History of music Books
Boydell & Brewer Ltd George Smart and Nineteenth-Century London
Book SynopsisThe first full length study of Sir George Thomas Smart (1776-1867), musical animateur and early champion of the music of Beethoven Sir George Thomas Smart (1776-1867) was a significant musical animateur of the early nineteenth century, who earned his living primarily as a conductor but was also significant as an organist, composer and recorder of events. Smart established successful and pioneering London concert series, was a prime mover in the setting up of the Philharmonic Society and the Royal Academy of Music, and taught many of the leading singers of the day, being well versed in the Handelian concert tradition. He also conducted the opera at the Covent Garden Theatre and introduced significant new works to the public - he was most notably an early champion of the music of Beethoven. His journeys to Europe, and his contacts with the leading European musical figures of the day (including Weber, Meyerbeer, Spohr, and Mendelssohn), were crucial to the direction music was to take in nineteenth-century Britain. This detailed account of Smart's life and career presents him within the context of the vibrant concert life of London and wider European musical culture. It is the first full length, critical study of this influential musical figure. JOHN CARNELLEY is Deputy Director of Music and Head of Academic Music, Dulwich College, London. He holds a PhD in Historical Musicology from the University of London (Goldsmiths College) and has previously published research on the eighteenth-century organ manuscripts of John Reading, held in the Dulwich College Archive.Trade ReviewThis book has been written with warmth and enthusiasm underpinned by exhaustive research. Setting out as a record of the everyday working life of an individual professional musician, it is ultimately and important biography of an exceptional man. * NINETEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC REVIEW *Certainly deserves a place on the shelves of every respectable music library. * BRIO *Sympathetic and intensively researched volume will do much to restore [Sir George Smart's] reputation. * THE MUSICAL TIMES *[A] very rich trove here: the book is an invaluable source of reference for this period and for contemporary research on it. * MUSIC & LETTERS *A fascinating glimpse into a little known but immensely influential era of British musical life. * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *Conductor Sir George Smart dominated musical life in London in the 1820s and 1830s. In this biography, Carnelley . . . details Smart's life and his role in the London concert scene. Though events such as Weber's and Mendelssohn's London visits have been previously documented, Carnelley is the first to place those special occasions in the context of routine musical life . . . and Smart's attempts to broaden musical tastes . . . . Summing Up: Recommended. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsPreface George Smart and the Musical Profession: 1776-1825 London Concert Life 1800-25 George Smart's Concert Activities 1800-25 Interlude - London and the Continent in 1825 New Musical Directions 1826-30 Change and Conflict 1830-44 Retirement and Old Age 1844-1867 Appendices Bibliography
£80.75
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The New Percy Grainger Companion
Book SynopsisA new collection with contributions from performing musicians and Grainger scholars and a detailed Catalogue of Works. In the thirty years since his Centenary in 1982 it has become even clearer that Percy Grainger [1882-1961] - composer, pianist and revolutionary - was a man born out of his time. Many of his ideas, both musical and social, sit farmore easily in our contemporary world. Those thirty years have also seen a notable expansion of interest in Grainger's music. Innumerable recordings have been made, including the first complete Grainger recording survey by Chandos in its monumental Grainger Edition. The growth of the internet has made it possible, as never before, for Grainger's music to be heard widely. The central theme of The New Percy Grainger Companion is to give information and help from established musicians for performing and listening to this life-celebrating repertoire. The Companion's fully detailed, up-to-date Catalogue of Works - the most complete of any existing catalogue - givesinvaluable assistance. Authoritative contextual chapters in the Companion offer some surprising new background information, together with thoughtful evaluations which signal a new twenty-first century perspective in Grainger scholarship. PENELOPE THWAITES is recognised internationally as a leading Grainger exponent. Her research, performances and extensive Grainger discography over four decades reflect a unique understanding of the manand his music. Contributors: BRIAN ALLISON, TERESA BALOUGH, ROGER COVELL, KAY DREYFUS, LEWIS FOREMAN, PAUL JACKSON, JAMES JUDD, JAMES KOEHNE, ASTRID BRITT KRAUTSCHNEIDER, BARRY PETER OULD, STEWART MANVILLE, MURRAY MCLACHLAN, TIMOTHY REYNISH, BRUCE CLUNIES ROSS, DESMOND SCOTT, PETER SCULTHORPE, GEOFFREY SIMON, RONALD STEVENSON, STEPHEN VARCOE, DAVID WALKERTrade ReviewAn essential handbook for anyone doing research on Percy Grainger himself, on the musical world of his time, or on the types and forms of music which he wrote or researched...handbooks such as this provide the folklorist with the background to understanding the life and work of a figure who had a deep interest in folk music and the music of the non-Western world. * FOLKLORE *A highly readable and important volume. [It will] prove invaluable to both performers and researchers in years to come. * BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY *The New Percy Grainger Companion [...] does Grainger's legacy a great service because of the rich, and at times unexpected, contexts against which the man and his music are set. * MUSIC & LETTERS *This book successfully removes his masks of bravado, outrageousness, contradictions and obsessions to reveal a vulnerable, warm humane man, who was proud to call Australia home. * STRINGENDO *It is a breath of fresh air [...] to encounter a book that concentrates exclusively on Grainger's work as a composer, pianist and pioneering thinker. [...] it contributes very usefully to a better understanding of this truly remarkable Australian figure. * MUSIC FORUM *Grainger is not just a composer, or a pianist, or an arranger, he is a phenomenon. And in The New Percy Grainger Companion we are given a vision of that phenomenon in the wealth of his music and in his wide global context. * . *Thwaites and her fellow contributors go far in restoring to general consciousness the full scope of Grainger's work as composer, performer, and ethnomusicologist. The book has something to offer almost every conceivable audience. [...] Recommended. * CHOICE *This is an invaluable book about one of music's least understood practitioners. [...] British-born Australian pianist and composer Penelope Thwaites has done a terrific job piecing together the jigsaw that was Grainger. * THE AUSTRALIAN *[T]his handsome volume is an invaluable - and essential - contribution towards a fuller understanding of a composer on the cusp of overdue rediscovery. * CLASSICAL MUSIC *Recommended without hesitation. * THE DELIAN *This book is full of useful advice. * SYDNEY MORNING HERALD *Generously filled with black and white photographs, reproductions of programmes and musical illustrations, this handsome volume is an invaluable - and essential - contribution towards a fuller understanding of a composer on the cusp of overdue recovery. * INTERNATIONAL PIANO *Thwaites has already contributed substantially to a Grainger revival [...]. Here, as an editor, she manages the trick of finely balancing the various competing aspects of Grainger's energetic and highly productive life [...]. This New Companion succeeds in its aim to portray a complicated man in all his variety [...]. * TLS *
£30.24
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Ernest Newman: A Critical Biography
Book SynopsisExamines the genesis of Ernest Newman's major publications in the context of prevailing intellectual trends in history, criticism and biography. Ernest Newman (1868-1959) left an indelible mark on British musical criticism in a career spanning more than seventy years. His magisterial Life of Richard Wagner, published in four volumes between 1933 and 1946, is regarded as his crowning achievement, but Newman wrote many other influential books and essays on a variety of subjects ranging from early music to Schoenberg. In this book, the geneses of Newman's major publications are examined in thecontext of prevailing intellectual trends in history, criticism and biography. Newman's career as a writer is traced across a wide range of subjects including English and French literature, evolutionary theory and biographical method, and French, German and Russian music. Underpinning many of these works is Newman's preoccupation with rationalism and historical method. By examining particular sets of writings such as composer-biographies and essays from leading newspapers such as the Manchester Guardian and the Sunday Times, this book illustrates the ways in which Newman's work was grounded in late nineteenth-century intellectual paradigms that made him a unique and at times controversial figure. PAUL WATT is Senior Lecturer in Musicology in the Sir Zelman Cowen School of Music at Monash University.Trade ReviewA coherent, engaging, and well-researched study . . . an important book for scholars of music criticism as well as music in Britain. * NOTES, JOURNAL OF THE MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION *A useful study exploring a fascinating field. * FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE *One comes away from Watt's book with a detailed portrait of Newman the writer and a profound admiration for the way in which the author has painstakingly researched and documented his achievements in the field. * BRIO *Reveals that...Newman's fascinating non-musical background that he brought to music criticism...is the secret of Newman's deeply human renaissance qualities as a writer...[This] critical biography erects the intangible monument that no-one reputedly raises in bronze or marble to critics. * WAGNER NEWS OF VICTORIA *Unpredictably refreshing...Watt has done a very great amount of reading and put these results creditably at our disposal. * GRAMOPHONE *This is indeed a very good and stimulating read. * SOUNDS MAGAZINE *An immensely stimulating and readable book, raising many interesting and ever-relevant questions concerning the nature of music biography and criticism, and how they are affected by extra-musical issue of contemporary social and intellectual preoccupation. * THE MUSICAL TIMES *Thanks to Watt, we know that Newman was personally indebted to his Freethought associates...[this is an] impressively researched book'. -- David Cormack * THE WAGNER JOURNAL *This book is important and will help to keep Newman's contribution to our musical heritage in perspective and alive. * SPIRITED, THE GAZETTE OF THE ENGLISH MUSIC FESTIVAL *The book is extremely well written, referenced, and produced, and shows an exemplary attention to detail...Paul Watt has done scholars a considerable service, this being the first book to place the whole span of Newman's career and the most significant parts of his writing in both context and continuum. -- Paul Rodmell * CONTEXT: JOURNAL OF MUSIC RESEARCH *Newman's thinking...comes into focus remarkably well...This is a readable book, with plenty to tell us about the development of an influential mind. -- Stephen Johnson * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *[A] well-researched, well-written, well-presented book, drawing upon an impressive bibliography, both musicological and more broadly historiographical. * NABMSA REVIEWS *Ernest Newman was Wagner's most detailed biographer - and despite the age of his four-volume 'Life Of Richard Wagner' it remains indispensable. Ernest Newman finds himself and his work treated to an equally fine biography by Paul Watt. Well worth your attention. * THE WAGNERIAN *This excellent and detailed biography demands to be consulted in conjunction with Newman's writings. * AUSTRALIAN BOOK REVIEW *Table of ContentsErnest Newman and the Challenge of Critical Biography Formation of a Critical Sensibility: The 1880s and 1890s Social, Literary and Musical Criticism: 1893-1897 A Rationalist Manifesto: Pseudo-Philosophy at the end of the Nineteenth Century, 1897 Music History and the Comparative Method: Gluck and the Opera, 1895 From Manchester to Moscow: Essays on Music, 1900-1920 'The World of Music': Essays in The Sunday Times, 1920-1958 Biographical and Musicological Tensions: The Man Liszt, 1934 Sceptical and Transforming: Books on Wagner, 1899-1959 Conclusion: Ernest Newman Remembered Appendix: Newman's Freethought Lectures, 1894-1896
£58.50
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Music and Soviet Power, 1917-1932
Book SynopsisThe book offers unprecedented access to primary sources that have been unavailable in English, or which lay unknown on archival shelves. Music and Soviet Power offers cultural history told through documents - both colourfuland representative - with an extensive commentary and annotation throughout. The October Revolution of 1917 tore the fabric of Russian musical life: institutions collapsed, and leading composers emigrated or fell into silence. But in 1932, at the outset of the 'socialist realist' period, a new Stalinist music culture was emerging. Between these two dates lies a turbulent period of change which this book charts year by year. It sheds light on the vicious power struggles and ideological wars, the birth of new aesthetic credos, and the gradual increase of Party and state control over music, in the opera houses, the concert halls, the workers' clubs, and on the streets. The book not only provides a detailed and nuanced depiction of the early Soviet musical landscape, but brings it to life by giving voice to the leading actors and commentators of the day. The vibrant public discourse on music is presented through a selection of press articles, reviews and manifestos, all suppliedwith ample commentary. These myriad sources offer a new context for our understanding of Shostakovich, Prokofiev and Myaskovsky, while also showing how Western music was received in the USSR. This, however, is only half the story.The other half emerges from the private dimension of this cultural upheaval, traced through the letters, diaries and memoirs left by composers and other major players in the music world. These materials address the beliefs, motivations and actions of the Russian musical intelligentsia during the painful period of their adjustment to the changing demands of the new state. While following the twists and turns of official policies on music, the authors also offer their own explanations for the outcomes. The book offers unprecedented access to primary sources that have been unavailable in English, or which lay unknown on archival shelves. Music and Soviet Power offers cultural history told through documents - both colourful and representative - with an extensive commentary and annotation throughout. MARINA FROLOVA-WALKER is Professor in Music History at the University of Cambridge anda Fellow of Clare College, Cambridge. JONATHAN WALKER, who has a PhD in Musicology, is a freelance writer, teacher and pianist.Trade Review[A] valuable source for both students and specialists of Soviet history and music. * INT'L JOURNAL OF RUSSIAN STUDIES *Frolova-Walker and Walker have done an admirable job of selecting documents that shed new light on the time period. This is an invaluable source for students of Soviet history and music, and even specialists will find much new material in the range of articles presented here. * REVOLUTIONARY RUSSIA *Highly recommended to those with a specialist or general interest in music [...] or, more broadly, in cultural politics or just politics. * JCES *[A] fascinating and invaluable book [...] It navigates an absorbing way through this difficult and complex period, and presents fresh material that should be made available beyond the confines of academic libraries and their scholars. * MUSICAL TIMES *Few will penetrate the archives as comprehensively as the authors, and the riches they have brought back will help to change and deepen our understanding of early Soviet music. * SCRSS NEWSLETTER *Frolova [sic] and Walker describe these years of relative but tightly circumscribed freedom through the great number of documents they have translated, with excellent introductions and annotations. Some of the authors of these texts are already known, but their work appears here for the first time in a Western language and shows how fiercely the battle was waged on both sides * NRC HANDELSBLAD *[T]o immerse oneself in this collection of manifestos and other cultural polemics is revealing. [...] The apparatus [...] supplies invaluable guideposts. [...] Highly recommended. * CHOICE *Enrich[es] the developing sense of how Soviet artists worked with and against the official dictates of their time, and how they responded to the incidental squabbles and long-term preoccupations with which they had to contend. * TLS *[A] subtly nuanced and painstakingly annotated account of this period unearthing a wealth of documentary information [...] The resulting narrative is extraordinarily vivid, bringing to light much significant material that alters long-established historical preconceptions. * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *This is an important book and one that makes compelling reading. With their careful selection and commentary, the authors have brought a level gaze to bear upon dark and difficult times in which optimism and torment seemed to alternate unpredictably. * GRAMOPHONE *
£31.86
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Musical Debate and Political Culture in France,
Book SynopsisThe first full-length treatment of the operatic querelles in eighteenth-century France, placing individual querelles in historical context and tracing common themes of authority, national prestige and the power of music over popular sentiment. In the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, French cultural life seethed with debates about the proper nature and form of musical expression, particularly in opera. Expressed in a flood of pamphlets, articles, letters and poems as well as in the actual disruption of performances, these so-called querelles were seen at the time as a distinctively French phenomenon and have been mined by scholars since for what they can tell us about French politics and culture in the revolutionary period. This is the first full-length treatment of the entire history of this phenomenon, from its beginnings in the last years of Louis XIV to the 1820s when the new musical challenges of Berlioz and Wagner put an end to this particular form of debate. Arnold analyses the individual querelles, showing how they reflected and played their part in wider political and cultural events. At the same time, hetraces themes common in varying degrees to them all - questions of authority, the issue of national prestige, and the relation of language to music. Where some scholars have characterised these disputes as simply politics by proxy, Arnold paints a more nuanced picture, showing that music itself was taken seriously beyond artistic circles because it was seen as having great, potentially limitless, power over popular sentiment and thus implicitly power to reform society and change the world. R.J. Arnold is an honorary research fellow at Birkbeck, University of LondonTrade ReviewArnold demonstrates an extraordinary command of interdisciplinary bibliography - both primary sources and secondary literature - that is helpful to those of us seeking to situate music in the context of political or cultural history. -- Beverly Wilcox * SOCIETY FOR EIGHTEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC NEWSLETTER *Contains more than enough to provoke a new generation of readers into exploring the social dissonances of France. * FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE *[An] admirable and probing study. * THE MUSICAL TIMES *Table of ContentsIntroduction Parallels, Comparisons and Ripostes: The Raguenet-Lecerf Controversy, 1702-32 Spectators, Satirists and Sectarians: The Ramiste-Lulliste Querelle, 1733-51 'A Vast Negotiation': The Querelle des Bouffons, 1752-54 The Spirit of Contradiction: The Gluckiste-Piccinniste Querelle, 1774-88 A Revolutionary Interlude, 1789-1800 The End of the Party: New Avenues for Musical Dispute, 1800-30 Conclusion Bibliography
