Composers and songwriters Books

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Book SynopsisA fascinating portrait of the momentous Russian composer Alfred Schnittke.

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Book SynopsisThe explosive development of the young musicians who became a phenomenon.

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Book SynopsisA beautifully crafted biography examines both the music and the man.

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Book SynopsisThe work of Poulenc in the context of his colourful personal life.

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Book SynopsisThe first biography in English on the Danish composer Carl Nielsen.

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Book SynopsisAn intimate biography of this innovative and troubled composer.

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Book SynopsisA novel exploration of the 20th-century's most prominent German composer.

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Book SynopsisA study of the influential Hungarian composer, teacher and mentor.

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Book SynopsisMisunderstood looks behind the eyeliner to reveal the true story of one of the most notorious rock icons of the 21st century. Follow the reckless wild child turned devoted father as he replaces drug binges and erotic exploits with Buddhist meditation and kids'' birthday parties. He''s battled bipolar disorder, clinical depression, drug and alcohol addiction, loneliness and self-loathing to sell over ten million albums worldwide with the rock group Placebo.Combining punk rock anthems with designer dresses, the singer set out to prove he''s far more than ''just another nancy boy.'' He describes his music as both ''a transvestite on crystal meth'' and ''cocktail hour at the mental hospital'' - it''s going to be a bumpy ride.Alongside quotes from the singer himself are exclusive interviews featuring Brian in the words of those who knew him best. Described as everything from a fallen angel to a brutal rock-star thug, this book looks beyond the well-worn ''drug crazed sex-dwarf'' connotatio

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Book SynopsisDanny Elfman is recognized as one of the most successful, interesting, and innovative figures in recent film music composition. He came to the fore in the late 1980s in connection with his collaboration with Tim Burton on his films including Pee-Wee''s Big Adventure (1985), Beetlejuice (1988), Batman (1989), Edward Scissorhands (1990), The Nightmare before Christmas (1993), and Sleepy Hollow (1999). In addition to this, Elfman has composed music for more than 40 other films, including Somersby (1993), Dolores Claibourne (1995), Good Will Hunting (1997), Men in Black (1997), and Spiderman (2002). Beetlejuice was the first mainstream commercial success of the collaboration, but Batman was the film which marked Tim Burton''s arrival as a major figure in Hollywood film direction, and equally established Danny Elfman as a film score composer, particularly in relation to action and fantasy genres. The score for Batman won a Grammy in 1989 and is an outstanding example of his collaboration wTrade ReviewElfman's original score supports well over half of Tim Burton's two-hour Batman, which is no small achievement. In addition, Elfman proved how effective music can be in what is usually called the "action movie" genre. Halfyard...examines Elfman's composition career, including his contributions to Weird Science, Edward Scissorhands and a number of offbeat comedies, showing how his work began to differ from the usual scores of the 1980s and 1990s. She analyzes the themes behind Batman and Elfman's effective use of duality in describing a complex character in conflict, set against others clearly good or evil. Halfyard then works through the score and film scene for scene. * Reference and Research Book News *...a thoroughly researched and extremely useful guide....compact, accessible, and highly informative.... * Music & Letters, February 2007 *Even if music theory isn't your cup of tea (or its terminology is simply baffling), Halfyard's book will serve as an excellent reference work, and the career and film assessments are invigorating. Though Scarecrow Press has thus far published three volumes in their Film Score series, hopefully it'll continue further, and perhaps Halfyard will tackle another composer of particular note. -- Mark Richard Hasan * Music From The Movies *Table of ContentsChapter 1 Editor's Foreword Chapter 2 Acknowledgments Chapter 3 Chapter 1: Danny Elfman's Musical Background Chapter 4 Chapter 2: Elfman's Scoring Technique Chapter 5 Chapter 3: The Historical and Critical Context of Batman Chapter 6 Chapter 4: The Sound of the Score Chapter 7 Chapter 5: Reading the Score: Part I Chapter 8 Chapter 6: Reading the Score: Part II Chapter 9 Notes Chapter 10 Bibliography Chapter 11 Index Chapter 12 About the Author

