Music Books
Hopkins Fulfillment Service Music in Greek and Roman Culture
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewTouches on most of the questions the modern reader is likely to ask. Comotti tells his story well, and his version is packed with detail. Times Literary Supplement
£24.75
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 Inevitable Bandstand
Book SynopsisIn the hands of the state, music is a political tool. The Banda de Música del Estado de Oaxaca (State Band of Oaxaca, BME), a civil organization nearly as old as the modern state of Oaxaca itself, offers unique insights into the history of a modern political state. In The Inevitable Bandstand, Charles V. Heath examines the BME's role as a part of popular political culture that the state of Oaxaca has deployed in an attempt to bring unity and order to its domain. The BME has always served multiple functions: it arose from musical groups that accompanied military forces as they trained and fought; today it performs at village patron saint days and at Mexico's patriotic celebrations, propagating religions both sacred and civic; it offers education in the ways of liberal democracy to its population, once largely illiterate; and finally, it provides respite from the burdens of life by performing at strictly diversionary functions such as serenades and SuTrade Review“An important contribution to historical studies, complementing the existing body of work on our understanding of Oaxaca, and adding a crucial piece to the puzzle.”—Mark Brill, associate professor of musicology and world music at the University of Texas at San Antonio and the author of Music of Latin America and the Caribbean Table of ContentsList of IllustrationsAcknowledgmentsIntroduction1. Closing the Colonial Past2. Nineteenth-Century Invasions and Influences3. Inception, Institutionalization, and Venue4. The BME during the Porfiriato and the Mexican Revolution5. Mestizaje, Musical Pedagogy, and the Socialist State6. Municipal Control to Innes’s Reign7. From Political Proselytizer to Economic EngineConclusion: Gauging the Political ToolAppendix 1. BME DirectorsAppendix 2. Oaxaca Military and National Guard Units, 1846 and 1848Appendix 3. BME DependenciesAppendix 4. Extraordinary Performances, 1966 (Partial)NotesGlossary of Song and Dance FormsBibliographyIndex
£22.79
University of Nebraska Press Pilgrimage to Beethoven and Other Essays
Book SynopsisHistorians and musicians ever since have agreed that some of the author's important and revelatory works were written when he was first establishing his reputation in Paris and Dresden.
£16.14
John Wiley & Sons The Acoustic Guitar Vol II Adjustment Care
Book SynopsisThe long-awaited sequel to Don Teeter's earlier volume on guitar adjustment, care, maintenance, and repair. This second volume presents new techniques and instructions on how to custom design tools and equipment to simplify the job of repairing and refurbishing guitars, and offers shortcuts to a quality repair job.Trade ReviewThe diagrams and close-up photographs (taken by the author himself) are meticulously detailed and reveal the care and perfectionism that must go into Teeter's craft."" - Choice
£20.82
University of Oklahoma Press Heartbeat Warble and the Electric Powwow
Book SynopsisDespite centuries of suppression and oppression, American Indian music survives today as a profound cultural force. This book celebrates in depth the vibrant soundscape of Native North America, from the “heartbeat” of intertribal drums and “warble” of Native flutes to contemporary rock, hip-hop, and electronic music.Trade ReviewAn evocative snapshot of the musical landscape of Native North America."" - Philip J. Deloria, author of Playing Indian""This book doesn't miss a beat. It's the most authentic study of the ongoing Spirit of our music in recent memory."" - Rev. Goat Carson, American Indian elder and Grammy Award winner
£18.86
Louisiana State University Press Slim Harpo
Book SynopsisAs Louis Armstrong forever tethered jazz to New Orleans and Clifton Chenier fixed Lafayette as home to zydeco, Slim Harpo established Baton Rouge as a base for the blues. In this biography of the renowned blues singer and musician, Martin Hawkins traces Harpo’s rural upbringing, his professional development, and his national success.
£31.89
LSU Press In Tune
Book SynopsisBorn into poverty in Mississippi at the close of the nineteenth century, Charley Patton and Jimmie Rodgers established themselves among the most influential musicians of their era. This book tells the story of the parallel careers of these two pioneering recording artists who moved beyond their humble origins to change the face of American music.