£71.25
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Three Choirs Festival: A History: New and
Book SynopsisDescribed in the Radio Times (27 July 2015) as 'A remarkable, unique institution lying at the heart of British life', the Three Choirs Festival celebrated its three-hundred-year anniversary in 2015. Described in the Radio Times (27 July 2015) as 'A remarkable, unique institution lying at the heart of British life', the Three Choirs Festival celebrated its three-hundred-year anniversary in 2015. Rotating each summer between the English cathedral cities of Hereford, Gloucester and Worcester, the Festival is a week-long programme of choral and orchestral concerts, cathedral services, solo and chamber music recitals, master classes, talks, theatre and exhibitions. At the heart of the modern festival are the daily services of Choral Evensong, representing the tradition of Anglican music and liturgy, and the large-scale evening concerts featuring established favourites of the British classical choral tradition with works drawn from a broader, more international musical canvas. Many special commissions and other works, including compositions by British composers such as Jonathan Harvey, James Macmillan, Judith Bingham and John McCabe, and composers from abroad, such as Gerard Schurmann, Jackson Hill and Torsten Rasch, have received their first performances at Three Choirs. Originally published in 1992, this revised edition bringsthe history of the oldest surviving non-competitive music festival in Britain thoroughly up to date. It traces the development of the Festival from its origins in the early eighteenth century to its tercentenary in 2015, along the way touching on many musical milestones - premieres by Parry, Elgar, Vaughan Williams, Saint-Saëns, Holst, and Howells, among others - and luminaries - Sullivan, Stanford, Dvorák, Delius, Bax, and Britten, to name but a few - associated with it. British music enthusiasts especially will find this new edition invaluable. ANTHONY BODEN is a writer with particular interests in music and literature. In 1989 he was appointed as Administrator of theGloucester Three Choirs Festival, a post he held until his retirement in 1999. In 1995 he became the founding Chairman of the Ivor Gurney Society, of which he was elected President in 2015. His other books include Thomas Tomkins: The Last Elizabethan (2004) and The Parrys of the Golden Vale (1998). PAUL HEDLEY is a partner in Exart Performances, an Associate Fellow at the Saïd Business School, University of Oxford, has a PhD in theoretical linguistics, and spent five years as Chief Executive of the Three Choirs Festival.Trade ReviewToday the festival remains one of very few with the major choral repertoire at its heart, and amongst its distinguishing features has been its consistent fostering of contemporary British music, with a natural emphasis on composers with local links, headed by the remarkable cluster of Parry, Elgar, Holst, Vaughan Williams and Howells. * BRIO *One of the many joys of the book is the large number of contemporary reviews covering every aspect of the Festivals...a treasure trove of detail...it must now be the 'really definitive' history of one of the 'Essentially English Institutions'. * THE ORGAN *Beautifully written and lavishly illustrated, this history is laden with compelling insights, many of them as amusing as they are revealing. We are treated to beguiling pen portraits of diverse characters whose creative work is part of our national consciousness...this human aspect above all makes the book hard to put down. * SPIRITED, THE GAZETTE OF THE ENGLISH MUSIC FESTIVAL *What better way to celebrate such a resilient and quintessentially English musical institution than by acquiring this comprehensive historical account of the Three Choirs Festival...this handsome book will appeal particularly to British music enthusiasts. * GRAMOPHONE *This book, makes for fascinating reading and is an invaluable book, for not only musicians, music lovers, festival attendees, but anyone really interested in the musical arts of Britain. -- Peter Byrom-Smith * THE BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY *[A] scrupulously detailed history of The Three Choirs Festival...Priceless! * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *Brings us truly up to date with the ups and downs of an institution already more than three centuries old -- and fortunately there are more ups. * BIRMINGHAM POST *Highly readable...The product of evidently thorough research. An absorbing and invaluable record of one of Europe's most distinguished music festivals. * MUSICWEB *Table of ContentsOrigins A Fortuitous and Friendly Proposal A Numerous Appearance of Gentry 'The Musick of my Admiration Handel' The Gentlemen and the Players Avoiding Shipwreck Prima Voce Favourites and Flops Sacred and Profane Froissart The Unreasonable Man The Dream Beyond These Voices An Essentially English Institution The Elgar Festivals Dona Nobis Pacem Recovery Association A New Epoch Jubilee Theme with Variations Houses of the Mind A Gold-Plated Orchestra A New Millenium Reorganisation An Invitation to the Palace Appendix: Three Choirs Festival Timeline
£36.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Music in the West Country: Social and Cultural
Book SynopsisThe first regional history of music in England. Music in the West Country is the first regional history of music in England. Ranging over seven hundred years, from the minstrels, waits, and cathedral choristers of the fourteenth century to the Bristol Sound of the late twentieth, the book explores the region's soundscape, from its gateway cities of Bristol and Salisbury in the east to the Isles of Scilly in the west, and examines music-making in tiny villages as well as conditions in important centres such as Bath, Exeter, Plymouth, and Bournemouth. What emerges is both a study of the typical - musical practices which would apply to any English region - and a portrait of the unique - features born of the region's physicalisolation and charm, among them the growth of festival culture, the mythologising of folk music, the late survival of parish psalmody and nonconformist carolling, and the unique continuance, today, of a professional resort orchestra, the Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Banfield's vividly written and extremely readable history of music in the west country considers an array of subjects, firmly centred on people's stories: musical inventions and theidea of tradition, music as cultural capital, the economics of musical employment and the demographics of musicianship, musical networks, the relationship of the hinterlands to the metropolis, the influence of topography, the importance of institutions and events, and the question of how to measure value. A study in prosopography, it shows how people went about their lives with music and explores how things changed for them - or did not. STEPHENBANFIELD is Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Bristol.Trade ReviewIt shows how Devon situates itself within the greater regional soundscape...'non-music' historians ought not to leave this book on the shelf for it contains absolute gems where individuals, families, towns, villages and institutions are concerned. * THE DEVON HISTORIAN *[An] impressive book...offering valuable insights into the social and cultural 'musicking' of the West Country. * JOURNAL OF THE ROYAL ANTHROPOLOGICAL INSTITUTE *Banfield's monograph is finely written and teeming with information. . . . Within each chapter, Banfield's mastery of the subject matter comes to the fore. . . . [It is] an expansive, thought-provoking, deeply researched consideration of the varieties of musicking in the West Country from the fourteenth century to the present day. . . . [T]his book [is] perfectly suited for scholars of English music and culture. . . . One hopes it will become a framework that future scholars will build upon. -- Timothy M. Love * NINETEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC REVIEW *A major contribution to the study of music in Devon and the rest of the West Country...will long stand as an essential reference for anybody embarking on further work...Highly readable. * REPORT AND TRANSACTIONS OF THE DEVONSHIRE ASSOCIATION *Scrupulously researched and beautifully written. * JOURNAL OF HISTORICAL GEOGRAPHY *Stephen Banfield has written a wonderful book. Drawing connections between place and music, he finds new ways of interpreting both as he guides the reader over nearly 8,000 square miles and more than 600 years of West Country 'musicking'. * MUSIC & LETTERS *A useful resource...[offers a] vast prosopography of west country people who made their living from music.from networks of patronage, family and marriage, to musical servants, townwaits, tutors and apprentices, and from instrument makers and repairers to music dealers, any of these groupings offer avenues for fruitful further research. * SOCIAL HISTORY *A huge, impressive study. * POPULAR MUSIC *There is certainly plenty in relation to folk song...Banfield highlights the importance of the West Country. * FOLK MUSIC JOURNAL *There is much to be enjoyed in this book...it is well-written with a great deal of social history woven into the musical story, making it an excellent read for both the historian as well as the musician. * OLD CORNWALL, THE JOURNAL OF THE FEDERATION OF OLD CORNWALL SOCIETIES *A very readable account tracing the way in which amateur and professional performers, players and composers of music went about their business in the past...You are going to meet an awful lot of fascinating, weird and wonderful people along the way. * BRISTOL POST *With an acute instinct for social history, Banfield uncovers many curiosities...[in] this cornucopia of fascinating information. * MUSICAL OPINION QUARTERLY *Table of ContentsPreface and acknowledgements Landscapes and soundscapes Musical authority: organs Musical incorporation: bands and choirs Musical livings I: the prosopography Musical livings II: individual case studies Musical capitalisation I: events and inventions Musical capitalisation II: institutions Epilogue
£38.00
Liverpool University Press E. T. A. Hoffmann: Transgressive Romanticism
Book SynopsisThis collection of essays addresses a very broad range of E. T. A. Hoffmann’s most significant works, examining them through the lens of “transgression.” Transgression bears relevance to Hoffmann’s life and professions in three ways. First, his official career path was that of jurisprudence; he was active as a lawyer, a judge and eventually as one of the most important magistrates in Berlin. Second, his personal life was marked by numerous conflicts with political and social authorities. Seemingly no matter where he went, he experienced much chaos, grief and impoverishment in leading his always precarious existence. Third, his works explore characters and concepts beyond the boundaries of what was considered aesthetically acceptable. “Normal” bourgeois existence was often juxtaposed to the lives of criminals, sinners, and other deviants, both within the spaces of the known world as well as in supernatural realms. He, perhaps more than any other author of the German Romantic movement, regularly portrayed the dark side of existence in his works, including unconscious psychological phenomena, nightmares, somnambulism, vampirism, mesmerism, Doppelgänger, and other forms of transgressive behavior. It is the intention of this volume to provide a new look at Hoffmann’s very diverse body of work from numerous perspectives, stimulating interest in Hoffmann in English language audiences.Trade ReviewReviews'This new resource is both enjoyable and thoroughly thought-provoking—and so is well worth consultation by faculty and students.'Seán Williams, European Romantic Review'Transgressive Romanticism engages its central spatial metaphor to make Hoffmann’s complex potential as a protorealist clear: expertly attuned to the forms of life and literature with which he was familiar, while always ready to subvert and think beyond them.'Polly Dickson, German Studies ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgements Introduction --- Christopher R. Clason, Oakland UniversityI. Transgression and Institutions1. “A poor, imprisoned animal.” Persons, Property, and the Unnatural Nature of the Law in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “Das Majorat.” --- Alexander Schlutz, John Jay College and CUNY Graduate Center2. Vergiftete Gaben: Violating the Laws of Hospitality in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s “Das Fräulein von Scuderi” --- Peter Erickson, Colorado State University 3. Transgressive Science in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Fantastic Tales --- Paola Mayer, University of GuelphII. Transgression and the Arts4. E. T. A. Hoffmann and the Bamberg Theater --- Frederick Burwick, University of California, Los Angeles5. Transitions and Slippages of Mimesis in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “Der goldene Topf,” “Die Fermate,” and “Das öde Haus.” --- Beate Allert, Purdue University6. Transgressions: On the (De-)Figuration of the Vampire in E. T. A. Hoffmann’s “Vampyrism" --- Nicole Sütterlin, Harvard UniversityIII. Transgression in the Märchen 7. Transgressive Play and Uncanny Toys in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “Das fremde Kind” --- Christina Weiler, Purdue University8. Attending to the Everyday: Idiosyncrasy in E.T.A. Hoffmann’s “The Golden Pot” --- Ruth Kellar, University of Wisconsin, Madison9. Prinzessin Brambilla: The Aesthetic between Public and Private --- Howard Pollack-Millgate, DePauw UniversityIV. Transgression of Reception in Kater Murr10. Hoffmann’s “Two Worlds” and the Problem of Life-Writing --- Julian Knox, Georgia College11. “Real Humor Cannot Be Captured in a Novel”: Kierkegaard Reading E.T.A. Hoffmann’s Lebens-Ansichten des Katers Murr --- James Rasmussen, United States Air Force AcademyWorks CitedIndex
£109.50
Liverpool University Press Distortion and Subversion: Punk Rock Music and
Book SynopsisAn Open Access edition of this book will be available on the Liverpool University Press website and the OAPEN library.At the turn of the 21st century, the Brazilian punk and hardcore music scene joined forces with political militants to foster a new social movement that demanded the universal right to free public transportation. These groups collaborated in numerous venues and media: music shows, protests, festivals, conferences, radio stations, posters, albums, slogans, and digital and printed publications. Throughout this time, the single demand for free public transportation reconceptualized notions of urban space in Brazil and led masses of people across the country to protest. This book shows how the anti-capitalist, anti-bourgeoisie stance present in the discourse of a number of Brazilian bands that performed from the late 1990s to the beginning of the 21st century in the underground music scenes of Florianópolis and São Paulo encountered a reverberation in the rhetoric emanating from the Campaign for the Free Fare, subsequently known as the Free Fare Movement (Movimento Passe Livre, or MPL). This allowed the engaged bands and the movement for free public transportation to contribute to each other’s development. The book also includes reflections on the Bus Revolt that occurred in the northeastern city of Salvador, unveiling traces of the punk and anarcho-punk movements, and the Revolution Carnivals that occurred in the city of Belo Horizonte, an event that mixed lectures, vegetarianism, protests, soccer, and punk rock music.Trade Review‘Distortion and Subversion is a creative experiment. The author captivates the reader’s interest while providing an accurate and engaging analysis of recent events in Brazil’s urban history. Lopes de Barros’s powerful narrative is comparable to the potency of the punk music he analyses… I believe that Rodrigo Lopes de Barros's book, which aroused so many nostalgic feelings in me, can provoke in readers the desire for better public transport in Brazil and beyond, and hope for a world without turnstiles.’ Caio Fernandes Barbosa, NACLATable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. The Revolution Will Be Posted Online2. Manifesto for an Independent Revolutionary Youth: From Salvador to Florianópolis3. Island of Wars: Florianópolis Once Again4. The Happiness of Punks: Carnival and Soccer in Belo Horizonte and Beyond5. Punks’ Jungle: São PauloEpilogList of the Interviewed and the ConsultedWorks and Documents Cited
£38.34
Liverpool University Press The Journal of Beatles Studies (Volume 1, Issue
Book SynopsisTo mark the first issue of this exciting new journal, Liverpool University Press are publishing a commemorative paperback edition of The Journal of Beatles Studies which will be available alongside the Open Access Journal edition.The Journal of Beatles Studies is the first journal to establish The Beatles as an object of academic research, and will publish original, rigorously researched essays, notes, as well as book and media reviews.The journal aims are; to provide a voice to new and emerging research locating the Beatles in new contexts, groups and communities from within and beyond academic institutions; to inaugurate, innovate, interrogate and challenge narrative, cultural historical and musicological tropes about the Beatles as both subject and object of study; to publish original and critical research from Beatles scholars around the globe and across disciplines.The Journal of Beatles Studies establishes a scholarly focal point for critique, dialogue and exchange on the nature, scope and value of The Beatles as an object of academic enquiry and seeks to examine and assess the continued economic value and cultural values generated by and around The Beatles, for policy makers, creative industries and consumers. The journal also seeks to approach The Beatles as a prism for accessing insight into wider historical, social and cultural issues.
£25.38
Liverpool University Press Black Music in Britain in the 21st Century
Book SynopsisSince the turn of the 21st century, there have been several genres birthed from or nurtured in Black Britain: funky & tribal House, Afrobeats, Grime, Afro Swing, UK Drill, Road Rap, Trap etc. This pioneering book brings together diverse diasporan sounds in conversation. A valuable resource for those interested in the study of 21st century Black music and related cultures in Britain, this book goes incorporates the significant Black Atlantean, global interactions within Black music across time and space. It examines and proposes theoretical approaches, contributing to building a holistic appreciation of 21st century Black British music and its multidimensional nature. This book proffers an academically curated, rigorous, holistic view of Black British music in the 21st century. Drawing from pioneering academics in the emerging field and industry professionals, the book will serve academic theory, as well as the views, debates and experiences of industry professionals in a complementary style that shows the synergies between diasporas and interdisciplinary conversations. The book is interdisciplinary. It draws from sociology, musicology and the emerging digital humanities fields, to make its arguments and develop a multi-disciplinary perspective about Black British music in the 21st century.
