIC SOCIETY OF ADELAIDE NEWSLETTER *Peter Planyavsky's book accomplishes a difficult task: that of doing justice to the life of a monumental musician. Planyavsky, himself an organist of international prominence, avoids the pitfall of presenting Heiller as primarily an organist, instead presenting a compelling picture of Heiller as the complete musician, giving ample room to a discussion of his career as a conductor as well as to a discussion of his many compositions. The result is a comprehensive and engaging account of a person who was a dominant figure in European musical culture for several decades of the twentieth century and whose influence was felt far beyond the circle of the Viennese musical scene. -- -- William Porter, Eastman School of Music (University of Rochester)Table of ContentsVery Early, Very Fast, Very Steep Beginning in the Golden West: Tyrol, Vorarlberg, Switzerland Haarlem and the Rest of Europe Heiller and America Short Midday, Long Sunset All the Registers of a Soul Compositions before ca. 1956 Compositions after ca. 1956 What He Thought, How He Played Appendix: Organ Specifications Chronology Notes List of Compositions Discography Bibliography Index of Names Index of Subjects
£99.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd CageTalk: Dialogues with and about John Cage
Book SynopsisRevealing unpublished interviews with John Cage and some of his closest colleagues, including Virgil Thomson, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pauline Oliveros, Merce Cunningham, and David Tudor. John Cage, one of America's most renowned composers from the 1940s until his death in 1992, was also a much-admired writer and artist, and a uniquely attractive personality able to present his ideas engagingly wherever he went. In CageTalk: Dialogues with and about John Cage, Peter Dickinson showcases a collection of vividly revealing and unpublished interviews given by Cage in the late 1980s for a BBC Radio 3 documentary. For this paperback edition, Dickinson presents a new preface noting developments in Cage criticism since the book's publication in 2006, updated comments from several of the original interviewees, and a new interview with Christian Wolff. CageTalk also features earlier BBC interviews with Cage, including ones by renowned literary critic Frank Kermode and art critic David Sylvester. In addition, there are discussions of Cage with Bonnie Bird, Earle Brown, Merce Cunningham,Minna Lederman, Otto Luening, Jackson Mac Low, Peadar Mercier, Pauline Oliveros, John Rockwell, Kurt Schwertsik, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Virgil Thomson, David Tudor, LaMonte Young, and Paul Zukovsky. Most of these interviews weregiven to Peter Dickinson but there are others in which with Rebecca Boyle, Anthony Cheevers, Michael Oliver, and Roger Smalley were the interviewers. Peter Dickinson, British composer and pianist, is Emeritus Professor,University of Keele and University of London, and has written or edited several books about twentieth-century music, including Copland Connotations [Boydell Press, 2002] and The Music of Lennox Berkeley [Boydell Press, 2003].Trade ReviewForeWord Magazine selected this title as one of its top music books from University Presses for 2006. * . *Ideal introduction to Cage. * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *The first-hand accounts related by Cage's colleagues offer new insights and a palpable vibrancy. . . . A sense of intimacy and richness of anecdotal detail. . . . Merit[s] study by all with an interest in the composer. -- Charles Madsen * BULLETIN OF THE SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN MUSIC *We hear Cage in his own words, in conversations conducted between 1966 and 1988, and put in the context of interviews with close colleagues such as pianist David Tudor, choreographer Merce Cunningham and fellow composers including Earle Brown and Virgil Thomson. . . . Dickinson's approach to collecting these interviews is methodical and fastidious. . . . [His] introductory chapter is . . . cogent. -- Philip Clark * GRAMOPHONE *This book is no eulogy compendium. Instead, the interviewees simply give us what we would all prefer to have, which is a diverse set of instructive, good-humoured accounts of their dealings with the book's subject. . . . Informative and entertaining -- often amusing: Stockhausen's thinly-veiled tetchiness makes for a diverting subtext, while Virgil Thomson refers to Cage's former wife Xenia as 'the Eskimo.' Technically, too, this book is a success, with its comprehensive references, its proper indexing and, joy of joys, footnotes . . . on the page you're actually on. A valuable and enjoyable read which I unreservedly recommend. Five stars (out of five). -- Roger Thomas * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *A lively compilation of dialogues with and about Cage . . . [opening with Dickinson's] useful introductory overview.. . . [Cage's] influence burns brighter than ever. -- Fiona Maddocks * THE SPECTATOR *Essential reading for anyone interested in the music of our time. * WHOLENOTE *Cage's engaging manner radiates from these pages. . . . CageTalk is excellent, leaving one with feelings of affection toward its subject. -- John Robert Brown * CLASSICAL MUSIC *A real treasure house of fascinating exchanges. . . . An entertaining perspective on [Cage's] inventive and imaginative world of sound, visual imagery and movement. -- Patrick Standford * MUSIC AND VISION DAILY *Recommended to all music libraries, [and] specialists concerned with...[Cage's] enduring work. -- Brett Boutwell * JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN MUSIC *Table of ContentsIntroduction by Peter Dickinson John Cage Merce Cunningham Bonnie Bird David Tudor Jackson Mac Low Minna Lederman Virgil Thomson Otto Luening Karlheinz Stockhausen Earle Brown Kurt Schwertsik La Monte Young John Rockwell Pauline Oliveros Paul Zukofsky Cage with David Sylvester and Roger Smalley Cage with Frank Kermode Cage with Michael Oliver About Musicircus, Cage with Peter Dickinson Introducing Roaratorio, Cage, Cunningham, and Peadar Mercier with Peter Dickinson Europeras and After, Cage with Anthony Cheevers
£25.19
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Star Turns and Cameo Appearances: Memoirs of a
Book SynopsisUp-close and personal views, by the renowned music critic and orchestra administrator, of musical luminaries from Alfred Brendel to Jessye Norman and beyond. Star Turns and Cameo Appearances is the entertaining and insightful memoir by veteran music critic Bernard Jacobson. Its pages are populated by eminent composers ranging from Hans Werner Henze to Andrzej Panufnik and by renowned performers, including Georg Solti, Daniel Barenboim, Sviatoslav Richter, and Jessye Norman. As a music critic and orchestra administrator, Jacobson has had the opportunity to observe these outstanding musicians andmany of their colleagues at close quarters. Assisting Riccardo Muti at the Philadelphia Orchestra for eight years, he saw sides of that maestro not visible to the music-loving public. Throughout Star Turns and Cameo Performances, Jacobson adds his own sensitive and sympathetic view to public perceptions of musical luminaries of yesterday and today, helping to explain and illuminate their artistry. Bernard Jacobson has worked in the music field for over fifty years, including stints as recording executive, music critic of the Chicago Daily News, artistic director and adviser for international orchestras in Holland, and visiting professor at Roosevelt University's Chicago Musical College. He has also performed and recorded as narrator of concert works and opera.Trade ReviewWill appeal to many different music professionals as well as a number of music-lovers. Without exception, Jacobson's remarks show knowledge and heart beautifully combined, the writing eloquent and perceptive. Star Turns and Cameo Appearances offers an intimate and rewarding look at one of the most distinguished music professionals of the 20th century and, perhaps more important, one for whom new music and the classics generally held equal value. -- Rob Haskins * ARSC JOURNAL *I have admired and continue to admire the great musical culture of Bernard Jacobson, whom I have known since my time in Philadelphia in the 1980s. His deep understanding of the world of the arts and his wit and elegant writing make Star Turns particularly interesting and charming. -- -- Riccardo Muti, conductor, music director, Chicago Symphony Orchestra[This] remarkable memoir is a musical journey from the perspective of a writer, music critic, music publisher, and a man who has been intimately involved with the classical music world. His extraordinary life's work, knowledge, and integrity have been a great inspiration to me, and this beautifully written memoir now affords others a window into his lifelong devotion to and love of music on the deepest level. -- -- Gerard Schwarz, conductor and composerAn extraordinarily vivid and intriguing glimpse of the humans inside the classical music giants, of the last fifty years -- an invaluable and rare account from a man who's heard it all. -- -- Roxanna Panufnik, composerBernard Jacobson has been one of the most illuminating writers about classical music over the past decades, a critical intelligence to reckon with -- the sort of critic (all too rare) with whom performers can engage in fruitful dialogue. His memoirs of a life in music are fascinating stuff. -- -- Ian Bostridge, tenorA fascinating tour through the classical music world from the 1960s to today. Jacobson has worked with and has stories to tell about most of the major and minor figures of music in England and America of the last fifty years. His analysis of Riccardo Muti as a man, a conductor, and a leader is worth the whole book. It's an involving book, and I feel privileged to have read it. -- -- Speight Jenkins, general director, 1983-2014, Seattle OperaTable of ContentsPreface Acknowledgments "Till Ready," to 1960 Inside the Record Industry, 1960-64 Freelance in London and New York, 1964-67 Chicago Years, 1967-73 Exchanging Criticizing for Supporting, 1973-76 The Pastoral Dream, 1976-79 Inside Music Publishing, 1979-84 Philadelphia, First Installment, 1984-91 Back to Holland, 1992-95 Philadelphia, Second Installment, 1996-2005 West Coast Years, 2005-14 Philadelphia, Yet Again, 2014-? Afterword Index
£36.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Gregory Haimovsky: A Pianist's Odyssey to Freedom
Book SynopsisIn the bleak cage of the Soviet Union, a brilliant pianist, inspired by the music of Olivier Messiaen, survived and triumphed. This is his story, told partly in his own words. Interlacing material from previously unknown Russian archives, original recordings, photographs, and essays, Gregory Haimovsky: A Pianist's Odyssey to Freedom is the story of an extraordinary Russian concert pianist who, fighting the cultural prohibitions of the USSR, eventually succeeded in performing and recording major works by the prominent French composer Olivier Messiaen. At the lowest point of his life, expelled from Moscow and exiled to a small provincial city, Haimovsky discovered Messiaen's oeuvre uncatalogued and hidden in the library of the Union of Soviet Composers. Haimovsky's intense studies and Soviet premieres of these banned compositions healed and liberated his mind, spirit, and artistic imagination. Messiaen's music also deepened and fueled Haimovsky's fierce personal and musical opposition to Soviet political and cultural doctrines. Told partly in Haimovsky's own words and supplemented by interviews with several performers who worked with him between 1960 and 1972 as well as stories from his correspondence with major Russian artists, writers, and musicians of the time, Marissa Silverman's vivid narrative sheds new light on relationships between twentieth-century Russian music, Soviet politics, and the culture wars that raged during and after Stalin's barbaric rule. Marissa Silverman is Associate Professor of Music at the John J. Cali School of Music, Montclair State University.Trade ReviewCompelling accounts . . . The courageous and critical role of the Soviet pianist in bringing Messiaen's music to the Russian public . . . takes this biography into interesting and heretofore under-researched territory. Silverman's text provides an important account of the lived experience of a Jewish artist during and after World War II, presenting a direct glimpse at the anti-Semitism rampant during this time. A powerful testament to the salvific power of music, providing an undeniable antidote to 'afflictions of the spirit. * THE RUSSIAN REVIEW *Silverman's writing is scholarly but engaging. Numerous conversations and interviews with [Haimovsky] are amply quoted in the book. Numerous sources are cited and often quoted at length. [I have listened to Haimovsky's recording of the Debussy Preludes] back-to-back with Walter Gieseking's classic recording and prefer Haimovsky's. * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *Skilfully recounted episodes and anecdotes make this book very readable. Melissa Silverman has successfully performed a labour of love which, it must be hoped, will not only paint a picture of a great man, but also of a whole era in Soviet life, both provincial and metropolitan, through a sensitive and perceptive musician's eyes. It deserves to be widely read. * SLAVONIC AND EAST EUROPEAN REVIEW *Part history of the Soviet Union, part passionate protest against Stalin's campaign against Soviet Jewry, part crusade for the acceptance of modern classical music in the USSR (in this case, Olivier Messiaen), part tribute to the life of work of Haimovsky, who fought for honesty and freedom in cultural life in the USSR and suffered for it. * SCRSS DIGEST (SOCIETY FOR CO-OPERATION IN RUSSIAN AND SOVIET STUDIES) *For a non-musicologist such as myself, this is an accessible book which tells a compelling story. Haimovsky's personal qualities of courage and integrity are convincingly displayed, and the Russian word 'grazhdantsvennost', a blend of the concepts of generosity and citizenship, perhaps best expresses his personality, exemplified by his tireless attempts both to fight a brutal system and to fulfil the artist's mission, to transmit aesthetic and spiritual values through their work. --Douglas Mark Ponton, University of Catania for * JOURNAL OF CONTEMPORARY EUROPEAN STUDIES *A talented pianist, who was not always prepared to toe the official line. * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *Table of ContentsIntroduction A Pianist Is Born A Concert Pianist in Exile Spirituality, Love, and Color: Understanding Messiaen's Music From Thaw to Frost: Neonationalism and the Messiaen Premieres in the USSR Haimovsky and Grazhdanstvennost' Appendix 1: Selected Performances of the Music of Olivier Messiaen by Gregory Haimovsky, 1964-72 Appendix 2: Selected Writing by Gregory Haimovsky on the Music of Olivier Messiaen Notes Index