£22.75
MP-NCA Uni of North Carolina The New Encyclopedia of Southern Culture Volume
Book SynopsisSouthern music has flourished as a meeting ground for the traditions of West African and European peoples in the region, leading to the evolution of various traditional folk genres, bluegrass, country, jazz, gospel, rock, blues, and southern hip-hop. This volume celebrates this essential element of southern life.
£24.26
New Directions Publishing Corporation Vieux Carre Play
Book SynopsisBorn out of the journals the playwright kept at the time, Tennessee Williams's Vieux Carré is not emotion recollected in tranquility, but emotion re-created with all the pain, compassion, and wry humor of the playwright's own 1938-39 sojourn in the New Orleans French Quarter vividly intact.
£11.99
University of Pennsylvania Press Sonic Bodies
Book SynopsisWhat is the body when it performs music? And what, conversely, is music as it reverberates through or pours out of a performing body? Tekla Bude starts from a simple premise—that music requires a body to perform it—to rethink the relationship between music, matter, and the body in the late medieval period.Progressing by way of a series of case studies of texts by Richard Rolle, Walter Hilton, Margery Kempe, Geoffrey Chaucer, William Langland, and others, Bude argues that writers thought of music and the body not as separate objects or ontologically prior categories, but as mutually dependent and historically determined processes that called each other into being in complex and shifting ways. For Bude, these sonic bodies are often unexpected, peculiar, even bizarre, and challenge our understanding of their constitutive parts.Building on recent conversations about embodiment and the voice in literary criticism and music theory, Sonic Bodies makes two majTrade Review"This provocative book calls for a rethinking of the concepts 'music' and 'body.' Tekla Bude argues that 'music and the body are entangled practices that emerge out of social and textual environments so diverse' that 'sonic bodies' exist at the extreme limits of what 'music' and 'body' have been understood to be. Six wide-ranging chapters, along with an introduction and coda, draw on an impressive array of sources, methodologies, and critical approaches, medieval and modern. This is a learned book, intensely aware of and informed by trends and conversations in medieval studies and musicology as well as in allied fields." * Studies in the Age of Chaucer *"Sonic Bodies begins from a refreshingly new place, gently shifting fleshy notions of the body to one side in order to trace the unexpected intersubjective and transpersonal bodily forms that emerge when we conceptualize sound and body otherwise: not as sensory signal and receptor but as 'mutually dependent, relational, historically contingent, and co-emergent processes that rely on a dialectics of materiality'...[A]mbitious and inventive; its readings are frequently revealing and its vision is bracingly capacious...[There is] vigorous thought on the book’s every page. Sonic Bodies makes thinkable a differently embodied sonic past others will surely seek to play in. " * Journal of Medieval Religious Cultures *"In Sonic Bodies, Tekla Bude presents an incredibly interesting analysis of the definitions of music and the body, by going beyond those texts that are traditionally considered to be musical, and redefining notions of sonority and the body in the process. Moreover, Bude demonstrates a command of several different subdisciplines within the arts and humanities," -- Mariana López * The Medieval Review *"Drawing on a wide range of texts in Latin and Middle English, Tekla Bude shows how thoroughly medieval culture imagined its soundscape in material terms." * Bruce Holsinger, University of Virginia *"Tekla Bude offers a richly transdisciplinary account of the medieval entanglements of music and body, expanding the range of literatures and disciplines relevant for the understanding of medieval sonic practices." * Andrew Hicks, Cornell University *
£49.30
Wayne State University Press On Rhetoric and Black Music
Book Synopsis
£27.71
University of Minnesota Press Footsteps in the Dark
Book Synopsis
£17.09
University of Minnesota Press Highway 61 Revisited Bob Dylans Road from
Book SynopsisTrade ReviewFrom Library JournalThis new collection of scholarly articles on Bob Dylan proves that there are new angles from which to approach his life, his artistic evolution, and his unmatched influence on music and culture. Dylan is inarguably one of the most dissected and discussed artists, musical or otherwise, of the last half-century, and these 20 distinctive, thoughtful, and erudite essays by, e.g., Greil Marcus and international academics from a variety of disciplines such as linguistics, music theory, and African American studies are all welcome additions. As Sheehy (director & CEO, Plains Art Museum) and Swiss (coeditor, New Media Poetics) explain, the articles here do not attempt to solve the myriad puzzles surrounding Dylan; rather, the book poses familiar questions in a fresh manner. Contributions about how Bobby Zimmerman from rural Minnesota became international cultural icon Bob Dylan, what influences his songwriting, and how his songs are having a global impact will be of strong interest to scholars and fans alike. —Douglas King, Univ. of South Carolina Lib., Columbia