£110.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Music, Morality and Social Reform in
Book SynopsisA pioneering work which delves into and reveals the links between music, moral instruction and social reform. This book discusses the role of music in programmes of personal improvement and social reform in nineteenth-century Britain. The pursuit of morality through music was designed not just to improve personal and communal character but to affect social change and transformation. The book examines the musical education of children, women and men through a variety of literature published for various educational settings including mechanics' institutes. It also considers the role of music in narratives of social programs and community-building projects that sought to promote utility, well-being and freedom from the strictures of Christianity as the dominant moral and cultural force. The first book to connect the threads between music, moral instruction and social reform across the educational life cycle in nineteenth-century Britain, it shows how these threads are found in unlikely places, such as games, manners books, economics treatises and short stories. It deftly illustrates the links between everyday life, popular culture and discourses of morality and social reform of the period.Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgements Introduction Part 1 Morality 1. Elementary Instruction 2. Manners and Etiquette 3. Mechanics' Institutes Part 2 Social Reform 4. Political Economy - William Stanley Jevons 5. Philanthropy - Hannah More and Octavia Hill 6. Utopia - Auguste Comte and Malcolm Quin Afterword Bibliography Index
£71.25
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Beethoven's Ninth Symphony: Rehearsing and
Book SynopsisBrings to life the day-to-day details of staging the premiere of one of the most iconic works of Western classical music. The Ninth Symphony of Ludwig van Beethoven with its final choral movement is one of the iconic works of Western classical music. And yet, the story never fully told concerns the months leading to the symphony's world premiere in Vienna on 7 May and repeat performance on 23 May 1824. In his new book, Theodore Albrecht brings to life the day-to-day details that it took to stage that premiere. It's a story of negotiating for performance halls and performers' payments, of hand-copying legible scores and individual parts for over 120 performers, of finding financiers, as well as space and time for rehearsals. Importantly, it is also a story of the relationship between Beethoven and the musicians who performed this symphonic masterpiece. In fact, as the maddening rehearsal schedule towards the symphony's premiere shows, it transpires that many passages of the Ninth have been tailored to specific orchestral players. Many modern-day musicians will recognize familiar situations in rehearsals, many scholars and students will relish unprecedented new detail. All this comes to the fore by reconstructing the story drawing on the (almost) deaf composer's Conversation Books which Beethoven had been using since 1818. In the performance story of the Ninth Symphony's premiere, Albrecht makes full use of these invaluable documents, which are now being translated for the first time into English in a series of 12 volumes published by the Boydell Press. THEODORE ALBRECHT, Professor Emeritus of Music at Kent State University, Ohio, is an award-winning Beethoven scholar. He has authored many important articles on the composer and is the editor of Letters to Beethoven and Other Correspondence (1996) as well as translator and editor of Beethoven's Conversation Books (Boydell Press).Table of ContentsPreface Acknowledgements Chapter 1: Composition of the Ninth Symphony Chapter 2: Petition, Preparations, Copying Chapter 3: Finding a Location Chapter 4: Final Preparations / First Rehearsals Chapter 5: Rehearsals and Confusion Chapter 6: Premiere and Celebratory Dinner Chapter 7: One More Time Chapter 8: Second Premiere and Financial Reality Appendix A: Anton Schindler's Acquaintance with Beethoven (March, 1814 - May, 1824) Appendix B: The Ludlamshöhle Petition, late February, 1824 Appendix C: Vienna's Principal Theaters and Halls in Beethoven's Time Appendix D: Orchestral Personnel, Kärntnertor Theater, 1822/1824 Appendix E: Choral Personnel, Kärntnertor Theater, 1822/1824 Appendix F: Gesellschaft der Musikfreunde's Volunteer Sign-Up Sheet, 1824 Appendix G: Schindler's Account of Beethoven's Post-Akademie Dinner in the Prater Bibliography Index of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony Index of Beethoven's Other Compositions General Index
£63.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Creating Der Rosenkavalier: From Chevalier to
Book SynopsisA full account of the making, during 1909-10, of Der Rosenkavalier with emphasis on its derivation from a French opérette of 1907, L'Ingenu libertin. L'Ingenu libertin was seen in Paris by Count Harry Kessler and formed the basis of the opera then to be written by Hofmannsthal and Strauss. Previous scholarship has credited the narrative and characters of Der Rosenkavalier to much older French sources known to and studied by Hofmannsthal, but this book shows clearly how every element in L'Ingenu libertin is in fact taken (and transformed) by Kessler and Hofmannsthal into the work that made fortunes for Hofmannsthal and Strauss, but left Kessler on the sidelines. Michael Reynolds casts a major new light on Strauss's most popular operatic success, highlighting in particular how it was that Hofmannsthal - who had not until then had any theatrical success as an original playwright - was advised and empowered by Kessler to produce a work that succeeded onstage from its very first performance and went rapidly on to conquer the stages of the world. Michael Reynolds is an established writer on opera, a translator and an online music critic, an interest that he sustained throughout thirty years in the world of international diplomacy. His previous book for Boydell, About Suffolk, was an anthology of writing about his adopted county.Trade ReviewReynolds's book will reward both scholars and opera-lovers who are interested in Der Rosenkavalier's co-creators or are fascinated by collaboration and the creative process. * MUSIC LIBRARY ASSOCIATION NOTES *The 'Preface' to Michael Reynolds's charming book begins with a pithy statement: 'This is a book about creation, authorship and relationships'. Thus, in a nutshell, he lays out succinctly the course his monograph takes from uncovering a largely overlooked backstory to the creation of one of the most successful operas of the twentieth century. He presents a detailed account of the nature and origins of its authorship via a considered and sensitively pitched examination of the artistic relationships that underpinned it. * MUSIC AND LETTERS *If you love Der Rosenkavalier, Reynolds' book is essential-and fascinating-reading. Exoticandirrational Blog * . *This newly released paperback edition of Michael Reynolds' 2016 beautiful hardcover book will contain much that is news to fans - and who isn't? - of Richard Strauss' opera Der Rosenkavalier. * Limelight *Table of ContentsOverture Beginners On the page... ...and onto the stage Act One:The Young Libertine Act Two: Who was Harry Kessler? Act Three in two scenes and an Epilogue: Creating Der Rosenkavalier Scene One - devising the scenario Scene Two - characterisation and authorship Epilogue Creating Der Rosenkavalier - a retrospective Bibliography
£25.64
Boydell & Brewer Ltd A History of Music at Christ Church Cathedral,
Book SynopsisChrist Church cathedral is an Anglican cathedral in a catholic country. Musical and archival sources (the most extensive for any Irish cathedral) provide a unique perspective on the history of music in Ireland. Christ Church has had a complex and varied history as the cathedral church of Dublin, one of two Anglican cathedrals in the capital of a predominantly Catholic country and the church of the British administration in Ireland before1922. An Irish cathedral within the English tradition, yet through much of its history it was essentially an English cathedral in a foreign land. With close musical links to cathedrals in England, to St Patrick's cathedral in Dublin, and to the city's wider political and cultural life, Christ Church has the longest documented music history of any Irish institution, providing a unique perspective on the history of music in Ireland. Barra Boydell, a leading authority on Irish music history, has written a detailed study drawing on the most extensive musical and archival sources existing for any Irish cathedral. The choir, its composers and musicians, repertoire and organs are discussed within the wider context of city and state, and of the religious and political dynamics which have shaped Anglo-Irish relationships since medieval times. More than just a history of music at one cathedral, this book makesan important contribution to English cathedral music studies as well as to Irish musical and cultural history. BARRA BOYDELL is Senior Lecturer in Music, National University of Ireland, Maynooth.Trade Review[A] major achievement, the summation of an intensive programme of research in a particularly rich and rewarding institutional archive, which offers fascinating insights into a musical tradition shaped and nuanced by the political and religious dynamics of Irish society. - -- Rachel Cowgill * EARLY MUSIC *A conscientious and thorough account. * JOURNAL OF ECCLESIASTICAL HISTORY *Barra Boydell's resourceful and capable research has...set a shining example for future writers. [The book is] purposefully conceived, intelligently argued, and elegantly presented. -- Gerald Gifford * THE CONSORT *
£71.25
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Citation and Authority in Medieval and
Book SynopsisEssays - collected in honour of Margaret Bent - examining how medieval and Renaissance composers responded to the tradition in which they worked through a process of citation of and commentary on earlier authors. Essays in honour of Margaret Bent. The chapters of this book probe the varied functions of citation and allusion in medieval and renaissance musical culture. At its most fundamental level musical culture relied on shared models for musical practice, used by singers and composers as they learned their craft. Several contributors to this volume investigate general models, which often drew on earlier musical works, internalized in the process of composers' own training as singers. In written theoretical musical pedagogy, conversely, citation of authority is deliberate and intentional. The adaptation of accepted wisdom in theoretical treatises was the means by which newer authors stamped their own authority. Further kinds of citation occur in specific musical texts, either within the words set to music or in the music itself. The diverse functions of citation and allusion for the creator, reader, scribe, performer and listener are here given due consideration. In doing so, this volume is a fitting tribute to Margaret Bent, whose pedagogy, publications, and presence are honoured in this Festschrift. Contributors: SUSAN RANKIN, GILLES RICO, CHRISTIAN THOMAS LEITMEIR, BARBARA HAGGH, LEOFRANC HOLFORD-STREVENS, ANDREW WATHEY, KEVIN BROWNLEE, ALICE V. CLARK, LAWRENCE M. EARP, VIRGINIA NEWES, JOHN MILSOM, DAVID HOWLETT, REINHARD STROHM, THEODOR DUMITRESCU, CRISTLE COLLINS JUDD, BONNIE J. BLACKBURNTrade ReviewRecommended reading for scholars and students of old music and music theory. * NOTES *This collection will stand for many years to come as [a] beacon to future learning. * EARLY MUSIC TODAY *Table of ContentsIntroduction: Learning, Citation and Authority in Musical Culture before 1600 - Suzannah Clark and Elizabeth Eva Leach 'Naturalis Concordia vocum cum planetis': Conceptualizing the Harmony of the Spheres in the Early Middle Ages - Susan K Rankin 'Auctoritas cereum habet nasum': Boethius, Aristotle, and the Music of the Spheres in the Thirteenth and Early Fourteenth CenturiesCenturies - Gilles Rico Types and Transmissions of Musical Examples in Franco's Ars cantus mensurabilis musicae - Christian Leitmeir Ciconia's Citations in Nova musica: New Sources as Biography - Barbara Haggh-Huglo Fauvel Goes to School - Leofranc Holford-Strevens Auctoritas and the Motets of Philippe de Vitry - Andrew Wathey Fire, Desire, Duration, Death: Machaut's Motet 10 - Kevin Brownlee Machaut Reading Machaut: Self-Borrowing and Reinterpretation in Motets 8 and 21 - Alice V. Clark Declamatory Dissonance in Machaut - Lawrence Earp 'Qui bien aimme a tart oublie':Machanut's Lay de plour in Context - Virginia Newes 'Imitatio', 'Intertextuality', and Early Music - John Milsom Apollinis eclipsatur: Foundation of the Collegium musicorum - David R. Howlett De plus en plus: Numbers, Binchois and Ockeghem - Reinhard Strohm An English adoption of the Burgundian chanson - Theodor Dumitrescu Learning to compose in the 1540s: Gioseffo Zarlino's Si bona suscepimus - Cristle Collins Judd The Eloquence of Silence: Tacet Inscriptions in the Alamire Manuscripts - Bonnie Blackburn
£76.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Parry to Finzi: Twenty English Song-Composers
Book SynopsisThe works of twenty composers from the golden age of English romantic song, major figures - Parry, Stanford, Vaughan Williams, Quilter, Ireland, Gurney, Warlock and Finzi - studied alongside the lesser-known. Constantly illuminating. JOHN STEANE, GRAMOPHONE The composers in this book represent the outstanding songwriters from what we can now see as the golden age of English romantic song. As well as the major figures - Parry, Stanford, Vaughan Williams, Quilter, Ireland, Gurney, Warlock and Finzi - there are chapters on lesser-known composers, such as Denis Browne and Charles Orr. Detailed consideration is given to three songwriters who have sufferedunaccountable neglect, Arthur Somervell, Armstrong Gibbs and Herbert Howells, and there are chapters on Elgar, Delius and Holst, whose reputations were made in other fields but whose contribution to English song is nevertheless important. Also taking their rightful places in the book are Frank Bridge, Arnold Bax, George Butterworth and E.J. Moeran. Each chapter begins with a discussion of its composer's song-output and of the poets and poetry he sets, and goes on to give an account of the influences on him and the hallmarks of his style; the songs are then discussed in detail, focusing on the major works. The text is illustrated with musical examples and there is a comprehensive bibliography and index. TREVOR HOLD was a composer and poet who wrote extensively on English song. His setting of Laurie Lee's 'Day of these Days' won the English Poetry and Song Society/English Music Society 2002 GoldenJubilee Song Competition. He died in January 2004.Trade ReviewHold brings a composer's sensibility to his task, notably in his analytical discussion, and fully understands the nature of the marriage effected, and the difficulties involved, in the song-composer's art of blending poetry with music. He is a real companion on his reader's journey of discovery... The text [is] unfailingly readable and astute in judgement. * JOHN TALBOT, BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY NEWSLETTER *First-class...one of the most important treatises on the subject yet written...[Hold] writes superbly, urbanely and - more important - carefully...Highly recommended. * THE SINGER *Constantly illuminating. * JOHN STEANE, GRAMOPHONE *This deeply considered, beautifully produced book...will be the standard work on the subject for the foreseeable future. * MUSIC & VISION *
£26.99
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Elgar the Music Maker
Book SynopsisAn expert and informative appraisal of all of Elgar's works - from his juvenilia to the unfinished 3rd symphony - by the author of the acclaimed Gerald Finzi. The new Diana McVeagh book on Elgar is first-rate, wrote Gerald Finzi of her earlier study of the composer, published in 1955. In the completely new Elgar the Music Maker she harvests five decades of thoughts about his music, scrutinizing the biographical details that have since been discovered and using them to assess the ways in which they affect the compositions. Diana McVeagh explores Elgar's complex personality and his compositional methods, his style and his relationship to his contemporaries, yet it is the music - still played, recorded, loved and discussed as much as ever- that remains her prime focus. Each of Elgar's works is discussed, balancing information and appraisal, from his juvenilia to his unfinished Third Symphony. Diana McVeagh provides a compelling and accessible companion to the music of one of England's greatest composers. Musicians, scholars and CD collectors alikewill find much to enjoy in Elgar the Music Maker. Diana McVeagh is the author of the highly acclaimed Gerald Finzi: His Life and Music [2005]; of the entries on Elgar and Finzi for The New Grove Dictionaryof Music and Musicians [1980, 2001]; and of the Finzi entry in The Oxford Dictionary of National Biography [2004].Trade ReviewDeserves to be read widely, and we should be grateful to Diana McVeagh for producing an immensely readable and always wise handbook to Elgar's oeuvre. * MUSIC & LETTERS *The analysis...is observation, discovery of what this music is. You're led to it by feeling, and back to feeling it returns. That is the essential way of good music criticism, and this book is full of it. -- John Steane * GRAMOPHONE *In associating events of the times with almost all of Elgar's works, McVeagh wears her encyclopedic knowledge lightly: her prose is clean, charming, and clever, and her forays into theory/musicology are brief and to the point...A congenial companion for those who know little about Elgar; a worthy quick read for the knowledgeable. Highly recommended. * CHOICE *McVeagh's critical method intertwines description and comment, and it serves her, and the reader, well. -- Julian Rushton * ELGAR SOCIETY JOURNAL *McVeagh's book, the concentrated essence of a lifetime's care for his music, has much to tell us about even the most familiar scores. -- John Warrack * INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW *McVeagh is also able to make it clear how much she loves and admires the music without making any extravagant claims on its behalf. It's hard to imagine a more sane approach...the insights...keep coming. -- Stephen Johnson * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *Effortlessly readable, fresh prose. Almost every page has some gem of illumination...An essential listener's companion. -- Julian Haylock * CLASSIC FM MAGAZINE *Diana McVeagh has produced another gem of a book...a hawk's eye view of Elgar, the subject matter richly distilled...its arrival cheered me immensely in the midst of what has been a rather bleak 150th anniversary year. -- Richard Osborne * THE OLDIE *McVeagh is indeed an intelligent guide here: her writing is both informed and immaculate. * BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY NEWS *One thoroughly good result of this Elgar year...This is neither a biography nor a technical analysis, but McVeagh has hit on the perfect way of combining the best features of both...There is no superimposition of alien theories or of special interests, and there are no perverse reinterpretations. The last few pages deal with Elgar's posterity and end with a beautifully balanced study of Elgar's personality. * TLS [Hugh Wood] *This little book is solid gold. * NABMSA Newsletter *Table of ContentsThe Making of an Enigma 1857-1899 To the Greater Glory of God 1899-1909 The Symphonist The Music of Wartime 1914-1920 The Last Years 1920-1934 Coda
