Music composition Books

Book SynopsisA practical but scholarly guide to Japanese instruments by one of the country's leading composers. The unique sounds of the biwa, shamisen, and other traditional instruments from Japan are heard more and more often in works for the concert hall and opera house. Composing for Japanese Instruments is a practical orchestration and instrumentation manual with contextual and relevant historical information for composers who wish to learn how to compose for traditional Japanese instruments. Widely regarded as the authoritative text on the subject in Japan and China, it contains hundreds of musical examples, diagrams, photographs, and fingering charts. Many of the musical examples can be heard on a companion website. The book also contains valuable appendices, one of works author Minoru Miki composed using Japanese traditional instruments, and one of works by other composers -- including Toru Takemitsu and Henry Cowell -- using these instruments. Minoru Miki was a composer of international renown, recognized in Japan as a pioneer in writing for Japanese traditional instruments. Marty Regan is associate professor of music at Texas A&M University. Philip Flavin is associate professor at the Osaka University of Economicsand Law and adjunct senior research associate of Monash University in Melbourne, Australia.Trade ReviewThe standard reference work on the subject. A fascinating book. Helpful advice on what may bother or help a player of a specific traditional Japanese instrument. [Now that the book has been reprinted without CDs,] we can listen to [the] musical examples on-line. The five and a half page introduction should be required reading for anyone interested in any traditional Japanese art form, as it deals with what makes Japanese music Japanese, and by extension what makes Japanese art and aesthetics Japanese. * NOSTALGIA (LUTE & EARLY GUITAR SOCIETY OF JAPAN *An invaluable resource for all composers, scholars, and performers who are interested in Japanese instruments. The aptly chosen examples from both traditional repertoire and Miki's own contemporary pieces, clear charts for ranges and fingerings, and in-depth discussion of idiomatic performance techniques go a long way to help demystify these beautiful instruments. I wish I had this book many, many years ago. -- Ken Ueno, Rome Prize-winning composer and Professor at the University of California, BerkeleyComposing for Japanese Instruments is a well-organized and systematic manual on how to approach, listen to, and compose for traditional Japanese instruments. When Minoru Miki first published it in 1996, he brought alive the arcane world of traditional Japanese instruments and music for a new generation of Japanese composers. Now, with the English edition, composers and scholars from around the world will have the same opportunity to discover and utilize the rich musical possibilities inherent in these beautiful instruments. --, Shakuhachi performer, Artistic Director, The International House of Japan, Inc. -- Christopher Yohmei BlasdelThis is the book I've always wished to have. It is not only complete in teaching about Japanese instruments but also challenging and inspiring for those of us who have an interest in new sounds and ways of making music. --Hyo-shin Na, composer * . *A most welcome addition to the few items available in English concerning Japanese musical instruments. -- Philip Gelb, composer and shakuhachi playerTable of ContentsWind Instruments String Instruments (Lutes) String Instruments (Zithers) Percussion Instruments Afterword Appendix I: Works for Japanese Instruments by Minoru Miki Appendix II: Contemporary Works for Traditional Japanese Instruments by Composers Other than Minoru Miki, 1981-2015 Notes Glossary Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisArguably the most important British post-minimalist composer, Gavin Bryars has worked in classical music, jazz, free improvisation, minimalism, historicism, avant-garde, and experimental music. This new book brings together musicians and academics who have worked with Bryars, each discussing one particular aspect of his work.Trade Review'Listening to The Sinking of the Titanic, Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet, Double Bass Concerto (Farewell to St. Petersburg), Cello Concerto (Farewell to Philosophy) and One Last Bar then Joe Can Sing gave me the distinct impression of a thoughtful, committed composer with a very strong personal voice - always the main issue for me.' - Steve Reich; 'The music of Gavin Bryars falls under no category. It is mongrel, full of sensuality and wit and is deeply moving. He is one of the few composers who can put slapstick and primal emotion alongside each other. He allows you to witness new wonders in the sounds around you by approaching them from a completely new angle. With a third ear maybe?' - Michael OndaatjeTable of ContentsForeword by Steve Reich Preface by David Wordsworth Prologue - an interview with Gavin Bryars 1. Vocal Music - John Potter 2. Choral Music - David Wordsworth 3. Opera - David Wordsworth 4. Jazz and Improvisation - Brian Morton 5. Experimental Music - Virginia Anderson 6. Dance - Roger Heaton 7. Titanic and Jesus' Blood - Brian Morton 8. Orchestral Music - Martin Cotton 9. Notes from a Collaborator - Blake Morrison 10. The Adnan Songbook - Anna Maria Friman 11. The Flower of Friendship - The Gavin Bryars Ensemble - Audrey Riley 12. Bryars and Art School - Simon Strange 13. After Handel's 'Vesper' and the Harpsichord's Dual Life - Mahan Esfahani 14. Tributes - Howard Skempton and Bryn Harrison Epilogue: Career and Evolution - Gavin Bryars Appendices Bryars' Desert Island Discs Catalogue of Works Arrangements by others Discography Contributors Index of Names Acknowledgements