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Book SynopsisTrade ReviewOffering a philosophical framework, Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation provides an aesthetic appreciation of the musical stylings of this legendary band. A seminal work of outstanding and original scholarship, Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation is written in a form and format that will make it easily accessible to non-specialist general readers and fans of the Grateful Dead. Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation is a highly recommended addition to academic library Popular Culture and 20th Century American Music reference collections and supplemental reading lists. * Midwest Book Review *David Malvinni’s Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation is . . . a necessary addition to the growing secondary literature on the music of the Grateful Dead. * Notes: Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association *As the first scholarly monograph on the music of the Grateful Dead, David Malvinni’s Grateful Dead and the Art of Rock Improvisation is a significant addition to popular music scholarship. Although numerous edited volumes of essays focused on the band have been published in the two decades since the band’s demise after the death of lead guitarist Jerry Garcia, this is the first by a single author to focus entirely on a musicological assessment. And since it has often been the sociological aspects of the Grateful Dead phenomenon that have received the most attention, especially the audience, the colorful fans known as Deadheads, it is a refreshing change for a scholar to focus entirely on what should be of primary importance for a musical ensemble: its music. * Critical Studies in Improvisation *

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Book SynopsisWith a career in music and film that has spanned over forty years, Kristofferson began as a singer-songwriter. In this book, Mary G. Hurd surveys the life and works of this highly respected American songwriter, exploring the uncommon depth and lyricism of his work.Trade ReviewSinger-songwriter Kris Kristofferson first became known in 1970, when he was awarded the Country Music Award for his song 'Sunday Mornin’ Comin’ Down,' as sung by Johnny Cash. Hurd provides the first detailed look at the 'arc of Kristofferson’s creative output', starting with his first LP in 1970, which featured his classic 'Me and Bobby McGee'; through his best songs combining country and folk-rock in the 1970s, such as 'Loving Her Was Easier' and 'Why Me'; to his work with Cash and Willie Nelson in the country supergroup the Highwaymen; and finally to his critically acclaimed 2006 album 'This Old Road,' recorded at the age of 70. Hurd is excellent at showing how all of Kristofferson’s work and life—including refusing to follow his family’s long tradition of serving in the military, and his stint in England as a Rhodes Scholar—are connected by one theme: 'His mandate to live an artist’s life as he thought it should be lived hinged on the concept of personal freedom.' This solid overview makes it clear just how important Kristofferson’s work has been to the history of country and rock music. * Publishers Weekly *Kris Kristofferson: Country Highwayman succeeds in contextualizing the career of an unlikely country music icon: an educated liberal whose imperfect voice, organic songwriting, sophisticated lyricism, and introverted nature emerged during Nashville’s slick and commercially oriented countrypolitan period. . . . Hurd, a retired professor of English, accomplishes the difficult task of using songs to summarize Kristofferson’s turbulent forty-year-plus career. . . . Characteristically adept is her examination of Kristofferson’s award-winning song, 'Sunday Morning Coming Down' (1970). She peers beneath the surface depiction of a miserable hangover: 'Aching with loneliness and alienation, the speaker renders a powerful evocation of alcoholism and the loss of traditional values (family, home, and faith)—not unlike Kristofferson’s own situation—and the burden of freedom that follows that loss' (p. 35). . . . [T]he book might inspire casual readers to listen more intently—or perhaps for the first time—to Kristofferson’s songs. What this book does best is illustrate the intimate link between songwriter and song, and the complex layers such a link can entail. * Thinking On Music *Hurd’s study of one of our greatest singer-songwriters offers biographical information, but more essentially, a detailed study of his work. . . .Now’s the time to fully examine and appreciate an astonishing body of work by a timeless artist. Fans of Kristofferson or anyone who admires the art of songwriting will find the book fascinating fare. * Pop Culture Classics *Table of ContentsIntroduction Chapter 1: Beginnings and Influences: “Pick up that guitar, Go break a heart” Chapter 2: “Freedom’s just another word for nothing left to lose”: 1965-1970 Chapter 3: “Had to try to tame a thirst he couldn’t name”: 1971-1975 Chapter 4: “The going up was worth the coming down”: 1977-1984 Chapter 5: Rebels, Outlaws, Highwaymen, 1985-1995 Chapter 6: “I don’t believe that no one wants to know,” 1985-1991 Chapter 7: “Ain’t you come a long way down this old road”: 1995-2014 Chapter 8 Conclusion Further Reading Further Listening Further Watching About the Author