£87.30
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Widor: A Life beyond the Toccata
Book SynopsisBrings to light the life and work of one of France's most distinguished musicians in the most complete biography in any language of Charles-Marie Widor. Widor: A Life beyond the Toccata brings to light the life and work of one of France's most distinguished musicians in the most complete biography in any language of Charles-Marie Widor. He is considered one of the greatestorganists of his time, a prolific composer in nearly every genre, professor of organ and composition at the Paris Conservatory, academician and administrator at the Institute of France, journalist, conductor, music editor, scholar, correspondent, inspired visionary, and man of deep culture. An appendix constitutes the most complete listing ever compiled of Widor's oeuvre. Each work is dated as accurately as possible and includes the publisher, platenumber, dedicatee, and relevant commentary. Another appendix lists Widor's complete published writings, other than the scores of press reviews he penned over several decades. Widor: A Life beyond the Toccata illuminates the life and work of one of France's most distinguished yet neglected musicians of the belle époque. JOHN R. NEAR is Professor Emeritus of Music, Principia College.Trade ReviewIlluminating… * THE SYDNEY ORGAN JOURNAL *This book provides everything needed for an overdue revaluation of the composer, recognising his wide range far beyond the organ loft. * MUSICAL OPINION *A book to treasure. -- John Henderson * CHURCH MUSIC QUARTERLY *Invaluable. . . . In Near's genial, well-paced narrative, a portrait of a highly erudite and humorous man emerges -- Widor's intimate recollections of such luminaries as Rossini, Anton Rubinstein and Liszt fizz with vitality. . . . A rich source of contemporary material and . . . a lively picture of Parisian musical life from the 1860s to 1937. . . . Beautifully produced and designed. -- Jeremy Nicholas * GRAMOPHONE *Excellent translation. . . . A fruitful resource for scholars and Francophiles alike. * CHOICE *Eminently readable [with] photographs not to be found in the published sources. . . . A treasure chest. . . . The final word on the life of a truly great man. . . . A standard of reference and essential reading for all devotees of the French Romantic school. -- Harold Fabrikant * ORGAN AUSTRALIA *John R. Near has honoured his subject by combining powerfully muscular English prose with research so staggeringly comprehensive as to be what fashionable circles would call 'a game-changer.' . . . New insights aplenty. . . . A pleasure to read and to own. -- R. J. Stove, Complete review reprinted at http://www.rjstove.net/articles/Widor-Organ_Salisbury.pdf * THE ORGAN *The definitive work about the composer of one of the two most famous organ pieces in the world [the Toccata from Organ Symphony No. 5]. John Near struck pay dirt when he located a 103-page manuscript of an unpublished 'Souvenirs Autobiographiques' [that] allows Widor to speak for himself and allows his biographer many opportunities to elucidate those events. Absolutely indispensable! -- Rollin Smith * THE AMERICAN ORGANIST *John Near -- editor of the critical edition of Widor's ten organ symphonies -- is unquestionably the authority on the organist-composer. In this book he gives us an encyclopedic memoir, containing many new details about Widor's life and work. Without any doubt this biography will remain the definitive resource in the organ world and beyond. -- Daniel Roth, Organiste-titulaire du grand orgue de l'Église Saint-Sulpice, ParisThe documentation is wonderfully rich -- would that we had something comparable for earlier composers. . . . A major achievement. . . . A wealth of revealing information. -- Peter Williams * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *Detailed, richly documented account of Widor's long and fascinating life. . . Definitive. * MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION *Table of ContentsForeword by Kurt Lueders Preface Introduction: "Sunday Morning in a Paris Organ Loft," by T. Carl Whitmer Widor's Ancestry, Musical Education, and Heritage (1844-63) The First Creative Period (1864-79) The Years of Mastery (1880-94) The Twilight of Widor's Compositional Career (1895-1909) Mr. Widor, Member of the Institute of France (1910-37) Appendix One: Published Literary Works Appendix Two: List of Musical Works Appendix Three: A Cross-Section of Musicians during Widor's Life Appendix Four: Chronology
£36.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Maurice Duruflé: The Man and His Music
Book SynopsisA deeply researched biography of the great French organist, who composed some of the best-loved works in the organ repertory -- and the masterful Requiem. Maurice Duruflé: The Man and His Music is a new biography of the great French organist and composer (1902-86), and the most comprehensive in any language. James E. Frazier traces Duruflé's musical training, his studies withTournemire and Vierne, and his career as an organist, church musician, composer, recitalist, Conservatoire professor, and orchestral musician. Frazier also examines the career and contributions of Duruflé's wife, the formidable organist Marie-Madeleine Duruflé-Chevalier. Duruflé brought the church's unique language of plainsong into a compelling liaison with the secular harmonies of the modern French school (as typified by Debussy, Ravel, and Dukas)in works for his own instrument and in his widely loved masterpiece, the Requiem Op. 9 for soloists, chorus, organ, and orchestra. Drawing on the accounts of those who knew Duruflé personally as well as on Frazier's own detailed research, Maurice Duruflé offers a broad sketch of this modest and elusive man, widely recognized today for having created some of the greatest works in the organ repertory -- and the masterful Requiem. James E. Frazier holds advanced degrees in philosophy, organ, theology, and sacred music from St. Alphonsus College, Mt. St. Alphonsus Seminary, Hartt School of Music, the Yale University Divinity School, and the Yale Institute of Sacred Music. He served Episcopal churches in Hartford, Connecticut, and St. Paul, Minnesota, as organist and director of music. For ten years he was director of music for the Archdiocese of St. Paul and Minneapolis.Trade ReviewA mine of information . . . a veritable tale of our times. -- Andrew Thomson * MUSICAL TIMES *Provides significant insight into Duruflé's works and the relatively secretive life he and his wife led. . . . Frazier's research is excellent. . . . An important contribution. -- Brian Doherty * CHOICE *Frazier's exploration of arabesque in architecture and music and his treatment of musical luminosity are memorably insightful and reveal a thoughtful understanding of Duruflé's work. . . . An interesting and well-constructed view of Duruflé's world, and a highly informative text as well. -- Steven Plank * CHOIR & ORGAN *A work of unprecedented scope and depth, . . . [Frazier's book] is a biography abundantly rich in detail; though it declines the tone of a hagiography, it is obviously a labor of love. . . . Frazier skillfully illuminates the contexts in which Duruflé's life unfolded . . . [and] Frazier's survey of Duruflé's compositions is particularly strong. . . . A special pleasure of the book is the chapter on [Duruflé's future wife, and a world-renowned organist,] Marie-Madeleine Chevalier . . . Frazier's book will no doubt stand as a defining work in Duruflé scholarship and nurture scholars of 20th-century French organ music for years to come. -- Lawrence Archbold * AMERICAN ORGANIST *One of the best musical biographies I have read for many years: sound in musical and, for the most part, in historical judgment . . . , sympathetic without being sycophantic, and most gracefully written. Duruflé deserves no less. -- Roger Nichols * GRAMOPHONE *[Frazier] sees Duruflé as a compelling figure, given over to the same foibles and doubts we all have. Frazier's ability to obtain primary sources lends credence to his observations. This is a superb work, one to be valued by music historians and organists alike. -- Donald Metz * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE, *This substantial study . . . although sympathetic . . . is not a work of hagiography. . . .[The author argues that] the somewhat short-lived revival of Gregorian chant in the French church . . . [during] Duruflé's composing life was a happy coincidence from which music was the main beneficiary [notably through the widely beloved Requiem]. . . . The very considerable value of this book lies in its personal evaluation of a man whose personality is likely to remain something of a mystery but whose music has already transcended his life. -- Bret Johnson * TEMPO *Table of ContentsDuruflé's Childhood and Early Education Life at the Cathedral Choir School Lessons with Charles Tournemire Lessons with Louis Vierne The Conservatoire Student Duruflé's Distinctions The Contested Successions at Notre-Dame and Sainte Clotilde Duruflé's Peforming Career The Orchestral Musician The Poulenc Organ Concerto Professor of Harmony at the Paris Conservatoire Marie-Madeleine Chevalier Overview of Duruflé's Compositions Duruflé's Compositions: Their Genesis and First Performance Duruflé's Role in the Plainsong Revival The Vichy Commissions The Requiem The Musical History of Saint Étienne-du-Mont The Organs at Saint Étienne-du-Mont Duruflé as Organist and Teacher Duruflé and Organ Design The Church in Transition The North American Tours The Man Duruflé
£40.44
University Press of Mississippi Carole Landis: A Most Beautiful Girl
Book SynopsisDespite appearing in twenty-eight movies in little over a decade, Carole Landis (1919-1948) never quite became the major Hollywood star her onscreen presence should have afforded her. Although she acted in such enduring films as A Scandal in Paris and Moon over Miami, she was most often relegated to supporting roles. Even when she played the major role in a feature, as she did in The Powers Girl and the film noir I Wake Up Screaming!, she was billed second or third behind other actors. This biography traces Landis's life, chronicling her beginnings as a dance hall entertainer in San Francisco, her career in Hollywood and abroad, her USO performances, and ultimately her suicide. Using interviews with actors who worked with Landis, contemporary movie magazines and journals, and correspondence, biographer Eric Gans reveals a tragic figure whose life was all too brief. Landis's big break came in 1940 with Hal Roach's One Million B.C. She appeared in thirteen Twentieth Century-Fox pictures between 1941 and 1946. In 1942-43, Landis entertained troops in England and North Africa in the only all-female USO tour. The trip led to her memoir, Four Jills in a Jeep, and a Fox movie of the same title. After her last American film in 1947, she completed two projects in England while having an affair with married actor Rex Harrison. Tormented by a love that could not lead to matrimony and depressed about growing older, she took a fatal drug overdose on July 5, 1948.