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn effective and inspiring guide to songwriting by prolific, iconic singer-songwriter Dar Williams.How to Write a Song That Matters is an invaluable guide to writing music by a woman who knows how to do it and do it well: iconic singer-songwriter, Dar Williams. For years now, Williams has led songwriting retreats for musicians, from beginners to professionals, in which she elevates the process of songwriting over the assessment of the product. This book makes those intimate experiences accessible for songwriters across the globe, gifting them with the insight Williams has gleaned from her decades of experience. First, it encourages songwriters to find something that inspires them and then to follow that inspiration, letting the clues of those first few notes or lines lead their narrative. Soon, the initial rhythms, the unique sounds of the melody, and/or specific vocabulary emerge, giving birth to a 'voice' or a 'world' that the song can exist in. As the writer proceeds, Williams encourages them to ask themselves: 'Where did I go? Where did I REALLY go? What happened? What REALLY happened? What am I bringing back?' There are many other songwriting guides that hint to the reader that writing a 'hit song' may be on the horizon if only the reader correctly follows the guide or program. In this book, however, Williams shows readers how to tap into their OWN creative process, using their psyches, their unique life experiences, and their muses to write the songs that they are meant to write. By focusing on the process of creating a song that matters, as opposed to producing a well-constructed 'widget from a song factory,' songwriters will be able to establish their own voice and use it to make meaningful music. Perfect for music lovers of all sorts who want to write songs, How to Write a Song That Matters is a one-of-a-kind-book that readers will turn to for guidance time and time again.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWhat makes us fall in love with a song? What makes us want to write our own songs? Do songs help? Do songs help us live better lives? And do the lives we live help us write better songs? Following publication of Let's Go (So We Can Get Back) and How To Write One Song, both New York Times bestsellers that cemented and expanded his legacy as one of America's best-loved performers and songwriters, Jeff Tweedy is back with another disarming, beautiful, and inspiring book.Featuring over fifty songs that have both changed Jeff''s life and influenced his musicincluding songs by the Velvet Underground, Joni Mitchell, Otis Redding, Dolly Parton, and Billie Eilishas well as thoughts on Jeff''s own songs, World Within a Song asks why do we listen to music, why we love songs, and how music can connect us to each other and to ourselves.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA story about the legacy of Black classical music in Britain and the life of Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, heartbreaking and uplifting in equal measure.The colour of the sonicBlack notesvoice meeting voicepiercing through timeAt a prestigious music college, where most of her classmates are white, wealthy, and obliviously privileged, Song struggles to relate to the traditional syllabus.When she discovers the composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor, she learns of the legacy of Black classical music in Britain. His captivating scores inspire her, but the negative voices in her mind still threaten to drown them out.As Samuel''s story unfolds alongside Song''s own, Recognition asks how we can acknowledge and celebrate those who came before.Amanda Wilkin''s beautiful play, co-created with Rachael Nanyonjo and produced by Talawa Theatre Company, premiered at Talawa Studios in Fairfield Halls, London, in J

Read more less

Book SynopsisBerlioz's Symphonie fantastique attracts wide audiences and is acknowledged as a landmark of music history. This book situates the symphony within French Romanticism and considers influences, literary as well as musical, that shaped its conception. Richly detailed and accessibly written, it will appeal to music lovers, scholars, and students.Table of Contents1. Introduction, programme, outline; 2. Literary and musical romanticism; 3. Symphonie fantastique in Berlioz's lifetime; 4. First movement: 'Rêveries, passions'; 5. Second movement: 'Un bal'; 6. Third movement: 'Scène aux champs'; 7. Fourth movement: 'Marche au supplice'; 8. Fifth movement: 'Songe d'une nuit de Sabbat'; 9. The sequel; reception by composers; 10. Reception: Schumann and musical form; 11. Other approaches; Conclusion; Notes; Bibliography; Index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Routledge Companion to Teaching Music Composition in Schools: International Perspectives offers a comprehensive overview of teaching composing from a wide range of countries around the world. Addressing the current state of composition pedagogy from primary to secondary school levels and beyond, the volume explores issues, including different curricular and extracurricular settings, cultural aspects of composing, aesthetics, musical creativity, the role of technology, and assessment.With contributors from over 30 countries, this volume encompasses theoretical, historical, empirical, and practical approaches and enables comparisons across different countries and regions. Chapters by experienced educators, composers, and researchers describe in depth the practices taking place in different international locations. Interspersed with these chapters, interludes by the volume editors contextualize and problematize the teaching and learning of composing music. The volumTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Battle Dances and 808s: Teaching Music Creation in Australia 2. From Composing Project to University Course: Formal and Informal Pathways of Learning to Compose in Music Classrooms in Austria 3. Expanding Analytical Eyes and Ears on Compositional Processes: Alternative Musical Pedagogies on Brazilian Education Interlude I: What is Composing? 