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Book SynopsisExamines punk as a movement. This book contains descriptions of the sounds, and places those sounds in the context of history. Drawing on many fanzines, magazines, and newspapers, it provides a portrait of the ways in which punk was an expression of defiance. It covers many of the legendary punk bands, as well as the obscure, forgotten ones.Trade Review"Nicholas Rombes answers many of the questions I didn't know I had... It's about time someone wrote a textbook on these things." -The Rumpus"An expansive, erudite, and hugely entertaining guide through the dark alleys and glittering byways of punk-in music, film, literature, politics, fashion-A Cultural Dictionary of Punk is essential reading for anyone fascinated by one of the most influential artistic movements of our time." -Elizabeth Hand, author of Generation LossAt a cursory glance, Rombes's compendium has the form of a dictionary, covering punk bands from the Adolescents to the Zeroes, but scratch the surface and you'll discover a profoundly weird document, where the notion of "punk" expands to include discussions of Angela Carter, Thomas Pynchon, Don DeLillo and Barry Hannah—although even Rombes admits the last is stretching the point. The tone veers from the academic to the confessional: "How can you hesitate about a song that has saved you more than once from the black depths you are prone to fall into?" Rombes asks in an entry concerning the British band Wire. There are several forays into the fictional, including stories about imagined versions of Patti Smith and Joey Ramone, as well as entries written by "Ephraim P. Noble," who is almost certainly a fictional alter ego. If it were touted as a definitive guide to punk culture, the dictionary's omissions would be glaring—but this is something altogether different: a personal investigation into the significance of punk rock, an attempt to inject critical studies with "a big dose of chaos and anarchy" and thereby create a compelling cultural narrative.-Publishers WeeklyRombes, the author of works on punk musicians and cinema, here examines punk as a cultural movement through A-to-Z entries drawing upon fanzines, magazines, and newspapers to place media and artists in the context of history. In the author's own words, he has "allowed the content of the entries to determine their shape, format and tone." The result is an eclectic examination of the punk movement as well as the cultural and historical issues surrounding it. The book concludes with a postscript analyzing the end of the punk movement in 1982. BOTTOM LINE: The author's love and knowledge of the punk era shines throughout the work. There are several other books on punk, but this one's focus on the general historical and cultural perspective of the movement, as well as its accessible and informal style, makes it a worthy addition to the literature. An excellent overview of the era for any library.-Library Journal"Rombes has assembled a proudly subjective collection of touchstones through which he attempts to discern, if not a definition of "punk," then at least some semblance of its signifiers' import in his own sense of self....Even while assembling texts and quoting from wide and varied sources, what Rombes does more than anything is provide evidence—evidence and validation that this thing punk is as significant to the world at large as it is to him."-The Agit Reader"I take a little notebook wherever I go -- I'm sure some of you do this, too -- so that anytime I hear about a cool film or something I should check out, I can jot it down immediately. A Cultural Dictionary of Punk is like a compilation of everything I've scribbled in little notebooks over the last 15 years. ...Much has been written on the subject, but this well-researched and respectful title is one book that should be appreciated, not rejected, by today's punk scene."