£23.75
Boydell & Brewer Ltd John Stainer: A Life in Music
Book SynopsisThis comprehensive re-evaluation of John Stainer's life and work demonstrates that there was a great deal more to admire beyond The Crucifixion. The thoroughness of the research is impressive, based on profusion of sources, many of them little used until now.... A text that carries great authority, plus (almost equally important) a new and generously annotated list of Stainer's works both musical and literary. At last, Stainer has got his due, once and for all.'NICHOLAS TEMPERLEY, Professor of Music Emeritus, University of Illinois. One of the most important musicians of the Victorianera, Stainer is known for his considerable influence as a composer of Anglican liturgical music, and his corpus of secular works - madrigals and songs - presents many surprises. He was a brilliant organist, a fine scholar, theorist, pedagogue and teacher - multifarious attributes which this study elucidates and understands as part of his wider musical personality. Stainer's life is a story of extraordinary social mobility. From lowly origins he rose to become organist of St Paul's Cathedral and Professor of Music at Oxford. Yet after his premature death in 1901 he suffered almost immediate neglect except for the popularity of a handful of works, among them I saw the Lord and The Crucifixion. In rehabilitating Stainer and the crucial contribution he made to musical life, this book examines the breadth of his work as a composer, and the important role he played in the regeneration of sacredand secular musical institutions in Victorian Britain. JEREMY DIBBLE is Professor of Music at Durham University. His previous books include studies of Parry and Stanford and he is the author of numerous articles on British music. He is currently working on a dictionary of hymnology.Trade ReviewIlluminates an important aspect of a key figure in the Victorian musical world, some of whose music is still performed today. Dibble demonstrates convincingly that more of it should be performed and that there are neglected masterpieces from Stainer's hand. In short, this is a well-written and richly documented biography. * YEAR'S WORK IN ENGLISH STUDIES *As the second contribution to Boydell's new monograph series, Music in Britain, 1600-1900, this book is a welcome and readable addition. * VICTORIAN STUDIES *A wide-ranging, deeply engrossing book on a hitherto unfashionable figure central to English musical ,life in the 19th century. -- John Steane * GRAMOPHONE *Scrupulously detailed research and a fine advocacy demonstrate a...far more widely-ranging figure than one perhaps might expect...If anything could spark a Stainer revival, it would be this book. * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *What Dibble offers...is simply the most detailed, most thoroughly researched, most rounded life of Stainer there has yet been. * CLASSICAL MUSIC *[This] critical biography will not only remind readers of John Stainer's remarkable work and life but also go some way towards reinstating him as one of the originals in church and sacred music. * LIBRARY REVIEW *A timely reminder of Stainer's significance. * NOTES *Dibble...does do Stainer proud in setting out his many achievements...It will be the standard text for a long time. * MUSICAL TIMES *Table of ContentsA Musical Youth: St Paul's Cathedral (1) 1840-1857 `I saw the Lord': Ouseley and Tenbury 1857-1859 `Drop down, ye heavens, from above': Oxford (1) 1860-1872 Reform and National Renown: St Paul's Cathedral (2) 1860-1872 H.M. Inspector of Schools and The Crucifixion 1882-1888 `Love Divine, all loves excelling': Oxford (2) 1889-1901 List of Works Bibliography
£85.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Pursuit of High Culture: John Ella and
Book SynopsisThis monograph investigates the promotion and consumption of high musical culture among leisured society in Victorian London, by focusing on the activities of the concert manager John Ella and his Musical Union. This monograph investigates the promotion and consumption of high musical culture among leisured society in Victorian London, by focusing on the activities of the concert manager John Ella and his Musical Union [1845-81], an eminent, long-lived institution for chamber music, much fêted across Europe in its day. It combines a biography of Ella with a social-economic history of the Musical Union, its players, repertoire and audiences, and sets them against the gradually shifting contexts for London concerts, chamber music and cultural life. Ella's extraordinary life story, which began in provincial, artisan-class obscurity and ended in the upper echelons of London society, shapes thenarrative. Such themes as entrepreneurship, concert management, taste shaping, music appreciation and elite social networks are discussed throughout, as is the curious interplay between the desire to 'sacralize' chamber music, especially Beethoven's, on the one hand, and the need to survive amid the increasing commercial imperatives of London concert life on the other. CHRISTINA BASHFORD is Assistant Professor of Musicology at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign.Trade Review[B]ashford's book expertly relates her thorough documentation of Ella's life and professional activities to the broader social, cultural, and musical Victorian context, offering us a model example of how good scholarship can make even one enabler of music, relevant all of music and Victorian culture. * NABMSA Newsletter *[This] study not only meets a need in Victorian cultural history but prompts applications to our day...of interest to anyone working on nineteenth-centiry performing arts, in Britain or elsewhere. * VICTORIAN STUDIES *The first of its kind...As such it takes its responsibility very seriously, and as a consequence it does not disappoint...It is a model of modern musicological biography, and for that Christina Bashford is to be highly praised. -- Bennett Zon * MUSIC & LETTERS *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Case for Ella From Leicester to London, 1802-29 Successes, Frustrations, Ambitions, 1828-44 Establishing the Musical Union, 1845-8 Consolidation and Expansion, 1849-57 New Spaces, 1858-68 Adapting to Survive, 1868-79 Endings (1880-88) and Legacy
£96.13
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Operas of Benjamin Britten: Expression and
Book SynopsisThis controversial analysis of Britten's operatic works demonstrates how he used music to explore his most private concerns. Claire Seymour examines ways in which Britten's operas explored and articulated the inherent ambiguity and latent sexuality of music, particularly song, and suggests that they may illustrate his search for a public "voice" which would embody, communicate, and perhaps resolve his private beliefs and anxieties. She demonstrates how the delicate balance between private and public communication, and the tension between art as self-expression and art as moral resolution were key concerns in Britten's music. Analyses of Britten's operas from Paul Bunyan to Death in Venice, the three Church Parables, and several of the "children's operas" offer evidence that, for Britten, opera was the natural medium through which to explore, express and, paradoxically, repress his private concerns.Trade ReviewA wide variety of ideas within two covers. * GRAMOPHONE *Among the more interesting expositions of Britten as man and composer. Recommended. * CHOICE *Intelligent and informative on a number of levels...[Seymour] does much to clarify the nature and extent, the range and consistency, of Britten's artistic achievement. * BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY NEWSLETTER *A source of some solid enjoyment. * MUSICAL TIMES *
£25.99
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Songs of Edvard Grieg
Book SynopsisComprehensive survey of Grieg's 180 songs, considering particularly questions and issues of performance. Edvard Grieg's 180 songs mirror his artistic and personal development more intimately than any of his other music, yet are still the least known part of his output. This definitive appraisal, now revised and updated, discusses every song, including those left only in manuscript and sketches at the composer's death, set against the background of his life and times. It also deals with the poetry set, often chosen to reflect his current situation, and the poets, several of whom, including great figures of the day such as Ibsen and Bjornson, were his friends and colleagues. Grieg frequently bemoaned poor translations and indifferent performances, and the various editions and translations, from first publication to the present day, are also discussed, together with his own ideas for interpretation. Musical examples and analysis are included to give a closer understanding of Grieg's word-setting and harmonic development, although their performance is always kept paramount. BERYL FOSTER is a graduate of London University and studied singing in Colchester and at the Royal College of Music. As well as all the usual repertoire, since 1980 she has made a particular study of the songs of Grieg and other Norwegian composers, giving recitals, lectures and workshops in Britain, Norway, Germany, the Netherlands, Italy and China. She is also a private teacher andfestival adjudicator.Trade ReviewAll is admiration for a study which, as well as fulfilling those old cliches 'essential' and 'important', is most readably written. More than being just a guide to the songs, it becomes en route one of the most perceptive, and detailed, books in English on the composer yet published. * GRAMOPHONE *Beryl Foster's authoritative study can claim to be the most thorough investigation of this repertoire yet to have appeared in English, and is likely to remain the standard work on the subject for many years to come. -- Robert Layton * TLS *Beryl Foster's Songs of Edvard Grieg is a wonder...her scholarship and musicianship are writ large throughout its pages. -- Lionel Carley * ANGLO-NORSE REVIEW *Table of ContentsFolk-song to Art-song Translation and Interpretation `Lillegrieg' `Melodies of the Heart' `A balanced mind, a spiritual vitality...' `The claim of the ideal' `...awakened from a long, long trance' `The Mountain Thrall' `The Goal' Travels and `Travel Memories' `Homecoming' Haugtussa `Music's torch, which ever burns...'
£23.74
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Thomas Tallis and his Music in Victorian England
Book SynopsisA survey of the huge importance of Thomas Tallis, the `Father of Church Music', on Victorian musical life. In Victorian England, Tallis was ever-present: in performances of his music, in accounts of his biography, and through his representation in physical monuments. Known in the nineteenth century as the 'Father of English Church Music', Tallis occupies a central position in the history of the music of the Anglican Church. This book examines in detail the reception of two works that lie at the stylistic extremes of his output: Spem in alium, revived in the 1830s, though generally not greatly admired, and the Responses, which were very popular. A close study of the performances, manuscripts and editions of these works casts light on the intersections between the antiquarian, liturgical and aesthetic goals of nineteenth-century editors and musicians. By tracing Tallis's reception in nineteenth-century England, the author charts the hold Tallis had on the Victorians and the ways in which Anglican - and English - identity was defined and challenged. Dr SUE COLE is a research associate at the Faculty of Music, University of Melbourne.Trade ReviewCole has provided a useful and innovative model for further approaches to the study of earlier music. This book is thus to be recommended not only to admirers of Tallis, but to all with an interest in the history of English music. * FONTES AR TIS MUSICAE *[Cole] pursues an intriguing trail [...]. Students of Tudor church music will find much scholarly detail in Cole's vignettes. Anyone with an interest in the Victorians will enjoy learning about this interaction of national, religious and cultural identity, and glimpse the sense of adventure that some of them felt in the quest for musical treasure from England's glorious past. * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *This book is a cause for rejoicing.Cole's central narrative [is] compelling.a tremendously important, stimulating book which reconfigures one's sense of the English musical landscape and it should spark new directions in Tallis scholarship. * EARLY MUSIC *A valuable addition to the small body of literature on Tallis. * CHURCH MUSIC QUARTERLY *I recommend [Cole's] contribution to the available literature on Tallis wholeheartedly. -- Peter Phillips * MUSICAL TIMES *The arguments raised in this book are complex...yet Cole sets them out clearly and cogently. She has a knack for untangling complicated issues...this book is a pleasure to read. * MUSICOLOGY AUSTRALIA *A fascinating, scholarly study which causes the reader to challenge his or her own received knowledge...as much a great read as it is a learned book, and I cannot praise author or publisher highly enough for its timely publication. * CHOMBEC News *Exceptional in its care, comprehensiveness and logic. Insofar as reception history is a matter of uncovering the cultural politics that shaped the musical values we have inherited, it is difficult to imagine a job better done. * JOURNAL OF VICTORIAN CULTURE *Table of ContentsIntroduction `It is here that we must look for Tallis': Tallis's music `Such a man as Tallis': Tallis the man `This Mistake of a Barbarous Age': Spem in alium `A Solid Rock of Harmony': The Preces and Responses `The Englishman's Harmony': Tallis and national identity Conclusion Bibliography
£71.25
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott: Song of Pain and
Book SynopsisInsightful account of the life and works of two of the most important figures in twentieth-century British cultural life. This dual biography of Ivor Gurney and Marion Scott tells the dramatic story of two geniuses who met at the Royal College of Music in 1911 and formed an unlikely partnership that illuminated and enriched the musical and literary worlds in which they moved. Gurney's poetry and songs have taken their place as part of the inheritance of England. Scott, Gurney's strongest advocate, emerges from his shadow for the first time. Her own remarkable achievements as a pioneering music critic, musicologist, advocate of contemporary music and women musicians place her among the most influential and respected women of her generation. Based on original research, this is thefirst biography of Gurney since 1978 and the only biography of Scott. It offers new, in-depth perspectives on Gurney's attempts to create music and poetry while struggling to overcome the bipolar illness that eventually derailed his genius, and restores Marion Scott's rightful place in music history. Pamela Blevins is a former journalist and managing editor of Signature, a magazine about women in classical music. She has publishedwidely on British composers and poets.Trade ReviewIn the cruelly brief space allotted to him, Gurney achieved something lapidary and touching: he reigns as the supreme miniaturist of twentieth century British music. * MUSIC & LETTERS *[A] fine biography. [...] This biography should go some way toward bringing Ivor Gurney back into our ken. That it suggest we ought to know more about Marion Scott is also useful. * FANFARE MAGAZINE *A remarkable new biography [...] that fans of Ivor Gurney will certainly appreciate. Blevins has spared no detailed, which makes the book riveting from cover to cover. * SUITE101 *This new biography...comes as near as we're likely to get to the whole story. For Pamela Blevins has not only researched, sifted and assessed every available source with enormous diligence, but she has brought to the foreground the hitherto under-exposed figure of writer and musicologist Marion Scott, and has thus both widened the lens and concentrated the focus of Gurney studies...both Gurney and Scott [are restored] to their rightful place in musical history. * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *The material about Scott is...invaluable...and the book as a whole, with its superb photographs, will prove a vital source for future researchers. * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *Draw[s] extensively on the published letters as well as on a good deal of fresh research including an informative investigation of Gurney's bipolar condition...Blevins brings a journalistic zeal to the interaction of these two lives. * GRAMOPHONE *A striking account of two lives bound inextricably together...beautifully produced and lavishly illustrated. * FRIENDS OF THE DYMOCK POETS NEWSLETTER *This remarkable volume is a penetrating reassessment of Ivor Gurney...but more than that, a searching consideration of the life and achievements of Marion Scott. * CHORAL JOURNAL *Table of ContentsPreface Prologue London, 1911 A Clash of Wills An Island of Serenity Friendship and Poetry The Gurney Family Golden Days A Lad's Love The First Breakdown The Lost Year The Experiment A Partnership The Dirty Business of War Blighty 'Love has come to bind me fast' 'You would rather know me dead...' An Uncertain Course A New Mastery The Tide of Darkness 'There is dreadful hell within me...' Asylum -- 'the soul halts here' The Last Chance 'A fantastic mix-up' Bitter Troubles and Suffering 'In time to come' Epilogue Appendices Bibliography Index
£33.25
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Erik Chisholm, Scottish Modernist (1904-1965):