4. Teaching Composing in Canadian Music Classrooms 5. Assessing Composition/Improvisation in School Music Education in the Global Age of China 6. The Challenges, Models and Outcomes of Composing in Croatian Compulsory Schools Interlude II: Creativity and Composing in Education 7. Composing in the Classroom: The Case of Czech Republic 8. Mapping the Field of Composing Pedagogy in Finland: From Musical Inventions to Cultural Participation 9. As For Us in France – Why Do We Call It Creation? Interlude III: Starting Points of Composing? 10. Composition in Germany in its Fledgling Stages Between Extracurricular Projects and School Music Classes 11. Attending to Creative Music Making and Composing in Greek School Music Curricula: Preliminary Findings from a Document Analysis 12. Composition and Creativity in Music Education in Iceland Interlude IV: Ways to Teach Composing 13. Composition Pedagogy in Italian Schools: A Model for Teaching Music Composition Through Processes 14. A Sheet of Paper Considered as an Instrument: Examining the Separation of Form and Content in Creative Music Education 15. Did You Write That Song? Learning Composition in the Kenyan Secondary School Interlude V: Considering Gender, Equality, Diversity and Inclusion in Teaching Composing 16. Policies and Practices in Teaching Music Composition in Mexican Schools 17. Music Composition as Playful Activity Perspectives on Teaching Composing from the Netherlands 18. Home-grown Progressivism: Composing in Aotearoa New Zealand Primary and Secondary Schools Interlude VI: Hegemony and Axiology in Composing Pedagogies 19. Teaching Music Composition in Nigerian Classrooms: Current Practice, Training and Creative Developments (With Particular Reference to Institutions in Southern Nigeria) 20. Composition in the Classroom in Norwegian Elementary School 21. Creativity in the Polish Music Classroom: Historical Perspectives and Recent Actions Interlude VII: The Role of Digital Technology in Classroom Composing 22. Making a Difference in the Music Classroom: The Role of Music Composition in Reframing Pupils’ Attitudes Towards Music Education in a Portuguese Classroom Context 23. Creativity and Composition in South African School Curricula 24. Music Composition in Spanish Schools Interlude VIII: Why Compose in Music Education? Arguments Between Curricular and Extracurricular Settings 25. Composition and Creative Music Making in Swedish Public Schools and Other Educational Settings 26. Composing in Schools: A Perspective on the Multilingual Context of Switzerland 27. The Teaching of Music Composition in Trinidad and Tobago Interlude IX: Notation – its Place and Role in Composing Pedagogies 28. Composition-Oriented Creative Activities in Music Lessons of Turkish General Schools 29. Teaching and Assessing Composing in English Secondary Schools: An Investigation into Music Teacher Confidence 30. Assessment of Composing in the Lower Secondary School in England Interlude X: The Place of Assessment in Teaching and Learning Composing 31. The Place and Value of Composition in the Music Curriculum in Scotland 32. Pedagogical Models of Teaching and Learning Music Composition in Higher Education: Practices and Perspectives from Uganda 33. When Creative Stars Align: Music Composition in K-12 Schools in the US 34. Situating Composition in Music Education in the United States Conclusion

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe revised edition of Sync or Swarm promotes an ecological view of musicking, moving us from a subject-centered to a system-centered view of improvisation. It explores cycles of organismic self-regulation, cycles of sensorimotor coupling between organism and environment, and cycles of intersubjective interaction mediated via socio-technological networks. Chapters funnel outward, from the solo improviser (Evan Parker), to nonlinear group dynamics (Sam Rivers trio), to networks that comprise improvisational communities, to pedagogical dynamics that affect how individuals learn, completing the hermeneutic circle. Winner of the Society for Ethnomusicology''s Alan Merriam prize in its first edition, the revised edition features new sections that highlight electro-acoustic and transcultural improvisation, and concomitant issues of human-machine interaction and postcolonial studies.Trade Review"I am pleased to have had my work subjected to such rigorous scrutiny and I appreciate all the thinking David Borgo has done in an area where it is almost impossible to make any single uncontested statement!" -- Evan Parker, saxophonist/improvisor/composer"Integrating a broad range of interdisciplinary considerations - from complex systems and sociological theories to cognition and consciousness - saxophonist/composer/scholar David Borgo's Sync or Swarm makes important contributions to the expanding dialogue about contemporary improvised music." -- Ed Sarath, Professor of Music and Chair, Department of Jazz and Contemporary Improvisation; Director, Program in Creativity and Consciousness Studies, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor"Getting excited while you are READING about MUSIC may be common to ethno-musicologists. But for me (a cognitive and computer scientist), music generally lives in one part of my brain while scientific/academic work lives in another. David Borgo's Sync or Swarm successfully lights up both sides of my brain!" -- Richard K. Belew, Professor and Chair, Cognitive Science Department, University of California, San Diego"Not only is this an important book for specialists working in areas of both contemporary music and contemporary science, but it also offers absorbing reading to improvising musicians, their listeners, and the growing cadre of smart, engaged folks fascinated by the human implications of 'complex' music, chaos theory, and other once-foreboding realms." -- David Ake, Associate Professor of Music, University of Nevada, Reno; author of Jazz Cultures"Borgo is familiar with a wide range of the recent literature on complexity, chaos, embodiment, etc. and he's done a creative