-Whitney Matheson, USA Today's PopCandy"After a first read, I now know that A Cultural Dictionary of Punk 1974-1982 will be for me a traveling companion, a friend, for the rest of the way. Author Nicholas Rombes makes the dictionary format yield the urgency, brevity, and speedy darkness of Punk as a musical method, Punk as a cultural necessity. But the book is really a love letter, proud, bitter, flabbergasted, and true. His subjectivity serves him, and the reader, well. Start with his stuff on The Clash, The Ramones, Nirvana (yes: punk), Sixties, punk as a rejection of . . . . Rombes makes you want to write your own dark dictionary.Do it. Do it fast. "-S.X. Rosenstock, a poet and writer for the Huffington Post‘I'm obsessed with Nicholas Rombes' amazing book, A Cultural Dictionary of Punk from Continuum Books, and carry it everywhere.' -- The Huffington PostThe cover is perfect; no one person has a hold on punk, so no one person could ever be the face for it (Sid Vicious be damned!). http://new.flavorwire.com/196081/some-of-our-favorite-punk-book-covers/2 -- Flavorpill"Rombes makes A Cultural Dictionary important by clearly writing about the weird marginal forces that swirled into CREEM-reading, all night donut shop youth haunted Ohio at the end of the Vietnam war era, and editing out a ton of stuff called "punk" in the years since 1982."-KEXP, Seattle"Part guide, part archive (there are many images from the era never before reprinted), part postmodern study... [A Cultural Dictionary of Punk] is far more punk than its academic title lets on."-The Rumpus"Rombes launches arguments and counterarguments...that make the selections of his "dictionary" as provocative as Jon Savage in England's Dreaming. ...A challenging lexicography."Record Collector -- Ian Abrahams"Nearly all the dictionary entries dealing with Cleveland, Ohio and New York City and their denizens (Pere Ubu, The Eels, Peter Laughner, Dead Boys in the former; Ramones, Patti Smith, Richard Hell in the latter) are tremendously evocative..." The Wire, December 2009"Any dictionary which includes entries on X Ray Spex Germ Free Adolescents alongside Thomas Pynchon's Gravity's Rainbow just has to be worth a read. And it is. And you should. Read it that is." Total Music, January 2010."Excellent" - Jon SavageTable of Contents400 Blows / Adolescents /Adverts / Against Method / Agnew, Spiro / 'Alternative Ulster' / 'Anarchy is Dead' / Angry Young Men / Art and Fear /'Art of Noise,' / futurist manifesto / 'Art Rock' / Ashbery, John / Ask the Dust / Avengers / Bad Brains / Bad Taste in 1974 / Balm, Trixie A. / Bangs, Lester / 'Biafra: 6,591 votes (3%)!!' / Blank1 / Blank2 / Blank3 / Blank Generation / 'Blank Generation' / 'Beat Generation' / The Bloody Chamber / Boredom / Brando, Marlon / British National Front / Buffalo, New York / Callaghan, James: Prime Minister of Great Britain / Carter, Jimmy / Carter, Jimmy—and the new wave / Cassidy and Bangs in 1977 / 'Cindy' / Cities, decay and beauty of / Clash, the / Class / Cleveland, Ohio / compact audio cassette / Cooper, Alice / Cox, Alex / C.P.O. Sharkey / 'Punk Rock Sharkey' / Cramps: Live at Napa State Mental Hospital / Criticism, rock / Dancing / 'Death of Punk' / Dead Boys / Demics, the / Destroy All Monsters / Dhalgren / Dickies / Dictators / Dils / Diodes / Dogs / 'John Rock 'n Roll Sinclair' / John Sinclair / 'Dot Dash' / Down-and-out during the punk era, the fun of being / East Village Eye / Eater / Ejectors / electric eels / entertainment! / 'Experts Propose Study of 'Craze'" / Feelies / Fifties, nostalgia for / The Foreigner / 'Frankie Teardrop' / 'Full