£23.96
Getty Trust Publications The Life of Lambert Lombard (1565); and Effigies
Book SynopsisDominicus Lampsonius's The Life of Lambert Lombard (1565) is the earliest published biography of a Netherlandish artist. This neo-Latin account of the life of the painter, architect, and draftsman Lambert Lombard of Liege offers a theoretical exposition on the nature and ideal practice of Netherlandish art, emphasizing Lombard's intellectual curiosity, interest in antiquity, attentive study of the human body, and exemplary generosity as a teacher. This volume offers the first English edition of the The Life of Lambert Lombard, complemented by a new translation of the inscriptions Lampsonius composed to accompany the Effigies of Several Famous Painters from the Low Countries (1572), a cycle of twenty-three engraved portraits of Netherlandish artists developed in collaboration with the print publisher Hieronymus Cock. Together, The Life of Lambert Lombard and Effigies established frameworks for a distinctly Netherlandish history of art. Responding to a growing sense of Netherlandish cultural and political identity on the eve of the Dutch Revolt, these texts proposed a critical alternative to Giorgio Vasari's Lives of the Artists and its Italian model of art historical development, celebrating local ingenuity and skill. They remain the starting point for any history of the northern Renaissance.Trade Review"With exemplary clarity and critical acumen, Edward Wouk, Helen E. B. Dalton, and Julene Abad Del Vecchio's superb translation of two crucial texts on art by Dominicus Lampsonius, humanist man of letters and painter, demonstrates how this important art theoretician promulgated an alternative historiography of art, and specifically, an alternative to Vasari's Vite, viewing northern workshop practice through the lens of Latin rhetorical and poetic sources, both ancient and modern. This edition of Lampsonius's The Life of Lambert Lombard and Effigies of Several Famous Painters from the Low Countries will prove as canonical as the source texts it now makes widely accessible."--Walter S. Melion, Asa Griggs Candler Professor of Art History, Emory University;; "Readers of this superb volume, which provides an introduction to Dominicus Lampsonius and English translations of two of his theoretical texts, will benefit from Edward Wouk's remarkable erudition, clarity, and insights into European art. Presenting debates about the stakes that gave rise to Lampsonius's publications, Wouk weaves together encounters, collaborations, and connections drawn from letters, texts, stories, language, and the graphic arts. This nuanced retelling of artistic engagement with antiquity, local traditions, and practices on both sides of the Alps creates a dynamic picture of trans-European exchanges, processes of translation, and Netherlandish inventiveness."-- Bronwen Wilson, Professor of Renaissance and Early Modern Art, UCLA;; "Begun as a long-distance conversation with Vasari, whose Lives of the Artists established the modern historiography of art with Italy as its origin and center, Dominicus Lampsonius's writings offer a vital alternative: a decentering counter-history of artistic ideas, practices, techniques and developments flourishing north of the Alps. Edward Wouk's clear and copiously annotated translations of Lampsonius's elusive texts will greatly expand our understanding of the European tradition." -Joseph Leo Koerner, Harvard University ;; “In this book, Edward Wouk generously makes available in English translation two foundational works in the literature of Netherlandish art. Beyond this, he provides a meticulously documented and rigorously argued introduction that significantly advances the revolution in the understanding of elite art in the sixteenth-century Netherlands that has taken place since the publication of Walter Melion’s Picturing the Netherlandish Canon in 1991. The book really is essential reading for everyone seriously interested in this topic.” —Joanna Woodall, The Courtauld Institute of Art
£45.00
Getty Trust Publications The Way to Be: A Memoir
Book Synopsis"For over fifty years, Barbara T. Smith has been at the forefront of artistic movements in California. Her work across many mediums explores concepts that strike at the core of human nature, including sexuality, physical and spiritual sustenance, technology, and death. In this memoir, Smith weaves together descriptive accounts of her pioneering performances with an intimate narrative of her life. The Way to Be covers the years 1931 to 1981, up to the artist’s fiftieth birthday, resulting in an exhaustive catalogue of her early work. It reveals the personal stories and events behind her pieces and the challenges she faced in an art world dominated by sexism and machismo. Drawing on Smith’s archive at the Getty Research Institute, this enthralling book presents previously unpublished notes, documents, photographs, and firsthand accounts of her life and practice, as well as her more recent reflections on the past. The Way to Be demonstrates Smith’s lasting contributions to the field of contemporary art and provides an engaging commentary on a recent period of great cultural and political change. "
£33.25
University Press of Mississippi The Melody Man: Joe Davis and the New York Music Scene, 1916-1978
Book SynopsisJoe Davis, the focus of The Melody Man enjoyed a 50-year career in the music industry, which covered nearly every aspect of the business. He hustled sheet music in the 1920s, copyrighted compositions by artists as diverse as Fats Waller, Carson Robison, Otis Blackwell, and Rudy Vallee, oversaw hundreds of recording session, and operated several record companies beginning in the 1940s. Davis also worked fearlessly to help insure that black recording artists and song writers gained equal treatment for their work. Much more than a biography, this book is an investigation of the role played by music publishers during much of the twentieth century. Joe Davis was not a music ""great"" but he was one of those individuals who enabled ""greats"" to emerge. A musician, manager, and publisher, his long career reveals much about the nature of the music industry and offers insight into how the industry changed from the 1920s to the 1970s. By the summer of 1924, when Davis was handling the ""Race talent"" for Ajax records, he had already worked in the music business for most of a decade and there was more than five decades of musical career ahead of him. The fact that his fascinating life has gone so long under-appreciated is remedied by the publication of Never Sell A Copyright. Originally published in England, in 1990, Never Sell a Copyright: Joe Davis and His Role in the New York Music Scene, 1916-1978 was never released in the United States and available in a very limited print run in England. The author, noted blues scholar and folklorist Bruce Bastin, has worked with fellow music scholar Kip Lornell to completely update, condense, and improve the book for this first-ever American edition.
£41.25
University Press of Mississippi Gloria Swanson: Ready for Her Close-Up
Book SynopsisGloria Swanson: Ready for Her Close-Up shows how a talented, self-confident actress negotiated a creative path through seven decades of celebrity. It also illuminates a little-known chapter in American media history: how the powerful women of early Hollywood transformed their remarkable careers after their stars dimmed. This book brings Swanson (1899-1983) back into the spotlight, revealing her as a complex, creative, entrepreneurial, and thoroughly modern woman.Swanson cavorted in slapstick short films with Charlie Chaplin and Mack Sennett in the 1910s. The popularity of her films with Cecil B. DeMille helped create the star system. A glamour icon, Swanson became the most talked-about star in Hollywood, earning three Academy Award nominations, receiving 10,000 fan letters every week, and living up to a reputation as Queen of Hollywood. She bought mansions and penthouses, dressed in fur and feathers, and flitted through Paris, London, and New York engaging in passionate love affairs that made headlines and caused scandals.Frustrated with the studio system, Swanson turned down a million-dollar-a-year contract. After a wild ride making unforgettable movies with some of Hollywood's most colorful characters--including her lover Joseph Kennedy and maverick director Erich von Stroheim--she was a million dollars in debt. Without hesitation she went looking for her next challenge, beginning her long second act.Swanson became a talented businesswoman who patented inventions and won fashion awards for her clothing designs; a natural foods activist decades before it was fashionable; an exhibited sculptor; and a designer employed by the United Nations. All the while she continued to act in films, theater, and television at home and abroad. Though she had one of Hollywood's most famous exit lines--""All right, Mr. DeMille, I'm ready for my close-up""--the real Gloria Swanson never looked back.
£29.96
University Press of Mississippi Scotty and Elvis: Aboard the Mystery Train
Book SynopsisWhen Elvis Presley first showed up at Sam Phillips's Memphis-based Sun Records studio, he was a shy teenager in search of a sound. Phillips invited a local guitarist named Scotty Moore to stand in. Scotty listened carefully to the young singer and immediately realized that Elvis had something special. Along with bass player Bill Black, the trio recorded an old blues number called ""That's All Right, Mama."" It turned out to be Elvis's first single and the defining record of his early style, with a trilling guitar hook that swirled country and blues together and minted a sound with unforgettable appeal. Its success launched a whirlwind of touring, radio appearances, and Elvis's first break into movies. Scotty was there every step of the way as both guitarist and manager, until Elvis's new manager, Colonel Tom Parker, pushed him out. Scotty and Elvis would not perform together again until the classic 1968 ""comeback"" television special. Scotty never saw Elvis after that.With both Bill Black and Elvis gone, Scotty Moore is the only one left to tell the story of how Elvis and Scotty transformed popular music and how Scotty created the sound that became a prototype for so many rock guitarists to follow. Thoroughly updated, this edition delivers guitarist Scotty Moore's story as never before
£19.96
University Press of Mississippi Anthony Minghella: Interviews
Book SynopsisAnthony Minghella: Interviews is an illuminating anthology of in-depth conversations with this important contemporary film director and producer. The collection explores Minghella's ideas on every aspect of the cinematic creative process including screenwriting, acting, editing, the use of music in film, and other topics concerning the role of the film director. Minghella (1954-2008) was a highly regarded British playwright (Made in Bangkok), and television writer (Inspector Morse) before turning to film directing with his quirky, highly regarded first film, Truly, Madly, Deeply, in 1990. He went on to direct an extraordinary trilogy of large-scale films, all adapted from significant works of contemporary literature. Minghella's 1996 adaptation of Michael Ondaatje's poetic novel The English Patient was the director's most critically and commercially successful film and went on to win dozens of awards around the world, including nine academy awards. Minghella followed this film with his entertaining, elegant adaptation of Patricia Highsmith's The Talented Mr. Ripley, a film that enjoyed great critical and commercial success and featured some of the best acting of the 1990s by its talented cast of young, rising stars, Jude Law, Matt Damon, Gwyneth Paltrow, and Philip Seymour Hoffman. Minghella's ambitious adaptation of Charles Frazier's American Civil War romance, Cold Mountain, was released in 2003, and firmly marked Minghella as a director of intimate, yet large-scale epic cinema worthy of David Lean. Although Minghella was a successful film director and producer, he was also an important part of the cultural life of the U.K. He was awarded a CBE (Commander of the British Empire) in 2001 for his contributions to culture, and he was Chairman of the Board of Governors of the British Film institute from 2004 to 2007.