Book SynopsisA study of the life and works of Erik Chisholm, one of the most influential figures in twentieth-century Scottish music. Erik Chisholm was the pre-eminent composer and musician in Scottish classical music in the first half of the twentieth century. As Sir Charles Mackerras put it, 'Chisholm was a musician of rare capabilities. He was a pianist and organist, a conductor, a composer, a lecturer on music, an entrepreneur and administrator, and to all these he brought a unique blend of originality, flair and energy.' As well as his life in Glasgow, Chisholm travelled to the Far East, notably Singapore, for the Entertainments and National Service Association during the Second World War, and subsequently became Professor of Music at the University of Cape Town, where he greatly developed the study and performance of music. He conducted numerous first British performances, including Berlioz's The Trojans in 1935 and Bartok's Bluebeard's Castle in 1957. Accounts of the visits to Glasgow by such composers as Bartók,Casella, Hindemith et al are being presented here. Erik Chisholm. Scottish Modernist will be of general interest to scholars and students of twentieth-century music. In particular, those interested in the development of music, opera and ballet in Scotland, Scottish literature and cultural history will find this book of much value. It will also be of interest to those studying the music of Bartók, Sorabji, Hindemith, Walton, Bax, Casella, and Shostakovich whom Chisholm knew personally and brought to Scotland.Trade ReviewPursers ausgezeichnet geschriebene Arbeit, die die Musikgeschichte um einen weiteren wichtigen Mosaikstein bereichert, legt den Grund für weiterführende Untersuchungen. * DIE MUSIKFORSCHUNG *The book is one of the most readable of its type I've come across in some time. * THE DELIAN *Chisholm's contribution has been crying out for this reassessment - that it's as readable as this is a real bonus. * SCOTSMAN *Purser's welcome book will help to acquaint contemporary readers with the significant and fascinating musician who was Erik Chisholm. * CLASSICAL MUSIC *[A] superb publication. It is a massive investigation into the life and music of one of Scotland's great, but massively underrated composers. It will provide the biographical and musical reference material for all interested parties for years to come. * BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY NEWSLETTER *Table of ContentsForeword by Sir Charles Mackerras Glasgow, Kailyard or Coal Yard? The Active Society - Bringing the Heroes of Modernism to Glasgow Chisholm's Scottish Inheritance Interlude: The Love of Sorabji A Trojan Horse in Glasgow - Berlioz, Mozart and Gluck The Ballet and the Baton as Weapons of War Centrepiece: Pictures from Dante and Night Song of the Bards - A Journey fr om West to East From Italy to India and Singapore Under Table Mountain On Tour in the USA and Europe Soviet Ambassador - Chisholm Behind the Iron Curtain Interlude: The Love of Janacek Chasing a Restless Muse - The Heart's Betrayal Envoi Appendix I: The Active Society for the Propagation of Contemporary Music Appendix II: Patrick Macdonald Sources for Chisholm's Piano Works Select Bibliography Discography Selected Compositions
£38.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Hermann Pötzlinger's Music Book: The St Emmeram
Book SynopsisA study of one of the most significant medieval manuscripts containing music, and its owner, sheds light on many aspects of contemporary culture. Hermann Pötzlinger (+ 1469), the university-educated schoolmaster of the monastery of St Emmeram, Regensburg, was the creator of one of the largest and most intriguing collections of late-medieval polyphonic music to have survivedfrom Central Europe. His music book, the so-called 'St Emmeram Codex' (Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, Clm 14274), was compiled in the years immediately following his graduation from Vienna University in 1439. It contains aunique cross-section of polyphonic vocal music not only from the West but also from Central and Eastern Europe; moreover, it is only one among more than a hundred scholarly manuscripts that he copied or acquired during his career. This volume presents an in-depth study of the manuscript and of the professional networks and academic culture within which it was compiled; its context as part of one of the largest surviving personal libraries of its time is also explored. It will appeal to all those interested in early music and other aspects of late-medieval life and culture. Dr IAN RUMBOLD is an independent scholar; PETER WRIGHT is Professor of Music at the University of Nottingham.Trade ReviewThis is a wholly admirable piece of work, a delight to read [...] and also a very finely produced book. In fact, admiration mingles with astonishment as one reads it. The handling of the primary documents and the construction of a narrative from them is first-rate. * MUSIC & LETTERS *[T]his study represents the first comprehensive examination of the manuscript and its context. Meticulously researched, this book is highly specialised. * THE CONSORT *A dazzling documentary study that explores the relationships between the source and the life of its scribe, owner and compiler [...] It is difficult to imagine a more thorough, balanced and rigorous treatment of the topic than Rumbold and Wright's. * EARLY MUSIC *This is an excellent book. * EARLY MUSIC REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction Pötzlinger's Family Background Vienna and Auerbach Pötzlinger's Music Book: Clm 14274 Pötzlinger in Regensburg, I: Monastery Politics Pötzlinger in Regensburg, II: Schooling, Liturgy and Music Pötzlinger in Leipzig Pötzlinger in Regensburg, III: Retirement and Legacy Appendices Bibliography
£75.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Benjamin Britten: New Perspectives on His Life
Book SynopsisAn essay collection which examines Britten's juvenilia, influences such as Shostakovich and Verdi, his opera Owen Wingrave and a libretto written by Australian novelist Patrick White with the hope of a future collaboration. Benjamin Britten: New Perspectives on his Life and Work reveals the extent to which Britten scholarship is reaching outside the confines of Anglo-American criticism. The volume engages with juvenilia and other orchestral works from the 1920s and examines a broad range of influences on Britten, including the works of Shostakovich and Verdi, the poetry of Ovid, and the cinema. Among his operatic works the dramatic qualities of Owen Wingrave arediscussed through a close study of Piper's libretto and we witness the genesis of a libretto written by Australian novelist Patrick White and submitted to Britten with the hope of a future collaboration. The volume uncovers the generally hostile reception Britten's operas received in Paris until around the 1990s. Britten's status as 'outsider' in both the USA and in his own country when he returned in 1942 is discussed: the possibility is that Britten wasbecoming nervous of the gathering US involvement in the war and the real chance he may be called up to serve in the US forces is also discussed here.Trade ReviewThis book contains substantive discussion of one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. It is a solid contribution to the libraries of those who admire the composer and his work. * ANGELICAN AND EPISCOPAL HISTORY *These essays should spark discussion among scholars and fans of Britten. * BOOK NEWS *Walker's book... paves the way to a freer, more balanced view of the man and musician. * CLASSICAL MUSIC *Read and reflect, discuss and argue: [the contributors] are mostly new to Britten studies... and it must be a healthy sign if they are generating controversial ideas. It is also good to see two writers from continental Europe... Britten was an internationalist and it is surely right that Britten studies should be too. * GRAMOPHONE *It is [the] critrical distance, and the absence of for-or-against defensiveness which has often scarred Britten scholarship, that distinguishes Walker's volume. * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Lucy Walker Going Behind Britten's Back - Colin Matthews Performing Early Britten: Signs of Promise and Achievement in Poemes Nos 4 and 5 (1927) - Sharon Choa Shostakovich's Fourteenth Symphony: A Response to War Requiem? - Six Metamorphoses After Ovid and the Influence of Classical Mythology on Benjamin Britten - George Caird Britten and the Cinematic Frame - David Crilly Storms, Laughter and Madness: Verdian 'Numbers' and Generic Allusions in Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes - Jane Brandon Dramatic Invention in Myfanwy Piper's Libretto for Owen Wingrave - Frances Spalding 'The Minstrel Boy to the War is Gone': Father Figures and Fighting Sons in Britten's Owen Wingrave - Arne Muus Made You Look! Children in Salome and Death in Venice - From the Borough to Fraser Island - Claire Seymour Britten and France; or the Late Emergence of a Remarkable Lyric Universe - Maena Py Why did Britten Return to Wartime England? - Brian McMahon
£66.50
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Genius of Valhalla: The Life of Reginald
Book SynopsisThe life of enigmatic Wagner conductor, Reginald Goodall, by the author of the acclaimed Thomas Beecham: An Obsession with Music, newly available in paperback. When Sir Reginald Goodall died in 1990, at the age of 88, he had already acquired cult status and was considered one of the greatest Wagner conductors of our times. Although he had conducted the première of Benjamin Britten's Peter Grimes in 1945 and was admired by Erich Kleiber and Otto Klemperer, he suffered years of neglect until his triumphant return to conduct Die Meistersinger at Sadler's Wells in 1968. John Lucas, author of theacclaimed Thomas Beecham: An Obsession with Music, examines the mysteries of Goodall's early career, his Mosleyite sympathies, his remarkable late flowering and the fame of his last 20 years. Drawing upon letters and diaries as well as extensive interviews with friends and colleagues, Lucas pieces together the life of this enigmatic, self-effacing figure - a great Wagner conductor in a tradition stretching back through Knappertsbusch and Karl Muckto Hans Richter. Previously available as Reggie: The Life of Reginald Goodall - now available for the first time in paperback with a new Preface and Introduction. Published in association with the Peter Moores Foundation.Trade ReviewLucas's fine biography (which carries the benefit of access to plenty of personal Goodall material) will continue to stir curiosity far into the future. * CLASSICAL MUSIC [Editor's Choice] *Lucas gives a sympathetic yet judicious account of [Goodall]...The quality of research is high...and although the author clearly has a high personal regard for his subject there is no sense whatever of uncritical adulation. * WAGNER JOURNAL *This is an inspiring story. * OPERA NEWS *Superbly researched and sympathetic. * DAILY TELEGRAPH *Engrossing and deeply affectionate. * THE SPECTATOR *Marvellously informative. * OBSERVER *An engrossing and informative read...I recommend this book with enthusiasm. * FANFARE *
£23.74
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Essays on the History of English Music in Honour
Book SynopsisArticles on English music, from the medieval period to the present day, centred on four of the major areas of scholarly enquiry. The major themes of the essays in this collection reflect the work of the distinguished scholar John Caldwell, professor of music at Oxford University and a composer in his own right. There is a strong focus on early music, with contributions considering the medieval carol, sources for seventeenth- and eighteenth-century harpsichord music, and the transmission of fifteenth-century English music to the Continent; but they range right up to the twentieth century, with an examination of music in Oxford. All are concerned in one way or another with themes which recur in Professor Caldwell's scholarship: sources; style; performance; and historiography. Contributors: SALLY HARPER, DAVID HILEY, EMMA HORNBY, HARRY JOHNSTONE, MARGARET BENT, DAVID MAW, MATTHIAS RANGE, REINHARD STROHM, PETER WRIGHT, MAGNUS WILLIAMSON, JOHN HARPER, SIMON MCVEIGH, CHRISTOPHER PAGE, OWEN REES, SUSAN WOLLENBERG, JOHN ARTHUR SMITH, BENNETT ZON, DAVID MAW. To subscribe to the Tabula Gratulatoria for this volume, CLICK HERETrade ReviewThe affection as well as the respect in which John Caldwell is held by other scholars exudes unmistakably from the pages of this volume in his honour. [...] This brilliantly researched, engagingly written, and elegantly produced volume [...] its enduring significance will surely lie in its explorations of new historical material, its suggestive reconsiderations of the well known, and it's opening up of new areas of research. * MUSIC & LETTERS *The seventeen essays have much that is of interest to the thoughtful reader with an interest in the organ and its music, most particularly in relation to its presence - and absence - in liturgical settings. * JOURNAL OF THE BRITISH INSTITUTE OF ORGAN STUDIES *Table of ContentsIntroduction - Emma Hornby Traces of Lost Late Medieval Offices? The Sanctilogium Angliae, Walliae, Scotiae, et Hiberniae of John of Tynemouth [fl.1350] - Sally Harper The saints venerated in medieval Peterborough as reflected in the antiphoner Cambridge, Magdalene College, F.4.10 - David Hiley Interactions between Brittany and Christ Church, Canterbury in the tenth century: the Linenthal leaf - Emma Hornby A new source of late seventeenth- and early eighteenth-century English harpsichord music by Barrett, Blow, Clarke, Croft, Purcell and others - H. Diack Johnstone The earliest fifteenth-century transmission of English music to the continent - Margaret Bent 'Phantasy mania': Quest for a National Style - Purcell's 1694 Te Deum and Jubilate: its Successors, and its Performance History - Imitative counterpoint in mid-fifteenth-century English Mass settings - Reinhard Strohm Double cantus firmus compositions in the Eton Choirbook - Magnus Williamson Englishness in a Kyrie [Mis]attributed to Du Fay - Peter Wright Continuity, discontinuity, fragments and connections: the organ in church c.1500-1640 - John Harper 'As the Sand on the Sea Shore': Women Violinists in London's Concert Life around 1900 - Simon McVeigh The carol in Anglo-Saxon Canterbury - Luisa de Carvajal y Mendoza and music in an English Catholic house in 1605 - Owen Rees Music in Oxford, 1945-1960: The years of change - Susan Wollenberg Three Anglican Church Historians on Liturgy and Psalmody in the Ancient Synagogue and the Early Church - John Arthur Smith Histories of British Music and the Land Without Music: National Identity and the Idea of the Hero - Epilogue: John Caldwell [1938- ]: Scholar, Composer, Teacher, Musician -
£90.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd György Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange
Book SynopsisThe combination of new insights into Ligeti by people who knew him with new analytical approaches will make this a core publication not only for Ligeti scholars, but also for readers interested in post-war music history and in Hungarian culture. Shortlisted for the RPS Music Award 2012 for Creative Communication. György Ligeti: Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds offers a new assessment of a composer whose constant exploration of new sound worlds- based on the musics of different cultures and ages - contributed in crucial ways to making him one of the most important musical voices of the last 50 years. The book combines texts by former students, colleagues and friends, who reflect on different and so far unknown aspects of Ligeti's persona, with new musicological interpretations of his style and several of his main works. Among the contributors are some of the most eminent Ligeti scholars, including Richard Steinitz and Paul Griffiths. Louise Duchesneau, Ligeti's assistant of over 20 years, acts not only as contributor but also as co-editor of the volume. Many of the musicological chapters are based on studies of Ligeti's sketches, which are now housed by the Paul Sacher Foundation in Basle and were made available for research only recently. Two close collaborators representing disciplines which deeply interested Ligeti - Heinz-Otto Peitgen (a mathematician who introduced Ligeti to fractal geometry, which influenced many if his works since 1985) and Simha Arom (an ethnomusicologist who acquainted Ligeti with the complex rhythmic patters of the music of Sub-saharan Africa) - also reflect on the composer for the very first time in writing. The combination of new insights into Ligeti by people who knew him with new analytical approaches will make this a core publication not only for Ligeti scholars, but also for readers interested in music of the second half of the twentieth century and in Hungarian culture. WOLFGANG MARX is Lecturer in Music, University College Dublin. LOUISE DUCHESNEAU was Ligeti's assistant for 20 years Contributors: SIMHA AROM, JONATHAN W. BERNARD, CIARÁN CRILLY, LOUISE DUCHESNEAU, BENJAMIN DWYER, TIBORC FAZEKAS, PAUL GRIFFITHS, ILDIKÓ MÁNDI-FAZEKAS, WOLFGANG MARX, HEINZ-OTTO PEITGEN, FRIEDEMANN SALLIS, WOLFGANG-ANDREAS SCHULTZ, MANFRED STAHNKE, RICHARD STEINITZTrade ReviewSpiced with thoughtful, at times even poetic, observations ... An important bonus of the book is the numerous photographs by Ines Gellrich, some of which capture Ligeti's face in his most private moments. One must also praise the care of the editors, since the orthography of the numerous Hungarian terms is as good as flawless. * FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE, December 2013 *A fine-grained, nuanced portrait of Ligeti and his music that will continue to enrich scholarly and popular interest. * JOURNAL OF MUSICOLOGICAL RESEARCH *[U]nverzichtbar[e] Lektüre für denjenigen, der sich intensiver mit György Ligeti und seiner Musik befassen möchte. * DIE TONKUNST *[W]ill surely set a new standard for scholarly work on Ligeti for years to come. The wealth of information and the breadth of historical and theoretical approaches makes this an indispensable volume for anyone interested in this great composer and his music. * MLA NOTES *Given the closeness between the authors and Ligeti, reading the musical descriptions gives much knowledge about Ligeti the human, and about how he was as a teacher, student, or friend. [...] This book is a must to those who want to get to know more closely one of the most important composers of our time more closely. * KLASSISK MUSIKKMAGASIN *This book piles up its contrasting and multi-toned commentaries, with continuity and connectedness at a premium. [...] a handsomely produced volume. * MUSICAL TIMES *[E]ditorial standards are of the highest [...] the present book can be cordially recommended, fulfilling as it does the remit of a broad-based symposium while making for an absorbing read [...] what emerges from these pages is the extent to which Ligeti has remained on the forefront of European musical thinking. * GRAMOPHONE *György Ligeti is already seen as one of the major post-war composers. Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds is [...] lavishly produced and illustrated [...] will appeal to the general reader. * INTERNATIONAL PIANO *Of Foreign Lands and Strange Sounds is fantastically wide-ranging and yet relevant for even the lay reader. The essays in this collection - and the rich accompanying photographs, illustrations, sketches and scores - provide an excellent introduction to a formidable [...] composer. * THE PRAGUE POST *Table of ContentsIntroduction "We play with the music and the music plays with us." Sándor Veress and his student György Ligeti - Friedemann Sallis Transformational Ostinati in György Ligeti's Sonatas for Solo Cello and Solo Viola - Benjamin Dwyer Magicians of Sound - Seeking Ligeti's Inspiration in the Poetry of Sándor Weöres - Ildikó Mándi-Fazekas and Tiborc Fazekas "Make Room for the Grand Macabre!" The Concept of Death in György Ligeti's Oeuvre - Continuum, Chaos and Metronomes - A Fractal Friendship - Heinz-Otto Peitgen A Kinship Foreseen: Ligeti and African Music. Simha Arom in Conversation - Simha Arom "Play it like Bill Evans": György Ligeti and Recorded Music - Louise Duchesneau Rules and Regulation: Lessons from Ligeti's Compositional Sketches - Jonathan W. Bernard À qui un hommage? The Genesis of the Piano Concerto and Horn Trio - Richard Steinitz Craft and Aesthetics - The Teacher György Ligeti - Wolfgang-Andreas Schultz The Hamburg Composition Class - Manfred Stahnke The Bigger Picture: Ligeti's Music and the Films of Stanley Kubrick - Ciarán Crilly Invented Homelands: Ligeti's Orchestras - Paul Griffiths