£17.09
Duke University Press Books Singing the Classical Voicing the Modern
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£24.99
Duke University Press Mondo Exotica
Book SynopsisAn encyclopedic account of the sounds and obsessions of the Space Age/Cold War period and the renewed interest in them evident in contemporary music and design.Trade Review“Crammed with facts about sounds, composers, their histories, reminiscences and a whole lot more, Adinolfi has more than done his research, which , in such a odd, diverse, and obscure field of music, has to be applauded. . . . [A] very worthy edition to any bachelor pad. . . .” - Jonny Trunk, Record Collector“Adinolfi contextualizes the 1950s exotica trend by placing it within a long history of Western musical exoticism. He ably documents instances of cultural appropriation, from seventeenth-century motifs of the Indies to Mozart’s search for musical expressions evocative of ‘that elusive Turkish flavor’ (37).” - Khalil Anthony Johnson Jr., American Quarterly“Mondo Exotica is essential reading for those interested in twentieth-century American studies, popular musical culture, and twentieth-century visual culture. . . . Ultimately, this work is incredibly engaging and entertaining, equal parts mondo and exotic.” - Kim Cunningham, Visual Studies“[I]nterviews with some of exotica’s prime movers and shakers, most notably [Martin] Denny, Piero Piccioni and Esquivel, provide additional insight and immediacy to this fascinating study.” - Ken Hollings, The Wire"Part cult music and record colllectors' delight and part intriguing pop cultural study, Mondo Exotica is . . . a generally entertaining read that sheds some light on how larger cultural, social, and political trends are reflected in popular music." - Chris Heim, KMUW-FM“Mondo Exotica is a cornucopia of data documenting lounge music and culture and their mid-1990s revival. Francesco Adinolfi has written a book that is as fun to read as the lounge lifestyle is fun to live!”—Otto Von Stroheim, DJ, founder of Tiki News, and organizer of the annual Tiki Oasis weekend event“You want alternative culture? Here’s the real thing. Francesco Adinolfi looks beyond the camp value and discovers the exotic urges that drove a generation that was supposed to be respectable. This terrific book reminds you that some of the most unique records ever made can still be found at your local garage sale—and that it’s never too late to discover how to live.”—Brett Milano, author of The Sound of Our Town: A History of Boston Rock & Roll and Vinyl Junkies: Adventures in Record Collecting“Mondo Exotica is essential reading for those interested in twentieth-century American studies, popular musical culture, and twentieth-century visual culture. . . . Ultimately, this work is incredibly engaging and entertaining, equal parts mondo and exotic.” -- Kim Cunningham * Visual Studies *“[I]nterviews with some of exotica’s prime movers and shakers, most notably [Martin] Denny, Piero Piccioni and Esquivel, provide additional insight and immediacy to this fascinating study.” -- Ken Hollings * The Wire *“Adinolfi contextualizes the 1950s exotica trend by placing it within a long history of Western musical exoticism. He ably documents instances of cultural appropriation, from seventeenth-century motifs of the Indies to Mozart’s search for musical expressions evocative of ‘that elusive Turkish flavor’ (37).” -- Khalil Anthony Johnson Jr. * American Quarterly *“Crammed with facts about sounds, composers, their histories, reminiscences and a whole lot more, Adinolfi has more than done his research, which , in such a odd, diverse, and obscure field of music, has to be applauded. . . . [A] very worthy edition to any bachelor pad. . . .” -- Jonny Trunk * Record Collector *"Part cult music and record colllectors' delight and part intriguing pop cultural study, Mondo Exotica is . . . a generally entertaining read that sheds some light on how larger cultural, social, and political trends are reflected in popular music." -- Chris Heim * KMUW-FM *Table of ContentsPreface / Karen Pinkus vii 1. The Tiki Hour 1 2. Mondo Exotica 17 3. Exotic Fragments 34 4. The Laboratory of Dr. Les Baxter 45 5. Martin Denny: The Frog and the Prince 57 6. The Age of the Grand Expositions 67 7. Cocktails All Around 78 8. The Tribes of Exotica 96 9. A Venus in the Lounge 111 10. Destination: Space-Age Pop 121 11. The Moon in Stereo 145 12. Crime Jazz 168 13. Shaken and Stirred 180 14. Italian Style, from Spies to Exotica-Erotica 192 15. Italy's Exotic Adventures 211 16. Lounge Italia 226 17. La Dolce Vita 235 18. Hangovers? 262 Notes 267 Discography 307 Index 355