job of bringing that into his main topic: free-jazz group improvisation." -- R. Keith Sawyer, Associate Professor of Education, Washington University; author of Explaining Creativity: The Science of Human Innovation"David Borgo's Sync or Swarm, a provocative, gutsy, and potentially revolutionary attempt to apply chaos theory, fractal plotting, sociological Actor-Network Theory, the concept of swarm intelligence, and other analytical templates to improvised music, wow!" -- Christopher Delaurenti, The Stranger"a provocative, gutsy, and potentially revolutionary attempt to apply chaos theory, fractal plotting, sociological Actor-Network Theory, the concept of swarm intelligence, and other analytical templates to improvised music. Wow!" * The Stranger *"Worth noting by British readers is the amount of space devoted to Evan, including some new quotations". -- Brian Priestly, JazzwiseThis new edition of Borgo’s Sync or Swarm is a most welcome addition to the growing literature emerging out of the new field of Improvisational Studies. Borgo’s great strength is to point us toward emerging methods and theories that can both help us understand improvisation in all its complexity, and the ways improvisation itself can help make sense of complex and dynamic social and cultural practices. Here in Sync or Swarm, Black diasporic art is shown to be at the forefront not just of creative practices, but of scientific ones too. It is refreshing to see Black art taken seriously as both a test-case for new theories in cognition, group behavior and complex systems, and as a way of enacting such theories. If you want to see where main-stream research in improvisational studies is likely to be a decade from now, read this new edition of Sync or Swarm. -- Eric Lewis, Associate Professor of Philosophy at McGill University, Montreal, Canada, and co-editor Improvisation and Social Aesthetics (2017)With this expanded edition, Borgo presents to us an exquisite, ecological, system-centred view of a profoundly incorporating, embodied musicking practice – improvisation. His journey, deeply influenced by contemporary research in 4E cognitive science (embodied, embedded, enactive, and extended), takes us on a metaphorical Mobius strip that illuminates not only the process and practice, the detritus and debris of musical improvisations, but, that also shows us improvisation as a microcosm of our perception of the world, highlighting the necessity for an open, dynamic, adaptive and emergent collective response to current, pressing social and environmental challenges. -- Franziska Schroeder, Professor of Music and Cultures, Queen’s University Belfast, United Kingdom, co-editor of Soundweaving: Writings on Improvisation (2014)David Borgo's original book is already a landmark in improvisation studies. His approach, which seeks to explore improvisation through the lens of several contemporary sciences such as complexity theory, embodied/enactive cognition and actor-network theory, is absolutely original and opens up a field of interdisciplinary studies that has been expanding more and more in recent decades. This new edition brings important updates to the original work, including reflections on electro-acoustic improvisation, cross-cultural improvisation, man-machine interaction, and postcolonial cultural studies. With regard to this last topic, I am sure that my colleagues (improvisors and researchers) in Latin America will be especially pleased. -- Rogério Luiz Moraes Costa, Professor of Music, Improvisor and Researcher, University of São Paulo, Brazil, author of Música Errante: o jogo da improvisação livre (2016)Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Preface Preface (first edition) 1. The Sound and Science of Surprise The Age of Complexity Sync or Swarm 2. The Study of Improvisation The Field of Improvisation Studies Referent-Based Improvisation Referent-Free Improvisation Freedom Music Freedom Is, Freedom Ain’t Improvisation Is, Improvisation Isn’t A Marvel of Paradox 3. Strange Loops The Embodied Mind Enaction and Prediction Taking the Note for a Walk It’s a Bit Like Juggling Lived Body and Living Body On Repeat Fractal Correlation Circular Causality Hall of Mirrors 4. Rivers of Consciousness The Art of the Trio Complexity and Emergence Musical Elephants The Sound of One Note Clapping Time and the Qualia of Experience The Phase Space of Improvisation Attractors Hues of Melanin Fractal Correlation Flights and Perchings 5. Orderly Disorder Chaotics Complex Adaptive Systems Dissipative Structuring Ancient to Future Sketches of Another Future 6. Sync and Swarm The Science of Sync Entrainment A Coordination Problem Insect Music The Art of Improvisation in the Age of Computational Participation The Puzzle of Coaction A Web Without a Spider Reassembling the Social 7. Harnessing Complexity The Map is Not the Territory Situated Musicianship Group Creativity Yes, and… Comprovisation The Shores of Multiplicity Complementarity and Metastability References Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles, Revised Edition, Kenneth Womack brings the band's story vividly to lifefrom their salad days as a Liverpool Skiffle group and their apprenticeship in the nightclubs and mean streets of Hamburg through their early triumphs at the legendary Cavern Club and the massive onslaught of Beatlemania itself. By mapping the group's development as an artistic fusion, Womack traces the Beatles' creative arc from their first, primitive recordings through Abbey Road and the twilight of their career. In this revised edition, Womack addresses new insights in Beatles-related scholarship since the original publication of Long and Winding Roads, along with hundreds of the group's outtakes released in the intervening years. The updated edition also affords attention to the Beatles' musical debt to Rhythm and Blues, as well as to key recent discoveries that vastly shift our understanding of formative events in the band's timelessTrade ReviewCombining