Music reviews and criticism Books
University of California Press Music and the Forms of Life
Book SynopsisInventors in the age of the Enlightenment created lifelike androids capable of playing music on real instruments. Music and the Forms of Lifeexamines the link between such simulated life and music, which began in the era's scientific literature and extended into a series of famous musical works by Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Music invented auditory metaphors for the scientific elements of life (drive, pulse, sensibility, irritability, even metabolism), investigated the affinities and antagonisms between life and mechanism, and explored questions of whether and how mechanisms can come to life. The resulting changes in the conceptions of both life and music had wide cultural resonance at the time, and those concepts continued to evolve long after. A critical part of that evolution was a nineteenth-century shift in focus from moving androids to the projection of life in motion, culminating in the invention of cinema. Weaving together cultural and musical practices, Lawrence Kramer trTable of ContentsContents List of Musical Examples and Figures Introduction: Music and the Life of Statues 1 • From Clockwork to Pulsation I: Intensity and Drive 2 • From Clockwork to Pulsation II: Action and Feeling 3 • From Clockwork to Pulsation III: Metabolism 4 • 1812 Overtures: Wellington’s Victory and Live Action 5 • “Dear Listener” . . . : Music and the Invention of Subjectivity 6 • Waltzing Specters: Life, Perception, and Ravel’s “La Valse” 7 • The Musical Biome Epilogue: Sound and the Forms of Life Notes Index
£64.00
University of California Press Thinking with an Accent
Book SynopsisA free ebook version of this title is available through Luminos, University of California Press's Open Access publishing program. Visitwww.luminosoa.orgto learn more. Everyone speaks with an accent, but what is an accent?Thinking with an Accentintroduces accent as a powerfully coded yet underexplored mode of perception that includes looking, listening, acting, reading, and thinking. This volume convenes scholars of media, literature, education, law, language, and sound to theorize accent as an object of inquiry, an interdisciplinary method, and an embodied practice. Accent does more than just denote identity: from algorithmic bias and corporate pedagogy to migratory poetics and the politics of comparison, accent mediates global economies of discrimination and desire. Accents happen between bodies and media. They negotiate power and invite attunement.These essays invite the reader tothink with an accentto practice a dialogical and multimodal inquiry that can yield transformative modalities of knowledge, action, and care.Trade Review"A guiding promise of this collection lies in its showcase of interdisciplinarity. Nourishing epistemological solidarities emerge in what the authors term ‘interdisciplinary accent studies.’ The authors prompt thinking around how future studies of global Anglophone literature, world literature, comparative literature, sound studies and accent studies are often in conversation. It is our own ‘accented’ reading and writing practices that ultimately silo accent and its disruptive potential." * ASAP/J *
£27.00
University of California Press Terrible Freedom
Book SynopsisFrom her childhood in Detroit to her professional career in New York City, American composer Lucia Dlugoszewski (19252000) lived a life of relentless creativity as a poet and writer, composer for dance, theater, and film, and, eventually, choreographer. Forging her own path after briefly studying with John Cage and Edgard Varèse, Dlugoszewski tackled the musical issues of her time. She expanded sonic resources, invented instruments, brought new focus to timbre and texture, collaborated with artists across disciplines, and incorporated spiritual, psychological, and philosophical influences into her work. Remembered today almost solely as the musical director for the Erick Hawkins Dance Company, Dlugoszewski's compositional output, writings on aesthetics, creative relationships, and graphic poetry deserve careful examination on their own terms within the history of American experimental music.
£27.00
Harvard University Press To Live and Defy in LA
Book SynopsisIn its early days, rap was understood as the poetry of the “inner city,” which usually meant New York. Few expected anything as hard-edged as gangsta rap to emerge from Los Angeles, home of surf and sun. Felicia Viator tells the story of LA’s self-styled “ghetto reporters,” whose music forced America to see an urban crisis it preferred to ignore.Trade Review[Viator’s] understanding of the hip-hop music and the musicians that first emerged from the streets of L.A. in the ’80s is deep and profound. * LA Weekly *Much more than the story of the creation of gangsta rap, the rise of NWA, or the history of early West coast rap in general. It’s a cultural history. What one is left with at the book’s end is the powerful idea of how art can be formed out of pain and suffering, and how injustice can be the crushing weight that can incite change. * Under the Radar *Zero[es] in on how economic devastation and militarized policing bred a subgenre whose extreme lyrics were fueled by indigence…A fast-paced and engaging read for music fans, history buffs, and anyone with an interest in social justice…Eye-opening. * KQED *Rattling hatchback trunks and terrifying suburban parents, gangsta rap went harder and further than everything that preceded it. Suddenly, everyone was listening and the media wagons began to circle…Viator excavates this music's unique political, social, and mercantile origins. -- Raymond Cummings * The Wire *This book was really fun to read…[Viator] gives a comprehensive, interesting view of how this genre came to change our culture. * Los Angeles Review of Books Radio Hour *Viator’s conclusions about the cultural impact of Hip-Hop resonate today—they are accurate, timely, and timeless… By confronting the harsh realities of LA race relations and police brutality from the ’60s to the ’80s, To Live and Defy in LA sees Gangsta Rap as an important way to understand how systemic racism has worked (and works) in America today. -- Deanna Costa * Arts Fuse *Rich with drama and details, To Live and Defy in LA tells the story of Los Angeles hip-hop during the eighties, a much-mythologized but often misunderstood period. -- Hua Hsu, author of A Floating Chinaman: Fantasy and Failure across the Pacific[An] engaging history of gangsta rap’s emergence and eventual commercial success. -- Katherine Rye Jewell * The Metropole *There have been other gangsta rap histories, but what makes this one excellent are the many candid stories about crucial groups like the Coalition Against Police Abuse, Macola Records, and KDAY 1580 AM radio. This is a deep dive into a legendary era that is often misunderstood. * L.A. Taco *Viator’s book is more than a history of hip-hop, it’s a meticulously researched cultural and political portrait of Los Angeles at a pivotal time. * Epiphany *Viator explains how the rapid rise of West Coast rap became engulfed in the culture wars of the late 1980s and 1990s and shaped perceptions of the 1992 LA uprising. * New Books Network *This book is smoothly written and is a useful primer in outlining the rise of a form of music that has come to define South Los Angeles nationally, if not globally. -- Gerald Horne * Southern California Quarterly *Shows how LA rap was, from its beginning, an artistic response to police power…A thorough and timely study of an important intersection between music and social conditions, because the ascendance of gangsta rap since the 1980s reflects the rise of militarized policing over that same span, and we’ve seen all too clearly in recent years why it continues to resonate. -- Nicholas Stoia * Criminal Law and Criminal Justice Books *A deep analysis of cultural practices in the spatial and political context in which these sources emerged…Viator offers a blueprint for study that leaves room for historians to address the significance of other artists, like Tupac Shakur, and aspects of the culture that further illustrate rap’s force in late twentieth-century American popular culture and politics. -- Austin McCoy * Pacific Historical Review *A tour de force of novel material and insights, combined with convincing argumentation for why these subjects matter. To Live and Defy in LA is a thorough and compelling contribution to hip-hop history. -- James G. McNally * Journal of Popular Music Studies *
£19.76
Harvard University Press The Devils Music
Book SynopsisRandall Stephens traces rock’s inspiration to the Pentecostal churches where Elvis, Little Richard, and others worshipped. Faith, which served as a vehicle for whites’ fears, led them to condemn the godless music of blacks and hippies. But in a reversal of strategy, evangelicals later embraced Christian rock as a way to project Jesus’s message.Trade ReviewExcellent…Valuable, clearly written and meticulously researched. -- Christopher Carroll * Wall Street Journal *Stephens wants us to think of rock and Christianity not as enemies but as siblings engaged in a family dispute. * New Yorker *[A] beautifully written, well-researched book…What Stephens has provided is an extensively evidenced account of just how tetchy Christians—especially theologically and politically conservative Christians in the U.S.—have been about popular music, while also wanting to make use of it when necessary to promote their version of the faith. -- Clive Marsh * Times Higher Education *Perhaps the most comprehensive history of Christian rock yet published. Armed with an astonishing array of archival material, from pamphlets to sermons to newspapers and magazines, Stephens blows through nearly 70 years of church, music, and cultural history…Revelatory. -- Joel Heng Hartse * Christianity Today *Stephens’ deeply researched The Devil’s Music charts the long and oftentimes contentious relationship between evangelical Christianity and rock 'n' roll. Along the way, it offers some surprising historical insights and a somber lesson for social progressives who have long scoffed at their evangelical adversaries in America’s ongoing culture wars. -- Ed Whitelock * PopMatters *The Devil’s Music chronicles the development of popular music in America since the mid-20th century, attending to the audience as well as the performers. Focusing on the reception of rock by conservative Christians, it is a commentary on the emerging social role of Evangelicals and the politics of the period. -- Harriet Baber * Church Times *An engrossing story about American Christianity’s long and ambivalent relationship with what Fats Domino dubbed ‘the big beat.’ -- Paul W. Gleason * Hedgehog Review *In this beautifully written, entertaining, and smart book, Stephens masterfully analyzes the religious roots of rock music, the evangelical response to the rise of rock music, and the ways in which evangelicals made rock music their own in recent decades. -- Matthew Avery Sutton, author of American Apocalypse: A History of Modern EvangelicalismStephens brilliantly explores the many enmities, ambiguities, adaptations, and constant braiding of rock music and conservative Christian youth culture as the electricity of rock music jolted and shocked parents and captivated teens and young adults. The fiercely fought battles over music, values, and taste were indeed proxy wars for the soul of the nation. -- David N. Hempton, Dean of the Harvard Divinity SchoolAn admirably balanced, exhaustively researched, consistently engaging narrative of the complex and fraught relationship between conservative Christians and popular music in the United States. -- David W. Stowe, author of No Sympathy for the Devil: Christian Pop Music and the Transformation of American Evangelicalism
£33.11
Princeton University Press The Social and Religious Designs of J. S. Bachs
Book SynopsisExplores musical, social, and religious implications of Bach's treatment of eighteenth-century musical hierarchies. This book argues that the Brandenburg Concertos are better understood not as an arbitrary collection of unrelated examples of "pure" instrumental music, but rather as a carefully compiled and meaningfully organized set.Trade Review"The field of Bach studies has been greatly enriched by the appearance of [this book]... [It] is full of significant insights into the nature of the [Brandenburg Concertos]... [It] offers a fascinatingly fresh approach to these masterworks."--F. Ellsworth Peterson, Notes "For anyone who is interested in exploring the remarkably rewarding challenge Bach lays down for the human family, this is a careful, helpful, plausible, and perceptive analysis."--Paul Westermeyer, Church History "Full of important and closely argued discussions of individual aspects of chronology, source criticism, musical structure, and [Bach's] biographical background... [Marissen] is very informative on analytical and historical points, effectively demolishing many received beliefs, especially regarding chronology and source filiation."--Michael Talbot, Music and LettersTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction: Bach's Musical Contexts3Ch. 1Relationships between Scoring and Structure in Individual Concertos11The First Brandenburg Concerto16The First Movement of the Sixth Brandenburg Concerto35The Fourth Brandenburg Concerto62Ch. 2The Six Concertos as a Set77Ch. 3Lutheran Belief and Bach's Music111Appendix 1: Text-Critical Notes on Early Copies of the Sixth Brandenburg Concerto121Appendix 2: Notes on Bach's Notation of the Gamba Parts in the Margrave of Brandenburg's Dedication Score129Works Cited135Index145
£31.50
Princeton University Press Mozarts Grace
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? This title describes a range of musical effects of Mozart's music to other domains of human significance, including expression, intimation, and more.Trade 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
£31.50
Princeton University Press Charles Ives and His World
Book SynopsisShows Charles Ives in the context of his world in a number of ways. This volume features essays which examine Ives' relationships to European music and to American music, politics, business, and landscape. It also shows Ives as a composer well versed in four distinctive musical traditions who blended them in his mature music.Trade Review"This book helps us to see why Charles Ives remains such a puzzle. The distinguished Ives scholar J. Peter Burkholder has assembled an insightful four-part study [that] ... illuminate[s] the shifting history of Ives's place in American culture--and provide[s] therefore, important historical illuminations of its own."--HistoryTable of ContentsPreface and AcknowledgmentsIves and the Four Musical Traditions3Innovation and Nostalgia: Ives, Mahler, and the Origins of Modernism35Ives's Concord Sonata and the Texture of Music75Charles Ives and the American Democratic Tradition118Of Men and Mountains: Ives in the Adirondacks161Selected Correspondence 1881-1954199Selected Reviews 1888-1951273Charles E. Ives363Charles E. Ives368Charles Ives: The Man and His Music (Excerpt)373An American Innovator, Charles Ives377Ives Today: His Vision and Challenge390Four Symphonies by Charles Ives391Tardy Recognition: Emergence of Charles Ives as Strongly Individual Figure in American Music403On Horseback to Heaven408Posterity Catches Up with Charles Ives423Charles Ives - America's Musical Prophet430Charles E. Ives: 1874-1954433Index443List of Contributors454
£999.99
Princeton University Press Music and Discourse Toward a Semiology of Music
Book SynopsisExamines both music, and discourse about music, as products of human activity that are perceived in varying ways by various cultures. This book proposes a global theory for the interpretation of specific pieces, the phenomenon of music, and the human behaviors that music elicits. It also reviews issues raised by the notion of the musical sign.