£31.96
University of Tennessee Press Randy Wood: The Lore of the Luthier
Book SynopsisIn the 1960s and 1970s, Randy Wood was a forerunner in the vintage instrument industry. Known as the instrument repairman to the stars, the list of Wood’s clients reads like a Hall of Fame roster: Elvis Presley, Eric Clapton, Johnny Cash, Chet Atkins, Emmylou Harris, Billy Gibbons, Bill Monroe, Keith Richards, Roy Acuff, Ricky Skaggs, and Hank Williams Jr. . . . to name a few. In Randy Wood: The Lore of the Luthier, Daniel Wile traces the life and work of a man who quietly influenced a hidden history of bluegrass and country music.In his twenties, Wood vowed to avoid complacency in his work. What started simply as a quest to find fulfillment turned into a career that has shaped a generation of musicians, professional and amateur alike. Through his incredible gift for lutherie, Wood brought cherished pre-WWII instruments back to life, many of which were considered beyond repair. He crafted his own instruments as well, based on what he learned from vintage instruments, and these instruments found their way into the hands of some of the most renowned musicians, thanks in part to Wood’s strategic location in Nashville during the resurgence of country music in the 1970s. Humble, unassuming, and unfazed by the presence of celebrities, Wood has spent his life devoted to building and repairing stringed instruments.Wood also built community. After tiring of big-city Nashville, he retreated to the Georgia coast, where his home shop became a hub of bluegrass activity. He eventually opened a new shop near Savannah, where a new generation of friends and strangers can come in, visit, and pick a little. Randy’s stories, complemented with those of his friends and family, create a compelling picture of a modest man with a talent for his craft, a genuine care for people, and the courage to follow his passion.
£24.71
WW Norton & Co Hank: The Short Life and Long Country Road of
Book SynopsisAfter he died in the back seat of a Cadillac at the age of twenty-nine, Hank Williams—a frail, flawed man who had become country music’s first real star–instantly morphed into its first tragic martyr. Having hit the heights with simple songs of despair, depression and tainted love, he would become in death a template for the rock generation to follow. Mark Ribowsky weaves together the first fully realised biography of Williams in a generation. Examining his music while re-creating days and nights choked in booze and desperation, he traces the rise of this legend—from the dirt roads of Alabama to the immortal stage of the Grand Ole Opry and to a lonely end on New Year’s Day, 1953. This original work uncovers the real Hank beneath the myths that have long enshrouded his legacy.Trade Review"... Mark Ribowsky... has done a commendably thorough job." -- The Times"...Hank is a timely biography…" -- The New York Times Book Review"Many biographies have been written about him but none gives such detail of his drinking, sexual abandon and many misadventures as this." -- The Irish Times
£14.24
WW Norton & Co Mary Astor's Purple Diary: The Great American Sex
Book SynopsisIn 1965, a young, up-and-coming illustrator by the name of Edward Sorel tore away layer after layer of linoleum from the floor of his $97-a-month Manhattan apartment until he discovered a hidden treasure: issues of The New York Daily News and the Mirror from 1936, each ablaze with a scandalous child custody trial taking place in Hollywood starring the actress Mary Astor—and the journal in which she detailed her numerous affairs. Thus began a half-century obsession that reached its peak in Mary Astor’s Purple Diary, “a thoroughly charming” (The New York Times Book Review/) account of the scandal in which Sorel narrates and illustrates the travails of the Oscar-winning actress alongside his own personal story of discovering an unlikely muse. Now in a stunning paperback, featuring more than sixty ribald and rapturous original illustrations, Mary Astor’s Purple Diary is the life’s masterpiece of one of America’s greatest illustrators.
£13.29
WW Norton & Co Toscanini: Musician of Conscience
Book SynopsisArturo Toscanini (1867–1957) was famed for his dedication, photographic memory, explosive temper and impassioned performances. At times he dominated La Scala, the Metropolitan Opera, the New York Philharmonic, and the Bayreuth, Salzburg and Lucerne festivals. His reforms influenced generations of musicians, and his opposition to Nazism and Fascism made him a model for artists of conscience. With unprecedented access to the conductor’s archives, Harvey Sachs has written a new biography positioning Toscanini’s musical career and sometimes scandalous life against the currents of history. Set in Italy, across Europe, the Americas and in Palestine, with portraits of Verdi, Puccini, Caruso, Mussolini and others, Toscanini soars in its exploration of genius, music and moral courage.Trade Review"'Monumental’ is surely the mot juste to describe the book’s length... but equally the combination of thoroughness, clarity, psychological perspicacity and deep human feeling which distinguishes every page... for all its massiveness the book proves unputdownable." -- BBC Music Magazine"Harvey Sachs has written the definitive biography of this great, and colourful, character... [His] writing style is precise, fluent and gripping... As a study of the life and times of one of the greatest conductors of all time, this book will not soon be bettered." -- The Economist"It is without doubt the most engaging, the best-written and certainly the most comprehensive Toscanini biography yet to be published..." -- Gramophone"... magnificent biography... To read about him [Toscanini] at this length—and there will surely be no need for another biography—is to be simultaneously inspired and bewildered." -- The Spectator"This book of more than 900 pages, full of personal recollections and testimony... is vastly comprehensive, balanced and indispensable... Sachs’ own dedication to this force of nature has been fulfilled in a book which ranks among the best of 2017." -- Classical Music"Drawing on a wide range of new evidence, including unknown letters and the archives of many of the opera houses that Arturo Toscanini worked with, including La Scala, Harvey Sachs has written a weighty and highly enjoyable account of one of the greatest conductors, a man still renowned for his pursuit of perfection." -- Books of the Year 2017 - The Economist"Harvey Sachs has provided a compendious chronicle of Toscanini's astonishing achievement across almost a century, and it makes for compelling reading." -- Times Literary Supplement"I am currently reading two excellent books: the new Harvey Sachs biography of one of the finest conductors of all time – Arturo Toscanini..." -- Something for the Weekend - Finghin Collins' Cultural Picks - RTÉ"Extraordinary... Indeed, I cannot think of another biography of a classical musician to which it can be compared: in its breadth, scope, and encyclopedic command of factual detail it reminds me of nothing so much as Robert A. Caro’s The Power Broker... Never before has [this] history been told so well." -- Tim Page - The New York Review of Books"A very engaging and at times gripping chronicle of music and society, all of it devoted to the unending drive and conscientiousness that made Toscanini’s performances so riveting—and, to some, so repellent... What comes through in Sachs’s long chronicle is the extent of Toscanini’s role, witting and unwitting, in transforming the way that classical music was produced and consumed in the twentieth century." -- David Denby - The New Yorker"Sachs’s account is persuasive and compelling in the important ways... Today, Toscanini is receding from our consciousness, notwithstanding his many records... Creative geniuses can survive for centuries, even millenniums; interpreters inevitably go over the cultural cliff. But that doesn’t detract from the crucial—the central—role Toscanini played in our musical culture for well over 60 years. Nor from the almost universal regard he was held in as a man." -- Robert Gottlieb - The New York Times Book Review"...marvellously researched and continually fascinating...[a] superb book... " -- Stephen Walsh - The Oldie
£18.99
WW Norton & Co Ten Masterpieces of Music
Book SynopsisIn this magisterial volume, Harvey Sachs, author of the highly acclaimed biography Toscanini, takes readers into the heart of ten great works of classical music—works that have endured because they were created by composers who had a genius for drawing music out of their deepest wellsprings. These masters—Mozart and Beethoven; Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Verdi and Brahms; Sibelius, Prokofiev and Stravinsky—communicated their life experiences through music and through music they universalised the intimate. By expanding our perceptions of these ten pieces—composed in the years between 1784 and 1966—Sachs, in lush, exquisite prose, invites us to consider why music stimulates, disturbs, exalts and consoles us. He has lived with these masterpieces for a lifetime and his descriptions of them and the dramatic lives of the composers who wrote them bring a heightened dimension to the musical perceptions of readers who may be casual listeners, students, professional musicians or anyone in between.
£22.79
University of Arkansas Press The Man in Song: A Discographic Biography of
Book SynopsisThere have been many books written about Johnny Cash, but The Man in Song is the first to examine Cash’s incredible life through the lens of the songs he wrote and recorded. Music journalist and historian John Alexander has drawn on decades of studying Cash’s music and life, from his difficult depression-era Arkansas childhood through his death in 2003, to tell a life story through songs familiar and obscure. In discovering why Cash wrote a given song or chose to record it, Alexander introduces readers anew to a man whose primary consideration of any song was the difference music makes in people’s lives, and not whether the song would become a hit.The hits came, of course. Johnny Cash sold more than fifty million albums in forty years, and he holds the distinction of being the only performer inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Country Music Hall of Fame, the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and the Gospel Music Hall of Fame. The Man in Song connects treasured songs to an incredible life. It explores the intertwined experience and creativity of childhood trauma. It rifles through the discography of a life: Cash’s work with the Tennessee Two at Sam Phillips’s Sun Studios, the unique concept albums Cash recorded for Columbia Records, the spiritual songs, the albums recorded live at prisons, songs about the love of his life, June Carter Cash, songs about murder and death and addiction, songs about ramblers, and even silly songs.Appropriate for both serious country and folk music enthusiasts and those just learning about this musical legend, The Man in Song will appeal to a fan base spanning generations. Here is a biography for those who first heard “I Walk the Line” in 1956, a younger generation who discovered Cash through songs like his cover of Trent Reznor’s “Hurt,” and everyone in between.
