Music reviews and criticism Books

Book SynopsisDiverse perspectives and alternate takes on musical improvisationTrade Review"Valuable not only to researchers but also to performers, who will find their minds opened to how music different from their own can help them improvise better in their chosen genre. . . . Recommended."--Choice"A goldmine of information ... that is relevant to the amateur and scholar alike."--Ethnomusicology"An impressive and often sophisticated collection of essays. . . . it certainly constitutes a welcome addition to the field."--The World of Music"Cutting across traditional subject boundaries in music and cultural studies, this admirably comprehensive work adopts a welcome interdisciplinary ideal and makes a truly significant contribution to our knowledge of musical improvisation."--Robert Witmer, professor emeritus of music, York UniversityTable of ContentsPreface ix Bruno NettlIntroduction 1 Gabriel SolisPART ONE: SOCIETY 1. Jazz as Political and Musical Practice 21 Ingrid Monson 2. John Cage and Improvisation: An Unresolved Relationship 38 Sabine M. Feisst 3. When Traditional Improvisation Is Prohibited: Contemporary Ukrainian Funeral Laments and Burial Practices 52 Natalie Kononenko 4. The Juncture between Creation and Re-creation among Indonesian Reciters of the Qur'an 72 Anne K. Rasmussen 5. Genius, Improvisation, and the Narratives of Jazz History 90 Gabriel Solis 6. Formulas and Improvisation in Participatory Music 103 Thomas TurinoPART TWO: EDUCATION 7. Learning to Improvise Music, Improvising to Learn Music 119 Patricia Shehan Campbell 8. Improvising Mozart 143 Robert Levin 9. Keyboard Improvisation in the Baroque Period 150 Charlotte Mattax Moersch 10. Beyond the Improvisation Class: Learning to Improvise in a University Jazz Studies Program 171 John P. Murphy 11. On Learning the Radif and Improvisation in Iran 185 Bruno Nettl 12. Hindustani Sitar and Jazz Guitar Music: A Foray into Comparative Improvology 200 Stephen Slawek 13. Musical Improvisation in the Modern Dance Class: Techniques and Approaches in Fulfilling a Multi-Layered Role 221 John ToenjesPART THREE: CREATION 14. Representations of Music Making 239 Stephen Blum 15. Improvisation and Related Terms in Middle-Period Jazz 263 Lawrence Gushee 16. Opening the Museum Window: Improvisation and Its Inscribed Values in Canonic Works by Chopin and Schumann 281 Robert S. Hatten 17. Improvisation in Beethoven's Creative Process 296 William Kinderman 18. Why Do They Improvise? Reflections on Meaning and Experience 313 Ali Jihad Racy 19. Preluding at the Piano 323 Nicholas Temperley Contributors 343 Index 349

Read more less

Book SynopsisPeter Kivy mounts a philosophical inquiry into the desirability of using or re-creating historical practices in musical performance.Trade ReviewAuthenticities is an important book, and anyone interested in philosophy of music should read it. Anyone can profit from it as a model of careful and informed conceptual analysis. -- James O. Young, University of Victoria * The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism *The consistent theme running through Kivy's book is the need for interpretation as the personal authenticity and authority of the performer against the ideology both of the composer as genius and of the puritanical devotion to the authority of the text of the early music devotees.... This is a most valuable book, one which constantly surprises and delights through its philosophical insights and informed musical understanding. * British Journal of Aesthetics *In his latest book on the aesthetics of music, Peter Kivy presents an argument not for authenticity but for authenticities of performance, including authenticities of intention, sound, practice, and the authenticity of personal interpretation in performance.... As usual, Kivy's work is beautifully written, well argued, and provocative. * Notes *Kivy has provided a sorely needed framework for all future discussion of the authenticity matter. This is his best book, a major contribution to performance studies and to musical aesthetics; likely it will be studied and cited for generations. * Choice *Kivy's book is written in its author's characteristic engaging manner and is full of valuable insights into the hermeneutics and aesthetics of performing music of the past. * Philosophical Review *Written in lively prose, with a keen sense of reality, this volume ought to be of interest not only to philosophers and musicologists, but to all serious lovers of music. -- Roger Scruton * Times Literary Supplement *

Read more less

Book SynopsisJulian Young presents Richard Wagner as an important philosopher of art and life, first as a utopian anarchist-communist and later as a Schopenhauerian pessimist. Understanding Wagnerâs philosophy is crucial to understanding his operas, as it is to understanding Nietzsche, Schopenhauer, and Heidegger. Trade ReviewKeenly attuned to Wagner’s intimations of impersonal immortality, Julian Young explains Wagner’s evolving views on the redemptive power of musical drama, an artistic salvation that remains possible even after the death of God. By critically examining Wagner’s philosophical transformation from a Feuerbachian anarcho-revolutionary to a Schopenhauerian world-renunciate, Young uncovers the enduring spiritual quest at the heart of Wagner’s work: Our deep and enduring philosophical need to learn how to die well. -- Iain Thomson, University of New MexicoIn deft, elegant prose, Young convincingly reconstructs two distinct Wagnerian philosophical positions, especially as concerns the relationship between art and society: an early revolutionary and a later Schopenhauerian position. In doing so, Young casts considerable light on the meanings of Wagner's musical dramas, and presents an array of fascinating positions on the proper relations between art and society for contemporary reflection. This is an important book for anyone interested in late-nineteenth-century philosophy of music and art. -- Sandra Shapshay, Indiana University, BloomingtonYoung here presents the results of extensive research into Wagner's philosophical writings. Perhaps the most surprising thing one learns is that Wagner had a relatively clear and coherent philosophy. In fact, Wagner’s philosophy evolved over time, and he always saw himself as more than a composer of operas. Early on, Wagner, influenced by Hegel, maintained that art and music could play a key role in changing the world for the better. Later, his philosophical intuitions and artistic aims would be molded by Schopenhauer’s pessimistic but redemptive views of music. Today, Wagner would be saddened, though perhaps not surprised, to find that most of his operas are heard only by the affluent—a situation that is the antithesis of what he was trying to do. Young’s straightforward writing style is more than welcome in explaining 19th-century German philosophical concepts, which can get very complex very fast. This book is beautifully written, clear, and concise. Summing Up: Highly recommended. Upper-level undergraduates and above. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsPart I: Early Wagner Chapter 1: The Way We are Now Chapter 2: The Greek Ideal Chapter 3: The Death of Art Chapter 4: The Artwork of the Future: Exploratory Questions Part II Later Wagner Chapter 5: Schopenhauer Chapter 6: Wagner’s Appropriation of Schopenhauer Chapter 7: Wagner’s Final Thoughts Epilogue: Wagner and Nietzsche

Read more less

Book SynopsisExactly what does a conductor do in front of an orchestra? Internationally renowned conductor Christopher Seaman offers lively and informative answers in this wise yet humorous book. What does a conductor actually do? How much effect does he or she have? Can the orchestra manage without one? Why don't the players look at the conductor more? Is it necessary for the conductor to play every instrument? What about interpretation? What happens at rehearsals? Why do some conductors "thrash around" more than others? Who's the boss in a concerto: the soloist or the conductor? These are some of the questions that receive lively andinformative answers in this book by renowned conductor Christopher Seaman. Composed of short articles on individual topics, it is accessible and easy to consult. Each article begins with an anecdote or saying and ends with quotations from musicians, often expressing opposing views. There are many books on the art of conducting, but none like this. Music lovers wondering what the figure on the podium actually does, and aspiring conductors eager to learn more about the art and craft of leading an orchestra, will all treasure this wise yet humorous book. Christopher Seaman has been successful at both ends of the baton. After four years as principal timpanist of the London Philharmonic Orchestra, he was appointed principal conductor of the BBC Scottish Symphony Orchestra and has enjoyed a busy international conducting career for over forty years. He is now Conductor Laureate for Life of the Rochester Philharmonic Orchestra, New York, and he continues to bring great music and wise words to audiences, students, and readers around the world.Trade Review[Seaman's] experience is wonderfully crystallized in the pithy observations here. TLS [Michael Downes] -- Michael Downes * TLS *Engaging, uncomplicated overview of the conductor's role ... Very readable, with some good jokes, hoary anecdotes and nice analogies. * CLASSICAL MUSIC's Books of the Year, December 2013 *Chosen by Financial Times as a Classical Music Book of the Year * . *One of Classical Music's Best Books of the Year * . *With humor, clarity, and wisdom, Christopher Seaman gives insight into the mind of a conductor. A feast of inside scoops for music lovers. -- -- Yo-Yo Ma, cellist and Artistic Director of the Silk Road Project * Yo-Yo Ma, cellist and Artistic Director of the Silk Road Project *This book is simply typical Christopher, something I would consider one of the highest compliments. Typical of Christopher to combine so much wisdom with so much wit. Required reading, I think, and one of the friendliest books about music ever penned. -- -- Sir Simon Rattle, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra * Sir Simon Rattle, Chief Conductor and Artistic Director, Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra *To hear the human truths from an experienced music director, enriched by examples from his life, is marvelously illuminating. I learned many little things and some big ones. -- -- Norman Lebrecht, author and criticChristopher Seaman, who is renowned for his teaching work at the Guildhall School of Music, and has conducted at the highest level, provides a barrage of straight answers. Most are directed towards real would-be conductors, rather than bedroom-mirror amateurs, but there's plenty for the outsider looking in. . . . The conductor's work is not often discussed in such plain detail. Conducting is 'like riding a horse not driving a car'. A tighter grip on the baton produces a harder tone. Keeping the arms moving upward very slowly can restrain an audience's desire to rush to clap after a quiet ending. . . . Demystifies the art and the figure of the conductor. -- James McConnachie http://www.spectator.co.uk/books/8966601/inside-conducting-by-christopher-seaman-a-review/'>Full Review * THE SPECTATOR *The art of conducting is hard to nail but Christopher Seaman does just that in exemplary fashion. . . . Interesting reading for all lovers of music, students of conducting as well as fellow professionals. . . . Serious practical application and in-depth musicological insight laced with the author's engaging humour. Highly recommended. -- Christopher Fifield * MUSICWEB-INTERNATIONAL *Table of ContentsBackground Harmony Memory Perfect Pitch Training Conductors Youth Orchestras Balance Choral Works Concerto Accompaniment Ear Eye Contact Opera Rehearsing Baton Beat Behind-the-Beat Playing Directing from the Harpsichord Economy of Gesture, Cueing, Use of the Left Hand Auditions Chamber Orchestras Chief Conductor Friend or Boss? Orchestral Playing Role of Concertmaster Solos in an Orchestral Piece Stage Settings Strings Winds Timpani and Percussion Composers Learning Scores, Interpretation Marking Parts Performance Practice Shape and Structure Tempo and Metronome Addressing the Audience Applause, Platform Demeanor, Coughing Program Planning Career and Agents Critics Gender Guest Conducting Orchestra Managements Recording Travel and Packing Concentration Control and Power Ego Languages Nervousness Our Heritage: Some Ancestors and My Links with Them Suggested Reading Musical Example Credits A Note on the Illustrations Index of Conductors