£40.50
Princeton University Press Mendelssohn and His World
Book SynopsisDuring the 1830s and 1840s the remarkably versatile composer-pianist-organist-conductor Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy stood at the forefront of German and English musical life. Bringing together previously unpublished essays by historians and musicologists, reflections on Mendelssohn written by his contemporaries, the composer''s own letters, and early critical reviews of his music, this volume explores various facets of Mendelssohn''s music, his social and intellectual circles, and his career. The essays in Part I cover the nature of a Jewish identity in Mendelssohn''s music (Leon Botstein); his relationship to the Berlin Singakademie (William A. Little); the role of his sister Fanny Hensel, herself a child prodigy and accomplished composer (Nancy Reich); Mendelssohn''s compositional craft in the Italian Symphony and selected concert overtures (Claudio Spies); his oratorio Elijah (Martin Staehelin); his incidental music to Sophocles'' Antigone (Michael P. Steinberg); his anthem Why, Trade ReviewOne of Choice's Outstanding Academic Titles for 1992 "Mendelssohn and His World... is richly textured in its approaches-music-, social-, and religious-historical; biographical; analytic; and documentary-and, what is perhaps more rewarding, in the implicit dialogues engendered by its inherent multiplicity of voices."--NotesTable of Contents*FrontMatter, pg. i*Contents, pg. v*Preface, pg. ix*Acknowledgments, pg. xiii*The Aesthetics of Assimilation and Affirmation: Reconstructing the Career of Felix Mendelssohn, pg. 5*Some Notes on an Anthem by Mendelssohn, pg. 43*Mendelssohn and the Berlin Singakademie: The Composer at the Crossroads, pg. 65*The Power of Class: Fanny Hensel, pg. 86*Samplings, pg. 100*Elijah, Johann Sebastian Bach, and the New Covenant: On the Aria "Es ist genug" in Felix Mendelssohn- Bartholdy"s Oratorio Elijah, pg. 121*The Incidental Politics to Mendelssohn's Antigone, pg. 137*The Unfinished Mendelssohn, pg. 158*Conversations with Felix Mendelssohn, pg. 187*From the Memoirs of Adolf Bernhard Marx, pg. 206*Reminiscences of Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy, pg. 221*Reminiscences of Mendelssohn by His English Pupil, pg. 237*From the Memoirs of F. Max Muller, pg. 252*From the Memoirs of Ernst Rudorff, pg. 259*Letters from Felix Mendelssohn-Bartholdy to Aloys Fuchs, pg. 275*Mendelssohn as Teacher, pg. 310*Robert Schumann with Reference to Mendelssohn-Bartholdy and the Development of Modern Music in General, pg. 341*Heinrich Heine on Mendelssohn, pg. 352*On F. Mendelssohn-Bartholdy's Oratorio Elijah, pg. 364*On Mendelssohn and Some of His Contemporary Critics, pg. 382*Felix Mendelssohn, pg. 390*Index of Names and Compositions, pg. 395*List of Contributors, pg. 402
£55.25
Princeton University Press Thayers Life of Beethoven Part I
Book Synopsis"Tenth paperback printing, for the first time in two volumes, 1991"--Title page verso.Trade Review"A model of objective biography, one that is amazingly modern and as valuable today as when it was written... Thayer's Life remains the definitive biography."--The New York Times
£46.75
Princeton University Press Thayers Life of Beethoven Part II
Book Synopsis"Tenth paperback printing, for the first time in two volumes, 1991"--Title page verso.Trade Review"A model of objective biography, one that is amazingly modern and as valuable today as when it was written... Thayer's Life remains the definitive biography."--The New York Times
£46.75
Princeton University Press Haydn and His World
Book SynopsisFrom local Kapellmeister to international icon, Joseph Haydn achieved success by developing a musical language aimed at both the connoisseurs and amateurs of the emerging musical public. This work examines Haydn's works in relation to the aesthetic and cultural crosscurrents of his time.Trade Review"The articles ... are linked by recurring themes and concepts, beyond Haydn, which become increasingly refined as they become illuminated from different disciplinary perspectives... highly recommended for anyone interested in eighteenth-century culture."--German Studies ReviewTable of ContentsPreface and AcknowledgmentsHaydn, Shakespeare, and the Rules of Originality3The Creation, Haydn's Late Vocal Music, and the Musical Sublime57Haydn's London Piano Trios and His Salomon String Quartets: Private vs. Public?103The Symphony as Pindaric Ode131Representing the Aristocracy: The Operatic Haydn and Le pescatrici154Haydn as Orator: A Rhetorical Analysis of His Keyboard Sonata in D Major, Hob.XVI:42201The Demise of Philosophical Listening: Haydn in the Nineteenth Century255A Yearbook of Music in Vienna and Prague 1796ISpecial Friends, Protectors, and Connoisseurs in ViennaIIVirtuosos and Amateurs in ViennaIIIAmateur Concerts289Remarks on the Development of the Art of Music in Germany in the Eighteenth Century (1801)321Joseph Haydn's Library: An Attempt at a Literary-Historical Reconstruction395Index463List of Contributors473
£38.25
Princeton University Press Debussy and His World
Book SynopsisAttempts to capture the complexity of Claude Debussy's personal and artistic identity within the picture of the musical, social, and political world of fin-de-siecle Paris. This book traces his perpetual reinvention, both social and creative, from his earliest to his last works.Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix PART I THE EVOLUTION Introduction: Constructions and Reconstructions of Debussy by JANE F. FULCHER 1 Debussy's Rome Cantatas by JOHN R. CLEVENGER 9 Debussy, Gautier, and "Les Papillons" by MARIE ROLF 99 Bilitis and Tanagra: Afternoons with Nude Women by DAVID GRAYSON 117 Beyond the Illusions of Realism: Painting and Debussy's Break with Tradition by LEON BOTSTEIN I41 The Symphony in Debussy's World: A Context for His Views on the Genre and Early Interpretations of La Mer by BRIAN HART 151 Speaking the Truth to Power: The Dialogic Element in Debussy's Wartime Compositions by JANE F. FULCHER 2O3 PART II THE CONTEXT Debussy, Faure, and d'Indy and Conceptions of the Artist: The Institutions, the Dialogues, the Conflicts by GAIL HILSON WOLDU 235 Debussy, Mallarme, and "Les Mardis" by ROSEMARY LLOYD 255 Debussy in Fin-de-Siecle Paris by CHRISTOPHE CHARLE 271 PART III DOCUMENTS Debussy's Paris Gonservatoire Training COLLECTED, EDITED, AND INTRODUCED BY JOHN R. CLEVENGER 299 "Le Cas Debussy": Revisions and Polemics about the Composer's "New Manner" COLLECTED AND TRANSLATED BY BRIAN HART 363 Index 383 Notes on Contributors 394
£999.99
Princeton University Press Listening to Reason Culture Subjectivity and
Book SynopsisReveals the pivotal role of music - musical works and musical culture - in debates about society, self, and culture that forged European modernity through the 'long nineteenth century'. This book argues that from the late 1700s to the early 1900s, music not only reflected but also embodied modern subjectivity.Trade Review"[Steinberg's] analyses--music not as closed art form but as permeable cultural phenomenon--elicit some fruitful and unexpected results... [A] deeply rewarding book."--Peter Quinn, Times Literary Supplement "Michael P. Steinberg's subject is the vast change that came over music in the 19th century, from something couched in public terms--religious or ceremonial--to something that feels essentially private, even when it happens in public. It's a familiar idea, but what makes this book original is the way he complicates it with other historical currents."--Ivan Hewett, BBC Music Magazine "With Listening to Reason: Culture, Subjectivity, and NIneteenth-Century Music, Michael P. Steinberg offers a provocative, intermittently brilliant rooting of nineteenth-century music ... in contemporaneous cultural and intellectual history. Few major German composers of the era go unexamined, and few readers are likely to walk away from the book with their understanding of this repertoire, and the culture from and for which it speaks, unrevised."--Peter Mercer-Taylor, Notes "Listening to Reason is a work of high integrity; it has a great deal to teach. Indeed, it's a book of importance."--Richard Leppert, Beethoven Forum "Michael P. Steinberg has not only made a simultaneous contribution to the fields of cultural history and musicology, he has authoritatively illustrated the importance of their interaction, or the close connection between the questions, theoretical approaches, and methodologies with which they are mutually engaged... Steinberg has made a truly major contribution to our understanding of how musical meaning, values, and creativity in the Austro German sphere were intertwined with the ambient ideological and political tensions."--Jane F. Fulcher, Journal of Modern HistoryTable of ContentsList of Illustrations ix Preface xi INTRODUCTION 1 CHAPTER ONE Staging Subjectivity in the Mozart/Da Ponte Operas 18 Staging Subjectivity 18 Don Giovanni and the Scene of Patricide 23 Le nozze di Figaro and the Scene of Emancipation 39 Cosi'fan tutte and the Scene of Instruction 51 CHAPTER TWO Beethoven: Heroism and Abstraction 59 Heroism and Abstraction 59 Heroism and Anxiety 67 Fidelio 73 The Symphony No.9 84 CHAPTER THREE Canny and Uncanny Histories in Biedermeier Music 94 Biedermeier Music 94 Mendelssohn's Canny Histories 97 Schumann's Uncanny Histories 122 Back to Schubert 131 CHAPTER FOUR The Family Romances of Music Drama 133 The Family Romances of Music Drama 133 Siegmund's Death 142 Subjectivity and Identity 153 CHAPTER FIVE The Voice of the People at the Moment of the Nation 163 People and Nations 163 Brahms, 1868 174 Verdi, 1874 178 Dvorak,1890 186 CHAPTER SIX Minor Modernisms 193 Music Trauma, or, Is There Life after Wagner? 193 Three Fins de Siecle 202 The Road into the Open 220 CHAPTER SEVEN The Musical Unconscious 226 Index 237
£31.50
Princeton University Press Richard Wagner and His World