masterful storytelling and intellectual rigor, Kenneth Womack takes readers on a spellbinding tour of Beatles history. Journeying through the band’s music-making album by album, this revised edition of Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles captures all the dynamism, poignancy, and magic behind the now-iconic discography. An engaging and invaluable text, Womack demonstrates once more why he is a leading voice in Beatles scholarship. * Christine Feldman-Barrett, author of A Women’s History of the Beatles (Bloomsbury, 2021) *Follow the Beatles down their Long and Winding Roads with Kenneth Womack as guide. This is the Goldilocks choice of Beatles books: meticulous sourcing and highly readable prose strike a just-right balance. Incorporating the latest research in an ever-growing field, the revised edition continues to be the choice for scholars and students of the band. Offering an authoritative reference and a book to tuck into, Womack will have you turning the pages of a story you only thought you knew. * Katie Kapurch, co-editor of New Critical Perspectives on the Beatles (2016) *Table of ContentsPrologue: The End 1. The Beginning 2. A Cellarful of Noise 3. And the Band Begins to Play 4. Rock and Roll Music 5. The Biggest Showbiz Town Ever 6. War-Weary 7. Yesterday and Today 8. Plastic Soul 9. The End of the Road 10. The Act You’ve Known for All These Years 11. Roll Up for the Mystery Tour 12. Whiter Shades of Pale 13. Getting Back 14. The Dream Is Over Epilogue: Long Live the Dream Acknowledgments Bibliography Notes Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisCombining cultural analysis with historical and personal accounts of a century of musical life at the American Academy in Rome, this volume provides a history of the AAR's Rome Prize in Composition. The American Academy in Rome launched its Rome Prize in Musical Composition in 1921, a time in the United States of rapidly changing ideas about national identity, musical values, and the significance of international artistic exchange. Music and Musical Composition at the American Academy in Rome tells the story of this prestigious fellowship. Combining cultural analysis with historical and personal accounts of a century of musical life at the American Academy in Rome, the book offers new perspectives on a wide range of critical topics: patronage and urban culture, institutions and professional networks, musical aesthetics, American cultural diplomacy, and the maturation ofa concert-music repertory in the United States during the twentieth century. Contributors: Martin Brody, Elliott Carter, John Harbison, Christina Huemer, Carol J. Oja, Andrea Olmstead, Vivian Perlis, Judith Tick, Richard Trythall Martin Brody is the Catherine Mills Davis Professor of Music at Wellesley College, and served as the Andrew Heiskell Arts Director at the American Academy in Rome from 2007 to 2010.Table of ContentsIntroduction The Rome Prize from Leo Sowerby to David Diamond A History of the Rome Prize in Music Composition, 1947-2006 The Classicist Origins of the Rome Prize in Music Composition, 1890-1920 "Picked Young Men," Facilitating Women, and Emerging Composers: Establishing an American Prix de Rome Forging an International Alliance: Leo Sowerby, Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge, and the Impact of a Rome Prize Class of '54: Friendship and Ideology at the American Academy in Rome What They Said: American Composers on Rome The New Music Scene in Rome and the American Presence since World War II: Excerpts from a Roundtable, Moderated by Richard Trythall For the Academy Two Visits in 1981 Music Resources at the American Academy in Rome Appendix: Composers at the American Academy in Rome, 1921-40 Selected Bibliography List of Contributors Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisMasterful essays honoring the great pianist and critic Charles Rosen, on masterpieces from Bach and Beethoven to Chopin, Verdi, and Stockhausen. Charles Rosen, the pianist and man of letters, is perhaps the single most influential writer on music of the past half-century. While Rosen's vast range as a writer and performer is encyclopedic, it has focused particularly on theliving "canonical" repertory extending from Bach to Boulez. Inspired in its liveliness and variety of critical approaches by Charles Rosen's challenging work, Variations on the Canon offers original essays by some of the world's most eminent musical scholars. Contributors address such issues as style and compositional technique, genre, influence and modeling, and reception history; develop insights afforded by close examination of compositional sketches; and consider what language and metaphors might most meaningfully convey insights into music. However diverse the modes of inquiry, each essay sheds new light on the works of those composers posterity has deemed central to the modern Western musical tradition. Contributors: Pierre Boulez, Scott Burnham, Elliott Carter, Robert Curry, Walter Frisch, David Gable, Philip Gossett, Jeffrey Kallberg, Joseph Kerman, Richard Kramer, William Kinderman, Lewis Lockwood, Sir Charles Mackerras, Robert L. Marshall, Robert P. Morgan, Charles Rosen, Julian Rushton, David Schulenberg, László Somfai, Leo Treitler, James Webster, and Robert Winter. Robert Curry is principalof the Conservatorium High School and honorary senior lecturer in the Centre for Medieval Studies, University of Sydney; David Gable is Assistant Professor of Music at Clark-Atlanta University; Robert L. Marshall is Louis, Frances, and Jeffrey Sachar Professor Emeritus of Music at Brandeis University.Trade Review[Charles Rosen's] reviews show him tackling some of the major issues and names in musicology with an authority that few could muster and in a style that is compulsively readable, a combination of acid and elegance. . . . A series of essays by well-established scholars covering subject areas associated with the honoree [and] three short tributes from Pierre Boulez, Elliot