£44.99
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Life After Death: The Viola da Gamba in Britain
Book SynopsisNew research throws light on the history of the viol after Purcell, including its revival in the late eighteenth century through Charles Frederick Abel. It is normally thought that the bass viol or viola da gamba dropped out of British musical life in the 1690s, and that Henry Purcell was the last composer to write for it. Peter Holman shows how the gamba changed its role and function in the Restoration period under the influence of foreign music and musicians; how it was played and composed for by the circle of immigrant musicians around Handel; how it was part of the fashion for exotic instruments in themiddle of the century; and how the presence in London of its greatest eighteenth-century exponent, Charles Frederick Abel, sparked off a revival in the 1760s and 70s. Later chapters investigate the gamba's role as an emblem of sensibility among aristocrats, artists, and intellectuals, including the Countess of Pembroke, Sir Edward Walpole, Ann Ford, Laurence Sterne, Thomas Gainsborough and Benjamin Franklin, and trace Abel's influence and legacy far into the nineteenth century. A concluding chapter is concerned with its role in the developing early music movement, culminating with Arnold Dolmetsch's first London concerts with old instruments in 1890. PETER HOLMAN is Professor of Historical Musicology at Leeds University, and director of The Parley of Instruments, the choir Psalmody, and the Suffolk Villages Festival.Trade Review[O]utstanding research [...] a valuable reference book that I will no doubt consult again and again. * EIGHTEENTH CENTURY MUSIC *[A] fascinating study that has significantly enlightened the dark ages of a much loved instrument. * MUSIC & LETTERS *[Eine] spannenede und extreme informative Abhandlung. * VIOLA DA GAMBA *This is a book not only for those interested in the viola da gamba but also in musical social history in Britain from the 17th to the end of the 19th century. It is rich in scholarly detail and is entertaining to read. * STRINGENDO *[B]eautifully presented and Holman's lucid and elegant prose is a joy to read. [...] This is a book suitable for players and scholars alike, which makes a valuable contribution to our understanding of the viol; I recommend it wholeheartedly. * EARLY MUSIC *[This] volume draws on a truly vast range of documentation [...] and is written in an unpretentious, descriptive prose [...] the coverage is impressive and its result will be of use in many connections: indeed a reference work. * MUSICAL TIMES *There are so many new insights into the life of the viol in this book [...] that the reader is put on a steep learning curve and sent on a truly fascinating journey through the centuries. [...] it can easily be used as a reference book by delving into the sub-chapters or consulting the very comprehensive index, or be read like an exciting novel. * THE CONSORT *No one better could have written this book, which is superb. [...] Applying to the task his extensive research, close acquaintance with the instruments and their music, stellar command of the literature, and lively narrative, Holman demonstrates the extent to which viol playing in Britain survived. * CHOICE *Holman has the knack of finding interesting information and writing interestingly about it. [...] It is a book to dip into. * EARLY MUSIC REVIEW *Table of ContentsIntroduction 'Musitians on the Viol de Gamba': Professional Players in Restoration England 'The Noble Bass Viol': Amateur Players around 1700 'Per la Viola da Gamba': Immigrants in Early Eighteenth-Century London 'Awake my Cetra, Harp and Lute': John Frederick Hintz and the Cult of Exotic Instruments 'A Solo on the Viola da Gamba': Charles Frederick Abel as a Performer 'Composed to the Soul': Abel's Viola da Gamba Music 'The Heart of Sensibility': Writers, Artists and Aristocrats 'The Art of Playing it has never Died Out in this Country': Abel's Competitors, Followers and Successors 'Performed upon the Original Instruments for which it was Written': the Viola da Gamba and the Early Music Revival
£108.19
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Carl Nielsen and the Idea of Modernism
Book SynopsisA critical re-evaluation of the music of Carl Nielsen which examines its context and relationship to musical modernism. Carl Nielsen (1865-1931) is one of the most playful, life-affirming and awkward voices in twentieth-century music. His work resists easy stylistic categorisation or containment, yet its melodic richness and harmonic vitality are immediately appealing and engaging. Nielsen's symphonies, concertos and operas are an increasingly prominent feature of the international repertoire, and his songs remain perennially popular at home in Denmark. But his work has only rarely attracted sustained critical attention within the scholarly community; he remains arguably the most underrated composer of his international generation. This book offers a critical re-evaluation of Carl Nielsen's music and his rich literary and artistic contexts. Drawing extensively on contemporary writing and criticism, as well as the research of the newly completed Carl Nielsen Edition, the book presents a series of case studies centred on key works in Carl Nielsen's output, particularly his comic opera Maskarade, the Third Symphony (Sinfonia Espansiva), and his final symphony, the Sinfonia Semplice. Topics covered include his relationship with symbolism and fin-de-siècle decadence, vitalism, counterpoint, and the Danish landscape. Running throughout the book is a critical engagement with the idea of musical modernism - a term which, for Nielsen, was fraught withanxiety and yet provided a constant creative stimulus. DANIEL M. GRIMLEY holds a University Lectureship in Music at Oxford, and is the Tutorial Fellow in Music at Merton College and Lecturer in Music, Landscape at University College. His previous books include Grieg: Music, Landscape and Norwegian Identity (Boydell, 2006) and the Cambridge Companion to Sibelius (Cambridge University Press, 2004).Trade ReviewOne closes Carl Nielsen and the Idea of Modernism grateful for what one has learned [...] and resonating with a striking impression that will not go away. That impression is, to put it in Grimley's terms, simply one of breakthrough. [...] opens the door into understanding, at least in part, how the Danish Nielsen is different in kind from his kindred 'senior' modernists, in Finland, Norway, and England. * TWENTIETH CENTURY MUSIC *This well written book offers a broad critical summary of his work through detailed analysis of his musical language. * STRINGENDO *[T]he act of airbrushing Nielsen out of musical history has been reversed in uplifting detail: [the] new study from Nordic music scholar Daniel Grimley recasts Nielsen as a visionary - a vital precursor to modernism and a central protagonist in the playground scrap that was 20th-century music. -- Andrew Mellor * GROMOPHONE *Nielsen fans will find plenty to feast on. -- Philip Clark * GRAMOPHONE *In brief, the result is highly recommendable. Grimley is extremely well read in cultural, literary, and art history, in music theory and music aesthetics of Nielsen's and later times as well as in music history, be it of Scandinavia, United Kingdom, Germany, or France. Thus his readings are very convincing, in analytical detail as well as in the contexts of Danish and European cultural life. A Danish translation should be mandatory. * DANISH YEARBOOK OF MUSICOLOGY *Grimley has given us provocative and stimulating new guidelines for understanding Nielsen, not as a marginal figure, but as one very much a part of a cultural generation deeply involved in aesthetic change and renewal. * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *The book presents some fascinating source material that will interest anyone [...] who believes Nielsen to be one of the truly distinctive geniuses of latter-day symphonic writing. * CLASSICAL MUSIC *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction. Carl Nielsen at the Edge Thresholds Hellenics Energetics Funen Dreams Counterpoints Cosmic Variations Conclusion
£75.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Vienna Don Giovanni
Book SynopsisAspects of Don Giovanni's compositional history are uncovered and the study provides for detailed evidence with which to evaluate Da Ponte's recollections. The essential truth of his account - that the revision of the operain Vienna was an interactive process - seems to be fully borne out. A general theory of transmission is proposed, which clarifies the relationship between the fluid text produced by re-creation and the static text generated by replication.Trade Review[A] serious, thoughtful, and thought-provoking study. * NOTES *Woodfields Buch ist eine akribische, fundierte philologische Studie, die jüngste Erkenntnisse der Opernforschung in ihre Betrachtungen einbezieht [...] Eine überaus anregende Lektüre für jeden, der sich mit der Opernpraxis des 18. Jahrhunderts beschäftigt. * DIE MUSIKFORSCHUNG *Following up his fascinating study of the compositional history of Così Fan Tutte, musicologist Ian Woodfield turns his meticulous investigation skills to Don Giovanni in an effort to unravel the process of revision between the opera's 1787 Prague premiere and performances in Vienna in 1788. * OPERA NEWS *Woodsfield's admirable analysis equips the musical director to make [a choice of versions] in full possession of such facts as are currently known. * MUSICAL TIMES *Professor Woodfield's scholarship is immaculate, his conclusions are well supported, and his theories about one of the most famously debated of Mozart's operas make exciting musical reading. * MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW *Ian Woodfield has carefully examined a variety of manuscripts of Mozart's 'Don Giovanni' opera, and, on a technical level - as a detective that knows how to sort out fingerprints - makes intelligent, reasoned choices as to the probable sequence of events in Mozart's composition of some parts of the opera. And there are delightful details that are strewn throughout such an investigation. * THE SCHILLER INSTITUTE *Table of ContentsCasts of the First Performances and Introduction The Prague Don Giovanni A possible cut Prague musical fingerprints Errors The Vienna Don Giovanni The Graz score The Court Theatre score (OA361/1) The Court Theatre parts (OA361/Stimmen) Later copies deriving from the Court Theatre score The Lausch and Julliard scores The casting of the Vienna Don Giovanni The full version (Vienna 1) An intermediate version? The final versions Vienna 2a and Vienna 2b Da Ponte's story The late eighteenth-century dissemination of Don Giovanni Guardasoni's performances of Don Giovanni in 1788 and 1789 The reception of the Vienna Music in 1790s Prague The 1798 Vienna revival The autograph of Don Giovanni after Mozart's death The Breitkopf & Härtel full score Later manuscripts based on the published score Conclusion
£71.25
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Juan Esquivel: A Master of Sacred Music during
Book SynopsisFirst study of Juan Esquivel, a highly significant figure in Spanish musical life in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Juan Esquivel was a cathedral choirmaster and composer, active in Spain during the period c.1580-c .1623 in which all aspects of the arts flourished, and one of the few peninsular composers of his generation to see his works published. He is known to have produced three large volumes of sacred polyphony - masses, motets, hymns, psalms, magnificats, and Marian antiphons - under the titles Liber primus missarum, Motecta festorum([both published 1608)and Tomus secondus, psalmorum, hymnorum... et missarum (published 1613); they reveal him to be a highly skilled craftsman. This first full-length study of his life and works presents a critical assessment of the man and his music, setting him within the social and religious context of the so-called Counter-Reformation. Beginning by outlining the facts of his life, the book goes on to offer an analysis and assessment of his output. Clive Walkley was until his retirement a lecturer in music and music education at Lancaster University.Trade ReviewWalkley's book is a valuable amplification of the meagre biographical scholarship available [...], and is well documented and engagingly written. * EARLY MUSIC *[T]his is a book designed to promote interest in and widen knowledge of Spanish renaissance music in general and Juan Esquivel Barahona in particular. [...] a useful addition to the reference shelves. * THE CONSORT *[Der Autor hat] einer der wichtigsten Mittlerfiguren der spanischen, traditionsschweren Spätrenaissance endlich den gebührenden Platz im Kreise seiner Kollegen eingeräumt [...]. * DIE TONKUNST *Table of ContentsPreface Cathedral Music in Spain in the time of the Counter-Reformation Biographical details Source materials The masses of 1608 The motets of 1608 The Tomus secundus of 1613 Conclusions Appendix: Modern editions of music by Esquivel Bibliography
£76.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd New Aldeburgh Anthology
Book SynopsisA book for those drawn back to Aldeburgh year after year for the music, writing and arts - and to all who care for the landscape, the sea and the ongoing life of the Suffolk Coast. The New Aldeburgh Anthology takes its inspiration from Ronald Blythe's classic Aldeburgh Anthology of 1972, which summoned the spirit of Aldeburgh and the Suffolk coast in words and images that resonate still, and has proved enduringly popular. This new volume brings the story up to date and distils the very essence of the place just at the point when its identity might seem diluted by the accelerating pace of change. It speaks for and to thepresent generation, combining young voices with old, those of writers and musicians with poets and artists, of historians with naturalists, architects and ecologists, and local people. Britten and Pears' Aldeburgh Festivallies at the heart of the enterprise. Much has changed, but the Festival still owes its unique appeal and character to the remarkable history and the inspiration of its founders, as well as their strong sense of place. Their legacy is re-examined by musicians such as Ian Bostridge, Steven Isserlis and Roger Vignoles, and music writers James Fenton, Paul Kildea, Peter Dickinson and Rupert Christiansen. Aldeburgh and the east coast of Suffolk is about so much more than music, however: the poets Andrew Motion, Blake Morrison, Kevin Crossley-Holland and Lavinia Greenlaw and other writers as diverse as Craig Brown and Wilkie Collins have all been inspired by its bright yet haunting atmosphere, Maggi Hambling and Alison Wilding are sculptors who have left their mark on the landscape, while artists as varied as Sidney Nolan and John Piper, Arthur Boyd and Louise Wilson have all derived rich inspiration from it. The very landscape and ecology of east Suffolk is on the move, too, the coastline responding to the vagaries of climate change, the traditional ways of life, of farming and of fishing giving way to new. George Ewart Evans, W.G. Sebald and Richard Mabey are among those who respond to the power of the landscape, others to the spell of the sea, and the life that has evolved around both is evoked in words and images, some of them startling in their intensity. Amongst the many contributions, the new Anthology contains some of the classic articles from the original, including writings by WH Auden, George Crabbe, Eric Crozier, Imogen Holst, Norman Scarfe and of courseRonald Blythe himself. Published in association with Aldeburgh Music.Trade ReviewThe felicities of this anthology are many, with many a precious insight into their subjects. There is charm, wit, melancholy scientific inquiry, musical and psychological interpretation. [...] Even its presentation - the look and feel of the book - is impressive. I cannot praise it enough. * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *A magisterial companion to the festival and its setting. [...] More than 375 splendid pages confirm how much the annual festival of arts and music owes to the landscape and the sea and to the history of local creativity. * EASTERN DAILY PRESS *A fascinating dip-in read and a source book for those wishing to trace the cultural history of the festival. * RA (Royal Academy of Arts Magazine) *[A] handsome and valuable volume...The long-term survival and eventual rejuvenation of Aldeburgh as a musical nerve centre post-Britten has...been a triumph of creativity over adversity and this anthology gradually and magically tells exactly how and why. * GRAMOPHONE *Highly enjoyable reading... * EASTERN DAILY PRESS *Table of ContentsForeword Introduction Glitter of Waves The Borough Aldeburgh Rooted Here Brief Lives He Who Loves Beauty Britten and Pears Golly! What a Party! The Aldeburgh Festival and its Legacy Where Have You Come From? Visitors Water Married to Stone Human Landscape Beneath the Dazzling Sky Land, Marsh & Water Appendices Notes on Contributors
£24.99
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Music at German Courts, 1715-1760: Changing