Book SynopsisRichard Wagner (1813-1883) aimed to be more than just a composer. He set out to redefine opera as a total work of art combining the highest aspirations of drama, poetry, the symphony, the visual arts, even religion and philosophy. Equally celebrated and vilified in his own time, Wagner continues to provoke debate today regarding his political legacy as well as his music and aesthetic theories. Wagner and His World examines his works in their intellectual and cultural contexts. Seven original essays investigate such topics as music drama in light of rituals of naming in the composer''s works and the politics of genre; the role of leitmotif in Wagner''s reception; the urge for extinction in Tristan und Isolde as psychology and symbol; Wagner as his own stage director; his conflicted relationship with pianist-composer Franz Liszt; the anti-French satire Eine Kapitulation in the context of the Franco-Prussian War; and responses of Jewish writers and musTrade Review"Offers much stimulating material, presented in kaleidoscopic fashion, that should be required reading for anyone desiring a more profound insight."--Della Couling, Classical Music Magazine "Grey once again has ferreted out themes and original material on the composer which have not been over-exposed in English translation."--Mike Ashman, GramophoneTable of ContentsPreface and Acknowledgments ix Permissions xv PART I: ESSAYS From Page to Stage: Wagner as Regisseur 3 KATHERINE SYER Wagner and Liszt: Elective Affinities 27 KENNETH HAMILTON From Opera to Music Drama: Nominal Loss, Titular Gain 65 LYDIA GOEHR Eine Kapitulation: Aristophanic Operetta as Cultural Warfare 87 in 1870 THOMAS S. GREY A Note on Tristan's Death Wish 123 KAROL BERGER Guides for Wagnerites: Leitmotifs and Wagnerian Listening 133 CHRISTIAN THORAU German Jews and Wagner 151 LEON BOTSTEIN PART II: BIOGRAPHICAL CONTEXTS Wilhelmine Schroder-Devrient and Wagner's Dresden 201 CLAIRE VON GLUMER, HENRY CHORLEY TRANSLATED, INTRODUCED, AND ANNOTATED BY THOMAS S. GREY Catulle Mendes Visits Tribschen 230 CATULLE MENDES TRANSLATED, INTRODUCED, AND ANNOTATED BY THOMAS S. GREY Recollections of Villa Wahnfried from Wagner's American Dentist 237 NEWELL SILL JENKINS INTRODUCED AND ANNOTATED BY THOMAS S. GREY PART III: TOWARD A MUSIC OF THE FUTURE, 1840-1860 The Overture to Tannhauser 251 FRANZ LISZT INTRODUCED, EDITED, AND ANNOTATED BY DAVID TRIPPETT TRANSLATED BY JOHN SULLIVAN DWIGHT Letters to a Young Composer About Wagner 269 JOHANN CHRISTIAN LOBE INTRODUCED, EDITED, AND TRANSLATED BY DAVID TRIPPETT Franz Brendel's Reconciliation Address 311 FRANZ BRENDEL INTRODUCED AND ANNOTATED BY JAMES DEAVILLE TRANSLATED BY JAMES DEAVILLE AND MARY A. CICORA PART IV: WAGNER AND PARIS Wagner Admires Meyerbeer (Les Huguenots) 335 RICHARD WAGNER TRANSLATED, INTRODUCED, AND ANNOTATED BY THOMAS S. GREY Debacle at the Paris Opera: 347 Tannhauser and the French Critics, 1861 OSCAR COMETTANT, PAUL SCUDO TRANSLATED BY THOMAS S. GREY INTRODUCED BY ANNEGRET FAUSER ANNOTATED BY ANNEGRET FAUSER AND THOMAS S. GREY The Revue wagnerienne: Symbolism, Aestheticism, 372 and Germanophilia J. K. HUYSMANS, TEODOR DE WYZEWA, EDOUARD DUJARDIN INTRODUCED BY STEVEN HUEBNER SELECTIONS TRANSLATED BY BRENDAN KING AND CHARLOTTE MANDELL PART V: THE BAYREUTH ERA Press Releases from the Bayreuth Festival, 1876: 391 An Early Attempt at Spin Control J. ZIMMERMANN INTRODUCED, TRANSLATED, AND ANNOTATED BY NICHOLAS VAZSONYI Hanslick contra Wagner: 409 "The Ring Cycle Comes to Vienna" and "Parsifal Literature" EDUARD HANSLICK TRANSLATED, INTRODUCED, AND ANNOTATED BY THOMAS S. GREY Hans von Wolzogen's Parsifal (1887) 426 HANS VON WOLZOGEN TRANSLATED, INTRODUCED, AND EDITED BY MARY A. CICORA Cosima Wagner's Bayreuth 435 RICHARD POHL, ARTHUR SEIDL, EUGEN GURA, ARNOLD SCHERING, HEINRICH CHEVALLEY TRANSLATED BY MARY A. CICORA INTRODUCED AND ANNOTATED BY DAVID BRECKBILL PART VI: THE COMPLETE PROGRAM NOTES OF RICHARD WAGNER Wagner Introduces Wagner (and Beethoven): 479 Program Notes Written for Concert Performances by and of Richard Wagner, 1846-1880 RICHARD WAGNER TRANSLATED, ANNOTATED, AND INTRODUCED BY THOMAS S. GREY Beethoven's Ninth Symphony Beethoven's Eroica Symphony Beethoven's Coriolan Overture Overture to Tannhauser Overture to Der fliegende Hollander Prelude to Lohengrin Tannhauser Lohengrin L. van Beethoven, String Quartet in C-sharp Minor, op. 131 Tristan und Isolde: Prelude to Act 1 Tristan und Isolde: Prelude to Act 1 and Conclusion ("Transfiguration") Die Meistersinger von Nurnberg: Preludes to Acts 1 and 3 Gotterdammerung Die Walkure Parsifal: Prelude to Act 1 Index 523 Notes on the Contributors 539
£28.80
Princeton University Press The Collected Essays of Milton Babbitt
Book SynopsisHistory of music theory, there has been only a small handful of figures who have produced work of comparable stature. This book is of almost fifty pieces gathers, corrects, and annotates virtually everything of significance that author has written.Trade Review"A car won't run unless it's engineered correctly, and the same applies to a piece of music. And Babbit always insists that the whole point of structure in music is that it can be heard: you may have to listen at full stretch, but it will be worth it. Rather like this book--difficult stuff, but intellectually rigorous and undeniably honest."--Martin Cotton, BBC Music Magazine "It's the book's role as an encapsulation of Babbitt's formalistic way of thinking about music which matters, and this is rendered suitably ambiguous by an intriguing disparity in the types of essay included. These veer between the extremes of the coolly technical and the warmly biographical (and autobiographical). We might not get Babbitt's views on what compositions represent in terms of emotion or feeling, but there is plenty of vivid characterization when it comes to people and places."--Arnold Whittall, Musical Times "Milton Babbitt's musical world is not a simple one... That's also true of Babbitt's written output... But it's witty too, as you'd expect from the composer of such titles as Joy Of Sextets."--Andy Hamilton, The Wire "Milton Babbitt, at eighty-nine, has been handsomely, if belatedly, served by this collection of forty-three essays testifying to his seminal presence in musical history... Overall the enterprise is a fine assemblage of scattered writings which will surprise even aficionados by its range."--Jonathan Harvey, Times Literary SupplementTable of ContentsAcknowledgments vii Preface ix The String Quartets of Bartok (1949) 1 Review of Leibowitz, Schoenberg et son ecole (1950) 10 Review of Le Systeme Dodecaphonique (1950) 16 Review of Salzer, Structural Hearing (1952) 22 Tintinnabulation of the Crochets (Review of Halsey Stevens, The Life and Music of Bartok) (1953) 31 Musical America's Several Generations (1954) 34 Some Aspects of Twelve-Tone Composition (1955) 38 The Composer as Specialist (1958) 48 Twelve-Tone Invariants as Compositional Determinants (1960) 55 The Revolution in Sound: Electronic Music (1960) 70 Past and Present Concepts of the Nature and Limits of Music (1961) 78 Set Structure as a Compositional Determinant (1961) 86 Twelve-Tone Rhythmic Structure and the Electronic Medium (1962) 109 Reply to George Perle's "Babbitt, Lewin, and Schoenberg: A Critique" (1963) 141 Remarks on the Recent Stravinsky (1964) 147 The Synthesis, Perception, and Specification of Musical Time (1964) 172 An Introduction to the R.C.A. Synthesizer (1964) 178 The Structure and Function of Musical Theory (1965) 191 The Uses of Computers in Musicological Research (1965) 202 Edgard Varese: A Few Observations of His Music (1966) 213 Three Essays on Schoenberg (1968) 222 On Relata I (1970) 237 Contribution to "The Composer in Academia: Reflections on a Theme of Stravinsky" (1970) 259 Memorial for Matyas Seiber (1970) 263 Stravinsky Memorial (1971) 264 Contemporary Musical Composition and Musical Theory as Contemporary Intellectual History (1972) 270 Memorial for Stefan Wolpe (1972) 308 Since Schoenberg (1974) 310 Celebrative Speech for the Schoenberg Centennial (1976) 335 Responses: A First Approximation (1976) 341 Introduction to Marion Bauer, Twentieth Century Music (1978) 367 Foreword to David Epstein, Beyond Orpheus (1979) 371 Memorial for Ben Weber (1979) 377 Memorial for Robert Miller (1981) 380 The More than the Sounds of Music (1984) 383 I Remember Roger (1985) 388 "All the Things They Are": Comments on Kern (1985) 395 Memorial for Hans Keller (1986) 399 Stravinsky's Verticals and Schoenberg's Diagonal: A Twist of Fate (1987) 404 On Having Been and Still Being an American Composer (1989) 428 A Life of Learning (1991) 437 Brave New Worlds (1994) 459 My Vienna Triangle (1999) 466 Index 489
£999.99
Princeton University Press Quarter Notes and Bank Notes
Book SynopsisAnalyzes the changing trends in how composers acquired their skills and earned their living, examining such impacts as demographic developments and modes of transportation. This book offers insight into the diversity of composers' economic aspirations, the strategies through which they pursued success, and the emergence of copyright protection.Trade Review"Scherer has broken new ground with his exciting interdisciplinary approach and use of massive quantitative and qualitative data--the scale of this achievement cannot be overstated."--Siobhan McAndrew, Business History "This new book by F.M. Scherer explores aspects of the music business in Western Europe during the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, and asks the question of how classical composers there made the transition from feudal to capitalist society... Scherer brings a much-needed sense of maturity and respectability to the study of music and commerce... Scherer's work on the economics of music publishing is especially informative... Anyone interested in the rise of market practices in Europe will enjoy [this book], especially if they like casual music."--James P. Kraft, Enterprise & SocietyTable of ContentsList of Figures and Tables vii Foreword ix Chapter One Introduction 1 Chapter Two The Political, Social, and Economic Milieu 14 Chapter Three Music Composition as a Profession 53 Chapter Four Composers' Backgrounds, Aspirations, and Economic Rewards 79 Chapter Five The Geography of Composer Supply and Demand 117 Chapter Six Changes in Transportation and Composers' Mobility 142 Chapter Seven The Economics of Music Publishing 155 Chapter Eight Conclusion 197 Appendix to Chapter One A Currency Conversion Matrix 203 Appendix to Chapter Four Consumption Outlays of Robert and Clara Schumann, 1841 210 Notes 215 References 249 Index 259