Read more less

Book SynopsisBased on unprecedented access to private correspondence, unpublished manuscripts and attuned to a musically inclined poet’s skill in close listening, Who Can Afford to Improvise? retraces the full arc of James Baldwin’s passage across the pages and stages of his career amplifying our sense of his contemporary relevance.Trade Review"While Pavlic is to be commended for choosing such an important subject in the first place, what is more important is the fact that he has addressed it with a great deal of stylistic finesse and analytical clarity." -- -Kevin Le Gendre Jazzwize Magazine "In Who Can Afford to Improvise?, Ed Pavlic unearths James Baldwin's epic song-one shaped and honed by sacred and popular music. This rumination of intricate details celebrates Baldwin's vision of democratic conscience. Pavlic gives us a flesh-and-blood subject formed through a lyrical determinism of deep feeling. Through turn of thought and juxtaposition of historical and personal evidence, he embraces Baldwin's need for justice and truth." -- -Yusef Komunyakaa "Ed Pavlic's words have always heard the music and with Who Can Afford to Improvise?, he shows the exquisite ways that James Baldwin's words both heard the music and was the music itself." -- -Mark Anthony Neal Looking for Leroy: Illegible Black Masculinities "... Who Can Afford to Improvise plays in the pocket between actual musical performances, interpretations of the lyrical mode in Baldwin's poetics, and intricate historical detail." -Tsitsi Jaji, Los Angeles Review of Books "Who Can Afford to Improvise is a tour de force from one of our premier Baldwin scholars. Ed Pavlic's brilliantly insightful meditation on black music and culture and Baldwin's centrality to that tradition is a must-read." -- -Peniel E. Joseph author of Dark Days, Bright Nights "If you read books, sometimes or all the time, for the quality of their sentences (and what writer doesn't? why else would anyone want to be a writer?), Who Can Afford to Improvise is even more essential. Ed Pavlic is f*cking fearless about how he goes about it, as fearless as any contemporary musician I can think of, as fearless as some of the greats. It's definitely a book, but music is where its soul is, if you ask me." -Dave Marsh, Counterpunch "Ed Pavlic's strikingly original meditations reveal a James Baldwin swaddled in Black music whose masterful ear heard the overtones, the changes, echoes of memory, cries of agony and joy. By excavating experience from song and turning social critique into lyric, Baldwin produced a deeper, more dangerous truth." -- -Robin D. G. Kelley author of Thelonious Monk: The Life and Times of an American Original "Ed Pavlic's Who Can Afford to Improvise? is remarkably present in how it sings-in all that it does for Baldwin, for his mediums, and for the book's listeners." -The Georgia ReviewTable of ContentsIntroduction BOOK I The Uses of the Blues: James Baldwin's Lyrical Quest 1. "Not the country we're sitting in now": Amputation/Gangrene Past and Present 2. Blues Constants, Jazz Changes: Toward a Writing Immune to Bullshit 3. "Making words do something": Retracing James Baldwin's Career BOOK II The Uses of the Lyric: Billie's Quest, Dinah's Blues, Jimmy's Amen, and Brother Ray's Hallelujah 4. Billie Holiday: Radical Lyricist 5. Dinah Washington's Blues and the Trans- Digressive Ocean 6. "But Amen is the price": James Baldwin and Ray Charles in "The Hallelujah Chorus" BOOK III "For you I was a flame": Baldwin's Lyrical Lens on Contemporary Culture 7. On Camden Row: Amy Winehouse's Lyric Lines in a Living Inheritance 8. Speechless in San Francisco. "A somewhat better place to lie about": An Inter-View 9. "In a way they must ...": Turf Feinz and Black Style in an Age of Sights for the Speechless 10. "Shades cannot be fixed": On Privilege, Blindness, and Second Sight Conclusion: The Brilliance of Children, the Duty of Citizens Acknowledgments Notes Bibliography Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisLiszt in Context explores the political, social, philosophical and professional currents that surrounded Franz Liszt and illuminates the competing forces that influenced his music. Liszt was immersed in the religious, political and cultural debates of his day, and moved between institutions, places, and social circles with ease. All of this makes for a rich contextual tapestry against which Liszt composed some of the most iconic, popular, and also contentious music of the nineteenth century. His significance and astonishing reach cannot be over-stated, and his presence in nineteenth-century European culture, and his continuing influence into the twentieth and twenty-first centuries, are overwhelming. The focus on context, reception, and legacy that this volume provides reveals the multifaceted nature of Liszt''s impact during his lifetime and beyond.Trade Review'one of the more valuable compendia of Liszt studies to appear in some time.' Patrick Rucker, GramophoneTable of ContentsPreface; Part I. People and Places: 1. Family background Adrienne Kaczmarczyk; 2. Teachers Paul Bertagnolli; 3. Paris Bryan Whitelaw; 4. Italy Anna Harwell Celenza; 5. Liszt and Wagner David Trippett; 6. The new German school James Deaville; 7. Weimar Joanne Cormac; 8. Liszt and his contemporaries Anne MacGregor; 9. Liszt in Hungary Lynn Hooker; Part II. Society thought and culture: 10. The 'War of the Romantics' David Larkin; 11. Visual art and artists Andrew Haringer; 12. Literature and literary heroes Jonathan Kregor; 13. Liszt, the women and the European salon culture of the nineteenth century Ulrike Müller; 14. Liszt as writer Dorothea Redepenning; 15. Patronage: the court Anna Harwell Celenza; 16. Liszt and the network of revolution Malou Haine and Bruno Moysan; 17. Liszt's national identity: What else is new? Shay Loya; 18. Liszt and religion Eftychia Papanikolaou; Part III. Performance and composition: 19. Pianos and piano builders Andrew Haringer; 20. Liszt on the road: The rise of the modern virtuoso pianist Christopher Gibbs; 21. Virtuosity Jonathan Kregor; 22. Improvisation Adrienne Kaczmarczyk; 23. Transcription Jonathan Kregor; 24. Liszt as conductor Donna M. Di Grazia; 25. Publishers Adrienne Kaczmarczyk; 26. Genre Joanne Cormac; Part IV. Reception and Legacy: 27. Pupils: Liszt as teacher Jonathan Kregor; 28. Critics James Deaville; 29. Lateness in context Shay Loya; 30. Liszt and the 20th and 21st centuries Dorothea Redepenning; 31. Life-writing Joanne Cormac; 32. Iconography Alan Davison; 33. Liszt in film Joanne Cormac; Index.

Read more less

Book SynopsisMinimalism stands as the key representative of 1960s radicalism in art music histories - but always as a failed project. In The Names of Minimalism, Patrick Nickleson holds in buzzing tension collaborative composers in the period of their collaboration, as well as the musicological policing of authorship in the wake of their eventual disputes.Trade Review“The Names of Minimalism contributes to the effort of producing the historiography of minimal music while introducing and exploring the specific (and crucial) topic of authorship in the field. Nickleson addresses these important questions methodically and with care.” —Christophe Levaux, author of We Have Always Been Minimalist: The Construction and Triumph of a Musical Style“This book presents a total reimagining of minimalism’s early history. Rather than narrating this history through musical style or composer biography, Nickleson examines minimalism's history through its politics of authorship, pedagogy, propriety, and egalitarianism. This book makes a significant contribution to scholarship on minimalism and, more broadly, has the potential to reorient any scholarly mind doing historical work.” —Kerry O’Brien, co-editor of On Minimalism: Documenting a Musical Movement“Patrick Nickleson’s The Names of Minimalism offers a potent critique of the means and methods by which minimalism has been canonized in conventional music histories. Drawing on the writings of Jacques RanciÈre and Kristin Ross, Nickleson deftly and trenchantly interrogates the lineage that runs—whether via collaboration or contention—from La Monte Young and Tony Conrad to Rhys Chatham and Glenn Branca in order to recover the aesthetic and political challenges that early minimalism proffered at its most radical junctures.” —Branden W. Joseph, Columbia UniversityTable of Contents Acknowledgments Introduction. “La Monte Young Does Not Understand ‘His’ Work.” Chapter 1. Policing Process Chapter 2. Writing Minimalism: The Theatre of Eternal Music and the Historiography of Drones Chapter 3. The Lessons of Minimalism: The Big Four and the Pedagogic Myth Chapter 4. Indistinct Minimalisms: Punk, No Wave, and the Death of Minimalism Conclusion. The Names of Minimalism Works Cited

Read more less

Book SynopsisÊHearts of DarknessÊ is the story of a generation's coming of age through the experiences of its three most atypical pop stars. James Taylor Jackson Browne and Cat Stevens could never have been considered your typical late-sixties songwriters ä self-absorbed and self-composed all three eschewed the traditional means of delivering their songs instead turning its process inward. The result was a body of work that stands among the most profoundly personal art ever to translate into an international language and a sequence of songs ä from Sweet Baby James and Carolina in My Mind to Jamaica Say You Will and These Days to Peace Train and Wild World ä that remain archetypes not only of what the critics called the singer-songwriter movement but of the human condition itself.ÞAuthor Dave Thompson himself a legend among rock biographers takes on his subjects with his usual brio and candor leaving no stone unturned in his quest to shine a light on the dark side of this profoundly earnest era in popular music. Penetrating pointed and laced with vivid insight and detail ÊHearts of DarknessÊ is the story of rock when it no longer felt the need to roll.

Read more less

Book SynopsisA fully updated edition of the leading reference work on musical key characteristics during the Baroque, Classical and Romantic periods. This is a revised second edition of Dr. Steblin's important work on key characteristics, first published in 1983 by UMI Research Press and re-issued by the University of Rochester Press in 1996. The revision has been limited to athorough correction and update of the material in the first edition, so as to not disrupt the content and organization, for which the book has been praised as a significant and noteworthy reference for both scholars and research students alike. The book discusses the extra-musical meanings associated with various musical keys by ancient Greek and medieval-renaissance theorists and in particular composers and writers on music in the Baroque, Classical,and early Romantic periods. Chapters focus on Mattheson's extensive key descriptions from 1713, the Rameau-Rousseau and Marpurg-Kirnberger controversies regarding unequal versus equal temperaments, and C.F.D. Schubart's influential list based on the sharp-flat [bright-dark] principle of key-distinctions. Rita Katherine Steblin is a world-renowned music scholar, living and working in Vienna.Table of ContentsThe Ancient Greeks and the Doctrine of Ethos The Medieval-Renaissance Modes and Their Affects The Transition from Modality to Tonality: Early French Key Characteristics Johann Mattheson and the Early Eighteenth-Century German Approach to Key Characteristics Rameau and Rousseau: Equal Temperament versus Unequal Temperament Marpurg versus Kimberger: The Tuning Controversy in Germany Psychological Factors: The Sharp-Flat Principle Physical Factors: The Properties of Instruments Tradition and Key Characteristics in the Early Nineteenth Century

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn authoritative survey of music and its context in the Renaissance. The sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries - the so-called Golden Age of Polyphony - represent a time of great change and development in European music, with the flourishing of Orlando di Lasso, Palestrina, Byrd, Victoria, Monteverdi and Schütz among others. The chapters of this book, contributed by established scholars on subjects within their fields of expertise, deal with polyphonic music - sacred and secular, vocal and instrumental - during this period. The volume offers chronological surveys of national musical cultures (in Italy, France, the Netherlands, Germany, England, and Spain); genre studies (Mass, motet, madrigal, chanson, instrumental music, opera); and is completed with essays on intellectual and cultural developments and concepts relevant to music (music theory, printing, the Protestant Reformation and the corresponding Catholic movement, humanism, concepts of "Renaissance" and "Baroque"). It thus provides a complete overview of the music and its context. Contributors: GARY TOMLINSON, JAMES HAAR, TIM CARTER, GIULIO ONGARO, NOEL O'REGAN, ALLAN ATLAS, ANTHONY CUMMINGS, RICHARD FREEDMAN, JEANICE BROOKS,DAVID TUNLEY, KATE VAN ORDEN, KRISTINE FORNEY, IAIN FENLON, KAROL BERGER, PETER BERGQUIST, DAVID CROOK, ROBIN LEAVER, CRAIG MONSON, TODD BORGERDING, LOUISE K. STEIN, GIUSEPPE GERBINO, ROGER BRAY, JONATHAN WAINWRIGHT, VICTOR COELHO, KEITH POLKTrade ReviewA fine achievement. * THE CONSORT *Offers a selection of essays by many of the leading figures in the field of Renaissance music history, creating a mosaic in a carefully thought-out pattern of viewpoints and topics. The single contributions are excellent. * EARLY MUSIC *A fine book. [...] This civilised volume is highly recommended [and] excellent in content. * EARLY MUSIC REVIEW *This is an extremely useful addition to music historiography that will both aid students and provide many insights to the more general reader who feels in need of an over-arching survey of the period. -- Brian Robins * GOLDBERG *A lively and scholarly account of the multiple complexities and paradoxes that characterise this period...compelling reading with hitherto neglected areas at last gaining accessible recognition. * EARLY MUSIC TODAY *Table of ContentsRenaissance Humanism and Music - Gary Tomlinson The Concept of the Renaissance - James Haar The Concept of the Baroque - Tim Carter Italy [i], 1520-1560 - Giulio Ongaro Music in Italy [ii], 1560-1600 - T Noel O'Regan Ital [iii], 1600-1640 - Tim Carter Music for the Mass - Allan Atlas The Motet, 1520-1640 - Anthony Cummings Music in France [i], 1520-1560 - Richard Freedman France [ii], 1560-1600 - Jeanice Brooks French Music in the Early Seventeenth Century - David Tunley Chanson, 1520-1640 - Kate Van Orden Madrigal - James Haar The Netherlands [i], 1520-1560 - Kristine Forney The Netherlands [ii], 1560-1600 - Kristine Forney The Netherlands [iii], 1600-1640 - Kristine Forney Music, Print and Society in Sixteenth-Century Europe - Iain Fenlon Concepts and Developments in Music Theory - Karol Berger German Music [i], 1520-1560 - Peter Bergquist German Music [ii], 1560-1600 - Peter Bergquist Germany and Central Europe, 1600-1640 - David Crook The Reformation and Music - Robin Leaver Renewal, Reform, and Reaction in Catholic Music - Craig Monson Spain [i-ii], 1530-1600 - Todd Borgerding and Louise K Stein Spain [iii], 1600-1640 - Louise K Stein Early Opera: the Initial Stage - Iain Fenlon Music in England before 1560 - Roger Bray Music in England [ii], 1560-1600 - Roger Bray English Music, 1603-1642 - Jonathan Wainwright Instrumental Music in Europe, 1520-1640 - Victor Coelho and Keith Polk