£24.26
University of Arkansas Press Broadcasting the Ozarks: Si Siman and Country
Book SynopsisBroadcasting the Ozarks explores the vibrant country music scene that emerged in Springfield, Missouri, in the 1930s and thrived for half a century. Central to this history is the Ozark Jubilee (1955–60), the first regularly broadcast live country music show on network television. Dubbed the “king of the televised barn dances,” the show introduced the Ozarks region to viewers across America and put Springfield in the running with Nashville for dominance of the country music industry—with the Jubilee’s producer, Si Siman, at the helm. Siman’s life story is almost as remarkable as the show he produced. He was booking Tommy Dorsey, Ella Fitzgerald, and Glenn Miller during the mid-1930s while still a high school student and produced nationally syndicated country music radio shows in the decades that followed. Siman was a promotional genius with an ear for talent, a persuasive gift for gab, and the energy and persistence to make things happen for many future Country Music Hall of Famers, including Chet Atkins, Porter Wagoner, the Browns, and Brenda Lee. Following the Jubilee’s five-year run, Siman had a hand in some of the greatest hits of the twentieth century as a music publisher, collaborating with such songwriters as rockabilly legend and fellow Springfieldian Ronnie Self, who wrote Brenda Lee’s signature hit, “I’m Sorry,” and Wayne Carson, who wrote Willie Nelson’s “Always on My Mind.” Although Siman had numerous opportunities to find success in bigger cities, he chose to do it all from his home in the Ozarks.
£32.21
Texas Tech Press,U.S. Songs of Sonderling: Commissioning Jewish Émigré
Book SynopsisSongs of Sonderling is the story of Jacob Sonderling's unique contributions to Jewish liturgical music. Rabbi Sonderling was many things: a descendant of Chassidic rebbes, a rationalist, a Reform rabbi, a Zionist, an army chaplain, a celebrated orator, an artistic soul. From his early career at the Hamburg Temple and German Army service in World War I, to his wandering years in the Eastern United States and founding of the Society for Jewish Culture–Fairfax Temple in Los Angeles, Sonderling cultivated a unique aesthetic vision of Judaism, a "five-sense appeal."Jonathan L. Friedmann and John F. Guest document and analyze Sonderling's experience and expression of Judaism through music. Rabbi Sonderling's vision yielded liturgical commissions from exiled Viennese Jewish composers who arrived in Los Angeles in the 1930s and 1940s. Through these musical settings, activities at the Fairfax Temple, and involvement with the Los Angeles campus of the Hebrew Union College–Jewish Institute of Religion, Sonderling made an indelible mark on the city's Jewish community and the wider musical world.Songs of Sonderling focuses on the commissions Sonderling made from 1938 to 1945: Ernst Toch's Cantata of the Bitter Herbs, Arnold Schoenberg's Kol Nidre, Erich Wolfgang Korngold's A Passover Psalm and Prayer, and Eric Zeisl's Requiem Ebraico. Through musical analyses and an examination of Sonderling's career in Los Angeles, Friedmann and Guest contribute to the study of Jewish liturgical music, to Jewish history in the American West, to Jewish identity in the twentieth century, and to Jewish diaspora writ large.
£28.46
Red Lightning Books The Making of John Lennon
Book SynopsisDespite the nearly universal fame of the Beatles, many people only know the fairytale version of the iconic group's rise to fame. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of Liverpool, Francis Kenny reveals the real John Lennon who preceded the legend, showing how his childhood shaped his personality, creative process, and path to success, and how it also destroyed his mental health, leading to the downfall of one of the most confident and brilliant musicians of the past century.The Making of John Lennon is a must-read for any Beatles fan. It explains how Lennon's turbulent family background affected his relationships, why the true inspiration for "Strawberry Fields" could not be revealed, how Pete Best's college connection led to his removal from the group, and why class backgrounds were the real reason for the breakup of the legendary band. Offering a complex portrait of Lennon's early life, The Making of John Lennon tells the true story behind the rise of the legendary icon.Trade ReviewThis isn't a roller-coaster ride, skipping through John Lennon's life, but a carefully prepared examination of his early years, slowly examining the general picture that surrounded John's life, rather than focusing on one specific aspect, wrapping the surroundings of the city, the family, the friends, the music and the events which forged the young man who became a 20th century icon, into a whole. -- Bill Harry, author of The John Lennon EncyclopediaThe author focuses on the question of what might have caused the downfall of one of the most brilliant musicians of the past century. Kenny emphasizes three main influences which helped shape Lennon's creative process and stayed with him throughout his life: his strong roots in his hometown of Liverpool; his troubled mental health; and a turbulent family background. * Huffington Post *Table of ContentsMilestones in The Making of John LennonIntroduction1. 1800s: City of Outsiders2. 1900s: Toxteth Park3. 1940-45: Salvation Army Hospital4. 1946-50: Wandsworth Jail5. 1950-55: Gladstone Hall6. 1955-57: Town and Country7. 1957-60: Hope Street8. 1960-61: The Wyvern Club9. 1961-62: Great Charlotte Street10. 1961-62: The Grapes11. 1963-64: Liverpool Town Hall12. 1964: Hansel and Gretel House13. 1965: Perugia Way14. 1965-66: Candlestick Park15. 1966-67: Cavendish Avenue16. 1967-68: Foothills of the Himalayas17. 1968: Abbey Road18. 1969: Savile Row19. 1969 (Part 2): Tittenhurst20. 1970-71: Dakota BuildingEpilogueEndnote ReferencesBibliographyInterviewsUseful Websites
£15.29
Brandeis University Press The Academy and the Award – The Coming of Age of
Book SynopsisThe first behind-the-scenes history of the organization behind the Academy Awards. For all the near-fanatic attention brought each year to the Academy Awards, the organization that dispenses those awards—the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences—has yet to be understood. To date, no one has ever produced a thorough account of the Academy’s birth and its awkward adolescence, and the few reports on those periods from outside have always had a glancing, cursory quality. Yet the story of the Academy’s creation and development is a critical piece of Hollywood’s history. Now that story is finally being told. Bruce Davis, executive director of the Academy for over twenty years, was given unprecedented access to its archives, and the result is a revealing and compelling story of the men and women, famous and infamous, who shaped one of the best-known organizations in the world. Davis writes about the Academy with as intimate a view of its workings, its awards, and its world-famous membership. Thorough and long overdue, The Academy and the Award fills a crucial gap in Hollywood history.Trade Review"A fond look at the genesis and growing pains of the world’s foremost film organization." * Kirkus *"The story of the first 50 years (1927–77) of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts is fascinating, and the Academy’s former executive director Davis (who worked there for 30 years) is the ideal person to write it… A book of wide appeal, starting but not ending with film buffs." * Library Journal *“Davis, whose book is subtitled ‘The Coming of Age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences,’ focuses on the organization’s formative years, ‘an early life that deserves a bildungsroman.’” * New York Times *“In this engrossing behind-the-scenes look at the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences and the work it does during all five seasons—ahem, including awards—by a former Academy executive director, the real nights and bolts of how the Hollywood machine works is explained in insightful, and sometimes deliciously dishy detail.” * Town and Country *"That this Hollywood institution survived its first tumultuous decade is a tale which Davis recounts with wit and discernment. His erudition is icing on the cake: what could have been dry and academic is instead a highly readable book that can lay claim to being definitive." * Leonard Maltin's blog *"A tremendously in-depth history" * The Hollywood Reporter *"After serving as executive director of the Academy for over 20 years, Bruce Davis has penned the definitive history of the Academy Awards, from their awkward inception to the present. Davis was granted unprecedented access to the Academy archives for this compelling read about the way the Oscars work." * Yahoo News *"Film historians and others digging for a deeper vein of Oscar knowledge than mere trivia will turn up many nuggets in The Academy and the Award, which focuses on the initial three decades in the corporate life of the sword-wielding statuette. Oscar would be lucky to have as keen and even-handed a historian as Davis to explore its next era." * US News & World Report *“[Davis’s] academic background and years at the Academy made him the ideal writer for this invaluable book.” * Variety *“Authoritative doesn’t begin to describe the comprehensive Hollywood history Davis unfolds in The Academy and the Award. Not the usual breezy picture book, this is a meticulously researched and eye-opening account by a veteran member of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences which, of course, hands out the Oscars every year. As the Academy nears its first century, surprisingly this is only the first truly in-depth history.” * Boston Herald *“The Academy’s history is inextricable from Hollywood’s, and The Academy and the Award is a vital contribution and necessary step to documenting the organization and the impact of its Academy Awards.” * Media Industries Journal *"If you happen to care about the history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (at least in its first fifty years), you’ll have no shortage of reasons to read Bruce Davis’ forthcoming book, The Academy and the Award." * Deadline *“With a discerning eye and a wealth of experience, Bruce Davis transforms what could have been dry and academic into an erudite and witty saga. He buries a number of myths and rumors surrounding the Oscars, and reveals how the organization survived its chaotic early years. The Academy and the Award is a major contribution to Hollywood history—and a great read.” -- Leonard Maltin, film critic and historian“Wide ranging in his objective perspective, but always humanly intimate, Davis examines the in-house records of the Board of Governors, memos of its Presidents, and letters from the Academy’s more activist members, with much added flavoring and gossip. Davis’s seminal history of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences reads with all the honed stagecraft and drama of an Oscar nominated screenplay.” -- John Bailey, cinematographer; Academy President 2017-2019“In this entertaining, well-researched history, Bruce Davis traces how a marginal organization that teetered on the brink of bankruptcy for years became a major cultural institution that awards a coveted prize.” -- Charles Solomon, author of The Man Who Leapt Through Film“There are few people who know (and can explain) the inner machinations of The Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, but if anyone can do it, Bruce Davis is that man. I am thrilled that there is finally a serious history of the organization and the people behind it, with names that you'll recognize and those you won't. This is the definitive history of the Academy: it deserves a place on one's shelf, or inside one's Kindle. Mr. Davis’s magnum opus is essential reading for any serious cinephile.” -- Robert Harris, Motion Picture Archivist“With the skill and wit of a great story teller, Bruce Davis transports us into the secret boardrooms filled with powerful moguls and charismatic stars, the screenwriters and directors, the cinematographers and visionary scientists who frame-by-frame crafted the movies into the art form we cherish today. Here is the fascinating tale of how the coveted golden statuette of Oscar almost wasn’t and came to be. How I wish I had known this history when I joined the Academy. Pure magic!” -- Kathy Bates, Oscar recipient, past Academy Governor“I recommend this book to everyone who loves the movies and the Oscars!” -- Walter Mirisch, Academy President 1973-1977“This wonderful book is often funny, sometimes shocking, and always incredibly informative as we get the inside story at the Academy, from its humble beginnings at the Biltmore, to its eventual phenomenal industry success.” -- Ed Begley, Jr., Actor, and three-term Academy Actors branch governor"The real issue for the Oscar telecast, according to the Academy’s 22-year executive director Bruce Davis, author of the just-published—and dead-on accurate—The Academy and the Award: The Coming of Age of Oscar and the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences, is the disparity between the top box-office movies and the movies that are winning Oscars.” * IndieWire *“This account by a former executive director of the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences is an interesting and detailed one. . . . How did the Oscar get its name? What exactly are the Jean Hersholt and Irving Thalberg awards? Almost as intriguing are the sections about the extremely short presidential term of Bette Davis (she had a cup of coffee in the role, leading only one board meeting) and an explanation of how the Oscar statuette was designed.” * Seattle Book Review *"An author with a deep affinity for and knowledge of movies and how they’re honored tells us all about Oscar. Davis keeps things both informative and entertaining with plenty of interesting factoids." * The Arts Fuse *“Bruce Davis' new book, The Academy and the Award, provides movie fans, film historians, and all those interested in American arts and culture with the first-ever comprehensive account of the history and evolution of the academy. . . . Davis is not only a supremely confident guide to the Oscars’ history but an engaging and entertaining narrator as well. His prose is consistently colorful and often novelistic in its vivid scene-setting and descriptive detail.” * Washington Examiner *“An erudite and witty look at the Academy’s history, The Academy and the Award is a vital chronicle of film history that will be sought after by American history aficionados and film fanatics alike. Davis has combined meticulous research with a dynamic narrative to reveal the compelling personalities of the actors, writers, directors, and filmmakers who comprised the Academy during its formative era.” * Public Libraries Online *“The text often put me in the moment . . . . Fleshing the early history is difficult from just organization records, but Davis presents an amazingly full picture of each era of the Academy.” * Marketing Movies *Table of ContentsIntroduction1. The Beginning: Unions, Censors and Scandals2. Academies. And Awards? 3. A Little Figure for Cedric Gibbons4. A System Evolves5. The Hays Incursion6. . . . And Sciences7. Academy Washed Up8. Better than Precious Ointment9. Frank Capra’s New Deal10. Honorary Awards11. Bette Davis and the War12. Post-War and Cold War13. Straining at the Leash14. Into the Modern Era15. Oscar Full-BlownEpilogueAcknowledgements
£30.40
NewSouth Publishing Picturing a Nation: The art and life of A.H.