£21.59
Duke University Press Mexican American Mojo
Book SynopsisA study of the creation of jazz, swing, and R & B music within the multicultural, multiethnic terrain of Los AngelesTrade Review“Mexican American Mojo is a timely and engaging work that thoroughly demonstrates the development of popular Mexican American culture in mid-twentieth-century Los Angeles. Anthony Macías has written an illuminating and remarkable study that belongs in the library of anyone interested in Mexican American culture.”—Raul A. Fernandez, author of From Afro-Cuban Rhythms to Latin Jazz“I am especially excited by the interviews Anthony Macías conducted, which make central perspectives long missing from scholarship on jazz, swing, and R & B. Macías’s method of looking at Los Angeles’s social geography of race and ethnicity ‘through a prism of popular music’ will be of great interest to those interested in the histories of popular music, Mexican America, and Los Angeles.”—Sherrie Tucker, author of Swing Shift: “All-Girl” Bands of the 1940sTable of ContentsIllustrations xi Acknowledgments xv Introduction. The Mexican American Generation, Music, and Los Angeles 1 1. Mojo in Motion: The Swing Era 12 2. The Drape Shape: Intercultural Style Politics 62 3. Boogie Woogie Breakthrough: The Rhythm and Blues Era 118 4. Come On, Let's Go: The Rock and Roll Era 173 5. Con Sabor Latino: Latin Jazz, the Mambo, and Latin Holidays 229 Conclusion. Alternate Takes and Political Generations 281 Notes 291 Bibliography 347 Index 369
£24.29
Duke University Press One Night on TV Is Worth Weeks at the Paramount
Book SynopsisExplores the full range of popular music from show tunes to Latin in a wide variety of television programs, and shows how the standards of presentation and performance developedTrade Review"One Night on TV Is Worth Weeks at the Paramount is an important contribution to the history of TV, popular music, and the relation between television and musical performance. It is clearly well researched, and it includes fascinating information and many delightful tidbits."—Pamela Robertson Wojcik, author of The Apartment Plot: Urban Living in American Film and Popular Culture, 1945 to 1975"One Night on TV Is Worth Weeks at the Paramount is an impressive industrial and cultural history of the dazzling range of musical performances and genres on early television. Filling a much-neglected area of television studies, Murray Forman focuses not only on network shows but also on regional productions and local stations. His discussion of raced representations provides important new insights into television history, as do his accounts of regional tastes, amateur shows, and the significance of stage settings and nightclub venues."—Lynn Spigel, author of TV by Design: Modern Art and the Rise of Network Television"One Night on TV Is Worth Weeks at the Paramount will be the standard work on postwar U.S. music and television. Murray Forman gives us a full picture of cultural change in a key period of media transition. Reading his book, we witness the breakup of the big bands, the dismantling of the Hollywood system, the rise of network television, and the tense politics of race and ethnicity that marked popular American entertainment in the 1940s and 1950s."—Will Straw, author of Cyanide and Sin: Visualizing Crime in 50s America“One Night on Television is Worth Weeks at the Paramount is a rich resource. The detailed descriptions of television musical performances and the analysis of such a wide range of archival sources provides a comprehensive account of the emerging practices and processes of television music in the U.S.A: this is valuable to any scholar interested in the history of television, popular music, and music on screen.” -- Lauren Anderson * Screening the Past *“[A] recollection and examination of what exactly went into the first days of that ground-breaking marriage between music and television, far before the first episode of 120 Minutes even aired. The book takes an impressively researched look at how much effort went into making sure this combination could even get off the ground, let alone explode into the massive fixture it is today, by focusing on the technological and developmental advancements of the late ‘40s and early ‘50s as it related to utilizing this particular form of media.” -- Colin McGuire * PopMatters *“Forman’s deft analysis of historical materials amounts to a considerable contribution to our knowledge of postwar American popular culture, and the book’s theoretical concerns bring television studies, American studies, and popular music studies into a productive dialogue.” -- Jacob Smith * Journal of American Studies *“In One Night on TV, Murray Forman offers an intelligent history of popular music’s place on early TV. In the process, he fills a significant