Speed Ahead' / Further Temptations / Generation X / Germs / Germ Free Adolescents / Gibson, William / Glass, Philip / 'Going Underground' / Graham, Bill / Gravity's Rainbow / Great Jones Street / Gulcher / 'Gunning for Sex Pistols' / The Gun Rubber / Hannah, Barry / 'Happy Birthday, Stephanie' / Headlines, 1977 / Helen Keller / Herman's Hermits / High-Rise / Hippies, Johnny Rotten comments about / 'Horror Business' / Horses / 'How Could I' / 'I Got You Babe' / The Ice Age / implied velocity / 'I waste hours keeping my soul out of the cauldron' / I'm OK—You're OK / Jarmusch, Jim / Jim Basnight and the Moberlys / Jungle Rot / 'Keep Yours Dreams' / Kentucky Fried Movie / 'L.A. Punk' / Ladies and Gentlemen the Fabulous Stains / La Guardia, Fiorello Henry / Leon, Craig / Lowell, Robert / MTV / Mad Magazine, punk and / Marbles / Meltzer, Richard / 'The Menace and Charm of Punk Rock' / Milk 'n' Cookies' / Minimalism / 'Mistakism' / Mo-dettes / 'the most absurd year in the history of rock 'n' roll' / 'Neat, Neat, Neat' / Nervous Breakdown / Nervus Rex / 'New Dark Ages' / 'New Music, The' / The New Wave / New Wave Theatre / 'New Way' / Nirvana / Nixon, Richard / Nobody's Heroes / Non Compos Mentis / No Policy / No Wave / Normals / Nostalgia / 'Notes on the New American Cinema' / 'not exactly what you would consider melodic' / Nuns / Oblique Strategies / Only Ones / 'Ottawa Today' / Out of Vogue / Outsider, The / Pagans / 'Paint it Black' / Para-Punk Cinema / Patti / Penetrators / Pere Ubu / Pettibon, Raymond / 'Police State' / Punk, alternate meanings of / Punk, as 'honored' / 'punk is inconceivable without the bleak failure of the Sixties' / Punk, its influence on something other than music or fashion / 'Punk rock is a put on' / 'Punk Rock: the arrogant underbelly of Sixties pop' / 'Punk Rock Rises Again!!', Creem headline / 'Punk Root' / 'Question of Degree, A' / Radio On / 'Radio Wunderbar' / Raincoats / Ramones [1974- ] / Ramone, Joey (and Joey Miserable and the Worms) / Ramones, the first album in ten tracks / Ramones, as 'trivial' / as 'great' / Ramones, first lines of songs on first three albums / Reagan, Ronald / 'Read About Seymour' / Real Life / Rebel Without a Cause / 'Receiving End' / Rent Act / Rimbaud, Arthur / Road Warrior, The / Rocket from the Tombs, four sentences about / Rocket from the Tombs, two songs by / Rockwell, John / Rombes, Kori Ann / Saints / Screamers / SCUM Manifesto / Second Extermination Nite / 'See No Evil' / self-referential, punk as / 'Seventeen' / Shirkers / Shivvers / 'short-lived fad, a' / 'Singles reviewed / 'Sister Ray' / Sixties, punk as a rejection of / Sixties, punk as an affirmation of / Six Million Dollar Man, The / Skunks / Sleepers / Slits / 'Slouching Towards Bethlehem' / 'So Cold' / social threat of punk, the / 'Something's happening' / 'Sonic Reducer' / Sonic Youth / Speedies / Spheeris, Penelope / Spock, Benjamin / Starburn: The Story of Jenni Love / Static Disposal / Sterling, Linder / 'still bewildered by the death-machine' / Stooges / 'Strange' / Student Teachers / Suicide / Survival Research Laboratories (SRL) / Symbionese Liberation Army (SLA) / Target Video / Teen Idles / 'That's Entertainment' / 'The music is primal, mindless, without climaxes' / 'The ongoing force of me' / Theoretical Girls / theory, punk as a form of / 'There are Only Three Rock Groups in America' / 'There is nothing inherently wonderful about starkness' / 'The World's a Mess; It's In My Kiss' / Troggs / Truth about punk, the / 'TV Babies' / Undertones / Vast Majority / Vertigo / Vibrators / Vietnam War / Viletones / vinyl / Wallace and Ladmo Show, the / Warhol, Andy / Weirdos / 'When You're Young' / Whistle Punk / Who Killed Bambi? / 'Why?' / 'Write Down Your Number' / 'Xerox Days' / Zeros