Read more less

Book SynopsisWithout an understanding of the conflicts of Mahler's youth one cannot truly appreciate the impulses behind the major symphonies and song cycles of his later years. Available again for a new generation of Mahlerians, Donald Mitchell's famous study of the composer's early life and music was greeted as a major advance on its first appearance in 1958. Revised and updated in the early 1980s, thispaperback edition includes a new introduction by the author to bring this classic work once again to the forefront of Mahler studies. From his birth in Bohemia, then part of the mighty Austro-Hungarian empire, to a surveyof his early works, many now lost, Gustav Mahler: The Early Years forms an indispensable prelude to the period of the great compositions. The conflicts which came to mark Mahler's music and personality had their beginningsin his childhood and youth. Without understanding the territorial, social and familial conflicts of this time one cannot truly appreciate the impulses behind the major symphonies and song cycles of his later years. DONALD MITCHELL was born in 1925. Two composers have been central to his writings on music, Gustav Mahler and Benjamin Britten. His three studies of Mahler, The Early Years (1958), The Wunderhorn Years (1975), and Songs and Symphonies of Life and Death (1985), are among the enduring monuments of postwar Mahler literature. He was founder Professor of Music at the University of Sussex (1971-76), was visiting Professor atKing's College, London, and is currently a visiting Professor at the Universities of Sussex and York.

Read more less

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 farinto 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 Emeritus 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 *

Read more less

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 a cast ofmusic 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 Associate Professor 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, MARYOLESKIEWICZ, 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 *

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis magnificent book has been many years in gestation, but it has been worth the wait. . . . No prior knowledge is required to enjoy it. And enjoy is the word. The chapters are short, vivid, and packed with human interest. * BBC Music Magazine *The Music of Central Asia is an incredible accomplishment. It provides a wealth of perspectives and is remarkably comprehensive in its coverage of the region. * Asian Music *"I foresee a next generation of enthusiastic young scholars encouraged to pursue research in part due to an initial encounter with Central Asian music through this volume." * Notes *Table of ContentsPrefaceAcknowledgmentsAccessing Music Examples OnlineA Note on Music TerminologyGuide to TransliterationTimeline of Central Asian HistoryPart I: Music and Culture in Central Asia1. Music in Central Asia: An Overview / Theodore Levin2. Musical Instruments in Central Asia / Theodore LevinPart II: The Nomadic WorldPrologue: Who Are the Nomads of Central Asia? / Theodore Levin3. Introduction to Oral Epic / Elmira Köchümkulova4. The Epic Manas / Elmira Köchümkulova5. Oral Epic in Kazakhstan: Körughly and a Dynasty of Great Jyraus / Uljan Baibosynova6. Music of the Karakalpaks Part I: The Epic World of the Karakalpaks: Jyrau and Baqsy / Frédéric Léotar Part II: Qyssakhan: Performer of Written and Oral Literature / Kalmurza Kurbanov and Saida Daukeyeva7. The Art of the Turkmen Bagshy / Jamilya Gurbanova8. The Turkmen Dutar / David Fossum9. Kyrgyz Wisdom Songs: Terme Yrlary / Elmira Köchümkulova10. Aqyns and Improvised-Poetry Competitions among the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz / Elmira Köchümkulova and Jangül Qojakhmetova11. Singing Traditions of the Kazakhs / Alma Kunanbeava12. Kyrgyz Funeral Laments / Elmira Köchümkulova13. Kyrgyz Wedding Songs / Elmira Köchümkulova14. Narrative Instrumental Music: Kazakh Küi and Kyrgyz Küü / Sayra Raymbergenova and Nurlanbek Nyshanov Profile: Abdulhait Raiymbergenov / Theodore Levin Profile: Nurak Abdyrakhmanov / Elmira Köchümkulova15. Kyrgyz Jaw Harps / Nurlanbek Nyshanov16. The Kazakh Qobyz: Between Tradition and Modernity / Saida Daukeyeva17. Dombyra Performance, Migration, and Memory among Mongolian Kazakhs / Saida DaukeyevaPart III: The World of Sedentary-DwellersPrologue: Patterns of Culture: Sedentary-Dwellers / Theodore Levin18. Maqom Traditions of the Tajiks and Uzbeks / William Sumits and Theodore Levin Profile: The Academy of Maqom / Abduvali Abdurashidov Profile: Turgun Alimatov / Theodore Levin19. The Uyghur MuqaZ / Rachel Harris20. New Images of Azerbaijani Mugham in the Twentieth Century / Aida Huseynova Profile: Alim and Fargana Qasimov / Theodore Levin21. Popular Classics: Traditional Singer-Songwriters in Uzbekistan and Tajikistan / Theodore Levin22. Religious Music and Chant in the Culture of Sedentary-Dwellers / Aleksandr Djumaev23. Sufism and the Ceremony of Zikr in Ghulja / Mukaddas Mijit24. Dastan Performance among the Uyghurs / Rahile Dawut and Elise Anderson25. Female Musicians in Uzbekistan: Otin-oy, Dutarchi, and Maqomchi / Razia Sultanova26. Music in the City of Bukhara / Theodore Levin and Aleksandr Djumaev Profile: Ari Babakhanov / Aleksandr Djumaev27. Music and Culture in Badakhshan / Theodore Levin28. The Maddoh Tradition of Badakhshan / Benjamin Koen Music Example: Maddoh / Theodore Levin29. Qasoid-khonī in the Wakhan Valley of Badakhshan / Chorshanbe Goibnazarov30. Falak: Spiritual Songs of the Mountains Tajiks / Faroghat AziziPart IV: Central Asian Music in the Age of Globalization31. Revitalizing Musical Traditions: The Aga Khan Music Initiative / Theodore Levin Nurturing Local Talent, Creating Global Connections / Fairouz Nishanova The Genesis of Rainbow / Theodore Levin32. Cultural Renewal in Kyrgyzstan: Neotraditionalism and the New Era in Kyrgyz Music / Raziya SyrdybaevaMusical Instrument GlossaryGlossary of TermsInventory of Audio and Video ExamplesList of ContributorsIndex33. Popular Music in Uzbekistan / Kerstin Klenke34. Innovation in Tradition: Some Examples from Music and Theater in Uzbekistan / Aleksandr Djumaev35. Tradition-Based Popular Music in Contemporary Tajikistan / Federico SpinettiMusical Instrument GlossaryGlossary of TermsAudio and Video ExamplesIndex

Read more less

Book SynopsisAn updated reissue of what, along with England's Dreaming, has become the acknowledged seminal work on punk. Cain was at every major gig and interviewed all of the acts at the time. He was viewed as an 'insider' and his access was unrivalled. This book is a vibrant and fast-paced trip through an extraordinary year. Includes major new interviews with Sex Pistol Johnny Rotten, Strangler Hugh Cornwell and Rat Scabies of The Damned.

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisThis work collects, analyzes, and systematically presents in over 160 examples a magnificent tradition to future generations of cantors, scholars of Jewish music, and music enthusiasts worldwide. It reacquaints acculturated Jews with a largely unknown part of their heritage.

Read more less

Book SynopsisIn August 1965, during a sweltering heatwave, 56,000 people traveled by plane, car, bus, ferry, and subway train to pack New York''s Shea Stadium on a Sunday eveningnot for a baseball game, but for a rock and roll concert. This idea was the crazy dream of concert promoter Sid Bernstein. No rock band had ever played a baseball stadium, and no one believed he could pull it off. But on that glorious night, The Beatles sold out Shea Stadium, shattering all existing box office and attendance records in show business history. Oh, and they also changed the world. Against the backdrop of a remarkably volatile year in our nation''s history, Top of the Mountain: The Beatles at Shea Stadium, 1965 delivers all the detail and excitement of Shea and the spirited, curious new generation who would soon claim the decade for its own. Told through first-person interviews and quotes, a unique cast of characters tells the story: celebrities then and celebrities now, writers, agents, producers, ph

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"A fascinating, detailed history of Americana music. " --Choice"Milward has channeled the fascinating Americana story into 320 flowing and informative pages. Not content to simply recapitulate names, dates and deeds, he frequently provides valuable context and perspectives to the saga." --Bluegrass Unlimited"John Milward has crafted a masterpiece." --Americana Rhythm Music Magazine"Endlessly fascinating." --Americana Highways"With fresh insight and a great sprinkling of anecdotal details, this is a fabulous addition to the canon, enhanced by portraits of the musicians from illustrator Greve. It would be impossible for Milward to pack any more information into this well-researched and comprehensive book. Recommended to anyone and everyone interested in the history of American music. " --Library Journal"Concise, lively, and informative, with many colorful anecdotes adding intriguing detail. Milward's deep knowledge of music history and expertise on roots-music genres make Americanaland an essential addition to the music book canon."--Holly George-Warren, author of Janis: Her Life and Music"There’s a common thread that runs through the great patchwork quilt that's come to be known as Americana Music. John Milward has artfully followed every stitch of that thread and revealed the story behind every patch. In doing so he’s made huge strides in giving this rich genre the legitimacy it deserves."--Larry Campbell​​"John Milward’s Americanaland is a book with a sense of place and rhythm. Both are impeccable. The joy of this veteran music writer’s survey of the music that’s come to be called Americana is that he ranges far, digs deep, and dismisses no sound." --Chapter 16 "Americanaland provides a history, clearly showing a dedicated path through musical eras as it points a path to the future." --Alternate Root ​​"Encyclopedic. Kaleidoscopic. John Millward [offers an] account of a century of American music culminating in what we now call Americana. Countless stories of those who have brought this music that bubbles up from a bottomless well sunk deep in American soil."--Jim Rooney "You won’t read a better book on the origins of Americana music this year and I’d be willing to bet it will be quite some time before there’s anything comparable to it. Americanaland is the book that many of us have been waiting for and Milward has timed his publishing perfectly to tap into the zeitgeist as this great music continues to make inroads around the world." --Americana UK