Book SynopsisMusic at German Courts serves to illustrate the extraordinary diversity of eighteenth-century German court music establishments without losing sight of what these Kapellen had in common. What was musical life at German courts really like during the eighteenth century? Were musical ensembles as diverse as the Holy Roman Empire's kaleidoscopic political landscape? Through a series of individual case studies contributed by leading scholars from Germany, Poland, the United States, Canada, and Australia, this book investigates the realities of musical life at fifteen German courts of varied size (ranging from kingdoms to principalities), religious denomination, and geographical location. Significant shifts that occurred in the artistic priorities of each court are presented through a series of "snapshots"- in effect "core sample" years - which highlight both individualand shared patterns of development and decline. What emerges from the wealth of primary source material examined in this volume is an in-depth picture of music-making within the daily life of individual courts, featuring acast of music directors, instrumentalists, and vocalists, together with numerous support staff drawn from across Europe. Music at German Courts serves to illustrate the extraordinary diversity of eighteenth-century German court music establishments without losing sight of what these Kapellen had in common. SAMANTHA OWENS is Senior Lecturer in Musicology at the University of Queensland, Brisbane, Australia. BARBARA M. REUL is Associate Professor of Musicology at Luther College, University of Regina, Canada. JANICE B. STOCKIGT is a Principal Fellow of the University of Melbourne, Australia. Contributors: DIETER KIRSCH, URSULA KRAMER, MICHAEL MAUL, MARY OLESKIEWICZ, SAMANTHA OWENS, RASHID-S. PEGAH, BÄRBEL PELKER, BARBARA M. REUL, WOLFGANG RUF, BERT SIEGMUND, JANICE B. STOCKIGT, MICHAEL TALBOT, RÜDIGER THOMSEN-FÜRST, ALINA ZORAWSKA-WITKOWSKA, STEVEN ZOHNTrade ReviewUltimately, this book is to be highly recommended: it will make a valuable and indispensable addition to the libraries of both scholars of eighteenth-century music and those from other disciplines who want to expand their knowledge of the role of music [...] in the self-fashioning and sustenance of European monarchic structures. * NOTES *This book is one of the most important contributions to our understanding of the context of the music most familiar to musicians and concert-goers today. [...] The editors have gathered an expert team; their own contributions are paradigms of accessibility. I commend this important book to every serious musician's book shelf. * STRINGENDO *The editors of this volume are [...] to be congratulated on assembling a systematically organized collection of essays by an impressive international panel of scholars, each of whom is an expert on a particular court and its archival sources. [...] It includes much new and occasionally surprising information, and a substantial amount of material made available in English for the first time. * MUSICOLOGY AUSTRALIA *The detail presented in this book is remarkable [...] a useful book which extends our knowledge of courtly music-making in Germany during this time, and it will undoubtedly be of value to scholars of the period. * THE CONSORT *[A] valuable resource for any historical musicologist investigating this extraordinarily productive and fascinating period of German music history, and I hope it encourages and enables more research in this area, and ultimately more performances of its many forgotten treasures. * CONTEXT *[T]he treasures in [the book's] 500 pages will satisfy a whole range of other music historical interests for years to come. The personnel lists, mini biographies and sheer number of name references to rulers and the musicians in their employ are invaluable. * MUSICAL TIMES *[A] fascinating picture emerges of the birth and nurture of a rich musical tradition which continues today in democratic form with the unequalled wealth of German musical performance in virtually every German town. * CLASSICAL MUSIC *[T]his valuable book provides a reliable source of information for anyone interested in 18th-century music in Germany. [...] there is an abundance of knowledge here from which everyone can draw. * EARLY MUSIC REVIEW *Table of ContentsForeword by Michael Talbot 'Das gantze Corpus derer...musicirenden Personen': An Introduction to German Hofkapellen - 'Das gantze Corpus derer...musicirenden Personen': An Introduction to German Hofkapellen - Barbara Reul The Court of Saxony-Dresden - Janice Stockigt The Saxon Court of the Kingdom of Poland - Alina Zorawska-Witkowska The Court of Brandenburg-Prussia - Mary Oleskiewicz The Palatine Court in Mannheim - Bärbel Pelker The Court of Württemberg-Stuttgart - The Court of Saxony-Gotha-Altenburg - Bert Siegmund The Courts of Saxony-Weissenfels, Saxony-Merseburg and Saxony-Zeitz - Wolfgang Ruf The Court of Anhalt-Zerbst - Barbara Reul The Court of Sondershausen - Michael Maul The Court of Würzburg - Dieter Kirsch The Court of Hesse-Darmstadt - Ursula Kramer The Court of Baden-Durlach in Karlsruhe - Rüdiger Thomsen-Fürst The Court of Brandenburg-Culmbach-Bayreuth - Rashid-S Pegah 'Die vornehmste Hof-Tugend': German Musicians' Reflections on Eighteenth-Century Court Life -
£108.19
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Essays on Renaissance Music in Honour of David
Book SynopsisNew articles on du Fay and Desprez, on sacred and secular music, and reception history, form a fitting tribute to one of the field's foremost scholars. This volume celebrates the work of David Fallows, one of the most influential scholars in the field of medieval and Renaissance music. It draws together articles by scholars from around the world, focusing on key topics to which Fallows has contributed significantly: the life and works of Guillaume Du Fay and of Josquin Desprez, archival studies and biography, sacred and secular music of the late mediaeval and Renaissance period, and reception history. Studies include major archival discoveries concerning the identity of the composer Fremin Caron; a reconsideration of the authorship of works within the Josquin canon, notably Mille regretz and Absalon fili mi; a freshlook at key works from Du Fay's youth and early maturity; accounts of newly discovered sources and works; and an appraisal of David Fallows' contribution to the early music performance movement by Christopher Page, former directorof Gothic Voices. The collection also includes two newly published compositions dedicated to the honorand. Fabrice Fitch teaches at the Royal Northern College of Music; Jacobijn Kiel is an independent scholar. Contributors: Rob C. Wegman, Jane Alden, Bonnie J. Blackburn, Honey Meconi, Gianluca D'Agostino, Andrew Kirkman, Jaap van Benthem, Margaret Bent, James Haar, Alenjandro Enrique Planchart, Jesse Rodin, Lorenz Welker, Kinuho Endo, Joshua Rifkin, Thomas Schmidt-Beste, Richard Sherr, Peter Wright, Fabrice Fitch, Tess Knighton, Warwick Edwards, Adam Knight Gilbert, Markus Jans, Oliver Neighbour, Anthony Rooley, Keith Polk, John Milsom, Jeffrey J. Dean, EricJas, Peter Gülke, Iain Fenlon, Barbara Haggh, Dagmar Hoffmann-Axthelm, Leofranc Holford-Strevens, Andrea Lindmayr-Brandl, Esperanza Rodríguez-García, Eugeen Schreurs, Reinhard StrohmTrade ReviewThe book is beautifully produced, with lots of good illustrations and musical examples [...] In a sense it is a monument, not just to one scholar, but to a whole generation in which some of the finest minds dedicated themselves to the music of the fifteenth century. * MUSIC & LETTERS *[T]he volume is serious in style and content but has moments of lightness and humour [...] the articles provide new, original material and ideas on a large number of topics. [...] a labour of love. * THE CONSORT *Table of ContentsManuscript Sigla Preface - Fabrice Fitch and Jacobijn Kiel Foreword: David Fallows and the Performance of Medieval Music - Fremin le Caron at Amiens: New Documents - Rob C. Wegman Ung Petit cadet: Verbal and Visual Play in the Wolfenbüttel Chansonnier - Jane Alden A New Tenor on So ys emprentid - Bonnie Blackburn Shedding New Light [Literally] on the Rochester Fascicle: A Preliminary Report - Honey Meconi Two musical letters from Aragonese Naples - Gianluca D'Agostino Johannes Sohier dit Fede and St. Omer: a Story of Pragmatic Sanctions - Andrew Kirkman Intermedio I: Yes, We Were Young... - Jaap van Benthem Petrarch, Padua, the Malatestas, Du Fay and Vergene bella - Margaret Bent A Suggestion about Fauxbourdon - James Haar Du Fay's Plainsong Paraphrase Settings - Alejandro Planchart With a Flourish: Melismatic Writing in Du Fay's Early Songs - Jesse Rodin Portugaler: Guillaume Du Fay's contribution to instrumental music? - Lorenz Welker A Reconsideration of the Mass Cycle by Arnold de Lantins and Ciconia in Bologna Q15 - Kinuho Endo Martini and Obrecht: Some Speculations - Joshua Rifkin The Art of Cellular Counterpoint: The Motets of Petrus Wilhelmi - Thomas Schmidt-Beste What Were They Thinking? Sola caret monstris at the Papal Court - Richard Sherr A Gloria Newly Attributed to Byttering - Peter Wright Intermedio II: Agricola VIII - Fabrice Fitch A new song in a strange land? Garcimuños's Una montaña pasando - Tess Knighton Isaac's pre-Italian songs: An over-optimistic hand-list - Warwick Edwards Words and Music in the Sea of Long Waiting - Adam Knight Gilbert 'Dieu vous doinst hui en bonne estraine tout le desir de vostre coeur': Observations on Binchois' Margarite, fleur de valeur - Markus Jans Three times seven Songs by Byrd - Oliver Neighbour 'I must complain': A Comparative Study in Variant Settings - Anthony Rooley Heinrich Isaac and shifting musical perspectives, c.1485-1490 - Keith Polk 'Plaine de dueil et de melancolie': Tracing a Negative of Josquin des Prez - Jaap van Benthem Surface, Structure and 'Style' in Absalon fili mi - John Milsom Who Really Knows Who Composed Mille regretz? - Fabrice Fitch Josquin, Two Contrafacta, and the Lost Stanzas of 'Comment peult avoir joye' - Jeffrey Dean In pace in idipsum: a little-known motet attributed to Josquin - Eric Jas Intermedio III: Verspätete Monologe - Brahms' Klavierstücke op. 116, 117, 118 und 119 - Peter Gülke Confessional Companions: Herpol, Glareanus, and Friends - Matthew Laube, Reviews Editor Credit for Music in Court and City in the Low Countries, 1467-1500 - Barbara Haggh David musicus, or: On the consoling power of string music - Dagmar Hoffmann-Axthelm The Laudes Musicae in Renaissance Music Treatises - Leofranc Holford-Strevens The Role of Music in 16th Century German City Life: A close look at the iconography of Hans Sachs' and Jost Amman's Ständebuch - Andrea Lindmayr-Brandl The Perfect Spanish Chapelmaster: the Depiction of the Composer Ginés Pérez [d. 1600] in Felipe Pedrell's Hispaniae Schola Musica Sacra - Esperanza Rodríguez-Garcia The 'topstukkendecreet' in Flanders and its musical context: the case of Glareanus' Dodekachordon - Eugeen Schreurs The difference of early European music - Reinhard Strohm List of Contributors Principal publications of David Fallows
£108.19
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Thomas Beecham: An Obsession with Music
Book SynopsisNow available in paperback to coincide with the 50th anniversary of his death, this biography corrects many of the myths surrounding the often controversial Thomas Beecham. Thomas Beecham was one of Britain's greatest conductors of orchestral music and opera as well as an entrepreneur and impresario of exceptional energy and brilliant wit. This acclaimed biography places him - musically, politicallyand socially - in the troubled times in which he lived and corrects the stories and myths, many of them Beecham's own making, that have grown up around this uniquely gifted and controversial figure. Drawing upon extensive research, Lucas presents new material on his early years, his complicated private life, his father's catastrophic attempt to buy a large part of Covent Garden - which brought the family to its knees financially - and the orchestras andopera companies that Beecham founded. New light is shed on his visits to Nazi Germany and his view of its leaders, as well as the much misunderstood and previously unchronicled years of the Second World War, which he spent in Australia and America. Thomas Beecham: An Obsession with Music will remain the standard biography for years to come. JOHN LUCAS was on the staff of the Observer for 25 years, completed Peter Heyworth's monumentalbiography of Otto Klemperer, wrote Genius of Valhalla, the biography of Reginald Goodall, and is responsible for the current entries on Beecham and Klemperer in the New Grove .Trade ReviewThis book [...] is a must. * THE DELIAN *This marvellous book is very readable with many anecdotes and witty asides, much like Beecham himself. [...] Lucas's formidable amount of research is impressive [...] Reprinted in paperback for the 50th anniversary of Beecham's death, this book is excellent value for money. * STRINGENDO *This is the best biography of a musician I have read for a very long time...one which all genuine music lovers should possess. International Record Review * . *Beecham's insensitivities...have to be seen in the context of his kindnesses, which were numerous and generous. Lucas holds the two in balance, which is an asset of his enthralling book. -- Glasgow] Herald, Conrad WilsonJohn Lucas's brimming biography...reminds us just how much...we owe him. -- Sunday Times, David CairnsLucas has excelled himself: this is in every way a magnificent achievement...the wit, exuberance and professionalism of his subject come across wonderfully well. Classic FM Magazine [Book of the Month, 5 Stars] * . *Impeccably researched...Lucas is excellent on the visits to Australia and America. Spectator * . *[Beecham's] rackety private life makes for many an entertaining page in... [this] thorough study of a man who changed the face of British music for ever. -- David Mellor, Mail on SundayNot only a very good biography, it is, in the circumstances, an extraordinarily concise one. -- Richard Osborne * The Oldie *[Beecham] meets his match in his engaging and erudite biographer. Opera * . *Lucas' thorough, exhaustive and often highly amusing biography will...re-establish Beecham as one of the foremost musical personalities of the last hundred years. Classical Music * . *Remarkably thorough...A good read...and a solidly informative biography. BBC Music Magazine * . *Lucas [expands upon Beecham's international reputation] with the sort of balanced judgments and care for detail that bring fresh perspective. Financial Times * . *A quite spectacular biography. This England * . *A fully comprehensive chronicle of...an extraordinary life...in a wealth of mesmerising detail, whole swathes of which have previously been completely unknown. Classic Record Collector * . *
£23.74
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Music and Ceremony at the Court of Charles V: The
Book SynopsisShows how Charles V used music and ritual to reinforce his image and status as the most important and powerful sovereign in Europe. The presentation of Charles V as universal monarch, defender of the faith, magnanimous peacemaker, and reborn Roman Emperor became the mission of artists, poets, and chroniclers, who shaped contemporary perceptions of him and engaged in his political promotion. Music was equally essential to the making of his image, as this book shows. It reconstructs musical life at his court, by examining the compositions which emanated from it, the ordinances prescribing its rituals and ceremonies, and his prestigious chapel, which reflected his power and influence. A major contribution, offering new documentary material and bringing together the widely dispersed information on the music composed to mark the major events of Charles's life. It offers.a very useful insight into music as one of many elements that served to convey the notion of the emperor-monarch in the Renaissance. TESS KNIGHTON Mary Ferer is Associate Professor at the College of Creative Arts, West Virginia University.Trade ReviewThe strongest commendation should be given to the painstaking and thorough research that is collated and presented in this book. This results in a handy volume that is virtually exhaustive in content ... Without a doubt, this book should be in the music libraries of universities, conservatories, and specialists interested in the Renaissance. * NOTES, December 2013 *[A] valuable [...] addition to any music library. * The CONSORT *Ferer has provided a comprehensive, critical overview that collects, evaluates, and summarizes much of the secondary literature and the disparate registers, paylists, and other primary sources. She offers a clear, readable narrative that makes sense out of a wide array of data. * FONTES ARTIS MUSICAE *Table of ContentsCharles V [1500-1558]: Defender of the Faith and Universal Monarch The Genesis of the Chapel The Reconstruction of the Capilla Flamenca The Chapel Ordinances: Ritual and Repertory at the Court Music and Ceremony at the Court of Charles V Charles V as Crusader and Christian Knight The Presentation of the Emperor Appendix A: Chapel Rosters Appendix B: Chapel Statutes and Ordinances Appendix C: Selected Chapel Personnel Bibliography
£80.75
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Lionel Tertis: The First Great Virtuoso of the