£27.00
Princeton University Press Camille SaintSa235ns and His World
Book SynopsisCamille Saint-Sans - perhaps the foremost French musical figure of the late nineteenth century and a composer who wrote in every musical genre, from opera and the symphony to film music - is now being rediscovered after a century of modernism overshadowed his importance. This book deconstructs the multiple realities behind the man and his music.Trade Review"This study of a versatile, tasteful and often endearing composer, and a serious, playful and sometimes prickly man, may be thoroughly recommended."--Classical Music Magazine "This compilation of masterful scholarship is likely to become a preeminent source for information on Saint-Saens."--Choice "Jann Pasler's edited collection thus offers a significant contribution to Saint-Saens studies, and to the field of nineteenth- and early twentieth century French music as a whole."--Helen Abbott, French Studies "[T]his book represents [quite an] achievement. Saint-Saens is revealed and yet remains intensely private: the book speaks volumes on the composer's life, views, working methods, and cultural and social status."--Clair Rowden, H-France ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments and Permissions viii Introduction: Deconstructing Saint-Saens xi PART I SAINT-SAENS THE PERSON Camille Saint-Saens in (Semi-)Private 2 MITCHELL MORRIS Saint-Saens, The Playful 8 PAUL VIARDOT Inspired by the Skies? Saint-Saens, Amateur Astronomer 12 LEO HOUZIAUX Changes on the Moon, Optical Illusions, The Stars 17 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Business and Politics, with Humor: Saint-Saens and Auguste Durand 26 JANN PASLER Rivals and Friends: Saint-Saens, Massenet, and Thais 33 JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BRANGER Massenet-Saint-Saens Correspondence 40 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS, JULES AND LOUISE MASSENET Saint-Saens and Lecocq: An Unwavering Friendship 48 YVES GERARD PART II SAINT-SAENS THE MUSICIAN Saint-Saens and the Performer's Prestige 56 DANA GOOLEY Le Ma'itre and the "Strange Woman," Marie Jaell: Two Virtuoso-Composers in Resonance 85 FLORENCE LAUNAY AND JANN PASLER Saint-Saens's Improvisations on the Organ (1862) 102 WILLIAM PETERSON Providing Direction for French Music: Saint-Saens and the Societe Nationale 109 MICHAEL STRASSER Saint-Saens as President of the Societe des Compositeurs (1887-1891) 118 LAURE SCHNAPPER Saint-Saens at the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris (1903-1904) 125 D. KERN HOLOMAN PART III SAINT-SAENS THE GLOBETROTTER Saint-Saens: The Traveling Musician 134 STEPHANE LETEURE Saint-Saens in Germany 142 MICHAEL STEGEMANN Saint-Saens in England: His Organ Symphony 161 SABINA TELLER RATNER Analytical and Historical Programme for His New Symphony in C Minor and Major 167 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Saint-Saens, "Algerian by Adoption" 173 JANN PASLER Friendship and Music in Indochina 184 JANN PASLER Saint-Saens in New York 191 CAROLYN GUZSKI Saint-Saens and Latin America 201 CAROL A. HESS PART IV SAINT-SAENS, AESTHETICS PAST AND PRESENT What's in a Song? Saint-Saens's Melodies 210 ANNEGRET FAUSER Saint-Saens and the Ancient World: From Africa to Greece 232 JANN PASLER Saint-Saens, Writer 260 MAIRE-GABRIELLE SORET Saint-Saens and Rameau's Keyboard Music 266 KATHARINE ELLIS Preface, Rameau's Pieces de Clavecin (Durand, 1895) 271 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Lyres and Citharas of Antiquity 275 MARIE-GABRIELLE SORET Ancient Lyres and Citharas 280 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Saint-Saens and d'Indy in Dialogue 287 JANN PASLER PART V SAINT-SAENS IN THE 20TH CENTURY Saint-Saens's Advocacy of Music Education in Elementary School 304 JANN PASLER Report of M. Saint-Saens 309 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Saint-Saens and the Future of Music 312 BYRON ADAMS AND JANN PASLER Musical Evolution 318 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS The Fox in the Henhouse, or Saint-Saens at the SMI 324 MICHEL DUCHESNEAU Saint-Saens, Ravel, and Their Piano Concertos: Sounding Out a Legacy 334 MICHAEL J. PURI Saint-Saens and Silent Film / Sound Film and Saint-Saens 357 MARTIN MARKS Beyond the Conceits of the Avant-Garde: Saint-Saens, Romain Rolland, and the Musical Culture of the Nineteenth Century 370 LEON BOTSTEIN Index 405 Notes on the Contributors 419
£74.80
Princeton University Press Camille SaintSaëns and His World
Book SynopsisCamille Saint-Sans - perhaps the foremost French musical figure of the late nineteenth century and a composer who wrote in every musical genre, from opera and the symphony to film music - is now being rediscovered after a century of modernism overshadowed his importance. This book deconstructs the multiple realities behind the man and his music.Trade Review"This study of a versatile, tasteful and often endearing composer, and a serious, playful and sometimes prickly man, may be thoroughly recommended."--Classical Music Magazine "This compilation of masterful scholarship is likely to become a preeminent source for information on Saint-Saens."--Choice "Jann Pasler's edited collection thus offers a significant contribution to Saint-Saens studies, and to the field of nineteenth- and early twentieth century French music as a whole."--Helen Abbott, French Studies "[T]his book represents [quite an] achievement. Saint-Saens is revealed and yet remains intensely private: the book speaks volumes on the composer's life, views, working methods, and cultural and social status."--Clair Rowden, H-France ReviewTable of ContentsAcknowledgments and Permissions viii Introduction: Deconstructing Saint-Saens xi PART I SAINT-SAENS THE PERSON Camille Saint-Saens in (Semi-)Private 2 MITCHELL MORRIS Saint-Saens, The Playful 8 PAUL VIARDOT Inspired by the Skies? Saint-Saens, Amateur Astronomer 12 LEO HOUZIAUX Changes on the Moon, Optical Illusions, The Stars 17 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Business and Politics, with Humor: Saint-Saens and Auguste Durand 26 JANN PASLER Rivals and Friends: Saint-Saens, Massenet, and Thais 33 JEAN-CHRISTOPHE BRANGER Massenet-Saint-Saens Correspondence 40 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS, JULES AND LOUISE MASSENET Saint-Saens and Lecocq: An Unwavering Friendship 48 YVES GERARD PART II SAINT-SAENS THE MUSICIAN Saint-Saens and the Performer's Prestige 56 DANA GOOLEY Le Ma'itre and the "Strange Woman," Marie Jaell: Two Virtuoso-Composers in Resonance 85 FLORENCE LAUNAY AND JANN PASLER Saint-Saens's Improvisations on the Organ (1862) 102 WILLIAM PETERSON Providing Direction for French Music: Saint-Saens and the Societe Nationale 109 MICHAEL STRASSER Saint-Saens as President of the Societe des Compositeurs (1887-1891) 118 LAURE SCHNAPPER Saint-Saens at the Societe des Concerts du Conservatoire de Paris (1903-1904) 125 D. KERN HOLOMAN PART III SAINT-SAENS THE GLOBETROTTER Saint-Saens: The Traveling Musician 134 STEPHANE LETEURE Saint-Saens in Germany 142 MICHAEL STEGEMANN Saint-Saens in England: His Organ Symphony 161 SABINA TELLER RATNER Analytical and Historical Programme for His New Symphony in C Minor and Major 167 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Saint-Saens, "Algerian by Adoption" 173 JANN PASLER Friendship and Music in Indochina 184 JANN PASLER Saint-Saens in New York 191 CAROLYN GUZSKI Saint-Saens and Latin America 201 CAROL A. HESS PART IV SAINT-SAENS, AESTHETICS PAST AND PRESENT What's in a Song? Saint-Saens's Melodies 210 ANNEGRET FAUSER Saint-Saens and the Ancient World: From Africa to Greece 232 JANN PASLER Saint-Saens, Writer 260 MAIRE-GABRIELLE SORET Saint-Saens and Rameau's Keyboard Music 266 KATHARINE ELLIS Preface, Rameau's Pieces de Clavecin (Durand, 1895) 271 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Lyres and Citharas of Antiquity 275 MARIE-GABRIELLE SORET Ancient Lyres and Citharas 280 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Saint-Saens and d'Indy in Dialogue 287 JANN PASLER PART V SAINT-SAENS IN THE 20TH CENTURY Saint-Saens's Advocacy of Music Education in Elementary School 304 JANN PASLER Report of M. Saint-Saens 309 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS Saint-Saens and the Future of Music 312 BYRON ADAMS AND JANN PASLER Musical Evolution 318 CAMILLE SAINT-SAENS The Fox in the Henhouse, or Saint-Saens at the SMI 324 MICHEL DUCHESNEAU Saint-Saens, Ravel, and Their Piano Concertos: Sounding Out a Legacy 334 MICHAEL J. PURI Saint-Saens and Silent Film / Sound Film and Saint-Saens 357 MARTIN MARKS Beyond the Conceits of the Avant-Garde: Saint-Saens, Romain Rolland, and the Musical Culture of the Nineteenth Century 370 LEON BOTSTEIN Index 405 Notes on the Contributors 419
£37.80
Princeton University Press Music as Thought