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review"Summing Up: Recommended." * CHOICE *An Alex Ross "Bookshelf" recommendation * The Rest is Noise *"The Hum of the World is a more-than-intriguing read and definitely one that will get you thinking about the role of sound within a cosmic context. . . . Recommended." * Journal of the Association of Anglican Musicians *Table of ContentsPrelude Sound and Knowledge The Audiable: An Introduction Some Leitmotifs The Standard of Vision A Philosophy of Listening? Constructive Description Sight, Sound, and Language The Sound of Words Seeing, Saying, and Hearing The Audiable: Variations on a Theme Music in the Air “No Sound without Music” Language and the Human Lord Bacon’s Echoes Ripple Effects: Distant Voices The Infinite Broadcast Immanence Reading Transfigured: St. Augustine To the Life: The Image Moving Pictures Modern Times: The Cartoon The Sound of Meaning Music and the Audiable: A Suite in Three Movements Plato’s Singing School Musical Synesthesia The Music of Language The Soundscape Song Noise and Silence Fish, Flesh, or Fowl Sensory Hybrids “Waiting to Be the Music” Circle Songs Forty-Part Motets The Ether Elemental Media Elemental Fluids Writing the Soundscape Haunting Melodies The Lifelike: The Undead Beyond Words? 1 The Audiable and the Audible Into Silence Enchantments of the Name The Inaudible On Saying “I am” The Shriek Metal Here Comes That Song Again The Mirror of Silence Rhythmic Hearing Media All the Way Down The Auditory Window Cacophony: Dispossession (Beckett) Euphony: Repossession (Beckett) Worldly Dissonance Sounds of Battle: The Civil War Sounds of Battle: World War I Ulysses in Auschwitz Intermezzo Sounding Bodies Pandemonium? Songs of Entropy By Hand Past and Present Consciousness Acknowledgments Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisFailures to listen or mishearings can be a matter of life and death. Shattering Biopolitics elaborates the intimate and complex relation between life and sound in philosophy, political theory, and sound-art.Table of ContentsList of Abbreviations | ix Prologue | 1 1 Shatter | 7 Excursus 1: Calculation and Stricture in Mendi + Keith Obadike’s Numbers Station | 38 2 The Rhythm of Life | 49 Excursus 2: Lawrence Abu Hamdan’s Phonetic Border-Crossings | 91 3 Mouth(piece) | 100 Excursus 3: Sharon Hayes’s Addresses | 145 4 A Use of Ears | 158 Excursus 4: The Drive to Listen in Ultra-red’s Militant Sound Investigations | 191 Acknowledgments | 207 Notes | 209 Selected Bibliography | 233 Index | 243

Read more less

Book SynopsisThere have been many books written about Johnny Thunders and the Heartbreakers, but only by people who weren't there. Walter Lure wasfrom the band''s chaotic beginnings on New York''s Lower East Side, through a now-legendary UK tour with the Sex Pistols and the Clash, and on to a yearlong stay in Londoneyewitness and midwife to the birth of UK punk.Now, he tells his story in To Hell and Back, a thrilling ride through the clubs and dives of two continents, in the company of one of the most notorious junkies in rock ''n'' roll history. Drawing from his own contemporary journals, Lure paints a vivid portrait of life in both cities, during perhaps the most crucial musical uprising of the past forty yearsthe music, the characters, the clothes, the fights, the drugs, the orgies, the lot.Lure lays bare his own battle with drugs, and reflects upon his life after the band''s splitrising to become a Wall Street fixture yet still finding time to mak

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe newest addition to the best-selling All the Songs series details the unique recording history of Pink Floyd, one of the world''s most commercially successful and influential rock bands.Since 1965, Pink Floyd been recording sonically experimental and philosophical music, selling more than 250 million records worldwide, including two of the best-selling albums of all time Dark Side of the Moon and The Wall. While much is known about this iconic group, few books provide a comprehensive history of their time in the studio. In Pink Floyd All the Songs, authors Margotin and Guesdon describe the origin of their nearly 200 released songs, details from the recording studio, what instruments were used, and behind-the-scenes stories of the tensions that helped drive the band.Organized chronologically by album, this massive, 544-page hardcover begins with their 1967 debut album The Piper at the Gates of Dawn, the only one recorded under founding member Syd Barrett''s leadership; through the loss of Barrett and the addition of David Gilmour; to Richard Wright leaving the band in 1979 but returning; to Roger Waters leaving in 1985 and the albums recorded since his departure, including their 2014 farewell album, The Endless River, which was downloaded 12 million times on Spotify the week it was released. Packed with more than 500 photos, All the Songs is also filled with stories fans treasure, such as Waters working with engineer Alan Parsons to employ revolutionary recording techniques for The Dark Side of the Moon at Abbey Road Studios in 1972 or producer Bob''s Ezrin''s contribution in refining Water''s original sprawling vision for The Wall.

Read more less

Book SynopsisPiano Makers in Russia in the Nineteenth Century is a richly detailed thematic study of the history of the piano in Russian society from its beginnings with the European artisans who settled in St. Petersburg in the early decades of the century through the transition to Russian-owned family firms. The piano played a defining role in the shaping of Russia’s musical culture in the nineteenth century, as artisans and entrepreneurs provided the foundation for the great tradition of the Russian virtuoso in the performance and the composition of piano music. It also helped bring about a transformative change in the material culture as the piano expanded its reach from the court and the nobility to include music enthusiasts from all social classes and Russian families in their homes. This historical study brings to light the impact of neglected piano artisans in nineteenth-century Russia, and presents a fresh view of the social and economic ties between the state and the piano-manufacturing artisans in an era largely defined by handcrafting and entrepreneurship. It contributes significantly to current issues surrounding the role of the piano and the entrepreneur-artisans in the urban centers of imperial Russia and represents an expansion of what is currently known about the piano builders who established workshops in Russia beginning in the late 1830s and 1840s, well before the heyday of the virtuoso in that country. Rare documents, including letters, memoirs, gazettes, exhibition catalogs, music journals, and administrative reports, form the nucleus of this book and provide fascinating insights about state and private patronage and the class/economic issues related to the affordability and prestige of the piano in Russia. Issues surrounding the transformation of the music industry in Russia, the role of women as patrons and performers, the exportation of instruments to the Russian Far East, and the complex system of tariffs and trade protection that benefited domestic piano manufacturers provide this book’s thematic links. Conclusions indicate that while favorable tariff laws and state-imposed economic policies benefited the family-owned firms in the nineteenth century, they remained in effect in the decades after the nationalization of the piano industry in 1917.Trade ReviewAnne Swartz's Piano Makers in Russia in the Nineteenth Century comprehensively fills a massive gap in the history of the piano. Her extensive research has opened a hitherto closed door and revealed the makers, the performers, the critical relationship of the piano industry and music education with the Russian throne, and its role across the socio-economic levels of the population, as well as its relationship to the rest of Europe. This book is a necessary component in the library of any serious scholar of the piano. -- Anne Beetem Acker, independent historic keyboard specialist; area and contributing editor to the Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments"As with so many features of nineteenth-century cultural life, Russia first borrowed, then assimilated, and finally re-exported the piano to Western Europe, and in Piano Makers in Russia in the Nineteenth Century, Anne Swartz deftly traces the story of how domestic uprights and concert grands became the chosen instruments of the Russian state. Whether in girls’ schools and later conservatories in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in provincial drawing rooms as far away as Siberia and Central Asia, or in concert halls throughout the empire, the piano did much to foster modern Russia’s sense of itself as an artistic nation. At the same time, Swartz never underestimates the role played by a vast serf and worker community in supporting cultural production in Imperial Russia. Swartz’s study will be obligatory reading for anybody interested not just in Russian music and society but also in how innovative methods of economic analysis can shed new light on the arts in the nineteenth century." -- Philip Ross Bullock, university lecturer, and fellow and tutor in Russian, Wadham College, University of OxfordThe history of the piano has long centered on the familiar network of Vienna, Paris, London, and the plethora of German makers. Russia has been a footnote. In this remarkably comprehensive and riveting narrative, Swartz uses the lens of the piano to illuminate countless fresh facets of Russian culture, going far beyond the author’s overly modest title. Among scores of delectable revelations, who knew the favored piano of both Anton Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky was a Becker? -- Robert Winter, Distinguished Professor of Music, Presidential Chair in Music and Interactive Arts, UCLAAnne Swartz's Piano Makers in Russia in the Nineteenth Century comprehensively fills a massive gap in the history of the piano. Her extensive research has opened a hitherto closed door and revealed the makers, the performers, the critical relationship of the piano industry and music education with the Russian throne, and its role across the socio-economic levels of the population, as well as its relationship to the rest of Europe. This book is a necessary component in the library of any serious scholar of the piano. -- Anne Beetem Acker, independent historic keyboard specialist; area and contributing editor to the Grove Dictionary of Musical Instruments"As with so many features of nineteenth-century cultural life, Russia first borrowed, then assimilated, and finally re-exported the piano to Western Europe, and in Piano Makers in Russia in the Nineteenth Century, Anne Swartz deftly traces the story of how domestic uprights and concert grands became the chosen instruments of the Russian state. Whether in girls’ schools and later conservatories in Moscow and St. Petersburg, in provincial drawing rooms as far away as Siberia and Central Asia, or in concert halls throughout the empire, the piano did much to foster modern Russia’s sense of itself as an artistic nation. At the same time, Swartz never underestimates the role played by a vast serf and worker community in supporting cultural production in Imperial Russia. Swartz’s study will be obligatory reading for anybody interested not just in Russian music and society but also in how innovative methods of economic analysis can shed new light on the arts in the nineteenth century." -- Philip Ross Bullock, university lecturer, and fellow and tutor in Russian, Wadham College, University of OxfordThe history of the piano has long centered on the familiar network of Vienna, Paris, London, and the plethora of German makers. Russia has been a footnote. In this remarkably comprehensive and riveting narrative, Swartz uses the lens of the piano to illuminate countless fresh facets of Russian culture, going far beyond the author’s overly modest title. Among scores of delectable revelations, who knew the favored piano of both Anton Rubinstein and Tchaikovsky was a Becker? -- Robert Winter, Distinguished Professor of Music, Presidential Chair in Music and Interactive Arts, UCLA"With monumental performers such as Shostakovich, Yudina, Rachmaninoff, Horowitz, Prokofiev, Scriabin, and Richter it is clear that Russia has served as a cradle for extraordinary pianists. Anne Swartz’s brilliant book sheds new light on how it got that way. Focusing on issues of technology, gender, material culture, and industry, and ranging from Moscow to the Far East, Swartz's important work illustrates the process through which the piano came to occupy center stage in the Russian imagination." -- Michael Beckerman, Carroll and Milton Petrie Professor of Music, New York UniversityTable of ContentsACKNOWLEDGMENTS INTRODUCTION 1. THE PIANO AS AN INSTRUMENT OF THE STATE 2. MARIA FEODOROVNA, THE PIANO AND THE ROLE OF WOMEN 3. ENTREPRENEURS AND ARTISANS: DIEDERICHS AND HIS COMPETITORS PLATE NO. 1 PLATE NO. 2 PLATE NO. 3 4. AN INDUSTRY MATURES AND EXPANDS 5. PIANOS, PATRONS, PERFORMERS AND COMPOSERS 6. THE PIANO AND SOCIETY BY MID-CENTURY 7. THE PIANO AND THE RUSSIAN FAR EAST 8. RUSSIAN PIANO ARTISANS IN THE CLOSING DECADES OF THE CENTURY PLATE NO. 4 PLATE NO. 5 9. THE PIANO IN RUSSIA AFTER 1917 10. A LEGACY APPENDIX BIBLIOGRAPHY ENDNOTES INDEX

Read more less

Book SynopsisRegarded as one of the greatest film composers of all time, Bernard Herrmann was responsible for some of the most memorable music in film. His work with Alfred Hitchcock produced a slew of classics including Vertigo (1958), North by Northwest (1959), and Psycho (1960). Several years before collaborating with Hitchcock, however, Herrmann composed the brilliant score for The Ghost and Mrs. Muir (1947), which remained a personal favorite of the composer''s. Herrmann''s score reinforces the film''s romantic theme, and much of the music has an appropriately elegiac quality. In mood, orchestration, and even to some extent thematic identity, it seems to prefigure his music for Vertigo. In this latest addition to the Scarecrow Film Score Guide series, author David Cooper examines Herrmann''s career in general, as well as the specific elements that went into the creation of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir''s score. Cooper traces the development of Herrmann''s craft as a film composer, especially throuTrade Review...David Cooper's approach—tightly organized like an intro film theory class—will instill, certainly in some, new methods of appreciating film music....Like prior volumes in the series, the book's first section gives us an excellent portrait of the events that led the cast, crew, and composer towards the film project...Cooper's technical and theoretical breakdowns will be of particular interest to composers...There's no doubt this book is the result of a long and detailed effort to craft an important educational reference... * Music From The Movies, January 2007 *In this guide, Cooper (music and technology, U. of Leeds, UK) examines Bernard Herrmann's craft as a film composer, particularly in the score of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. He also explores nonmusical elements of the film, including the screenplay's relationship to the popular novel from which it was adapted, the contribution of director Joseph Mankiewicz, and the performances of Gene Tierney and Rex Harrison. A rundown of all the cues in Herrmann's manuscript is followed by an examination of the score as a musical artifact. * Reference and Research Book News *Table of ContentsPart 1 List of Illustrations Part 2 Abbreviations Part 3 Editor's Foreword Part 4 Acknowledgments Part 5 Introduction Chapter 6 1. Herrmann's Career up to the Composition of The Ghost and Mrs. Muir Chapter 7 2. Musical Style and Musical Meaning: Herrmann's Film Scoring Technique Chapter 8 3. Literary, Filmic and Critical Context of the Score Chapter 9 4. Overview of the Score as a Musical Text Chapter 10 5. Analysis and Readings of the Score Part 11 Notes Part 12 Bibliography Part 13 Index Part 14 About the Author