Carter, and Charles Mackerras. -- W. Dean Sutcliffe * MUSIC & LETTERS *When it comes to superlatives, . . . [pianist and author] Charles Rosen is the genuine article. . . . All of the essays in this fine book are insightful or informative. . . . For [Scott] Burnham, . . . Rosen's readers 'are in for something special.' The same can be said for readers of this book. -- Mark Kroll * EARLY MUSIC AMERICA *The eminence of most contributors is matched by the eminence of the composers discussed: from Bach to Boulez and Stockhausen via Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Verdi, Brahms and Schoenberg. -- Peter Williams * TIMES LITERARY SUPPLEMENT *It is difficult to imagine a more intellectually invigorating and heartfelt tribute to the man Mackerras rightly describes as 'one of the truly great musical minds of our time'. -- Julian Haylock * INTERNATIONAL PIANO *Each of the essays . . . is on a subject that Rosen himself has written on [or music that he's recorded] with magisterial authority. . . . The final section comprises a trio of short tributes by three 'big names' -- Pierre Boulez, Elliott Carter, and Charles Mackerras. . . . [It] made me keen to go back to the music and hear it again for myself, through more enlightened ears. One can't ask more from a piece of writing about music than that. -- Mark L. Lehman * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *As fine a collection of writings on music as has been created in our time. --Maynard Solomon, author of Mozart: A Life, and Late Beethoven: Music, Thought, Imagination * . *It is hard to imagine a more vivid testimony to the far-reaching and enduring impact of Charles Rosen's musical thoughts, words, and deeds over the last half century than the extraordinary line-up of scholars assembled in these pages. The copious new insights these essays offer shows how much we can learn through encounters with Rosen's provocative, inspiring, and energizing writings and performances, all usefully cataloged in the extensive discography and bibliography. -- Joseph Auner, Tufts UniversityTable of ContentsFugue and Its Discontents - Joseph Kerman Fugues, Form, and Fingering: Sonata Style in Bach's Preludes and Fugues - David Schulenberg Notational Irregularities as Attributes of a New Style: The Case of Haydn's "Sun" Quartet in F Minor, Op. 20, no. 5 - Laszlo Somfai The Fugal Moment: On a Few Bars in Mozart's Quintet in C Major, K. 515 - Richard Kramer A Tale of Two Quintets: Mozart's K. 452 and Beethoven's Opus 16 - William Kinderman Vestas Feuer: Beethoven on the Path to Leonore - Lewis Lockwood Sonority and Structure: Observations on Beethoven's Early and Middle-Period Piano Compositions - Robert L. Marshall Recomposing the Grosse Fuge: Beethoven and Opus 134 - Prof. Robert Winter Schubert, the Tarantella, and the Quartettsatz, D. 703 - Julian Rushton On the Scherzando Nocturne - Jeffrey Kallberg Chopin's Modular Forms - Robert P. Morgan The Hot and the Cold: Verdi Writes to Antonio Somma about Re Lear - Philip Gossett The Ironic German: Schoenberg and the Serenade, Op. 24 - Walter Frisch Words for the Surface: Boulez, Stockhausen, and "Allover" Painting - David Gable Rosen's Modernist Haydn - James Webster Facile Metaphors, Hidden Gaps, Short Circuits: Should We Adore Adorno? - Leo Treitler The Music of a Classical Style - Scott Burnham Montaigne hors de son propos - Charles Rosen Tribute: Une culture vraiment intimidante - Pierre Boulez Tribute: Charles Rosen for His Eightieth Birthday - Elliott Carter Tribute: Charles Rosen: A Personal Appreciation by a Contemporary - Charles Mackerras Appendix 1: A Discography of the Recordings of Charles Rosen - David Gable Appendix 2: A Bibliography of the Writings of Charles Rosen - Robert Curry

Read more less

Book SynopsisA collection of essays on new music, composers, and issues in American music criticism and aestheticson by composer and music theorist Robert Morris. The Whistling Blackbird: Essays and Talks on New Music is the long-awaited book of essays from Robert Morris, the greatly admired composer and music theorist. In these essays, Morris presents a new and multifaceted view ofrecent developments in American music. His views on music, as well as his many compositions, defy easy classification, favoring instead a holistic, creative, and critical approach. The Whistling Blackbird contains fourteen essays and talks, divided into three parts, preceded by an "Overture" that portrays what it means to compose music in the United States today. Part 1 presents essays on American composers John Cage, Milton Babbitt, Richard Swift, and Stefan Wolpe. Part 2 comprises talks on Morris's music that illustrate his ideas and creative approaches over forty years of music composition, including his outdoor compositions, an ongoing project that began in 1999. Part 3 includes four essays in music criticism: on the relation of composition to ethnomusicology; on phenomenology and attention; on music theory at the millennium; and on issues in musical time. Threaded throughout this collection of essays are Morris's diverse and seemingly disparate interests and influences. English romantic poetry, mathematical combinatorics, group and set theory, hiking, Buddhist philosophy, Chinese and Japanese poetry and painting, jazz and nonwestern music, chaos theory, linguistics, and the American transcendental movement exist side by side in a fascinating and eclectic portrait of American musical composition at the dawn of the new millennium. Robert Morris is Professor of Music Composition at the Eastman School of Music, University of Rochester.Trade ReviewRobert Morris is a composer with a long and active career writing music who has through his writings about music established himself as a major figure in the field of music theory. The Whistling Blackbird both reveals how his renown came about and illustrates vividly why he deserves such recognition as a theorist. One hopes that it will prompt further serious interest in him as a composer. Each essay reaches far beyond the workshop to engage reasons why the music was made at all. Since much of the book seems to be engaged with placing surprising ideas in conversation with each other, the reader will feel invited to join in. -- Andrew Mead * AMERICAN MUSIC *These wide-ranging essays [are drawn] from a lifetime of thinking and teaching about all music, [including] John Cage, Milton Babbitt, [and] 'the confluence between Western art music and ethnomusicology.'. . . The book holds together nicely, not least because of Morris's direct, informative writing style. -- William K. Kearns * CHOICE *