Book SynopsisBefore the nineteenth century, instrumental music was considered inferior to vocal music. Kant described wordless music as "more pleasure than culture," and Rousseau dismissed it for its inability to convey concepts. But by the early 1800s, a dramatic shift was under way. Purely instrumental music was now being hailed as a means to knowledge and emTrade Review"A fascinating new book."--Alex Ross, The New Yorker "This is a cogent and well-illustrated account of the theoretical basis for the changes in how instrumental music was listened to in the early decades of the 19th century. Bonds clarifies complex material and piles up evidence to make a convincing case for a 'revolution in listening.'"--Patricia Howard, Currents "Philosophical discussion of music can easily become dense, but Bonds presents his arguments and evidence in a clear, discernible manner such that readers with little exposure to the philosophical issues of the time period can follow his reasoning and come away illuminated by a first-hand account concerning the reception of the symphony in the first quarter of the nineteenth century."--John Stine, Music Research ForumTable of ContentsAcknowledgments xi Introduction xiii List of Abbreviations xxi PROLOGUE: An Unlikely Genre: The Rise of the Symphony 1 CHAPTER ONE: Listening with Imagination: The Revolution in Aesthetics 5 From Kant to Hoffmann 6 Idealism and the Changing Perception of Perception 10 Idealism and the New Aesthetics of Listening 22 CHAPTER TWO: Listening as Thinking: From Rhetoric to Philosophy 29 Listening in a Rhetorical Framework 30 Listening in a Philosophical Framework 33 Art as Philosophy 37 CHAPTER THREE: Listening to Truth: Beethoven's Fifth Symphony 44 The Infinite Sublime 45 History as Knowing 50 The Synthesis of Conscious and Unconscious 53 Organic Coherence 55 Beyond the Sublime 57 CHAPTER FOUR: Listening to the Aesthetic State: Cosmopolitanism 63 The Communal Voice of the Symphony 63 The Imperatives of Individual and Social Synthesis 68 The State as Organism 71 Schiller's Idea of the Aesthetic State 73 Goethe's Pedagogical Province 75 CHAPTER FIVE: Listening to the German State: Nationalism 79 German Nationalism 79 The Symphony as a "German" Genre 88 The Performance Politics of the Music Festival 92 The Symphony as Democracy 99 EPILOGUE: Listening to Form: The Refuge of Absolute Music 104 Notes 117 Bibliography 153 Index 167
£22.50
Princeton University Press Carlos Ch225vez and His World
Book SynopsisCarlos Chavez (1899-1978) is the central figure in Mexican music of the twentieth century and among the most eminent of all Latin American modernist composers. An enfant terrible in his own country, Chavez was an integral part of the emerging music scene in the United States in the 1920s. His highly individual style--diatonic, dissonant, contrapuntTrade Review"An insightful volume."--William Robin, The New York TimesTable of ContentsPreface ix Acknowledgments xvii Permissions and Credits xviii PART 1 CHAVEZ'S MUSICAL WORLD Chavez, Modern Music, and the New York Scene 2 CHRISTINA TAYLOR GIBSON The Pan/American Modernisms of Carlos Chavez and Henry Cowell 28 STEPHANIE N. STALLINGS "The heartbeat of an intense life": Mexican Music and Carlos Chavez's Orquesta Sinfonica de Mexico, 1928-1948 46 RICARDO MIRANDA Carlos Chavez's Symphonies 62 JULIAN ORBON, TRANSLATED, INTRODUCED, AND ANNOTATED BY LEONORA SAAVEDRA Carlos Chavez and Silvestre Revueltas: Retracing an Ignored Dialogue 76 ROBERTO KOLB-NEUHAUS Aaron Copland, Carlos Chavez, and Silvestre Revueltas 99 HOWARD POLLACK PART II BIOGRAPHICAL AND ANALYTICAL PERSPECTIVES Chavez and the Autonomy of the Musical Work: The Piano Music 112 LUISA VILAR-PAYA Carlos Chavez and the Myth of the Aztec Renaissance 134 LEONORA SAAVEDRA Non-Repetition and Personal Style in the Inventions and Solis 165 AMY BAUER Music and the Marketplace: On the Backstory of Carlos Chavez's Violin Concerto178 DAVID BRODBECK PART III CHAVEZ'S GREATER WORLD Carlos Chavez and the Mexican "Vogue," 1925-1940 204 HELEN DELPAR Carlos Chavez and Paul Strand 220 JAMES KRIPPNER Masters Carlos Chavez and Miguel Covarrubias: A Puppet Show 237 ANTONIO SABORIT, TRANSLATED BY REBECCA LEVI The Literary Affinities and Poetic Friendships of Carlos Chavez 255 SUSANA GONZALEZ AKTORIES, TRANSLATED BY REBECCA LEVI The Composer as Intellectual: Carlos Chavez and El Colegio Nacional 273 ANA R. ALONSO-MINUTTI Portraits of Carlos Chavez: Testimonies of Collaboration 295 ANNA INDYCH-LOPEZ The Modernist Invention of Mexico: Carlos Chavez, the Mexican Revolution, and the Cultural Politics of Music 306 LEON BOTSTEIN Index 339 Notes on the Contributors 357
£28.80
Princeton University Press Tchaikovsky and His World
Book SynopsisTchaikovsky has long intrigued music-lovers as a figure who straddles many borders--between East and West, nationalism and cosmopolitanism, tradition and innovation, tenderness and bombast, masculine and feminine. In this book, through consideration of his music and biography, scholars from several disciplines explore the many sides of Tchaikovsky.Table of ContentsAcknowledgmentsPermissionsPrefacePt. IBiographical WorksTchaikovsky: A Life Reconsidered3Unknown Tchaikovsky: A Reconstruction of Previously Censored Letters to His Brothers (1875-1879)55Pt. IIEssaysMusic as the Language of Psychological Realism: Tchaikovsky and Russian Art99Line of Succession: Three Productions of Tchaikovsky's Sleeping Beauty145Per Aspera ad Astra: Symphonic Tradition in Tchaikovsky's First Suite for Orchestra163An Examination of Problem History in Tchaikovsky's Fourth Symphony197Tchaikovsky's Tatiana216On the Role of Gremin: Tchaikovsky's Eugene Onegin220Review of The Maid of Orleans [1899]234Tchaikovsky Androgyne: The Maid of Orleans239The Coronation of Alexander III277Tchaikovsky, Chekhov, and the Russian Elegy300Tchaikovsky and the Russian "Silver Age"319Pt. IIITheoretical WritingsA Documentary Glance at Tchaikovsky and Rimsky-Korsakov as Music Theorists333IndexList of Contributors
£46.75
Princeton University Press The Science and Art of Renaissance Music
Book SynopsisAs a distinguished scholar of Renaissance music, James Haar has had an abiding influence on how musicology is undertaken, owing in great measure to a substantial body of articles published over the past three decades. Collected here for the first time are representative pieces from those years, covering diverse themes of continuing interest to him and his readers: music in Renaissance culture, problems of theory as well as the Italian madrigal in the sixteenth century, the figures of Antonfrancesco Doni and Giovanthomaso Cimello, and the nineteenth century''s views of early music.In this collection, the same subject is seen from several angles, and thus gives a rich context for further exploration. Haar was one of the first to recognize the value of cultural study. His work also reminds us that the close study of the music itself is equally important. The articles contained in this book show the author''s conviction that a good way to address large problems is to begin by foTrade ReviewAn Outstanding Book by the Gustavus Meyers Center for the Study of Human Rights in North America for 1998Table of ContentsPrefaceEditor's PrefaceBibliographical AbbreviationsCh. 1A Sixteenth-Century Attempt at Music Criticism3Ch. 2The Courtier as Musician: Castiglione's View of the Science and Art of Music20Ch. 3Cosimo Bartoli on Music38Ch. 4The Frontispiece of Gafori's Practica Musicae (1496)79Ch. 5False Relations and Chromaticism in Sixteenth-Century Music93Ch. 6Zarlino's Definition of Fugue and Imitation121Ch. 7Lessons in Theory from a Sixteenth-Century Composer149Ch. 8Josquin as Interpreted by a Mid-Sixteenth-Century German Musician176Ch. 9The Note Nere Madrigal201Ch. 10The "Madrigale Arioso": A Mid-Century Development in the Cinquecento Madrigal222Ch. 11Giovanthomaso Cimello as Madrigalist239Ch. 12Notes on the Dialogo della Musica of Antonfrancesco Doni271Ch. 13A Gift of Madrigals to Cosimo I: The Ms. Florence, Bibl. Naz. Centrale, Magl. XIX, 130300Ch. 14The Libraria of Antonfrancesco Doni323Ch. 15Berlioz and the "First Opera"353Ch. 16Music of the Renaissance as Viewed by the Romantics366Index of Names383
£49.30
Cornell University Press Retracing a Winters Journey
Book SynopsisYouens addresses the different aspects of the Winterreise: its cultural milieu, the genesis of both the poetry and the music, Schubert's transformation of poetic cycle into music, the philosophical dimension of the work, and its musical structure.Trade ReviewSusan Youens displays a rare ability at making penetrating comments on both poetry and music, as well as their interrelationship, and her book is full of interesting observations of details easily overlooked by those who have not studied the song cycle closely. * Times Higher Education Supplement *Susan Youens's Retracing a Winter's Journey is the most successful and appealing of the various recent studies of Winterreise. Youens is a true Schubertian, able to find the subtlety of the cycle and to take the reader through it in a way that broadens the understanding regardless of how familiar one may be with the work. She pays special attention to the texts, interpreting Müller's various images with a skill born of wide knowledge of the poet's other works as well as those of his contemporaries, and proceeding to an illumination of the role and importance of the texts in the musical setting.... The author's lucid and elegant writing never allows one to falter through the retracing of this fascinating journey. * Music and Letters *This is a book of considerable importance. Given the quantity of distinguished writing about Schubert's great song-cycle it is the author's outstanding achievement to have written a study that for scope, insight, and sheer readability eclipses previous responses to the challenge.... Youens combines to a degree as rare as it is admirable the sensitivities and deep knowledge of literary historian and musicologist. * German History *This is the definitive book on the subject, by one of the world's leading lieder scholars. * Time Out New York *Table of ContentsPrefacePart I. The Poet and the Composer1. Genesis and Sources 2. The Texts of Winterreise 3. The Music of WinterreisePart II. The Songs1. Gute Nacht 2. Die Wetterfahne 3. Gefror'ne Tränen 4. Erstarrung 5. Der Lindenbaum 6. Wasserflut 7. Auf dem Fluße 8. Rückblick 9. [Das] Irrlicht 10. Rast 11. Frühlingstraum 12. Einsamkeit 13. Die Post 14. Der greise Kopf 15. Die Krähe 16. Letzte Hoffnung 17. Im Dorfe 18. Der stürmische Morgen 19. Täuschung 20. Der Wegweiser 21. Das Wirtshaus 22. Mut 23. Die Nebensonnen 24. Der LeiermannPostludeAppendix. Ludwig Uhland's Wander-LiederSelected Bibliography Index
£97.20
Cornell University Press Music and Meaning