Read more less

Book Synopsis

Read more less

Book SynopsisHold On World revisits Lennon and Ono''s love affair and startling collaborations. John Lennon''s Plastic Ono Band was arguably the most emotionally honest album ever made. It wasn''t merely another record but more like a sonic exorcism, a spiritual, public bloodletting. Lennon''s album drove a stake through the heart of the Beatles'' myth while confronting everything else in John''s life, from Dylan to God to his glorified status as a Working Class Hero. Determined to rid himself of childhood traumasabandoned by his father, John, at age nine, watched helplessly as his mother was killed by a carLennon wrote the most powerful song cycle of his career, confronting fear, disappointment, and illusion, all the while espousing his love for Yoko Ono. Released simultaneously, Ono''s album Yoko Ono/Plastic Ono Band is emotionally raw and challenging. It inspired bands like the B-52s and Yo La Tengo to employ pure sound, whether shrieking vocals or guitar feedback, to exp

Read more less

Book SynopsisElvis Presley remains the single most important figure in twentieth century popular music. To many commentators, however, he has simply embodied the benefits and problems of uncritically embracing capitalism. By 2005 the 'Memphis Flash' sold over a billion records worldwide, yet his cultural significance cannot be measured by these extraordinary sales figures alone. He cannot quite be reduced to a placeholder for the contradictions of commerce. As the most prominent performer of the rock'n'roll era, then as a charismatic global superstar, Elvis fundamentally challenged the established relationship between White and Black culture, drew attention to the social needs of women and young people, and promoted the value of Southern creativity. He functioned as a bridge figure between folk roots and high modernity, and in the process became a controversial symbol of American unity. Elvis interprets the image and music of Elvis Presley to reveal how they have evolved to construct a particularly appealing and powerful myth. Following broad contours of Presley's rollercoaster career, the book uses a range of analytical frames to challenge established perspectives on an icon. Its shows that the controversy around Elvis has effectively tested how far a concern for social equality could be articulated through the marketplace, and ultimately challenged how popular music itself should be assessed.

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe first book to use subversive sexuality as a lensthrough which to provocatively view opera in the 21st century. Imagine Armida, Handel's Saracen sorceress, performing her breakneck coloraturas in a black figure-hugging rubber dress, beating her insubordinate furies into submission with a cane, suspending a captive Rinaldo in chains from the ceiling of her dungeon. Mozart's peasant girl Zerlina, meanwhile, is tying up and blindfolding her fiancé to seduce him out of his jealousy of Don Giovanni. And how about Wagner's wizard, Klingsor, ensnaring his choir of flower maidens in elaborate Japanese rope bondage? Opera, it would appear, has developed a taste for sadomasochism. For decades now, radical stage directors have repeatedly dressed canonical operasfrom Handel and Mozart to Wagner and Puccini, and beyondin whips, chains, leather, and other regalia of SM and fetishism. Deviant Opera seeks to understand this phenomenon, approaching the contemporary visual code of perversion as a lens through which opera focuses and scrutinizes its own configurations of sex, gender, power, and violence. The emerging image is that of an art form that habitually plays with an eroticization of cruelty and humiliation, inviting its devotees to take sensual pleasure in the suffering of others. Ultimately, Deviant Opera argues that this species of opera fantasizes about breaking the boundaries of its own role-playing, and pushing its erotic power exchanges from the enacted to the actual.Trade Review"An erudite analysis of sadomasochism (SM) in opera." * Opera Now *“Englund’s academically disciplined discussions of opera direction and sex become meaningful far beyond the portrayed sadomasochistic situation. They also concern the conditions of opera’s fundamental aesthetic laws and expressions.” * OPERA (Sweden) *"[Axel] Englund’s study of deviant opera is penetrating and extremely thoroughly researched, persuasively argued, abundantly documented, and well written." * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books *Table of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Preface Introduction. Staging Deviance 1. Opera and Sadomasochism 2. Sex in Excess: Rinaldo, Alcina, and the Contemporary Baroque 3. Schools of Libertinage: Don Giovanni with Sade 4. In-House Allegories: Enactment and Actuality in Parsifal and Tosca 5. More or Less Human: Wozzeck, Lulu, and the Soprano Conductor Epilogue. The Actuality Effect and Opera’s Quest for Authenticity Notes Works Cited Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review“Susan Rankin has for decades reflected on the relations between the visible signs on the page and musical sound. This book boldly steps in a new direction in several fields of study: palaeography, history of the book, history of liturgy, music history, art history, and the broad history of the eighth and ninth centuries.” —Calvin M. Bower, translator of Fundamentals of MusicTable of ContentsList of Illustrations List of Music Examples List of Tables Note on Musical Examples Note on Manuscript Citations Preface Abbreviations Introduction Making Chant Books Part I. Reforming and Regulating 1. Musical Persuasion 2. Musical Eloquence 3. The Provision and Ownership of Chant Books Part II. Displaying Pronuntiatio 4. Making Instructions Visible 5. The Delivery of Festal Readings and Prayers 6. Singing the Psalms Part III. Making Chant Books 7. Books for Priests and Books for Singers 8. Purple, Gold, Silver and Ivory 9. New Directions 10. Fulfillment and Transformation Appendix. Feasts with chants included in the second sacramentary in Paris BnF lat. 9430 and Tours 184 Bibliography Index of Manuscripts General Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisCome to My Garden (1970) introduced the world to Minnie Riperton, the solo artist. Minnie captivated listeners with her earth-shattering voice's uncanny ability to evoke melancholy and exultance. Born out of Charles Stepney's masterful composition and Richard Rudolph's attentive songwriting, the album fused a plethora of music genres. A blip in the universe of fusion music that would come to dominate the 1970s, Come to My Garden also featured the work of young bandleaders like Ramsey Lewis and Maurice White, thus bridging the divide between jazz and R&B. Despite fairly positive reviews of the album, even in its many re-releases, it never garnered critical attention. Minnie Riperton's Come to My Garden by Brittnay L. Proctor uses rare archival ephemera, the multiple re-issues of the album, interviews, cultural history, and personal narrative to outline how the revolutionary album came to be and its lasting impact on popular music of the post-soul era (the late 20thTable of ContentsTrack Listing Album Personnel and Credits Acknowledgments Author’s Note Introduction 1. Andrea Davis Meets Minnie Riperton 2. Charles Stepney’s Popular Symphonies 3. Fusion Music, Black Musical Idiom, and the Law of Genre 4. On Black Women’s Gardens 5. Contemporary Resonances 6. Conversation with Richard Rudolph Epilogue

Read more less

Book SynopsisLearn about the world’s greatest classical compositions and musical traditions in The Classical Music Book.Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Classic Music in this overview guide to the subject, great for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Classical Music Book brings a fresh and vibrant take on the topic through eye-catching graphics and diagrams to immerse yourself in. This captivating book will broaden your understanding of Classical Music, with:- More than 90 pieces of world-famous music - Packed with facts, charts, timelines and graphs to help explain core concepts- A visual approach to big subjects with striking illustrations and graphics throughout- Easy to follow text makes topics accessible for people at any level of understandingThe Class

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe release of the song ‘Hound Dog’ in 1953 marked a turning point in American popular culture, and throughout its history, the hit ballad bridged divides of race, gender, and generational conflict. Ben Wynne’s A Hound Dog Tale discusses the stars who made this rock ‘n’ roll standard famous.Trade ReviewThis well-written book offers a glimpse into the tangled world of early rock 'n' roll and those who were part of the perfect storm that produced the song 'Hound Dog.' Ben Wynne addresses the complicated matter of cultural appropriation by white artists using African American musical forms, and he shows how the young Jewish songwriters who penned the lyrics add an intriguing factor that is typical of a hybrid American culture. A Hound Dog Tale is for fans of the music but also for anyone interested in American society at a galvanizing musical moment." - Charles Reagan Wilson, author of Judgment and Grace in Dixie: Southern Faiths from Faulkner to Elvis"[This book is] very well-researched. Wynne tells us the saga of 'Hound Dog' and, in doing so, contributes to the fact that Big Mama Thornton's role in this story deservedly shines again in the public eye." - Michael Spörke, author of Big Mama Thornton: The Life and Music

Read more less

Book SynopsisESG were one of the first bands to sign to British indie label Factory Records, working with famed producer Martin Hannett on their early EPs. The band''s signature guitar sound from iconic single UFO' has been sampled in hundreds of hip hop records, and everyone from Karen O to Kathleen Hanna lists the South Bronx group as a direct influence. So why do the Scroggins sisters appear as nothing more than a footnote in the 1980s music scene? Through interviews with founding member Renee Scroggins, alongside cult-figures from 1980s New York and North England, this book follows the story of a group of sisters who made it out of the New York projects and into the heart of the dancefloor. Come Away With ESG repositions ESG in their rightful place as punk pioneers and explains howtheir primal beats have paved the way for modern dance music today.Trade ReviewThe book gives ESG their rightful place as "funk punk pioneers" and describes how their original beats paved the way for the modern dance music of today. * Ox-Fanzine: Magazine for Rock'n'Roll (translated) *A superb addition to the series. . . . Percy skilfully guides the reader through the ESG story which is, unsurprisingly, often exasperating. . . . This is also a story of survival, a belief in a sound and ultimately a celebration of an album that ‘will sound out for years to come–omnipresent, unstoppable, and finally making sense to those that hear it.’ . . . A cautionary, compulsive tale, brilliantly told. * The Crack *Table of ContentsIntroduction 1. The South Bronx Story 2. From Downtown Manhattan to Up North Manchester: Come Away with ESG 3. Sample Credits Don’t Pay Our Bills 4. Keep On Moving 5. 40 Years of Dancing: ESG’s Decade-Spanning Legacy Notes

Read more less

Book SynopsisThe Child Ballads are a series of over 300 traditional ballads from England and Scotland that, along with their American variants, were anthologized by folklorist Francis James Child in the nineteenth century. An Evolving Tradition is the story of the Child Balladsthe world's best-known and most highly regarded repository of traditional English folk songs, and the wellspring for approximately 10,000 recordings over the last century, from obscure musicological archives to classic releases from Bob Dylan, Simon & Garfunkel, and Led Zeppelin.Drawing on interviews with numerous scholars and musicians, author Dave Thompson explains what a ballad is, outlines their dominant themes, and recounts how these ballads survived to become a mainstay of field recordings made by Cecil Sharp, Alan Lomax, and others as they traveled the English and American countryside in search of old songs. Thompson traverses the entire spectrum of rock, pop, folk, roots, experimental music, industrial, and

Read more less

a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.