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisContemporary British composers talk about their music, with the emphasis on the aesthetic sensibilities and psychological processes behind composing rather than technique. This book features interviews with leading and upcoming British composers who use the same raw materials but produce classical music that takes very different forms. Uniquely, Andrew Palmer approaches the sometimes baffling worldof contemporary music from the point of view of the inquisitive, music-loving amateur rather than the professional critic or musicologist. Readers can eavesdrop on conversations in which composers are asked a number of questionsabout their professional lives and practices, with the emphasis on the aesthetic sensibilities and psychological processes behind composing rather than technique. Throughout, the book seeks to explore why composers write the kindof music they write, and what they want their music to do. Along the way, readers are confronted with an unspoken but equally important question: if some composers are writing music that the public doesn't want to engage with, who's to blame for that? Are composers out of touch with their public, or are we too lazy to give their music the attention it deserves? ANDREW PALMER is a freelance writer and photographer. He is editor of Composing in Words: William Alwyn on His Art (Toccata Press, 2009), author of Divas... In Their Own Words (Vernon Press, 2000) and co-author of A Voice Reborn (Arcadia Books, 1999). Since 1998 he has been a corresponding editor of Strings magazine (USA). Interviewees include: Julian Anderson, Simon Bainbridge, Sally Beamish, George Benjamin, Michael Berkeley, Judith Bingham, Harrison Birtwistle, Howard Blake, Gavin Bryars, Diana Burrell, Tom Coult, Gordon Crosse, Jonathan Dove, David Dubery, Michael Finnissy, Cheryl Frances-Hoad, Alexander Goehr, Howard Goodall, Christopher Gunning, Morgan Hayes, Robin Holloway, Oliver Knussen, James MacMillan, Colin Matthews, David Matthews, Peter Maxwell Davies, John McCabe, Thea Musgrave, Roxanna Panufnik, Anthony Payne, Elis Pehkonen, Joseph Phibbs, Gabriel Prokofiev, John Rutter, Robert Saxton, John Tavener, Judith Weir, Debbie Wiseman, Christopher WrightTrade ReviewA welcome treat for music enthusiasts. * CHOMBEC *This is not an ordinary Q&A compilation. Palmer provided the general questions beforehand and then elicited candid and personal information not likely to be found in other biographical resources, rendering the responses with clarity and sympathy. * CHOICE *A fascinating collection of interviews with leading and upcoming composers from our shores, and includes conversations with numeraries such as Sir Harrison Birtwistle, the Matthews brothers, Jonathan Dove and Roxanna Panufnik. * BIRMINGHAM POST *Dickinson is authoritative, lucid, persuasive, lively and sharply witty. . . . With fine illustrations and selected music examples, this is a richly satisfying book. * CLASSICAL MUSIC MAGAZINE *Impressive. -- Paul Griffiths * TLS *[A] compelling book BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE * . *[A] compendious collection of interviews. * THE SUNDAY TIMES *Table of ContentsIntroduction Julian Anderson Simon Bainbridge Sally Beamish George Benjamin Michael Berkeley Judith Bingham Harrison Birtwistle Howard Blake Gavin Bryars Diana Burrell Tom Coult Gordon Crosse Jonathan Dove David Dubery Michael Finnissy Cheryl Frances-Hoad Alexander Goehr Howard Goodall Christopher Gunning Morgan Hayes Robin Holloway Oliver Knussen James MacMillan Colin Matthews David Matthews Peter Maxwell Davies John McCabe Thea Musgrave Roxanna Panufnik Anthony Payne Elis Pehkonen Joseph Phibbs Gabriel Prokofiev John Rutter Robert Saxton John Tavener Judith Weir Debbie Wiseman Christopher Wright Appendix

Read more less

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

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn updated edition of the first book on this subject, covering influences, key works and reception history. From the start of the English musical renaissance, British composers were preoccupied with Germanic principles of sonata writing, despite their subsequent exposure to influences outside this tradition, among them late romantic music, French impressionism, Russian nationalism, Scriabin, British folk music, African-American music and neo-classicism. Regardless of education - or the climate, fully explored here, at the Royal College and the Royal Academy - the Austro-German tradition proved inescapable. This first study of the subject offers detailed commentary on key works, with plentiful musical examples, revealing influences and techniques and demonstrating composers' attitudes towards the genre. The reception history of the piano sonata is also discussed, to build up a picture of public musical taste. The appendix contains transcripts of interviews, including one with Sir Michael Tippett; these are particularly significant, as most of the subjects are now dead. Also included is a useful reference section, cataloguing the sonatas, as well as a full discography chronicling the recording history of each sonata, updated in 2012. Lisa Hardy studied music, mathematics and education at the University of Keele and researched her PhD at Goldsmiths' College, London, under the supervision of Professor Peter Dickinson. She