Book SynopsisThe untold story of a major Australian artist. Regarded in his day as an important Australian impressionist painter, A.H. Fullwood (1863–1930) was also the most widely viewed British–Australian artist of the Heidelberg era. Fullwood’s illustrations for the popular Picturesque Atlas of Australasia and the Bulletin, as well as leading Australian and English newspapers, helped shape how settler—colonial Australia was seen both here and around the world. Meanwhile his paintings were as celebrated as those of his good friends Tom Roberts and Arthur Streeton. So why is Fullwood so little known today?In this pioneering, richly illustrated biography, Gary Werskey brings Fullwood and his extraordinary career as an illustrator, painter, and war artist back to life, while casting a new light on the most fabled era in the history of Australian art.
£27.86
NewSouth Publishing Glass: The life and art of Klaus Moje
Book SynopsisIt is always based on what I see, what is touching me.'For more than fifty years, Klaus Moje devoted his life to the art of glass. He called it the 'most seductive' medium, and in his hands it had the power to delight and amaze collectors around the world. His lifetime's work changed the practice and appreciation of contemporary glass. Moje's philosophy of 'working into the hopeful' and his passion for the colour and geometry he saw in the natural world shone through his kilnformed glass works, a technique he pioneered.Moje was both artist and educator. After an apprenticeship in his father's small glass-cutting and glass-grinding business and a masters degree at the Glasfachschule Hadamar, Moje established his Hamburg studio. In 1982, he moved to Australia to set up the Glass Workshop at the Canberra School of Art, one of the most successful glass education programs in the world. Following 10 years teaching, Moje returned to full-time studio work. His life and art inspired many who chose to work with this medium.In Glass: The Life and Art of Klaus Moje, art historian Nola Anderson celebrates the creativity and artistic spirit of this remarkable artist.
£38.66
NewSouth Publishing Inconvenient Women
£18.04
NewSouth Publishing Cast Mates: Australian Actors in Hollywood and at
Book SynopsisAustralia has a long cinema history — starting with the world's first feature film, The Story of the Kelly Gang, made in Melbourne and released in 1906. Today, much of Australia's film talent goes to the United States, looking for bigger and more lucrative opportunities overseas. But what does this mean for both the history and future of Australian cinema?The larger-than-life personalities that form the heart of this book — Errol Flynn, Peter Finch, David Gulpilil AM and Nicole Kidman — have dominated cinema screens both locally and internationally and starred in some of the biggest films of their eras — including The Adventures of Robin Hood, Network, Crocodile Dundee and Eyes Wide Shut among others.From the Golden Age of Hollywood in the 1930s to the streaming wars of today, the lives of these four actors, and their many cast mates, tell a story of how a nation's cinema was founded, then faltered, before finding itself again.
£19.76
Wilfrid Laurier University Press Secret Museums
£31.60
Unisa Press Give a Little Love: The Zayn Adam Story
Book SynopsisFrom the Foreword by musician, activist, museum curator, documentarian, and scholar, Dr Valmont Layne: "The emerging biography veers between the sublime and the sordid – from Adam warding off racism's many guises on the one hand, to having to deal with shady characters and violent gangsters, even paedophiles on the other - to the adoration Adam continues to elicit to this day from fans and creative peers."No more was this undying adoration of Zayn Adam evident than when he celebrated his "50 years in music" concert at Grandwest in 2012, performing to sold-out shows. Many of Zayn's lifelong friends were part of the act. Their names all evoke a bygone era in music: Richard Jon Smith, Sophia Foster, Terry Fortune, Loukmaan Adams, Vicky Sampson, Karin Kortje, Leslie Kleinsmith and Ronnie Joyce.In this biography, Jegels seeks to reanimate the voice of Zayn through engagement with an interview Zayn did with Jonathan Stevens, segueing to various artists and historical information about events that are all inextricably bound up with the legend that is Zayn Adam.
£10.95
Reaktion Books Richard Wagner
Book SynopsisWith their complex textures, rich harmonies and elaborate use of leitmotifs, the operas of Richard Wagner (1813 - 83) remain some of the most influential - and contentious - in the history of the genre. But while Wagner won enormous renown for what he achieved on the stage, his life was marked by political exile, turbulent love affairs, and intermittent poverty. And because Wagner and his music are exceedingly intertwined with the great upheavals of his time, it is difficult to produce an impartial assessment of his work. Published at the bicentennial of his birth, Raymond Furness's Richard Wagner provides a clear and balanced view of both Wagner's great successes and the controversies generated by his life and art. Using Wagner's wide-ranging engagement with Germanic mythology and folk traditions as a starting point, this book explores the composer's music and prose writings, delving deeply into Wagner's essential operas, such as The Ring and Tristan and Isolde, and offering new insights. Because the great operatic pieces often overshadow the rest of Wagner's compositions, Furness also considers neglected fragments like Wieland the Smith, The Mines at Falun and The Visitors, producing a more rounded critical picture of the composer. With up-to-date dissections of recent Bayreuth productions and a refreshingly uncluttered approach to a much-misunderstood life, this book is a rewarding investigation of a true titan of European music.
£15.79
Reaktion Books Frida Kahlo: Critical Lives
Book SynopsisFrida Kahlo stepped into the limelight in 1929 when she married the Mexican muralist Diego Rivera. She was 22; he was 43. Hailed as Rivera's exotic young wife who 'dabbles in art', she went on to produce brilliant paintings, but remained in her husband's shadow throughout her life. Today, almost six decades after her untimely death, Kahlo's fame rivals that of Rivera and she has gained international acclaim as a path-breaking artist and a cultural icon. Cutting through 'Fridamania', this book explores Kahlo's life, art and legacies, while also scrutinizing the myths, contradictions and ambiguities that riddle her dramatic story. Gannit Ankori examines Kahlo's early childhood, medical problems, volatile marriage, political affiliations, religious beliefs and, most important, her unparalleled and innovative art. Based on detailed analyses of the artist's paintings, diary, letters, photographs, medical records and interviews, the book also assesses Kahlo's critical impact on contemporary art and culture. Kahlo was of her time, deeply immersed in the issues that dominated the first half of the twentieth century. Yet, as this book reveals, she was also ahead of her time.Her paintings challenged social norms and broke taboos, addressing themes such as the female body, gender, cross-dressing, hybridity, identity and trauma, in ways that continue to inspire contemporary artists across the globe. Frida Kahlo is a succinct and powerful account of the life, art and legacy of this iconic artist.
£12.99
GMC Publications Biographic: Cezanne: Great Lives in Graphic Form
Book SynopsisThe Biographic senes presents an entirely new way of looking at the lives of the world's greatest thinkers and creatives. It takes the 50 defining facts, dates, thoughts, habits and achievements of each subject, and uses infographics to convey all of them in vivid snapshots. Many people know that Paul Cezanne (1839-1906) was a French painter whose work and influence linked Post- Impressionism and Cubism. What, perhaps, they don't know is that he was best friends with French novelist Emile Zola until a disagreement ended their friendship of 34 years; that his work was rejected by the Salon and mainstream art schools before his unique style received critical acclaim; that he died from pneumonia after refusing to stop painting in a thunderstorm; and that, in 2011, his iconic artwork The Card Players was sold for more than $250million. Biographic: Cezanne presents an instant impression of his life, work and fame, with an array of irresistible facts and figures converted into infographics to reveal the artist behind the pictures. It is published to coincide with the major international exhibition of Cezanne's portraits 'Once in a Lifetime'.