Read more less

Book SynopsisWomen and Music in the Age of Austen highlights the central role women played in musical performance, composition, reception, and representation, and analyzes its formative and lasting effect on Georgian culture. This interdisciplinary collection of essays from musicology, literary studies, and gender studies challenges the conventional historical categories that marginalize women’s experience from Austen’s time. Contesting the distinctions between professional and amateur musicians, public and domestic sites of musical production, and performers and composers of music, the contributors reveal how women’s widespread involvement in the Georgian musical scene allowed for self-expression, artistic influence, and access to communities that transcended the boundaries of gender, class, and nationality. This volume’s breadth of focus advances our understanding of a period that witnessed a musical flourishing, much of it animated by female hands and voices. Published by Bucknell University Press. Distributed worldwide by Rutgers University Press. Trade Review“Women and Music in the Age of Austen offers an expansive, lively, colourful view of the gendered musical practices of the eighteenth century and the Romantic period. These essays enrich our knowledge of the musical world of Jane Austen and Frances Burney while shining a spotlight on little-known female performers, critics, composers, consumers, collectors, fans, and musical entrepreneurs of the preceding decades.” -- Angela Esterhammer * author of Print and Performance in the 1820s: Improvisation, Speculation, Identity *“Finding inspiration in a broad range of sources, the volume reflects on women and their musical activities in Georgian England. A focus on Jane Austen and her novels moves in and out of the picture, amplified and receding against historical figures known and unknown. Through these essays by musically-informed literary scholars and musicologists, readers get a sense of the possibilities and desires of women engaged with music over a historical period that brackets the life of our beloved Jane.” -- Maribeth Clark * coeditor of Musicology and Dance: Historical and Critical Perspectives *“Music was important to Jane Austen, as her novels and letters attest, and women played a hitherto undervalued part in the musical world of her time. This sparkling and substantial collection of interdisciplinary essays illuminates Austen’s fiction and her age in many original and surprising ways.” -- Peter Sabor * coeditor of Jane Austen's Manuscript Works *Table of ContentsIllustrations Table Acknowledgements Abbreviations Introduction: “It was all in harmony”: Musical Women in Austen’s Culture Linda Zionkowski with Miriam F. Hart Part I: Representing the Female Performer Chapter 1: A Musical Room of Her Own: Musical Spaces in Jane Austen’s Novels Pierre Dubois Chapter 2: “Prima la musica”: Gentry Daughters at Play in Town, Country, and Continent, 1815-1825 Kelly M. McDonald Chapter 3: Stage Fright: Female Musicians Crossing Musical Borders in Thicknesse’s The School for Fashion and Burney’s The Wanderer Danielle Grover Part II: Women and the Market in Music Chapter 4: Women on the Title Page: Celebrity Endorsement of Musical Scores Penelope Cave Chapter 5: The Lady’s Choice: Women and the Purchase of Music through Subscription Simon D. I. Fleming Chapter 6: Female Musical Entrepreneurship in the Eighteenth Century Alison C. DeSimone Part III: Women as Critics and Fans Chapter 7: Women as Quiet Critics Jane Girdham Chapter 8: Femininity and Foreignness in George Colman’s Farce, The Musical Lady Leslie Ritchie Chapter 9: Georgian Fangirls: Women and Castrati in Eighteenth-Century London Jeffrey A. Nigro Part IV: Women and the Bardic Tradition Chapter 10: Anna Gordon and the Ballad Collectors Ruth Perry Chapter 11: Antiquaries, Female Harpists, and the Survival of the Bardic Tradition Devon R. Nelson Part V: Revisiting the Age of Austen Chapter 12: “That Ecstatic Delight”: Gender and Performance in Adaptations of Sense and Sensibility Gayle Magee Chapter 13: “Here’s harmony!”: Music and Gender in Kirke Mechem’s Pride & Prejudice (2019) and Jonathan Dove’s Mansfield Park (2011) Juliette Wells Bibliography Notes on Contributors Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade Review[Audio Culture, Revised Edition] is often so stimulating that you're swept along and back into the music itself - and for those with a hunch that a whole world of sound exists beyond the concert hall, here's your entry point. * The Wire *[Audio Culture] is an indispensable primer full of the theories behind noise, Free-jazz, minimalism, 20th century composition, ambient, avant-garde and all the other crazy shit your square-ass friends can't believe you actually like. With writing and interviews from all the players in question (quoting Stockhausen is five points in hipster bingo), this book deconstructs all the essential ideas: Cage's themes, Eno's strategies, Zorn's games and Merzbow's undying love of porno. * CMJ New Music Monthly (of the first edition) *Audio Culture is the best introduction to the long historical fades and theoretical jumpcuts of what millions in the 21st C. now listen to as music: overwhelming noise and disturbed silences, unfettered Improv and indeterminate obstacles, the performance of recording, electricity, eclectics, mistakes and just the thought of music. * Douglas Kahn, author of Noise, Water, Meat: A History of Sound in the Arts, and Director of Technocultural Studies at the University of California, Davis (of the first edition) *The contributors include composers from the worlds of avant-garde classical music, pop, and jazz--e.g. John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, and Pauline Oliveros--as well as cultural historians like Marshall McLuhan and Jacques Barzun and literary experimentalists such as William Burroughs....Students of contemporary music will find this compendium useful. * Library Journal (of the first edition) *Audio Culture is a book to provoke thought ... This is an excellent selection of texts. * Radical Philosophy (of the first edition) *It's a hideous fate to wish on an anthology as fine as Audio Culture, but if anyone's planning a college course on modern music, they couldn't find a better set text ... All in all, a wonderful book ... The glossary, bibliography and discography are exemplary, guaranteeing Audio Culture is going to be used rather than merely dipped or cribbed. Though you can bet that'll be happening to it as well. * The Wire (of the first edition) *Audio Culture's assemblage of key writings, texts, and manifestos spanning over a century tells that story better than just about anything else in print, while discovering new tributaries in the process. * Frieze (of the first edition) *This is a book that should be read in its totality - it's truly absorbing stuff. * Jazzwise (of the first edition) *Ever wondered how modern music in all its mesmerizing diversity really works? If so, then this is the book for you ... An endlessly fascinating read, a major reference resource, and great value for the money. * Classic FM Magazine (of the first edition) *Eminently readable ... Experimental music enthusiasts and the pipe-and-elbow patch crowd should find plenty in here to peak their interest ... Audio Culture doesn't limit itself to traditional ways of looking at music, just as it doesn't limit its rogue's gallery of contributors ... Topics such as minimalist compositions and noise-based music are finally given some long-overdue critical attention. * Creative Loafing (of the first edition) *Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music is a cannily collected anthology of seminal music writing, your one-stop shopping destination for ear-opening essays on the nature and recent history of music. The obligatory pioneers and almost-pop icons are all there ... Audio Culture coeditors Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner range boldly and widely, embracing noise, soundscape listening, minimalism, glitch, plunderphonics, and collective music making ... Audio Culture passes the test of a good music book: It's easy to read, insightful, and inspiring. * The Stranger (of the first edition) *Growing steadily alongside a music-writing canon loaded with the likes of Greil Marcus and Lester Bangs, the body of work sampled in Audio Culture wanders far afield from rock and ponders questions that are less than concerned with ideals of human expression. In this sphere of influence, John Cage is Elvis Presley, Brian Eno's cerebral musings trump Lou Reed's tangy antagonism, sonics mean more than lyrics, and movements have yet to be surveyed entirely through a year view ... The best book of its kind, Audio Culture compiles essays and excerpts from artists, critics, and academics given to staring down music with no eyes to return the gaze ... From there, Audio Culture spreads to survey various facets of music and its production, and interpretation. The table of contents reads like a greatest-hits collection: Cage, Eno, Ornette Coleman, Steve Reich, David Toop, Kodwo Eshun, Simon Reynolds ... Audio Culture dangles intellectual threads fit to tie lifers and open-eared wonderers alike. * The Onion (of the first edition) *To be honest, no one looking at the collection of 57 well-chosen essays written by some of the biggest names in music and reprinted from books and publications well-noted for their contribution to music theory will be able to resist reading and buying the book. In fact, there is just so much that makes this book valuable that it is difficult to name them all. Both the content and the structure of Audio Culture add to its strength ... The end result is a complete and cohesive treatment of modern music. Anyone who has edited a collection knows that such an outcome is not an easy one to attain, but it is certainly achieved here ... With growing interest in sound on web-based environments and the ease with which to produce it, Cox and Warner's Audio Culture stands as a must-read for both aspiring artists and music theorists alike. * Leonardo (of the first edition) *Writings on the new music are frequently hidden away in hard-to-find, ephemeral publications, so a collection like this is welcome just by the fact that it brings all these items together ... A collection like this encourages us to realize how really vibrant and successful new music has been and continues to be - both because of and in spite of its ‘marginality' - and how fortunate we are to live in a time of its ascendancy. Cox and Warner have included well-organized discographies and bibliographies, and provide brief introductions to the individual entries, giving some background to each author's work and ideas. Audio Culture will certainly be a useful teaching tool in the field of cultural studies, aesthetics and musicology; and fans and devotees of new music will find a lot here to mull over as well. * Signal to Noise (of the first edition) *In Audio Culture, editors Christoph Cox and Daniel Warner bring to readers an educated, timely and much needed critical perspective of our contemporary musical experience through the writings of some of the most important musical thinkers, including Jacques Attali, John Cage, Umberto Eco, Brian Eno, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Edgar Varese, just to name a few. Audio Culture offers a collection of essays that filter a range of experimental musical practices in an unusually refreshing way. Maybe not since Gregory Whitehead's reader Wireless Imagination (1994) which recorded the ‘silent' history of audio, has literature on this subject sufficiently captured the attention of both the sound enthusiasts and academics at the same time ... The result is an elegant anthology that compiles the manifestos of ‘old masters' such as Italian Futurist Luigi Russolo and statements by Edgard Varese and John Cage while also spotlighting an interview on integration of technology into artistic production by Christian Marclay... It is to the credit of the book that it keeps up with the most interesting key texts and ideas in the field and does not make a huge demand on our Windows-culture-inflicted patience. The book is ambitious enough to cater to a broader audience and manages to respond to the numerous demands made upon it....makes the writings very accessible to readers who are not familiar with the author or topic under discussion. Texts and ideas come from a variety of sources ... Audio Culture succinctly captures the last fifty years that has been the most fascinating times for avant-garde experimentation, performances and sonic landscapes, By treating the existing rhizomic dots and lines between myriads of practices in a progressive fashion, it gives the last decade ... its attention and maybe its future vocabulary. * Rhizome.org (of the first edition) *...offers a collection of essays that filter a range of experimental musical practices in an unusually refreshing way....an intriguing selection of articles from a range of significant radio-sonic heroes as well as important thinkers and philosophers...an elegant anthology...ambitious... Audio Culture guides the readers an intellectual journey from the year 1877 when the first recording fundamentally transformed sound, towards almost better understanding our present culture of omnipresent ipod-users, polyphonic cell-phone ringers and Bjork's Medula, helping both the experts and enthusiasts to new ways of thinking, tracing, developing and presenting audio culture. * rhizome.org (Weekly Digest), 2/05 *Cox's and Warner's book is a wonderfully accessible anthology of essential readings for anyone-academics and enthusiasts alike-interested in the histories of experimental music and sound art. * Debra Singer, Executive Director, The Kitchen (of the first edition) *Cox and Warner's book is warmly recommended. It's highly unlikely that readers will have original copies of all the books and articles featured therein, so the simple fact that the editors have gone to the trouble of bringing them together in one volume is to be praised to the skies....Audio Culture is well worth the price of admission for the writings of Russolo, Cowell, Cage, Schafer, McLuhan, Reynolds, Eno and Cutler, to name but a few. * Paristransatlantic.com January 2005 - Blurb from reviewer *This updated collection remains the essential Baedeker for a woolly cultural landscape in which sound has proven itself to be so much more than just “music”. The historic range, aesthetic breadth, and diversity of contributors give the volume singular value in the growing field of sound studies. * Nicolas Collins, Professor, Department of Sound, The School of the Art Institute of Chicago, USA *Audio Culture is an indispensable resource not only in understanding the contexts and underpinnings of so much music - be it contemporary classical, jazz and improv, electronic music, hip hop and beyond, but also in showing how ideas around music and sound are part of a much wider cultural conversation. The book is brilliantly researched, well structured and includes fascinating reads and insights. * Anne Hilde Neset, Writer, Broadcaster and Director, Kunstnernes Hus, Norway *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction Part One: Theories I. Music and Its Others: Noise, Sound, Silence Introduction 1. Jacques Attali, “Noise and Politics” 2. Luigi Russolo, “The Art of Noises: Futurist Manifesto” 3. Edgard Varèse, “The Liberation of Sound” 4. Henry Cowell, “The Joys of Noise” 5. John Cage, “The Future of Music: Credo” 6. R. Murray Schafer, “The Music of the Environment” 7. Anne Carson, “The Gender of Sound” 8. Drew Daniel, “Queer Sound” 9. Kevin Quashie, “The Quiet of Blackness: Miles Davis and John Coltrane” II. Modes of Listening Introduction 10. Marshall McLuhan, “Visual and Acoustic Space” 11. Pierre Schaeffer, “Acousmatics” 12. Francisco Lopez, “Profound Listening and Environmental Sound Matter” 13. Brian Eno, “Ambient Music” 14. Pauline Oliveros, “Auralizing the Sonosphere” 15. Maryanne Amacher, “Perceptual Geography: Third Ear Music and Structure Borne Sound” 16. Evelyn Glennie, “Hearing Essay” 17. Iain Chambers, “The Aural Walk” 18. Annahid Kassabian, “Ubiquitous Listening” 19. Lawrence Abu Hamdan, “Forensic Listening” 20. Ultra-red, “Organizing the Silence” III. Music in the Age of Electronic Reproduction Introduction 21. Glenn Gould, “The Prospects of Recording” 22. Brian Eno, “The Studio as Compositional Tool” 23. John Oswald, “Bettered by the Borrower: The Ethics of Musical Debt” 24. Chris Cutler, “Plunderphonia” 25. Kodwo Eshun, “Operating System for the Redesign of Sonic Reality” 26. Kenneth Goldsmith, “Six File-Sharing Epiphanies” 27. Tara Rodgers, “Cultivating Activist Lives in Sound” Part Two: Practices IV. The Open Work Introduction 28. Umberto Eco, “Poetics of the Open Work” 29. John Cage, “Composition as Process: Indeterminacy” 30. Christoph Cox, “Every Sound You Can Imagine: On Graphic Scores” 31. Earle Brown, “Transformations and Developments of a Radical Aesthetic” 32. John Zorn, “The Game Pieces” 33. Anthony Braxton, “Introduction to Catalog of Works” 34. Lawrence “Butch” Morris, “Notes on Conduction” V. Experimental Musics Introduction 35. Michael Nyman, “Towards (a Definition of) Experimental Music” 36. John Cage, “Introduction to Themes & Variations” 37. Brian Eno, “Generating and Organizing Variety in the Arts” 38. Cornelius Cardew, Scratch Music Draft Constitution 39. David Toop, “The Generation Game: Experimental Music and Digital Culture” 40. Jennifer Walshe on “The New Discipline” 41. Yan Jun, “Re-Invent: Experimental Music in China” VI. Improvised Musics Introduction 42. Ornette Coleman, “Change of the Century” 43. Wadada Leo Smith, “Notes (8 Pieces): Creative Music” 44. Derek Bailey, “Free Improvisation” 45. Frederic Rzewski, “Little Bangs: A Nihilist Theory of Improvisation” 46. George E. Lewis, “Improvised Music After 1950: Afrological and Eurological Perspectives” 47. Vijay Iyer, “Improvisation: Terms and Conditions” 48. Mattin, “Going Fragile” 49. Trio Sowari et al., “27 Questions For a Start … And Some Answers to Begin With” VII. Minimalisms Introduction 50. Kyle Gann, “Thankless Attempts at a Definition of Minimalism” 51. Wim Mertens, “Basic Concepts of Minimal Music” 52. Steve Reich, “Music as a Gradual Process” 53. La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, “Conversation with Richard Kostelanetz” 54. Tony Conrad, “LYssophobia: On Four Violins” 55. Susan McClary, “Rap, Minimalism and Structures of Time in Late Twentieth-Century Culture” 56. Philip Sherburne, “Draw a Straight Line and Follow It: Minimalism in Contemporary Electronic Dance Music” VIII. DJ Culture Introduction 57. László Moholy-Nagy, “Production–Reproduction: Potentialities of the Phonograph” 58. Situationist International, “Détournement as Negation and Prelude” 59. William S. Burroughs, “The Invisible Generation” 60. Paul D. Miller, “Algorithms: Erasures and the Art of Memory” 61. David Toop, “Replicant: On Dub” 62. Simon Reynolds, “Post-Rock” 63. Marina Rosenfeld, “A Few Notes on Production and Playback” IX. Electronic Music and Electronica Introduction 64. Jacques Barzun, “Introductory Remarks to a Program of Works Produced at the Columbia-Princeton Electronic Music Center” 65. Karlheinz Stockhausen, “Electronic and Instrumental Music” 66. Karlheinz Stockhausen et al., “Stockhausen vs. the Technocrats” 67. Eliane Radigue, “The Mysterious Power of the Infinitesimal” 68. Kim Cascone, “The Aesthetics of Failure: ‘Post-Digital’ Tendencies in Contemporary Computer Music” 69. Holly Herndon, “Laptop Intimacy and Platform Politics” Bibliography Chronology Discography Glossary Index of Quotations Index