Book SynopsisIn order to promote new ways of thinking about musical meaning, this volume brings together scholars in music theory, musicology, and the philosophy of music, disciplines generally treated as separate and distinct. This interdisciplinary collaboration, while respecting differences in perspective, identifies and elaborates shared concerns.This volume focuses on the many and various kinds of meaning in music. Do musical meanings exist exclusively in internal, formal musical relations or might they also be found in the relationship between music and other areas of experience, such as action, emotion, ideas, and values? Also discussed is the vexed question why people listen to and apparently enjoy music which expresses unpleasant emotions, such as melancholy or despair. Among the particular pieces the writers discuss are Mahler''s Ninth Symphony, Shostakovich''s Tenth Symphony, and Schubert''s last sonata. More broadly, they consider the relation of musical meaning and interpretaTrade ReviewReading this book is a satisfying experience since it gives one the impression that progress is being made in the philosophy of music.... Scholars working in the philosophy of music will want to have a copy for ease of reference.... Libraries supporting research on aesthetics will need a copy. * The Journal of Aesthetics and Art Criticism *This collection can be enthusiastically recommended to philosophers who want to hear some of the latest news from musicology. * British Journal of Aesthetics *This excellent collection... is a humanistically rich, argumentatively subtle, and music-analytically accomplished volume, engendering a fuller awareness of the conceptual legacy of the Wagner-Hanslick debate that would place formal analysis in polemical opposition to narrative and emotive content, and taking a great stride towards overcoming that pernicious dichotomy. The book well deserves an enthusiastic recommendation to everyone desiring a fuller comprehension of the complexities of musical experience. * Philosophy in Review *
£24.69
Cornell University Press Music Alone Philosophical Reflections on the
Book SynopsisWhat makes a musical work profound? What is it about pure instrumental music that the listener finds attractive and rewarding? In addressing these questions, Peter Kivy continues his highly regarded exploration of the philosophy of musical aesthetics...
£24.69
Cornell University Press Retracing a Winters Journey Franz Schuberts
Book SynopsisYouens addresses the different aspects of the Winterreise: its cultural milieu, the genesis of both the poetry and the music, Schubert's transformation of poetic cycle into music, the philosophical dimension of the work, and its musical structure.Trade ReviewSusan Youens displays a rare ability at making penetrating comments on both poetry and music, as well as their interrelationship, and her book is full of interesting observations of details easily overlooked by those who have not studied the song cycle closely. * Times Higher Education Supplement *Susan Youens's Retracing a Winter's Journey is the most successful and appealing of the various recent studies of Winterreise. Youens is a true Schubertian, able to find the subtlety of the cycle and to take the reader through it in a way that broadens the understanding regardless of how familiar one may be with the work. She pays special attention to the texts, interpreting Müller's various images with a skill born of wide knowledge of the poet's other works as well as those of his contemporaries, and proceeding to an illumination of the role and importance of the texts in the musical setting.... The author's lucid and elegant writing never allows one to falter through the retracing of this fascinating journey. * Music and Letters *This is a book of considerable importance. Given the quantity of distinguished writing about Schubert's great song-cycle it is the author's outstanding achievement to have written a study that for scope, insight, and sheer readability eclipses previous responses to the challenge.... Youens combines to a degree as rare as it is admirable the sensitivities and deep knowledge of literary historian and musicologist. * German History *This is the definitive book on the subject, by one of the world's leading lieder scholars. * Time Out New York *Table of ContentsPrefacePart I. The Poet and the Composer1. Genesis and Sources 2. The Texts of Winterreise 3. The Music of WinterreisePart II. The Songs1. Gute Nacht 2. Die Wetterfahne 3. Gefror'ne Tränen 4. Erstarrung 5. Der Lindenbaum 6. Wasserflut 7. Auf dem Fluße 8. Rückblick 9. [Das] Irrlicht 10. Rast 11. Frühlingstraum 12. Einsamkeit 13. Die Post 14. Der greise Kopf 15. Die Krähe 16. Letzte Hoffnung 17. Im Dorfe 18. Der stürmische Morgen 19. Täuschung 20. Der Wegweiser 21. Das Wirtshaus 22. Mut 23. Die Nebensonnen 24. Der LeiermannPostludeAppendix. Ludwig Uhland's Wander-LiederSelected Bibliography Index
£23.19
University of Nebraska Press The BrahmsKeller Correspondence
Book SynopsisFor two decades, beginning in the early 1870s, Robert Keller ushered into print most of Johannes Brahms's major compositions. This volume collects for the first time the complete extant correspondence between Brahms and Keller. Their correspondence illuminates a relationship of mutual respect and friendship and highlights the labour that went into the publication of Brahms's masterpieces.Trade Review"George Bozarth introduces and annotates every item with a scrupulousness to rival Keller's own, building a compelling picture of two professionals intent upon the service of music."—Music Magazine"An invaluable addition to Brahms literature."—Times Literary Supplement"The scholarship is really superior. The editor has a wonderful grasp of the secondary literature and handles the primary sources with great skill."—Walter Frisch, Columbia University"Few scholars can match Bozarth's experience with Brahms primary sources or his general knowledge of the field of Brahms studies."—David Brodbeck, editor of Brahms Studies
£55.80
University of Nebraska Press The Guitar in Jazz An Anthology
Book SynopsisPresents the history and development of the guitar as a jazz instrument. This volume traces the evolution of jazz guitar playing, from the pioneering styles of Nick Lucas and Eddie Lang through the innovations of such contemporary masters as Jim Hall and Ralph Towner.Trade Review"Guitarists have been making major contributions to jazz since the 1920s, when Eddie Lang first began adding his brand of six-string sophistication to performances by the Mound City Blowers. Yet the history of the jazz guitar has remained largely undocumented, at least in any methodical way. Now James Sallis has put together a long-overdue anthology which traces the evolution of jazz guitar as well as celebrating some of the instrument’s greatest players."—Jazz Times"Probably the most comprehensive anthology of essays essential to a complete understanding of jazz guitar and its stylistic history. . . . Sallis’ exhaustive research is clearly edited and written, and I feel it’ll be the reference source for the jazz lover, guitarist and non-guitarist alike in the next few years."—Dennis Gonzalez, The New Jazz Review"An unfailingly lively and informative collection of essays that traces the guitar’s evolution in the hands of jazz and jazz-influenced artists who have not only mastered the instrument, but repeatedly reinvented it."—Gary Giddins, author of Faces in the Crowd
£26.59
Stanford University Press Music Body and Desire in Medieval Culture
Book SynopsisRanging chronologically from the 12th to the 15th centuries and thematically from Latin to vernacular literary modes, this book challenges standard assumptions about the musical cultures and philosophies of the European Middle Ages.Trade Review"What a wonderful book! It will change the whole way we look at, read, and listen to the Middle Ages. Holsinger's grasp of the history of Latin and vernacular literature, philosophy, art, and history as it pertains to his topic, is breathtaking. What holds the whole argument together is [the author's superb grasp of] music."—Michael Camille, University of Chicago"The book is interesting, intriguing, and provides a valuable model for new ways of approaching musical repertory."—Notes"Provides a very close reading of a wide range of texts from late Antiquity to the early modern period that deal with the corporeal production and reception of music . . . .Some of these texts are well known to musicologists or students of literature, but few scholars of any stripe would know all of them or even the majority intimately. Scholars of literature and music, and of culture in general, will therefore find much of interest here as well as an important synthesis of many of the most colorful passages on music from the writings of this period."—Echo: A Music-Centered Journal"Bruce W. Holsinger's Music, Body, and Desire in Medieval Culture: Hildegard of Bingen to Chaucer is an ambitious and original book. It is also something rarer, a genuine pleasure to read; because of the confident way the book moves between literary criticism, iconography and musicology, it will provide most medievalists with glimpses of something outside their particular field; an obscure or under-read text, an unfamiliar element of musical practice, an unknown aspect of pedagogy in the Middle Ages, a new vision of the medieval body."—Maud Burnett McIrney, Haverford College"The virtues of Music, Body, and Desire in Medieval Culture: Hildegard of Bingen to Chaucer are many. Holsinger's volume is deeply learned, forcefully argued, generous even in its polemics, and, not least, written with a soaring and searing elouence...it is a brilliant provocation that will change its field forever, and what is more, it will bring music vividly to the attention of medievalists who have neglected it far too long."—The Journal of ReligionTable of ContentsPreface and acknowledgments; List of illustrations; Abbreviations; Introduction; Part I. Backgrounds: Musical Embodiments in Christian Late Antiquity: 1. The resonance of the flesh; 2. Saint Augustine and the rhythms of embodiment; Part II. Liturgies of Desire: 3. Sine Tactu Viri: the musical somatics of Hildegard of Bingen; 4. Polyphones and sodomites: music and sexual dissidence from Leoninus to Chaucer's pardoner; Part III. Sounds of Suffering: 5. The musical body in pain: passion, percussion, and melody in the thirteenth-century religious practice; 6. Musical violence and the pedagogical body: the prioress's tale and the ideologies of 'song'; Part IV. Resoundings: 7. Orpheus in parts: music, fragmentation, remembrance; Epilogue; Notes; Bibliography; Index.