£8.99
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Hans Richter
Book SynopsisChristopher Fifield's remarkable study explores the personality, life and work of a conductor who influenced and inspired the leading composers, singers and instrumentalists of his day. The Austro-Hungarian Hans Richter (1843-1916) was the first career-conductor to gain international fame. His first appointment was to Budapest, and he went on to dominate music-making in Vienna, Bayreuth, London, Manchester (withthe Hallé Orchestra) and other towns and cities in Britain and Europe between 1865 and 1912. Richter gave first performances of works by Wagner, Brahms, Elgar, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Stanford and Parry and helped to further the careers of Dvorák, Sibelius, Bartók and Glazunov. Christopher Fifield's remarkable study explores the personality, life and work of a conductor who influenced and inspired the leading composers, singers and instrumentalists of his day. Originally published in 1993, this revised and expanded edition contains extensive new material in the form of Richter's conducting books. Translated and reproduced in full, they detail every one of the 4,351 public performances Richter gave in a professional life spanning 47 years. Drawing on Richter's own diaries, the book also presents his correspondence with many contemporary composers (Wagner in particular) and performers. Fifield's biography of this seminal figure provides a revealing insight into British and European music and concert life during the long nineteenth century. CHRISTOPHER FIFIELD is a conductor, music historian, lecturer and broadcaster.He is the editor and author of the Letters and Diaries of Kathleen Ferrier and Max Bruch: His Life and Works, both published in new editions by The Boydell Press. He has also written Ibbs & Tillett - The rise andfall of a Musical Empire and The German Symphony between Beethoven and Brahms.Trade Review[W]ritten in a very engaging style with little tidbits about seemingly everyone. . . .This is, obviously, an important book if you are interested in conducting and 19th Century performance, but it also gives a wonderful look at the whole musical culture in Germany and England at the time. * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *An outstanding achievement, not merely a model biographical study, but one which will have set truly high standards for any future scholars. * BRIO *A formidable achievement...The sheer weight of archival research and supporting documentary evidence in this study is extraordinary...Even those who possess the original publication of 1993 should invest in this new edition. * THE WAGNER JOURNAL *Table of Contents1843-1865 Childhood and Years of Study 1866-1867 Tribschen 1868-1869 Munich 1870-1871 Brussels : Tribschen 1871-1874 Budapest 1874-1875 Budapest and Bayreuth 1875 Vienna 1876 Bayreuth 1877 London 1878-1879 Vienna 1879-1880 Friends and Enemies 1880-1881 London and Vienna 1881-1882 Richter and d'Albert 1882 Richter and d'Albert 1882-1883 The Master's Death 1884 More Opera in London 1885-1886 Vienna, London and Birmingham 1887-1888 Return to Bayreuth 1889-1900 Vienna 1897-1900 Richter and Mahler 1889-1890 England 1891-1895 England 1895-1900 England 1890-1899 Bayreuth 1894-1899 Richter's diary 1899-1900 Hallé Orchestra 1900-1902 England 1903-1904 England 1904-1906 England 1906-1908 England 1908-1909 England 1909-1911 England 1911-1914 Retirement 1914-1916 The Last Years Finale Hans Richter's Conducting Books Appendix 1: Works conducted by Hans Richter Appendix 2: Cities and towns where Richter conducted Select Bibliography
£45.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Boyce Papers: The Letters and Diaries of
Book SynopsisThe first full edition of the correspondence, between three artists Joanna Boyce, her brother George P. Boyce and Henry Wells, who she eventually married. It dates from the period 1845 to 1861, and covers artistic life in both Paris and London, including the Pre-Raphaelites. This correspondence, between three artists Joanna Boyce, her brother George P. Boyce and Henry Wells, whom she eventually married, dates from the period 1845 to 1861. They were all friends of Rossetti and the Pre-Raphaelite circle, but in addition Henry and Joanna both studied in Paris, and Joanna wrote extensively about her time there, training with Thomas Couture. She wrote for The Saturday Review as well as painting a small number of very interesting and much admired pictures. Her brother George established himself as a successful watercolourist and member of the Old Watercolour Society, having been encouraged both by David Cox on his Welsh sketching expeditions,and by Ruskin, whose letters advising him what to paint in Venice are included here. Henry Wells was primarily a portrait painter. At first he specialised in miniatures, and was commissioned to paint Mary, princess of Cambridge byQueen Victoria. There are vivid accounts of visits to country houses to carry out commissions from their owners. The three wrote constantly about techniques of painting and about the new colours that became available at this period, and about their visits to exhibitions both in Paris and London. They all contributed to the Royal Academy and other exhibitions. In addition, there is the extraordinary story of Joanna's and Henry's courtship and marriage, at first encouraged and then viciously opposed by Joanna's recently widowed mother. The correspondence survives only in an unpublished transcript made in the 1940s, as the originals were all destroyed in a bombing raid on Bath during the second world war. Excerpts from George P. Boyce's diaries were published in the 1930s, but the present edition contains a considerable amount of new material.Trade ReviewIt is finally hearing the voice of Joanna Boyce Wells which is truly remarkable and makes this publication one of the most important of the last decade...The writing of the artists and editors alike is enjoyable and readable...[It] is a wonderful achievement that will greatly aid historians, and equally delight those with a keen interest in the period. * PRE-RAPHAELITE SOCIETY REVIEW *Table of ContentsGeneral Introduction Memoir by Alice Street, including diaries and letters to 1855 Letters and diaries 1855 Letters and diaries 1856 Letters and diaries 1857 Letters and diaries 1858 Letters and diaries 1859 Letters and diaries 1860 Letters and diaries 1861 Epilogue: 1862 onwards Essays by Alice Street Reviews G. P. Boyce's Diaries, 1848-1875 Appendix I: The Short Memoir Appendix 2: Table of entries not in the printed edition of The Diaries of George Price Boyce Abbreviations Bibliography
£120.23
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Music of Frank Bridge
Book SynopsisA detailed and long-overdue study of Frank Bridge's music and its socio-cultural and aesthetic contexts The English composer, violist, and conductor Frank Bridge (1879-1941), a student of Sir Charles Villiers Stanford, was one of the first modernists in British music, developing the most radical and lastingly modern musical languageof his generation. Bridge was also one of the most accomplished British composers of chamber music in the twentieth century. After the lyrical romanticism of the early period, a notable expansion of style can be observed as earlyas 1913, leading eventually to the radical language of the Piano Sonata and Third String Quartet, drawing on influences such as Debussy, Stravinsky and the Second Viennese School composers.However, Bridge became frustrated that his later, more complex music was often ignored in favour of his earlier 'Edwardian' works; this neglect of his mature music contributed to the growing obscurity into which his music and reputation fell in his last years and afterhis death. Symptomatically, Bridge is still often remembered primarily for privately tutoring Benjamin Britten, who later championed his teacher's music and paid homage to him in the 'Variations on a Theme of Frank Bridge' (1937).This book, the first detailed, and long-overdue, study of Bridge's music and its relevant socio-cultural and aesthetic contexts, encourages a more thorough understanding of Bridge's style and development and will appeal to readers with interests in British music, early twentieth-century modernism and post-romanticism as well as genre and style. FABIAN HUSS is Visiting Fellow at the University of Bristol and has published widely on British music (particularly EJ Moeran), with an emphasis on cultural history, and aesthetic and analytical issues.Trade ReviewA major landmark. * THE JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL MUSICAL ASSOCIATION *This book is a tour de force ...an intense study of Frank Bridge's music. * SPIRITED *This volume is a crucial addition to scholarship. Being the first 'detailed and long-overdue study of Bridge' it will be of huge interest to serious researchers into his music. Added value here is the thoughtful analysis of many works that have been previously ignored or just touched upon by critics. The book will be of great help to all reviewers and popularisers who choose to explore Frank Bridge's music. * MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL *Table of ContentsIntroduction Background, Royal College of Music and Early Works First Maturity Transitional Period Bridge's Post-Tonal Idiom; Piano Sonata and Third String Quartet Interlude: Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge Progressive Works, 1927-1932 Interlude: Benjamin Britten Last Years List of Works Bibliography
£75.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Lives of George Frideric Handel
Book SynopsisHow have Handel's 'lives' in biographies and histories moulded our understanding of the musician, the man and the icon? To evaluate the familiar, even over-familiar, story of Handel's life could be seen as a quixotic endeavour. How can there be anything new to say? This book seeks to distinguish fact from fiction, not only to produce a new biography but also to explore the concepts of biography and dissemination by using Handel's life and lives as a case study. By examining the images of Handel to be found in biographies and music histories - the genius, the religious profound, the master of musical styles, the distiller into music of English sentiment, the glorifier of the Hanoverians, the hymner of the middle class, the independent, the prodigious, the generous, the sexless, the successful, the wealthy, the bankrupt, the pious, the crude, the heroic, the devious, the battler of ill-fortune, the moral exemplar - and by adding new factual information, David Hunter shows how events are manipulated into stories and tropes. Onesuch trope has been employed to portray numerous persons as Handel's enemies regardless of whether Handel considered them as such. Picking apart the writing of Handel's biographers and other reporters, Hunter exposes the narrative underpinnings - the lies, confusions, presumptions, and conclusions, whether direct and inferred or assumed - to show how Handel's 'lives' in biographies and histories have moulded our understanding of the musician, the man andthe icon. DAVID HUNTER is Music Librarian at the University of Texas at Austin.Trade ReviewAt the heart of his project is an attempt to explore the gap between image and individual-in this case, between 'Handel' and Handel. Handel as image, argues Hunter, is a phenomenon that has superseded Handel the person.the care and intelligence with which Hunter interrogates the facts of Handel's life, and their use by biographers, should attract the attention of all readers interested in the perils and pleasures of biography. * EARLY MUSIC *[A] unique contribution to Handel scholarship. * MUSIC & LETTERS *Handel was an early entrepreneurial composer: he owned his own opera company, he borrowed from himself and others to increase his musical output, and he was impressively resourceful for his time. This study focuses on the multiple representations of Handel that were at least partly a result of his legendary resourcefulness as well as on questions that remain about his sexuality, health (disability), nationalism, friends and acquaintances, and so on. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsIntroduction The Audience: Three Broad Categories, Three Gross Errors The Audience: Partner and Problem Musicians and Other Occupational Hazards Patrons and Pensions Musical Genres and Compositional Practices Self and Health Self and Friends Nations and Stories Biographers' Stories Conclusion Bibliography
£36.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Beethoven's Conversation Books Volume 3: Nos. 17