Read more less

Book SynopsisIt is a common article of faith that Mozart composed the most beautiful music we can know. But few of us ask why. Why does the beautiful in Mozart stand apart, as though untouched by human hands? At the same time, why does it inspire intimacy rather than distant admiration, love rather than awe? And how does Mozart's music create and sustain its buTrade ReviewWinner of the 2014 Otto Kinkeldey Award, American Musicological Society One of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 2013 "Here is analysis and commentary written with considerable enthusiasm and affection... Mozart's Grace is written with great fervour and yes, grace, together with a deep love of Mozart's music."--Classical Music Magazine "The premise: identify some of the best bits in Mozart's works, then discover why they succeed so well. The idea is so starkly simple that one could expect a puerile result. However, Burnham, an eminent teacher, writer, and Mozartean, produces something rather wonderful... [Mozart's Grace] is a book that does justice to its subject matter."--Choice "This book has only deepened my admiration for its author."--Leo Black, Musical Times "Mozart's Grace is written with great fervor and yes, grace, together with a deep love of Mozart's music. In these tough economic times one is heartened to see the publication of such a book."--John Robert Brown, Classical Music "Burnham offers a stirring, erudite, and deeply poetic treatment of around fifty select passages as a culmination of some three decades of thought and discussion... Through delightfully written prose bursting with musical metaphors that extend to all five senses, Scott Burnham argues persuasively for why we relentlessly submit ourselves to Mozart."--Steven D. Mathews, Notes "[Burnham's] writing, sentence by sentence, is clear as air yet shimmers with revelatory understanding of the effects that Mozart's music makes on the listener, illustrating and supporting his discoveries with penetrating and meticulous explication of details in the musical examples. In doing so he offers some of the most sensitive, nuanced, perceptive, and eloquent commentary about music (of any kind) I've read."--American Record Guide "Rarely does love pour from musicological writing as generously as it does from Scott Burnham's ingenious, congenial paean. At 169 pages of text including generous musical examples throughout, Mozart's Grace teaches us a great deal about Mozart, concision, and well-turned prose."--David Schneider, Music and LettersTable of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Invitation 1 I Beauty and Grace 7 II Thresholds 37 III Grace and Renewal 117 Knowing Innocence 165 Notes 171 Bibliography 183 Index 187

Read more less

Book SynopsisHere for the first time is a stirring collection of rare songs of the Holocaust; songs of resistance, despair, rage, hope and even humour, written in the face of utter evil. The very existence of these songs raises haunting questions. The historical notes and insightful survivor testimony in this groundbreaking volume provide moving answers.

Read more less

Book SynopsisCharting the history of the Royal Musical Association over 150 years: from scientific roots and the long resistance of British universities to music study, to bringing UK musicology to worldwide recognition.

Read more less

Book SynopsisEmanuele Senici’s new book provides a fresh look at the motives behind the Rossinian furore and its aftermath by placing his works into the culture and society in which they were conceived, performed, seen, heard, and discussed.

Read more less

Book SynopsisHow sampling remade hip-hop over forty years, from pioneering superstar Grandmaster Flash through crate-digging preservationist and innovator Madlib Sampling—incorporating found sound and manipulating it into another form entirely—has done more than any musical movement in the twentieth century to maintain a continuum of popular music as a living document and, in the process, has become one of the most successful (and commercial) strains of postmodern art. Bring That Beat Back traces the development of this transformative pop-cultural practice from its origins in the turntable-manning, record-spinning hip-hop DJs of 1970s New York through forty years of musical innovation and reinvention.Nate Patrin tells the story of how sampling built hip-hop through the lens of four pivotal artists: Grandmaster Flash as the popular face of the music’s DJ-born beginnings; Prince Paul as an early champion of sampling’s potential to elaborate on and rewrite music history; Dr. Dre as the superstar who personified the rise of a stylistically distinct regional sound while blurring the lines between sampling and composition; and Madlib as the underground experimentalist and record-collector antiquarian who constantly broke the rules of what the mainstream expected from hip-hop. From these four artists’ histories, and the stories of the people who collaborated, competed, and evolved with them, Patrin crafts a deeply informed, eminently readable account of a facet of pop music as complex as it is commonly underestimated: the aesthetic and reconstructive power of one of the most revelatory forms of popular culture to emerge from postwar twentieth-century America. And you can nod your head to it.Trade Review"The rise of digital sampling is one of the most important musical development of the late twentieth century. Nate Patrin’s Bring That Beat Back is a rollicking, wide-ranging, and immensely readable history of sample-based music-making: its origins, its golden ages, and its enormous role in shaping modern popular music. This book is a must-read for hip-hop obsessives and casual listeners alike."—Jack Hamilton, author of Just around Midnight: Rock and Roll and the Racial Imagination"Much like the art of sampling itself, Nate Patrin deftly weaves pieces of history and criticism together to create a compelling new message. Bring That Beat Back is a masterful, scholarly analysis that illustrates just how essential sampling has been to the development of hip-hop and lifts up the oft-overlooked DJs and producers who paved the way for our genrefluid future."—Andrea Swensson, author of Got to Be Something Here: The Rise of the Minneapolis Sound"The painstaking attention to detail and droves of obscure yet essential information will make this book hard for the beat obsessive and music history buff to put down. The wealth of information won't deter the casual music fan, though—Bring That Beat Back is a fascinating read for anyone with a remote interest in hip-hop, breakbeat culture, the tug-of-war between instrumentalists and technology, or how the politics of the music business affects all three. A true breakbeat bonanza extravaganza!"—J-Zone, drummer, funk enthusiast, producer, author"If sampling is the most successful form of alchemy ever realized, Nate Patrin's meticulous prose and crate-digging research mirror the dazzling ingenuity of hip-hop's best producers. Breaks and loops are artfully recontextualized into a head-nodding slipstream of history, chronicled in a way to make classic rhythms seem fresh again. A necessary read for anyone who seeks to better understand the last half-century of future sound."—Jeff Weiss, founder and editor of POW (Passion of the Weiss)"Patrin conveys the drama of successive generations of musicians all questing for new ways to tap into the thing that makes hip-hop’s language unique—moments sourced from music’s past that somehow point the way forward, expressing both nostalgia and renewal in equal measure."—Library Journal"Could there a better argument for the artistry of sampling, its potential for beauty?"—The Arts Fuse"A must-read for any hip hop fan—Patrin clearly understands the artform of sampling and hip hop production, and he does a great job of not just discussing these different artists and eras in the four sections, but also showing how the sections overlap and inform each other and push the culture forward."—Scratched Vinyl"Patrin's book is packed with leaps, connections, and knowledge transfusions almost as dense as a Madvillain beat... though it proceeds in a somewhat more orderly manner. It functions on multiple levels: it's a history of hip-hop, it's an argument for that genre as a wholly distinctive art form with sampling technology at its root, and it's a map from hip-hop out to a wildly diverse set of artists connected to the genre by way of samples."—The Current"Patrin has an encyclopedic knowledge of his subject, packing each chapter with manic attention to detail."—4Columns"A truly postmodern endeavor that creates conversations between music originating in many eras and genres."—Shepherd Express"This musicological study is never dry, always enthusiastic and appreciative, and groundbreaking in its analysis of the art of sampling as just that: art. Featuring plenty of entertaining cultural history, this is a significant contribution to hip-hop studies."—Rolling Stone "Patrin’s work is thoroughly engaging from first needle drop to last. "—Kirkus ReviewsTable of ContentsContentsIntroduction: The Art of the LoopPart I. The Grandmaster1. Wheels of Steel: How Djs Became Artists2. Change the Beat: Hip-Hop’s First Crossover3. Funky Drummer: Sampling Reaches the PeoplePart II. The Prince4. Synthetic Substitution: A New Medium Finds Its Canon5. Talkin’ All That Jazz: The Legitimization of an Art Form6. Constant Elevation: Hip-Hop’s Rising UndergroundPart III. The Doctor7. Funky Enough: How the West was Made8. G Thang: The Producer as Superstar9. Aftermath: Auteurism in a Post-Gangsta WorldPart IV. The Beat Konducta10. The Loop Digga: Sampling Preserves History (and Itself)11. The Illest Villains: High Concepts and New Voices12. Survival Test: Hip-Hop as a CommunityEpilogue: Breaks and EchoesAcknowledgmentsNotesBibliographySelected DiscographyIndex