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Book SynopsisTravel diaries reveal musical inspiration, personal encounters, notes on performances.This volume brings together all the travel diaries of Sir Peter Pears (1910-1986), principal interpreter of Britten's works. Pears accompanied Britten on many of his trips and the record of their tour of the Far East in 1955 is ofspecial interest. Here the sound of the gamelan orchestras enchanted Britten and deeply influenced his musical development.Trade ReviewA valuable source of material on the musical development of both Pears and Benjamin Britten...a 'must' for those interested in either. * OPERA JOURNAL [US] *Table of ContentsAmerican tour with the New English Singers (1936); world trip (1955-56); Ansbach Bach Festival (1959); India (1965); Armenian holiday - a diary (August 1965); Moscow Christmas - a diary (December 1966); Nevis fortnight (1967); Moscow diary (1971); Saint Enoch (1972); San Fortunato (1972); the New York "Death in Venice" (1974); the New York "Billy Budd" (1978); appendix - German text of chapter 3.

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Book SynopsisDiscussion of original performance conventions of Bach's sacred works - cantatas, Passions, masses - by practising musician and director of Taverner choir.What type of choir did Bach have in mind as he created his cantatas, Passions and Masses? How many singers were at his disposal in Leipzig, and in what ways did he deploy them in his own music? Seeking to understand the verymedium of Bach's incomparable choral output, Andrew Parrott investigates a wide range of sources: Bach's own writings, and the scores and parts he used in performance, but also a variety of theoretical, pictorial and archival documents, together with the musical testimony of the composer's forerunners and contemporaries. Many of the findings shed a surprising, even disturbing, light on conventions we have long taken for granted. A whole world away from, say, the typical oratorio choir of Handel's London with which we are reasonably familiar, the essential Bach choir was in fact an expert vocal quartet (or quintet), whose members were also responsible for all solos and duets. (In a mere handful of Bach's works, this solo team was selectively supported by a second rank of singers - also one per part - whose contribution was all but optional). Parrott shows that this use of aone-per-part choir was mainstream practice in the Lutheran Germany of Bach's time: Bach chose to use single voices not because a larger group was unavailable, but because they were the natural vehicle of elaborate concerted music. As one of several valuable appendices, this book includes the text of Joshua Rifkin's explosive 1981 lecture, never before published, which first set out this line of thinking and launched a controversy that is long overduefor resolution. ANDREW PARROTT has made a close study of historical performing practices in the music of six centuries, and for over twenty-five years he has been putting research into practice with his own professional ensembles, the Taverner Consort, Taverner Players and Taverner Choir.Trade ReviewThis utterly fascinating and ultimately convincing book can only do his cause good in the best of all possible years. -- Simon Hughes * INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW *As restated here (...with additional material and with admirable clarity), the arguments are utterly convincing... The book is a pleasure to read, fluently written and clearly set out with many illustrations and musical examples. * EARLY MUSIC REVIEW *A brilliant piece of research...a superb book - and it is going to lead us all to think more carefully about how we approach the performance of Bach. -- DAVID HILL * WINCHESTER CATHEDRAL *I was gripped by this book; it is compulsive reading. If you profess the faith of Bach you simply cannot afford to be without it. * CLASSICAL MUSIC *Highly recommended for anyone interested in Bach's vocal works. -- Yo Tomita * MUSICAL TIMES *Utterly fascinating and ultimately convincing. * GRAMOPHONE *A work of careful and judicious scholarship. * OXFORD TIMES *What Parrott has delivered is a document which will itself no doubt be a subject of study in years to come. -- Andrew Manze * TLS *Table of ContentsBach as cantor and "Director Musices" in Leipzig; repertoire; concertists and ripienists; copies and copy-sharing; Bach's use of ripienists; the "Entwurff"; additional resources; instrument/singer ratios; balance. Appendices: Bach's written undertakings to the Leipzig Town Council (1723); Bach's audition reports (1729); the "Entwurff" (1730), text and translation; some contemporary accounts of concerted music-making; sources of Bach's vocal ensemble music; Bach's chorus (1981), Joshua Rifkin; 20th-century commentaries on Bach's choir.