Book SynopsisA complete new edition of Beethoven's conversation books, now translated into English in their entirety for the first time. Covering a period associated with the revolutionary style of what we call "late Beethoven", these often lively and compelling conversations are now finally accessible in English for the scholar and Beethoven-lover. Ludwig van Beethoven (1770-1827) is recognized the world over as a composer of musical masterpieces exhibiting heroic strength, particularly in the face of his increasing deafness from ca. 1798. By 1818, the Viennese composer hadbegun carrying blank booklets with him, for his acquaintances to jot their sides of conversations, while he answered aloud. Often, he himself used the pocket-sized booklets to make shopping lists and other reminders, including occasional early sketches for his compositions. Today, 139 of these booklets survive, covering the years 1818 up to the composer's death in 1827 and including such topics as music, history, politics, art, literature, theatre, religion, and education as perceived on a day-to-day basis in post-Napoleonic Europe. An East German edition, begun in the 1960s and essentially complete by 2001, represents a diplomatic transcription of these documents. It is a masterpiece of pure scholarship but is difficult to use for anyone who is not a specialist. Moreover, Beethoven scholarship has moved on significantly since the long-ranging genesis of the German edition. These important booklets are here translated into English in their entirety for the first time. The volumes in this series include an updated editorial apparatus, with revised and expanded notes and many new footnotes exclusive to this edition, and brand new introductions, which together place many of the quickly changing conversational topics into context. Due to the editor's many years of research in Vienna, his acquaintance with its history and topography, as well as his familiarity with obscure documentary resources, this edition represents an entirely new venture in source studies - vitally informative for scholars not only in music but also in a wide variety of disciplines. At the same time, these often lively and compelling conversations are now finally accessible for the English-speaking music lover or history buff who might want to dip into them and hear what Beethoven and his friends were discussing at the next table.Trade ReviewThis is going to send everybody scurrying to revise biographical concepts about Beethoven...the conversation books are going to be a game-changer...these 'compelling conversations' will finally allow English-speaking music lovers to hear what Beethoven and his friends were discussing. * THE OBSERVER *This is absolutely fascinating. John Suchet, * CLASSIC FM *Featured in the10 must-read books for Beethoven 250, * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *Just how deaf was Beethoven? As the 250th-anniversary year of the German composer's birth gathers pace, a leading music scholar has given this often debated matter an added twist. * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *A brilliantly accessible piece of scholarship. . . . As they flash from scene to scene, with a huge cast of characters taking turns in the spotlight, these extraordinary little books read like a film script, with a laconic but massive presence at its heart. It's a goldmine for music historians, and a riveting saga for the rest of us. -- Michael Church * BBC Music Magazine *The publication of the third volume of this much-hoped-for series of the surviving conversation books in English is very much to be welcomed, coming as it does hot on the heels of volumes 1 and 2. . . . Overall the volumes are a very salutary corrective of the oft-encountered "heroic" narratives of Beethoven's life, especially in the way they illustrate the more mundane and human preoccupations and activities of the great composer. The Boydell Press are again much to be thanked for their involvement in the publication of these fascinating documents. Vol. 4 is eagerly anticipated. -- Thomas Cooper * The Consort *Table of ContentsHeft 17 (ca. May 27, 1822 - ca. June 12/13, 1822) Heft 18 (ca. October 31/November 1, 1822 - November 4, 1822) Heft 19 (January 19, 1823 - January 26, 1823) Heft 20 (January 21, 1823 - January 26, 1823) Heft 21 (January 27, 1823 - January 30, 1823) Heft 22 (January 30, 1823 - February 6, 1823) Heft 23 (ca. February 6/7, 1823 - February 12, 1823) Heft 24 (February 12, 1823 - February 21/22, 1823) Heft 25 (February 22, 1823 - March 2, 1823) Heft 26 (March 4, 1823) Heft 27 (ca. March 20, 1823 - March 26, 1823) Heft 28 (March 31, 1823 - April 8, 1823) Heft 29 (April 11, 1823 - April 17, 1823) Heft 30 (ca. April 20, 1823 - April 26, 1823) Heft 31 (April 27, 1823 - May 4, 1823) Appendix A: Descriptions of the Conversation Books in Volume 3 Bibliography
£42.75
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Howard Skempton: Conversations and Reflections on
Book SynopsisOffers an intimate view of a contemporary composer's creative world and how others may interpret it. Howard Skempton has contributed to British musical life for more than half a century, as composer, performer and commentator. His music is characterised by simplicity yet sophistication and is appreciated by lay and specialist listeners in equal measure. Skempton studied in London with Cornelius Cardew in the late 1960s, co-founding the Scratch Orchestra, and has written over 600 pieces since then, informed by and informing compositional trends. His outputincludes pieces for solo piano, accordion, cello, and guitar, chamber ensemble, orchestra, and voice. His music is performed by leading artists and recorded by, amongst others, Sony and NMC. This book offers an intimateview of a composer's creative world and how others may interpret it. It is not a conventional "life and works" though it contains a timeline, authorised work list and discography for orientation. It is written for anyone interested in contemporary music and (auto)biography, whether performer, listener, specialist, or student. The first four chapters comprise transcripts of conversations between Skempton and Esther Cavett followed by reflections from different commentators (respectively Matthew Head, Heather Wiebe, Arnold Whittall and Pwyll Ap Siôn). Skempton and Cavett discuss his musical origins, the wide array of musical and extra-musical influences on his music, his early adult life in London, his compositional development and processes, and how he teaches composition. The reflections are rich and wide-ranging, providing biographical, cultural and aesthetic insights and including close readings of keyscores. The penultimate chapter draws upon voices of Skempton's performers (Peter Hill, Thalia Myers, John Tilbury and James Weeks). To close, Cavett reflects on how Skempton told his story and the process of describing a creative life in music. The book includes manuscripts of six previously unpublished compositions and images of Skempton and his collaborators. ESTHER CAVETT is Senior Research Fellow at King's College, London. MATTHEWHEAD is Professor of Music at King's College, London. CONTRIBUTORS: Esther Cavett, Rosie Clements, Luke Deane, Matthew Head, Peter Hill, Thalia Myers, Howard Skempton, Pwyll Ap Siôn, John Tilbury, James Weeks, HeatherWiebe, Arnold Whittall.Trade ReviewIntriguing. * BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY *Table of ContentsIntroduction Conversation One, 20 July 2016. Childhood and teenage years Reflection One. Music and/as home - Matthew Head Conversation Two, 4 August 2016. The music from A Humming Song (1967) to Lento (1990) Reflection Two. Skempton and experimentalism - Heather Wiebe Conversation Three, 18 August 2016. Becoming established, and the music after Lento (1990) Reflection Three. "Strangely simple": Howard Skempton's composing - Conversation Four, 23 August 2016. On teaching composition Lessons were "magical": Skempton's composition students (with Luke Deane) Testimony from Rosie Clements about her studies with Howard Reflection Four. "Not a lot spoken, but a lot said": Skempton as teacher and composer - Pwyll Ap Siôn Performing (with Peter Hill, Thalia Myers, John Tilbury, James Weeks and Howard Skempton) The story of the story - Esther Cavett After-image: A reflection on a reflection - Howard Skempton Appendix One. Authorised worklist Appendix Two. Discography Select bibliography
£45.00
Liverpool University Press Dorothy Morland: Making ICA History
Book SynopsisThis is the first full-length biography of Dorothy Morland (1906–99), to date the only female director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. Based on unpublished letters and other archival sources, as well as interviews and personal recollections, this book traces her busy private and public life from the 1930s up until the 1990s. It tells the story of one of the unacknowledged contributors to the success of the ICA and to the understanding of the international avant garde in post-war Britain. As a female arts administrator, Dorothy Morland’s work has been largely overlooked, and this book aims to highlight her significant contribution to the public understanding of modernism. She was part of a network which included the Surrealist Roland Penrose, art critic Herbert Read, architect Jane Drew and wealthy philanthropists, Peter Gregory and Peter Watson. She was also the protector and advocate for the Independent Group. Dorothy Morland always mixed business with pleasure (dancing with Picasso in Antibes while there on ICA business), and tirelessly oversaw the chaotic organisation that was the ICA in Dover Street from 1950 until 1968. After leaving the ICA she worked hard on assembly the organisation’s archives and securing their safekeeping at Tate.Trade Review'With her characteristic sensitivity to socioeconomic context and questions of gender and class, Massey seeks to intercept the male-dominated narratives that have come to frame the formation of the ICA. In her new book, she again takes the patrilineage of art history to task by drawing attention to an overlooked – but highly influential – female administrator and director. [...] In fact, it is this layering of the author’s academic career with the professional life of her protagonist that truly animates the text ' Rosie Ram, Art History'The book is remarkable for the way in which it interweaves a detailed account of Morland’s life with the early history of the ICA and a broad network of artists and art professionals... [Dorothy Morland Making ICA History] provides a welcome and captivating history of one of the most intriguing chapters in modern British art.'Elena Crippa, The Burlington Magazine ‘This reflective period can be the right time to take stock of postwar history, of incomplete and inaccurate histories and narratives, and to recognize previously downplayed contributions. Morland’s status as a female curator needs to be emphasized, as does her place in British art history… This book is the culmination of decades of research and is enriched by different forms of visual representation that combine elements of the personal memoir with scholarship of the highest order.’ Rina Arya, Journal of Curatorial Studies
£109.50
Liverpool University Press Dorothy Morland: Making ICA History
Book SynopsisThis is the first full-length biography of Dorothy Morland (1906–99), to date the only female director of the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in London. Based on unpublished letters and other archival sources, as well as interviews and personal recollections, this book traces her busy private and public life from the 1930s up until the 1990s. It tells the story of one of the unacknowledged contributors to the success of the ICA and to the understanding of the international avant garde in post-war Britain. As a female arts administrator, Dorothy Morland’s work has been largely overlooked, and this book aims to highlight her significant contribution to the public understanding of modernism. She was part of a network which included the Surrealist Roland Penrose, art critic Herbert Read, architect Jane Drew and wealthy philanthropists, Peter Gregory and Peter Watson. She was also the protector and advocate for the Independent Group. Dorothy Morland always mixed business with pleasure (dancing with Picasso in Antibes while there on ICA business), and tirelessly oversaw the chaotic organisation that was the ICA in Dover Street from 1950 until 1968. After leaving the ICA she worked hard on assembly the organisation’s archives and securing their safekeeping at Tate.Trade Review'With her characteristic sensitivity to socioeconomic context and questions of gender and class, Massey seeks to intercept the male-dominated narratives that have come to frame the formation of the ICA. In her new book, she again takes the patrilineage of art history to task by drawing attention to an overlooked – but highly influential – female administrator and director. [...] In fact, it is this layering of the author’s academic career with the professional life of her protagonist that truly animates the text ' Rosie Ram, Art History'The book is remarkable for the way in which it interweaves a detailed account of Morland’s life with the early history of the ICA and a broad network of artists and art professionals... [Dorothy Morland Making ICA History] provides a welcome and captivating history of one of the most intriguing chapters in modern British art.'Elena Crippa, The Burlington Magazine ‘This reflective period can be the right time to take stock of postwar history, of incomplete and inaccurate histories and narratives, and to recognize previously downplayed contributions. Morland’s status as a female curator needs to be emphasized, as does her place in British art history… This book is the culmination of decades of research and is enriched by different forms of visual representation that combine elements of the personal memoir with scholarship of the highest order.’ Rina Arya, Journal of Curatorial Studies
£47.49