Read more less

Book Synopsis A fascinating journey into global politics that made classical music a proxy for power, inadvertently creating the “sound of Hollywood,” and excluding hundreds of composersTrade Review“The great virtue of John Mauceri’s The War on Music is that it acknowledges what many writers on the subject know but can’t say: that something went badly wrong in music in the 20th century, and especially after 1945. . . . Fluently written and often cogent.”—Barton Swaim, Wall Street Journal“Two world wars changed the course of music in the 20th century. Charting the malign influence of politics, from Hitler to Stalin, Mauceri shows how music became part of the weaponry of identity. Refugee composers lost their place in the mainstream and Mauceri argues for a re-evaluation of those forgotten and discarded.”—Richard Fairman, Financial Times, “Best summer books of 2022: Classical music”“Conductor John Mauceri has released a study of the forgetting of so much classical music, especially music composed in America by refugees from Nazi-dominated Europe. A leitmotif of his work is how often not only music students but professors or professional musicians don’t even know the names (let alone the scores) of the composers who had been household names in Central Europe.”—Mark Almond, The Critic“This is an illuminating, provocative and entertaining read, from an author with impeccable credentials.”—Mike Tilling, Yorkshire Times“A well-founded, cogent, and forceful argument for a fresh look at all of the century’s great music, much of it written under extraordinary circumstances, and why we need to go back and listen.”—Jon Burlingame, author of The Music of James Bond“A profound thinker and observer and an eminent American musician, John Mauceri brilliantly explores the contested terrain of twentieth-century classical music and adds a whole new dimension to our understanding of musical politics and musical repertory.”— Larry Wolff, author of The Singing Turk“En garde! In his provocative new book The War on Music: Reclaiming the Twentieth Century—one that is certain to initiate heated and impassioned discussion—the prodigiously talented and multifaceted conductor and writer John Mauceri throws down a musical gauntlet as he endeavors to upend and re-examine some of the reigning assumptions of the history of post-war twentieth-century classical music. No matter how one responds to the thrust of John Mauceri’s sweeping musical worldview, one must salute him for his fervent, dauntless, and audacious engagement.”—Jonathan Cott, author of Dinner With Lenny: The Last Long Interview With Leonard Bernstein“Mauceri’s brilliant The War on Music begins with the question, ‘Why do we not play the music Hitler banned?’ and then pulls back the curtain to answer it, in chilling detail.”— Robert Thompson, president, G. Schirmer

Read more less

Book SynopsisAs the 1970s ended, Waits felt trapped by his persona and career. But at his low point: Francis Ford Coppola asked Tom to write the score for "One From the Heart". He cleaned up, and met Kathleen Brennan. This work tells the story of a man creating that elusive American second act, and also about finding the prefect collaborator in his wife.Trade ReviewAnother bodice-ripper in the 33 1/3 series. -- Cory Frye * Under the Radar Magazine *Smay acts as a side-mouth talking tour guide leading us through the darkness, giving us flashlights so we can illuminate the parts to love the whole we never quite see. -- Matthew Fiander * Popmatters.com *Intelligent discussion of Tom Waits is a rare bird, and this volume is welcome addition. * The Big Takeover *

Read more less

Book SynopsisTrade ReviewThis is a paean to a lost age of wild rock'n'roll and decadent rock'n'roll journalism -- Louis Wise * Sunday Times - Music Book of the Year 2017 *Allan Jones’s wildly entertaining account of observing the excesses and eccentricities of rock stars at close quarters throughout the boom years of the 1970s and 80s, and barely hanging on to his health and sanity in the process. -- Richard Wise * The Guardian *Allan Jones' collection of stories lovingly evoke the hell and hedonism of music journalism at the peak of rock'n'roll's excess -- Dylan Jones * GQ Magazine *These inglorious glory days are long gone, but with this book, Jones throws them one hell of a wake. -- Victoria Segal * The Sunday Times *Mercifully he had a sense of humour, and lived to tell the tale, one of outrageous egos, unbound hedonism and an era lost to history. * Choice Magazine *Melody Maker editor Allan Jones has a wealth of often hilarious anecdotes to tell of his backstage encounters with many of the top rock stars of the Seventies and Eighties. * Choice Magazine *The full madness and lunacy from a time that is long gone is laid out here in all its bare-arsed glory. It is a deliciously good read. * Electronic Sound *It is a seriously entertaining book and one that lovingly evokes a period ... when working for one of the big music papers was a real badge of honour ... it is a tremendous giggle and I urge you to read it. * British GQ *hilarious. I was laughing out loud as I turned the pages * just backdated *a music journalist’s riotously entertaining tales from the heyday of rock. * The Sunday Times *His hilarious new book Can't Stand Up For Falling Down recounts his career and life around the music industry, mixing with some of the most famous faces on the planet and launching the careers of some of the most celebrated artists in the music world. * The MALESTRÖM *As well as being a celebration of excess, this is also, of course, an exercise in nostalgia * Times Literary Supplement *Table of ContentsIntroduction Leonard Cohen: London, June 1974 Tony Iommi: Iommi Mansions, Warwickshire, July 1974 Van Morrison: Knebworth, July 1974 Ray Davies: London, September 1974 Roxy Music: Cardiff, September 1974 KC and The Sunshine Band: London, October 1974 Lemmy: London, January 1975 John Martyn: Leeds, February 1975 Dave Brock: Devon, February 1975 Joe Strummer: London, February 1975 Wayne Nutt: Aberdeen, March 1975 Mick Ronson: Newcastle, April 1975 Alex Harvey: Glasgow, September 1975 Gordon Lightfoot: London, October 1975 Be-Bop Deluxe: Shrewsbury, January 1976 Patti Smith: London, May 1976 Phil Lynott’s Mum: Manchester, August 1976 Bryan Ferry: London, January 1977 The Byrds: London, April 1977 Angie Bowie: Somerset, April 1977 Lou Reed: London | Stockholm, April 1977 Olivia Newton-John: Lake Tahoe, Nevada, April 1977 The Sex Pistols: London, May 1977 Elvis Costello: London, June 1977 The Sex Pistols: London, June 1977 Stiff Records: London, July 1977 The Mont De Marsan Punk Festival: Southern France, August 1977 David Bowie: London, September 1977 Dr Feelgood: Leicester, September 1977 Nick Lowe: Glasgow, October 1977 Gregg Allman and Cher: London, November 1977 Nick Lowe: Finland, February 1978 Tony Iommi: Glasgow, March 1978 Elvis Costello: Belfast, March 1978 Lou Reed: Philadelphia | New York, May 1978 Kenny Everett: London, July 1978 John Peel: London, August 1978 The Legendary Ariola Juncket: New York |Los Angeles | Portland, August 1978 Al Stewart: Los Angeles, September 1978 The Clash: London, November 1978 XTC: New York, December 1978 The Boomtown Rats: Los Angeles | Atlanta | Dallas, January 1979 The Clash: Cleveland | Washington DC, January 1979 Mike Oldfield: Berlin, April 1979 Lou Reed and David Bowie: London, April 1979 Robert Fripp: Bournemouth, April 1979 The Pretenders: Chester | Blackburn, July 1979 The Searchers: Rhydyfelen, South Wales, November 1979 Jerry Dammers: Hemel Hempstead, December 1979 London Calling: Melody Maker HQ, December 1979 Squeeze: Australia, February 1980 Def Leppard: Glasgow, February 1980 The Police: Bombay, March 1980 The Police: Cairo, March 1980 The Police: Milan, April 1980 Elvis Costello | The Specials | Rockpile: Montreux, July 1980 Monsters of Rock Festival: Castle Donnington, August 1980 Ozzy Osbourne: Texas, March 1982 Morrissey: Reading, February 1984 Johnny Marr: Reading, February 1984 R.E.M.: Athens, GA, June 1985 Van Morrison: London, June 1986 Eddie Grant: Barbados, October 1986 Townes Van Zandt: London, October 1987 Lou Reed: London, February 1989 Neil Young: London, October 1989 R.E.M.: Athens, Georgia, December 1991 Warren Zevon: London, September 1992 Bob Dylan: New York, October 1992 Neil Young: London, October 1992 Pearl Jam: New York, April 1994 The Afterglow

Read more less

Book SynopsisA Classic Rock book of 2020I had to leave town for a little while-- with these words, Elvis Presley truly came home to rock and roll. A little over a month earlier he had staged rock's first and greatest comeback in a television program, forever known as The '68 Comeback Special. With this show, he resurrected himself--at the age of 33, no less--from the ashes of a career mired in bad movies and soundtracks. So where to go from here? Like a killer returning to the scene of the crime, Elvis came back home to Memphis, where it had all begun. Eschewing the fancier studios of Nashville and Hollywood, he set up shop at the ramshackle American Sound Studio, run by a maverick named Chips Moman with an in-house backing band now known as The Memphis Boys, and made the music of his life. The resulting work, From Elvis in Memphis, would be the finest studio album of his career, an explosion of mature confidence and fiery inspiration. It was the sound of Elvis establishing himself as a trueTrade ReviewIn just over 160 pages, Wolfson offers a compelling, slightly tragic, and surprisingly full look at the ultimate larger-than-life artist. * Pittsburgh Current *If all you know of Elvis Presley is “Don’t Be Cruel,” "Love Me Tender," or that hideous white jumpsuit Vegas phase, do yourself a favor and check out “From Elvis In Memphis.” And while you’re at it, pick up Eric Wolfson’s wonderful celebration of that record. You won’t regret it. * All Music Books *From Elvis In Memphis is one of Elvis’ best and Eric Wolfson’s book a worthy companion. It comes highly recommended. * Elvis Today *[A] fine piece of work that opens up the album in new ways. * Greil Marcus, author of Mystery Train, Lipstick Traces, & The Old, Weird America: The World of Bob Dylan's Basement Tapes *Like the best books of the 33 1/3 series, Wolfson's contribution brings alive an album that may be largely unknown to music fans but deserves serious appraisal–and gets it. * PopMatters *I can do nothing else than highly recommend this neat piece of work. It has been a pretty long time since I enjoyed an Elvis related book as much as this one. * Elvis News *Vividly evokes the characters from this history. * Memphis Flyer *This book is a great, colorful and above all essential read on one of Elvis’ most important albums. It documents the story behind the album in-depth, keeping you engrossed throughout the book. It makes you think, re-listen to the songs from new perspectives and form your own opinions. * Elvis Day by Day *One of the most important examinations of Elvis’ music ever released, & as an examination of a single Elvis album, unique. * Elvis Information Network *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Prologue: From Elvis in Hell The Cover: From Elvis in Burbank 1 The Arrival 2 The Great Advice 3 The Promise 4 The Funeral Procession 5 The Tear-Stained Pillow 6 The Departure Interlude: From Elvis in Purgatory 7 The Shaking 8 The Backroads 9 The Confession 10 The Cotton Dress 11 The Beautiful Bird 12 The Vicious Cycle The Back Cover: From Elvis in Vegas Epilogue: From Elvis in Paradise Works Cited

Read more less