£105.40
Stanford University Press Music Body and Desire in Medieval Culture
Book SynopsisRanging chronologically from the 12th to the 15th centuries and thematically from Latin to vernacular literary modes, this book challenges standard assumptions about the musical cultures and philosophies of the European Middle Ages.Trade Review"What a wonderful book! It will change the whole way we look at, read, and listen to the Middle Ages. Holsinger's grasp of the history of Latin and vernacular literature, philosophy, art, and history as it pertains to his topic, is breathtaking. What holds the whole argument together is [the author's superb grasp of] music."—Michael Camille, University of Chicago"The book is interesting, intriguing, and provides a valuable model for new ways of approaching musical repertory."—Notes"Provides a very close reading of a wide range of texts from late Antiquity to the early modern period that deal with the corporeal production and reception of music . . . .Some of these texts are well known to musicologists or students of literature, but few scholars of any stripe would know all of them or even the majority intimately. Scholars of literature and music, and of culture in general, will therefore find much of interest here as well as an important synthesis of many of the most colorful passages on music from the writings of this period."—Echo: A Music-Centered Journal"Bruce W. Holsinger's Music, Body, and Desire in Medieval Culture: Hildegard of Bingen to Chaucer is an ambitious and original book. It is also something rarer, a genuine pleasure to read; because of the confident way the book moves between literary criticism, iconography and musicology, it will provide most medievalists with glimpses of something outside their particular field; an obscure or under-read text, an unfamiliar element of musical practice, an unknown aspect of pedagogy in the Middle Ages, a new vision of the medieval body."—Maud Burnett McIrney, Haverford College"The virtues of Music, Body, and Desire in Medieval Culture: Hildegard of Bingen to Chaucer are many. Holsinger's volume is deeply learned, forcefully argued, generous even in its polemics, and, not least, written with a soaring and searing elouence...it is a brilliant provocation that will change its field forever, and what is more, it will bring music vividly to the attention of medievalists who have neglected it far too long."—The Journal of ReligionTable of ContentsPreface and acknowledgments List of illustrations Abbreviations Introduction Part I. Backgrounds: Musical Embodiments in Christian Late Antiquity: 1. The resonance of the flesh 2. Saint Augustine and the rhythms of embodiment Part II. Liturgies of Desire: 3. Sine Tactu Viri: the musical somatics of Hildegard of Bingen 4. Polyphones and sodomites: music and sexual dissidence from Leoninus to Chaucer's pardoner Part III. Sounds of Suffering: 5. The musical body in pain: passion, percussion, and melody in the thirteenth-century religious practice 6. Musical violence and the pedagogical body: the prioress's tale and the ideologies of 'song' Part IV. Resoundings: 7. Orpheus in parts: music, fragmentation, remembrance Epilogue Notes Bibliography Index.
£28.80
Louisiana State University Press American Lonesome
Book SynopsisOffers an innovative study of Bruce Springsteen and his position in American culture that blends scholarship with personal reflection, providing both an academic examination of Springsteen's work and a moving account of how it offers a way out of emotional solitude and the potential lonesomeness of modern life.
£35.06
Louisiana State University Press American Lonesome
Book SynopsisBegins with a visit to the Jersey Shore and ends with a meditation on the international legacy of Springsteen’s writing, music, and performances. Gavin Cologne-Brookes’s innovative study of this popular musician and his position in American culture blends scholarship with personal reflection.
£21.95
LSU Press The Downhome Sound
Book SynopsisAmerican roots music can be challenging to categorise, spanning the genres of jazz, bluegrass, country, blues, rock and roll, and an assortment of variations in between. In The Downhome Sound, Mandi Bates Bailey explores the messages, artists, community, and appeal of this seemingly disparate musical collective.
£44.20
LSU Press The Downhome Sound
Book SynopsisAmerican roots music can be challenging to categorise, spanning the genres of jazz, bluegrass, country, blues, rock and roll, and an assortment of variations in between. In The Downhome Sound, Mandi Bates Bailey explores the messages, artists, community, and appeal of this seemingly disparate musical collective.
£23.36
University Press of Florida Good Day Sunshine State How the Beatles Rocked
Book SynopsisIn 1964 The Beatles appeared live on the Ed Sullivan Show and embarked on their first tour of North America - and they spent more time in Florida than anywhere else. Good Day Sunshine State dives into this momentous time and place, exploring the band’s seismic influence on the people and culture of the state.Trade Review“[Kealing’s] sources come from outside the Beatles camp, adjacent observers offering reflective testimony on a moment when The Beatles were not yet fully draped in myth.”—Uncut Magazine
£21.56
New York University Press To the Break of Dawn A Freestyle on the Hip Hop
Book SynopsisThe artistic evolution of hip hop from the South Bronx to EminemTrade Review"With poetic passion and surgical precision, William Jelani Cobbs engaging exploration of the hip hop aesthetic lovingly demonstrates that, when it comes to beats and rhymes, the beauty of the (bass) god resides in the details." -- Joan Morgan,author of When Chickenheads Come Home to Roost"Wow! To the Break of Dawn is a crucial contribution to hip hop history. I'm thrilled that William Jelani Cobb has documented hip hop's relationship to the blues. If you want to truly understand how hip hop was born, read this book." * MC Lyte *"To the Break of Dawn tells the serious story of hip hop's artistic roots, and in the process revels in the great MCs who stand at the crossroads of music and literature. In a crowded field of hip hop scholars, pundits, and journalists, To the Break of Dawn puts William Jelani Cobb way out in front." -- Ta-Nehisi Coates"At a time when academics are just beginning to recognize hip hop as a legitimate form, William Jelani Cobb, a child of rap himself, brings an unparalleled level of understanding to the music. His historically informed yet hip-to-the-tip viewpoint roots readers in the art form rather than the hype." -- Chuck D"Finally, a hip hop study that captures the verve and swagger that marked the work of our critical forebears Albert Murray and Amiri Baraka. In his brilliant new tome, William Jelani Cobb bridges the gap between the majesty of the blues and the gully regality of hip hop." -- Mark Anthony Neal,author of New Black Man"Upon finishing To The Break of Dawn any objective fan will acknowledge that Cobb has done a commendable job in chronicling raps evolution and explaining its multiple influences and impact." * City Paper *"This book makes an important contribution to hip-hop history. . . . Cobbs writing style is engaging, and the book benefits from the legitimacy provided by the author’s background: he is a former MC who grew up with the culture." * Choice *"To the Break of Dawn marks a crucial turning point in hip-hop writing. . . . By opening the discourse on hip-hops aesthetic, Cobb spearheads a new sub-genre, and perhaps a return or revolution in hip-hop aesthetics." * Black Issues Book Review *"Vital stuff for hip hop fans eager to know more about their favorite cultural idiom’s development and underpinnings." * Booklist *"Cobb has contributed a worthy study to the growing literature on hip-hop." * Popular Music *"What makes William Jelani Cobbs To the Break of Dawn so refreshing is that it centers on what hip-hop is, rather than on what it does. Eschewing the common practice of treating rap lyrics as just another way to talk about race, politics or the self, Cobb treats them as art. His aim is ambitious: to articulate hip-hop's aesthetic principles while tracing its roots back to the & ancestral poetic and musical traditions of black oral culture, from Sunday sermons to gut-bucket blues. To the Break of Dawn celebrates lyrical invention, the artists and even the particular rhymes that make hip-hop great. For the uninitiated, it is Hip-Hop 101, offering a rich overview of rap's verbal artistry. For the aficionado, it alternately affirms and challenges deeply held beliefs of what is valuable in hip-hop." * Washington Post Book World *"To the Break of Dawn dissects the evolution of hip hop lyricism from its most primitive beginnings to its current manifestation as a global phenomenon. Author Jelani Cobb examines issues of race, geography, genre and bravado in this overview of hip hops lyrical art. Covering words from B.I.G., Cube, Obie Trice and Pimp C, Cobb offers an intellectual and up-to-date report on hip hops most powerful element." * The Source Magazine *"[P]eels back the many digitized layers of hip-hop to explore the evolution of the MC, from African folkloric traditions to the global (and often hypercommercial) phenomenon it is today." * Utne *"On literally every page [Cobb] displays a tremendous command of language and history as he ‘examines the aesthetic, stylistic, and thematic evolution of hip hop from its inception in the South Bronx to the present era.’ But make no mistake: this groundbreaking work is an artfully constructed and vividly written look at & the artistic evolution of rap music and its relationship to earlier forms of black expression. Much of the book's pleasure also comes from Cobbs ability to & freestyle serious and humorous insights-from how artists such as Tupac and Nas sometimes ‘stepped outside the conventions of hip-hop to pen sympathetic narratives about the sexual exploitation of young women,’ to how LL Cool Js pioneering & I Need a Beat sounded & like hed raided every entry in an SAT book." * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *"To the Break of Dawn is smart, funny, conversationala book to touch off serious study of the modern MC." * The Austin Chronicle *Table of ContentsMicrophone Check: An Intro The Roots The Score Word of Mouth Asphalt Chronicles: Hip Hop and the Storytelling Tradition Seven MCs Conclusion Shout Outs Notes Index About the Author
£55.25
New York University Press To the Break of Dawn A Freestyle on the Hip Hop