Book SynopsisThis new biography examines the life and work of Lionel Tertis, almost solely responsible for the rise of the viola in the twentieth century. Lionel Tertis [1876-1975] stands in the company of Ysaÿe, Kreisler, Casals, Thibaud and Rubinstein as one of the greatest instrumentalists - and arguably the greatest viola player - of all time. Such composers as Arnold Bax, Holst, and Vaughan Williams all wrote significant works for him; he was a member of a number of prominent string quartets; and he was later to design and promote his own 'Tertis model' viola. He is virtually synonymous with the increasing importance of the viola as a solo and recital instrument alongside the violin and the cello. This biography, the first full-length survey of his life, tells how he rose from humble beginnings to become 'the father of themodern viola'. It explores in detail his long and distinguished career, persuading composers to write works for the viola, arranging existing works for the instrument, editing and performing the music, teaching and coaching in Great Britain, and his performances in the United States. JOHN WHITE is a prominent viola teacher and performer; in 2000 he was awarded the International Viola Society's highest award for distinguished scholarship and contributions to the viola.Trade ReviewIn this exhaustively researched and compellingly written biography John White encapsulates this noble man and artist as never before...White's achievement is to bring not only his subject fully to life but also the times in which he lived via an impressive range of articles, recollections, reviews and letters...magnificent. * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE [Julian Haylock] *A finely woven narrative drawn from a rich array of primary sources. -- Richard Osborne * THE OLDIE *White, himself a distinguished violist, has written a highly informed and engaging biography...He offers an abundance of correspondence, articles, personal recollections and tributes; these, complemented by touching photographs, vividly bring to life Tertis's indomitable, sometimes fearsome, yet lovable character and even physical presence...This book is a must for violists and lovers of the instrument, and will interest many beyond this sphere. -- Nathaniel Vallois * THE STRAD *With a variety of endearing photographs and a useful discography...the book contains a wealth of characterful detail...many things to be grateful for. -- Benjamin Ivry * CLASSIC RECORD COLLECTOR *John White's superb full length biography...all of us with an interest in the heartland of the British musical renaissance should lose no time in getting this book. * BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY NEWSLETTER *The detailing and readability of this magnificent book from John White, the doyen of the viola and viola literature, is remarkable...anyone with an interest in the English musical renaissance will find the pages thronged with composers from that era. A well structured, sturdy and fascinating account of a life - a crusade for the viola and its repertoire. * MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL *This book belongs in the library of every school of music and in the personal library of every serious violist. NEWSLETTER of the * CANADIAN VIOLA SOCIETY *Hopefully this book, easily one of the greatest ever written about a violist, will find its way into hundreds of studios and libraries...and put Lionel Tertis' fascinating life and achievements into proper perspective. * JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN VIOLA SOCIETY *Table of ContentsThe Tertis Family Early Career The First World War Chamber Music Players American Tours Return to the Royal Academy of Music The Elgar and Walton Concertos The BBC Orchestra, Delius, Bax and Vaughan Williams A Shock Retirement The Richardson-Tertis Viola The Second World War Promoting the Tertis Model Viola Return to America and Eightieth Birthday Celebrations Second Marriage and Last Appearance TV Profile and Ninetieth Birhtday Final Years
£28.49
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Bohemian Baroque: Czech Musical Culture and
Book SynopsisExamines Czech musical culture c. 1600-1750 and the society that created and shaped it Traditional polemical histories of Bohemia and Moravia identify the period from the early seventeenth to the mid-eighteenth century as a "period of darkness" - particularly in terms of Czech-language culture. This book challengesthat interpretation from the perspective of musical culture and demonstrates that this was actually a vibrant, productive and innovative period, both for music in the Czech language and instrumental music. By focussing on the distinctive nature of Czech-language education and devotional traditions (rehabilitated along Catholic lines after the Thirty Years War), the book reveals a new understanding of Czech musical practices and repertoires as a beguiling blend of the older, non-conformist, vernacular traditions with the new, theatrical, Italian styles and genres. Drawing on a broad range of genres including sonatas, concertos, oratorios, Passion music, masses, motets, litanies andoperas, Bohemian Baroque reveals a fascinating culture and repertoire that have long been overlooked. In the Czech lands, seventeenth-century courtly life emerged in a much different way from many other European countries. Bohemian Baroque underscores the prominent role of rural life in shaping musical culture more broadly in Bohemia and Moravia and consequently draws attention to the works and environments of composers whose careers were primarily in the Czech lands (in contrast to the traditional focus on more famous émigré composers). The book also considers the influence of Germanic traditions on Czech musical culture; several areas of overlap reveal newly identified examples of shared repertoires-in some cases, German and Czech even appear within a single work. Taken as a whole, Bohemian Baroque posits a new paradigm in which received notions of "Czechness" in the musical culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries might be reconsidered. Bohemian Baroque will be required reading for anyone interested in the music of the Habsburg Empire and Central Europe, cultural history, or baroque music more generally. Students and scholars of musical style and music and identity will equally find much of interest here. Robert G. Rawson is Reader in Musicology and Performance at Canterbury Christ Church University.Trade Review[P]rovides a detailed and thorough study of music of the Bohemian Baroque. Rawson's understanding of the complex, blended culture of the time and place is noteworthy and provides an ideal backdrop for the discussion of the musical practices and repertoire. * SEVENTEENTH-CENTURY MUSIC *Unique and engaging. * SLAVIC AND EAST EUROPEAN JOURNAL *Bohemian Baroque emphasizes the vibrant networks of Baroque music-making, uncovers long-forgotten connections, and forges scholarly dialogue in twenty-first-century Europe. * MUSIC & LETTERS *Rawson's book is an extremely valuable and timely reassessment of a musical (and literary) culture that has languished in obscurity ... The musical culture of the Bohemian baroque has finally received the scholarly attention it deserves. * SLAVIC REVIEW *An admirably sensitive appraisal of a musical culture that has for too long remained in the dark while opening up numerous avenues for further research. * EARLY MUSIC *Rawson has mastered the Czech language ... Fascinating ... Rawson is a skilful guide. * MUSICAL TIMES *It fills a unique niche that has to date been unoccupied on the shelves of our music libraries, and paves the way for the search for Czech music at a more fundamental level. * THE CONSORT *Table of ContentsIntroduction National Narratives and Identities Cultural and Musical Idioms of Town and Country Devotional Practices and the Culture of Conversion 'Thither From the Country'-Village Life and Education Christmas Pastorellas 'Melancholy Ditties about Dirt and Disorder' Musical Devotions and the (re)Engineering of Patron Saints Between Venice and Prague-the Vivaldi Connection Identity on the Stage
£80.75
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Edmund Rubbra: Symphonist
Book SynopsisLeo Black, a pupil of Rubbra in the 1950s, presents a full-scale study of his symphonies (the first for twenty years). A biographical sketch throws light on legends about the BBC and Rubbra; there are full programme notes on eachsymphony, with accounts of important non-symphonic works. The music of Edmund Rubbra (1901-1986) has been unjustly neglected - arguably because its wide-ranging nature makes it difficult to categorise. He is perhaps best known as a symphonist; his eleven symphonies covered a period of musical and political upheaval [1934 - 1980], the first four reflecting the uneasy later 1930s, with a second global conflict no longer avoidable. The immediately-post-war ones document new emotional depths and his conversion, whilethe final symphonies show a man still in search of peace and reconciliation, overlooked by the world but certain he was on the right path. Leo Black, a pupil of Rubbra at Oxford in the 1950s, here presents a sympatheticfull-scale study of these works (the first for some twenty years). A succinct biographical sketch throws light on legends about the BBC and Rubbra; there are full programme notes on each symphony, with shorter accounts of important non-symphonic works, in particular a 'triptych' of concertos from the 1950s and major liturgical pieces composed around the time of the Second Vatican Council, after Rubbra's conversion to Catholicism. He also deals with the vexed question of Rubbra's mysticism. LEO BLACK is a former BBC chief producer for music and author of the highly-acclaimed Franz Schubert: Music and Belief [2003].Trade ReviewThis handsomely produced volume can be read with profit by amateurs, connoisseurs, and scholars alike ...Thoughtful, erudite and compelling. A labor of love, it is also the brief of a skilled advocate; Rubbra's music, now lost in the twilight of musical limbo, fully merits such a committed redeemer. * NOTES *The reader is treated to a wide-ranging discussion that is stylishly written and invitingly presented. * MUSICAL TIMES *[An] excellent new biography. * TLS *Such are [Black's] skill and insights that there are few works about which he does not have something penetrating to say. His discussion of individual works engages the interest of the lay reader in a way that eludes...most other writers on matters musical. He brings the music and the issues it raises alive...This is an important book that should be in the library of every self-respecting music lover. -- Robert Layton * INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW *
£23.75
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Music in Elizabethan Court Politics
Book SynopsisMusic and musical entertainments are here shown to be used for different ends, by both monarch and courtiers. Queen Elizabeth I (1558-1603) had a strong reputation for musicality; her court musicians, Thomas Tallis and William Byrd, even suggested that music was indispensable to the state. But what roles did music play in Elizabethan court politics? How did a musical image assist the Queen in projecting her royal authority? What influence did her private performances have on her courtships, diplomatic affairs, and relationships with courtiers? To what extent did Elizabeth control court music, or could others appropriate performances to enhance their own status and achieve their ambitions? Could noblemen, civic leaders, or even musicians take advantage of Elizabeth's love of music to present their complaints and petitions in song? This book unravels the connotations surrounding Elizabeth's musical image and traces the political roles of music at the Elizabethan court. It scrutinizes the most intimate performances within the Privy Chamber, analyses the masques and plays performed in the palaces, and explores the grandest musical pageantry of tournaments, civic entries, and royal progresses. This reveals how music served as a valuable means for both the tactful influencing of policies and patronage, and the construction of political identities and relationships. In the late Tudor period music was simultaneously a tool of authority for the monarch and an instrumentof persuasion for the nobility. KATHERINE BUTLER is a Senior Lecturer at Northumbria University, Newcastle.Trade ReviewA fascinating book. * THE CONSORT *No one who reads this fine study will again treat music as a background to the Elizabethan court. * AMERICAN HISTORICAL REVIEW *[A] major undertaking of importance, a careful and thorough study of numerous examples of secular music that is undergirded by a keen understanding of music's role in the political life of a fascinating era. * EARLY MUSIC *Tightly organized and impeccably researched, this engaging study triangulates the disciplines of musicology, literary history, and iconography to present the political roles music could play within Elizabeth's court, and adds welcome nuance to the preexisting scholarly narratives of monarchial control over the arts. * RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY *[O]ffers a ... detailed and focused look at the application of music to the specific context of the world of the Elizabethan court. * NORTHERN RENAISSANCE *Table of ContentsIntroduction Music, Authority, and the Royal Image The Politics of Intimacy The Royal Household and its Revels Noble Masculinity at the Tournaments Politics, Petition, and Complaint on the Royal Progresses Conclusion Appendices Bibliography
£75.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Performance and the Middle English Romance
Book SynopsisAn examination of if and how medieval romance was performed, uniquely uniting the perspective of a scholar and practitioner. Although English medieval minstrels performed gestes, a genre closely related to romance, often playing the harp or the fiddle, the question of if, and how, Middle English romance was performed has been hotly debated. Here,the performance tradition is explored by combining textual, historical and musicological scholarship with practical experience from a noted musician. Using previously unrecognised evidence, the author reconstructs a realistic model of minstrel performance, showing how a simple melody can interact with the text, and vice versa. She argues that elements in Middle English romance which may seem simplistic or repetitive may in fact be incomplete, as missing an integral musical dimension; metrical irregularities, for example, may be relics of sophisticated rhythmic variation that make sense only with music. Overall, the study offers both a more accurate comprehension of minstrel performance, and a deeper appreciation of the romances themselves. Linda Marie Zaerr is Professor of Medieval Studies at Boise State University.Trade Review[O]ffers the first comprehensive list of references to minstrel performances in the Middle English romances. . . . Zaerr's vivid account . . . provides a strong sense of how much we have lost now that we can only read the romances on the page. * EARLY MUSIC *Offer[s] a fresh perspective on Middle English romances not just as texts but also as performance acts. * COMITATUS 44 *[T]his is a splendid book, presenting a fine collection of textual evidence and commentary, which is a most valuable contribution to the field of medieval musicology. * THE CONSORT *This is a fascinating book, a sort of dialogue between scholar and performer, both being the same person [. . .] stimulating. * EARLY MUSIC REVIEW *With huge experience in performing Middle English romances, Professor Zaerr brings her valuable perspective as a performer to current textual, historical and musicological scholarship, in order to understand better how medieval minstrels performed romances with music. She shows how a broader, more fluid concept of romance can lead us to more profound understanding, and exciting revelations. -- Professor Marilyn Lawrence, New York University.Table of ContentsIntroduction Continental Traditions of Narrative Performance The English Minstrel in History and Romance Musical Instruments and Narrative Meter, Accent, and Rhythm Music and the Middle English Romance Conclusions Appendix A: Minstrel References in the Middle English Verse Romances Appendix B: Medieval Fiddle Tuning and Implications for Narrative Performance Glossary of Terms Bibliography
£76.00
Zone Books Jacques Offenbach and the Paris of His Time
Book Synopsis
£20.90
York Medieval Press The Songs and Travels of a Tudor Minstrel:
Book SynopsisA reconstruction of the life and works of a sixteenth-century minstrel, showing the tradition to be flourishing well into the Tudor period. Richard Sheale, a harper and balladeer from Tamworth, is virtually the only English minstrel whose life story is known to us in any detail. It had been thought that by the sixteenth century minstrels had generally been downgradedto the role of mere jesters. However, through a careful examination of the manuscript which Sheale almost certainly "wrote" (Bodleian Ashmole 48) and other records, the author argues that the oral tradition remained vibrant at this period, contrary to the common idea that print had by this stage destroyed traditional minstrelsy. The author shows that under the patronage of Edward Stanley, earl of Derby, and his son, from one of the most important aristocratic families in England, Sheale recited and collected ballads and travelled to and from London to market them. Amongst his repertoire was the famous Chevy Chase, which Sir Philip Sidney said moved his heart "more than witha trumpet". Sheale also composed his own verse, including a lament on being robbed of 60 on his way to London; the poem is reproduced in this volume. ANDREW TAYLOR lectures in the Department of English, University of Ottawa.Trade Review[A] carefully researched study of one minstrel, one manuscript, and a social world in which they were both living and already taking on an antiqued patina. * JOURNAL OF FOLKLORE RESEARCH *Impressive, productive and insightful. * ENGLISH HISTORICAL REVIEW *Contains a wealth of information useful to any student of early modern musical traditions. * HISTORY, December 2013 *Provides a fascinating insight into a transitional moment in the history of English balladry. . This is an intriguing book, highly recommended. * FOLK MUSIC JOURNAL *Offers important revisions to our understanding of the sixteenth century musician and his relationship to the various communities he served. * THE MEDIEVAL REVIEW *[A] stimulating and well written study. [...] Historians, literary scholars, folklorists, anthropologists, and singers will all find [...] material to set them thinking. * RENAISSANCE QUARTERLY *[A] valuable study. * REVIEW OF ENGLISH STUDIES *Taylor's piecing together of Sheale's life and work adds greatly to our understanding of late minstrelsy and the social and political world that formed its background. * EARLY MUSIC *Table of ContentsPreface Introduction: The Minstrel Rides Out The Minstrel of Tamworth and His Audiences The Stanleys, The Stanley Poem, and the Campaign of 1558 Ashmole 48 and Its History The Hunting of the Cheviot and the Battle of Otterburn 'More than with a Trumpet': Tudor Responses to the Cheviot Ballads The Lay of the Last Minstrel Appendix: Five Poems Bearing the Name of Richard Sheale Bibliography
£63.00
Henry Bradshaw Society The Rosslyn Missal: An Irish manuscript in the
Book SynopsisA manuscript rather obliquely named from its once having been at Rosslyn Castle, but that at the time of this edition had come to the Advocates' Library at Edinburgh, which since 1925 is part of the National Library of Scotland (MS Advocates 18.5.19). Lawlor dated it to the late 13th or early 14th century, and saw it as an English copy of an Irish exemplar in turn descended from a book belonging to the Benedictine nuns of St Werbugh, Chester, in the 12thcentury.
£49.50
Henry Bradshaw Society The Processional of the Nuns of Chester, Edited
Book SynopsisThis manuscript, now now Huntington Library, MS EL 34 B 7, contains a fifteenth- century Latin text interesting for its admixture of English rubrics, as well as prayers and hymns. Chester was in the Lichfield diocese, and thus inthe Province of Canterbury, so it is no surprise that the text is closer to Sarum than York usage.
£42.75