works as a freelance piano and flute teacher and piano accompanist in the North East of England and teaches music at Durham High School for Girls.Trade ReviewRewarding ... Enlightening ... An exciting new addition to the musical and historical literature. * BRITISH MUSIC SOCIETY NEWSLETTER *Lisa Hardy's book is a remarkable and readable piece of academic research ... Her style combines illuminating snippets of biography, glimpses and sketches of composer-characters, all woven around a strong, analytical central core of musical ideas, theory, and all the esoteric elements upon which the pianist and musicologist thrive. The cover, too, is worth mentioning ... an eye-catching and well-designed beginning to a precise and scintillating performance. * SPIRITED MAGAZINE, December 2013 *Lisa Hardy's book, full of a huge amount of meticulous research, is an enormous achievement .This book will be of great interest to both professional musicians and the general music loving public. Whilst it deals in depth with many of the works featured, it is also immensely readable. * THE CLASSICAL REVIEWER *

Read more less

Book SynopsisLeading composers, producers and writers consider the role of the composer in the community in Britain today and over the last fifty years. With his Aspen award lecture (1964), Benjamin Britten expressed a unique commitment to community and place. This book revisits this seminal lecture, but then uses it as a starting point of reflection, inviting leading composers, producers and writers to consider the role of the composer in the community in Britain in the last fifty years. Colin Matthews, Jonathan Reekie and John Barber reflect on Britten's aspirations as a composer and the impact of his legacy, and Gillian Moore surveys the ideals of composers since the 1960s. Eugene Skeef and Tommy Pearson discuss the influence of the London Sinfonietta, while Katie Tearle reviews the tradition of community opera at Glyndebourne. Nigel Osborne and Judith Webster explore the role of music as therapy, and James Redwood, Amoret Abis, Sean Gregory and Douglas Mitchell look at music in the classroom and creative workshops. John Sloboda, Detta Danford and Natasha Zielazinski discuss collaboration in music-making and ways of facilitating exchanges between the composer and the audience, while Christopher Fox and Howard Skempton examine the role of modernism and the use of 'other', radical techniques to stimulate new dialogues between composer and community. Peter Wiegold and Amoret Abis interview Sir Harrison Birtwistle, John Woolrich and Phillip Cashian, and Wiegold discusses his formative experiences in encountering music-making in other cultures. All of these approaches to the role and identity of the composer throw a different light on how we address 'the composer and the community': the varied, sometimes contradictory, motivations of composers; the role of music in 'enhancing lives'; the concept of 'outreach' and the different ways this is pursued; and, finally, the meaning of 'community'. Underpinning each are genuine questions about the relationship of arts to society. This book will appeal not only to composers, performers and practitioners of contemporary music but to anyone interested in the changes in twentieth-century music practice, music in education, and the role of music and the arts in the wider community and society.Trade ReviewOffers a stimulating reading with insights into the act of creation, the compositional process, and the vantage point of the modern creative artist in the twenty-first century. * MUSIC AND LETTERS *An incredibly rich discourse. . . . [A]ppeals across a broad audience and is a resource that will offer much on repeat encounters. . . . The true significance of the volume, however, is in its potential to provoke change and action: that after an encounter with these essays an individual would be moved to consider how music in all of its many forms and disciplines might make a difference within his or her community. * NABMSA REVIEWS *Table of ContentsPeter Wiegold and Ghislaine Kenyon: Introduction - Peter Wiegold and Ghislaine Kenyon Benjamin Britten: On Receiving the First Aspen Award (reprint) Colin Matthews: 'Music is now free for all': Britten's Aspen Award Speech - Colin Matthews Howard Skempton: Britten and Cardew - Howard Skempton Christopher Fox: After the Fludde: ambitious music for all-comers - Christopher Fox Gillian Moore: 'A vigorous unbroken tradition': British composers and the community since the beginning of the twentieth century - Gillian Moore Eugene Skeef: 'I am because you are' - Eugene Skeef Tommy Pearson: 'A real composer coming talk to us' - Tommy Pearson Nigel Osborne: Running away from rock 'n' roll - Nigel Osborne John Barber: Finding a place in Society; finding a voice - John Barber James Redwood: A matrix of possibilities - James Redwood Katie Tearle: 'I was St Francis' - Katie Tearle Judith Webster: Reflections on Composers, Orchestras and Communities: motivation, music and meaning' - Judith Webster Douglas Mitchell: 'Sounding good with other people' - Douglas Mitchell Peter Wiegold and Amoret Abis: 'Making Music is How you Understand It': Dartington Conversations with Harrison Birtwistle, Philip Cashian, Peter Wiegold and John Woolrich - Peter Wiegold Peter Wiegold and Amoret Abis: 'Making Music is How you Understand It': Dartington Conversations with Harrison Birtwistle, Philip Cashian, Peter Wiegold and John Woolrich - Amoret Abis John Sloboda: The Composer and the Audience - John Sloboda Amoret Abis:The Composer in the Classroom - Amoret Abis Sean Gregory: Unleashed: Collaboration, Connectivity and Creativity - Sean Gregory Detta Danford and Natasha Zielazinski: One Equal Music - Detta Danford and Natasha Zielazinski Peter Wiegold: That's how it happens - Peter Wiegold Jonathan Reekie: Britten's Holy Triangle - Jonathan Reekie Postlude Peter Wiegold: Appendix: A Practice - Peter Wiegold

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less