Book SynopsisWith roots that stretch from West Africa through the black pulpit, hip-hop emerged in the streets of the South Bronx in the 1970s and has spread to the farthest corners of the earth. This book examines this freestyle verbal artistry on its own terms. It illuminates hip-hop's innovations in a freestyle form that speaks to both aficionados and more.Trade ReviewWith poetic passion and surgical precision, William Jelani Cobbs engaging exploration of the hip hop aesthetic lovingly demonstrates that, when it comes to beats and rhymes, the beauty of the (bass) god resides in the details. -- Joan Morgan,author of When Chickenheads Come Home to RoostWow! To the Break of Dawn is a crucial contribution to hip hop history. I'm thrilled that William Jelani Cobb has documented hip hop's relationship to the blues. If you want to truly understand how hip hop was born, read this book. * MC Lyte *To the Break of Dawn tells the serious story of hip hop's artistic roots, and in the process revels in the great MCs who stand at the crossroads of music and literature. In a crowded field of hip hop scholars, pundits, and journalists, To the Break of Dawn puts William Jelani Cobb way out in front. -- Ta-Nehisi CoatesAt a time when academics are just beginning to recognize hip hop as a legitimate form, William Jelani Cobb, a child of rap himself, brings an unparalleled level of understanding to the music. His historically informed yet hip-to-the-tip viewpoint roots readers in the art form rather than the hype. -- Chuck DFinally, a hip hop study that captures the verve and swagger that marked the work of our critical forebears Albert Murray and Amiri Baraka. In his brilliant new tome, William Jelani Cobb bridges the gap between the majesty of the blues and the gully regality of hip hop. -- Mark Anthony Neal,author of New Black ManUpon finishing To The Break of Dawn any objective fan will acknowledge that Cobb has done a commendable job in chronicling raps evolution and explaining its multiple influences and impact. * City Paper *This book makes an important contribution to hip-hop history. . . . Cobbs writing style is engaging, and the book benefits from the legitimacy provided by the author’s background: he is a former MC who grew up with the culture. * Choice *To the Break of Dawn marks a crucial turning point in hip-hop writing. . . . By opening the discourse on hip-hops aesthetic, Cobb spearheads a new sub-genre, and perhaps a return or revolution in hip-hop aesthetics. * Black Issues Book Review *Vital stuff for hip hop fans eager to know more about their favorite cultural idiom’s development and underpinnings. * Booklist *Cobb has contributed a worthy study to the growing literature on hip-hop. * Popular Music *What makes William Jelani Cobbs To the Break of Dawn so refreshing is that it centers on what hip-hop is, rather than on what it does. Eschewing the common practice of treating rap lyrics as just another way to talk about race, politics or the self, Cobb treats them as art. His aim is ambitious: to articulate hip-hop's aesthetic principles while tracing its roots back to the & ancestral poetic and musical traditions of black oral culture, from Sunday sermons to gut-bucket blues. To the Break of Dawn celebrates lyrical invention, the artists and even the particular rhymes that make hip-hop great. For the uninitiated, it is Hip-Hop 101, offering a rich overview of rap's verbal artistry. For the aficionado, it alternately affirms and challenges deeply held beliefs of what is valuable in hip-hop. * Washington Post Book World *To the Break of Dawn dissects the evolution of hip hop lyricism from its most primitive beginnings to its current manifestation as a global phenomenon. Author Jelani Cobb examines issues of race, geography, genre and bravado in this overview of hip hops lyrical art. Covering words from B.I.G., Cube, Obie Trice and Pimp C, Cobb offers an intellectual and up-to-date report on hip hops most powerful element. * The Source Magazine *[P]eels back the many digitized layers of hip-hop to explore the evolution of the MC, from African folkloric traditions to the global (and often hypercommercial) phenomenon it is today. * Utne *On literally every page [Cobb] displays a tremendous command of language and history as he ‘examines the aesthetic, stylistic, and thematic evolution of hip hop from its inception in the South Bronx to the present era.’ But make no mistake: this groundbreaking work is an artfully constructed and vividly written look at & the artistic evolution of rap music and its relationship to earlier forms of black expression. Much of the book's pleasure also comes from Cobbs ability to & freestyle serious and humorous insights-from how artists such as Tupac and Nas sometimes ‘stepped outside the conventions of hip-hop to pen sympathetic narratives about the sexual exploitation of young women,’ to how LL Cool Js pioneering & I Need a Beat sounded & like hed raided every entry in an SAT book. * Publishers Weekly (starred review) *To the Break of Dawn is smart, funny, conversationala book to touch off serious study of the modern MC. * The Austin Chronicle *Table of ContentsMicrophone Check: An Intro The Roots The Score Word of Mouth Asphalt Chronicles: Hip Hop and the Storytelling Tradition Seven MCs Conclusion Shout Outs Notes Index About the Author
£20.99
John Wiley & Sons Old Jewish Folk Music
Book SynopsisThis volume presents a cultural record of the Jewish folk music of Eastern Europe, through the eyes of ethnomusicologist, Moshe Beregovski. It includes contextual responses to Jewish folk music, essays on musical influences, and notes and lyrics of nearly 300 folk songs.
£22.46
MP-SYR Syracuse University P The Musical Tradition of the Eastern European Sy
Book SynopsisThe Sabbath Eve Service, a three-book set, is to date the most comprehensive annotated anthology of authentic musical liturgy of the Eastern European synagogue Friday night Shabbat service. Part of a projected five-volume set, this series is dedicated to the preservation of the legacy of Eastern European synagogue music.
£108.80
University of Minnesota Press Dreams of Difference Songs of the Same
Book SynopsisTable of ContentsIntroduction 1. Illustrating Music: The Impossible Embodiments of the Jukebox Film 2. Dissonant Refrains: Carmen on Film 3. En Chanté: Music, Memory, and Perversity in the Films of Jacques Demy 4. Becoming-Fluid: History, Corporeality, and the Musical Spectacle Conclusion Acknowledgments Notes Index
£19.79
The University of Alabama Press No One to Meet
Book SynopsisThe literary establishment tends to regard Bob Dylan as an intriguing, if baffling, outsider. That changed when Dylan was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. This book places Dylan the artist within a long tradition of literary production and offers an innovative way of understanding his unique, and often controversial, methods of composition.
£28.01
UNIV OF ALABAMA PR Gringos Get Rich
Book SynopsisDocuments counter-imperialism in Chilean music since the 1960s.Trade Review“This is an original account of how one country sings against another country whose musical, imperial, and imaginary influences shaped its national songbook. And by analyzing the image of the United States in Chile’s unique popular poetics, the book stimulates in the reader’s mind and ears other musical dialogues across the region and the world."—Pablo Palomino, author of The Invention of Latin American Music: A Transnational History
£26.96
LUP - University of Georgia Press The Philosopher King T Bone Burnett and the
Book SynopsisTexas-born T Bone Burnett is an award-winning musician, songwriter, and producer with over forty years of experience in the entertainment industry. Heath Carpenter evaluates and positions Burnett as a major cultural catalyst by grounding his work, and that of others abiding by a similar ""roots"" ethic, in the American South.
£32.26
University of Georgia Press The Music and Mythocracy of Col. Bruce Hampton A
Book SynopsisNeither a true biography in the Boswellian sense nor a work of cultural studies, although it combines elements of both. Even as biographer Jerry Grillo has investigated and pursued the facts, this life history of Col. Bruce reads like a novel-one full of amazing and hard-to-believe tales of a musical life lived on and off the road.
£30.51
Ohio University Press An Introduction to Richard Wagners Der Ring des
Book SynopsisToday, more than a century after its first performance, Richard Wagner’s The Ring of Nibelung endures as one of the most significant artistic creations in the history of opera.Trade Review“Professor Cord’s 163 pages encompass just about everything one needs to know about the Ring outside of sitting down and listening to it…This handbook is definitely recommended for the new Ring-goer, who may find here even more material than is needed at first, and it is certainly recommended for the veteran.” * The Opera Quarterly *“Mr. Cord has accomplished his self-imposed assignment with the thorough hand of a scholar.” * Opera Canada *
£18.99
Duke University Press Deep River
Book SynopsisFocuses on the role of African American folk music in Renaissance aesthetic and political debates about racial performance, social memory, and national identity. This book elucidates how spirituals, African American concert music, the blues, and jazz became symbolic sites of social memory and anticipation in the era of the Harlem Renaissance.Trade Review“Paul Anderson’s Deep River is the best, most convincing, and most richly textured work on black socio-musical criticism in print. In examining the views of twelve commentators on black music, ranging from W. E. B. DuBois and his ‘sorrow songs’ theory to Wynton Marsalis and his jazz neoclassicism, Anderson builds his interpretations and critiques on that of previous and current critics to develop a sophisticated examination and treatment of important ideas about social and cultural positioning of black music in America. I recommend this book to anyone interested in black music as a field of study or inquiry.”—Samuel A. Floyd, Jr., Columbia College“While many scholars have attempted histories of the early years of jazz—and even more have examined Du Bois’s appeals to the musical in his social and cultural criticism—few have attempted the kind of sustained examination of the critical debates about black music that Anderson does. Deep River places these long-standing debates in a crucial new context.”—Aldon L. Nielsen, author of Black Chant: Languages of African American PostmodernismTable of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. “Unvoiced Longings”: Du Bois and the Sorrow Songs 2. Swan Songs and Art Songs: The Spirituals and the “New Negro” in the 1920s 3. “The Twilight of Aestheticism”: Locke on Cosmopolitanism and Musical Evolution 4. “Beneath the Seeming Informality”: Hughes, Hurston, and the Politics of Form 5. Saving Jazz From Its Friends: The Predicament of Jazz Criticism in the Swing Era Epilogue Notes Selected Bibliography Index
£27.90