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Book SynopsisThis acclaimed biography draws on first-hand accounts, including new material on Walton's circle of the 20s and 30s; the composer's work in film a particular focus.When in June 1923 a bewildered audience in London's Aeolian Hall heard Edith Sitwell declaim her Façade poems through a megaphone, the 21-year-old William Walton - conducting behind a painted backcloth - stood on the threshold of fame. Throughout the 1920s and 1930s he was regarded as the white hope of British music, and a succession of works including the Viola Concerto, Belshazzar's Feast and the First Symphony more than fulfilled that early promise; he was also one of the first serious composers to be involved in films. Using first-hand accounts, this book explodes the myth of Façade's riotous reception, examines Walton's work in both films and radio and, through contemporary correspondence, articles and interviews - wherever possible in his own words - explores Walton's life and troubled times. It brings to the fore his complex personality - "remote, removed, distant" in Laurence Olivier's words, in dynamic contrast with music of such vitality and drama. Composition for him was an arduous, often painful, process riddled with difficulties, uncertainties and self-doubts, and further complicated by severallove affairs (one being with Italy) that inspired his finest works. STEPHEN LLOYD's previous books include a biography of H. Balfour Gardiner and a collection of Eric Fenby's writings on Delius, which he edited. In addition to record sleeve notes, programme notes, reviews and articles, he has contributed to the Percy Grainger Companion, the Studies in Music Grainger Centennial Volume, An Elgar Companion, and volumes on Delius, Waltonand Bliss.Trade ReviewImmensely detailed, rich, and often fascinating anecdotal biography... * CHOICE *Careful in its judgments, copiously quoting from Walton's letters, and rich in appendices. * LONDON REVIEW OF BOOKS *A helpful contribution to the slow but steady re-evaluation of Walton. * MUSIC AND LETTERS *Table of ContentsOldham and Oxford; Sitwellian patronage; poetry through a megaphone; the white hope of British music; "throw in a couple of brass bands"; unfinished - con malizia; a reel composer; films again - and radio; "terribly dull without the music"; Troilus and Ischia; "desperate to find a tune". Appendices: Lambert on Walton; Walton on Lambert; Walton on films; recording the music by Muir Mathieson; the "Facade" poems; reviews of "Facade"; list of works.

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Book SynopsisTable of ContentsIntroduction: Griots of piedmont North Carolina and portrait of songster Will Baldwin -- Signifying at the crossroads : African-American traditions of the folk banjo -- The ritual of minstrelsy : some were buffoons, but others were apprentices -- Mountain echoes of the African banjo -- The banjo : its chang form, construction, and use -- The transmission of playing methods and tunin -- The banjo song genre : Dink Roberts' man-against-the-law songs -- Garfiel man against the law, but a man with a community -- Conclusion.

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Book SynopsisGUITAR WORLD PRESENTS: METALLICA

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Book SynopsisEssential reading for those interested in the suspense novelist Cornell Woolrich, author of Rear Window. His autobiography includes accounts of his working methods, Victorian family and home, memories of childhood, college experience, sexual initiation, and philosophy of life.

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Book Synopsis

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