gap in our understanding of early television in America…. One Night on TV should be of value to all of those interested in television’s most important moment.” -- JamesL. Baughman * Business History Review *“[A] fascinating and rich account…. Forman’s study is a welcome contribution to a neglected topic within both popular music and television history. The study offers astute insights on the period from 1930-1955, which are generated from his combination of industrial and cultural history with theoretical reflections and close analysis…. [T]he study significantly redresses numerous orthodoxies in the respective histories of popular music and television.” -- Carolyn Birdsall * Screen *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments xi Popular Music and the Small Screen Frontier: An Introduction 1 1. Music, Image, Labor: Television's Prehistory 17 2. "Hey TV!": Musical Pioneers and Pessimists 51 3. Harmonizing Genres 115 4. The Look of Music 169 5. Music in a "Sepia" Tone 231 6. Maracas, Congas, and Castanets 273 Conclusion: Rocking the TV Conventions 319 Appendix 341 Notes 343 Bibliography 363 Index 389
£22.49
Duke University Press Musicians in Transit
Book SynopsisIn Musicians in Transit Matthew B. Karush examines the careers of seven major twentieth-century Argentine popular musicians in the transnational context to show how their engagement with foreign genres, ideologies, and audiences helped them create innovative new music and shape new Argentine cultural and national identities.Trade Review"Thanks to his command of cultural, social, and historical contexts and deftness in illuminating and interpreting the dialectic between musicians and the forces of transnationalism and globalization, [Karush] succeeds in presenting a nuanced, sweeping view of Argentinian music history that also reads as an engaging narrative. . . . Highly recommended." -- G. R. Innes * Choice *“... Karush ultimately presents a very interesting interpretation of Argentine popular musicians in a transnational context and offers a compelling depiction of the intricacies and complexities involved in the construction of any national identity.” -- Vera Wolkowicz * Music and Letters *"Karush tells a story of artistic individual agency and transnational influences that avoids simplistic conclusions about cultural imperialism and authenticity. . . . This is an ambitious work that successfully explores uncharted territory in Argentine history." -- Natalia Milanesio * American Historical Review *"Expertly crafted. . . . [Musicians in Transit] deserves to be read by anyone interested in the development of Latin American identity in the twentieth century." -- Brian Bockelman * The Americas *“It is impossible to do justice to this complex book in a brief review. Musicians in Transit is an ambitious exploration of globalization, national identity, and ethnicity viewed through the multidimensional lens of these seven musicians….The book will have broad cross-disciplinary appeal and, like its subject, transnational relevance and impact.” -- Deborah Jakubs * Hispanic American Historical Review *“Musicians in Transit constitutes an excellent addition that will surely establish itself as a reference for the study of twentieth-century Argentine popular music and its relationship with nation-ness.” -- Ignacio Aguiló * Journal of Latin American Studies *"This book commands attention both for its creativeness and daring. . . . This book will be read with profit and enthusiasm not only by popular music specialists and students of Latin American musical culture, but anyone interested in cultural industries broadly conceived." -- Sean Bellaviti * Bulletin of Latin American Research *"A lucid and carefully articulated contribution. . . . The book resonates with recent musicological scholarship that is particularly concerned with the roles that media and mediators play in the articulation of local musical identities in South America. . . . This is a book rich with detail and lucid insight, and is essential reading for scholars of Argentine popular music." -- Michael S. O’Brien * Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies *“Musicians in Transit is an important contribution to both the history of Argentine popular music and to the study of the transnational logic of cultural industries, which Karush had brilliantly explored in his previous book on the influence of radio, cinema, and tango on the birth of Peronism.” -- Esteban Buch * Latin American Research Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Note about Online Resources xi Introduction 1 1. Black in Buenos Aires: Oscar Alemán and the Transnational History of Swing 15 2. Argentines into Latins: The Jazz Histories of Lalo Schifrin and Gato Barbieri 39 3. Cosmopolitan Tango: Astor Piazzolla at Home and Abroad 70 4. The Sound of Latin America: Sandro and the Invention of Balada 108 5. Indigenous Argentina and Revolutionary Latin America: Mercedes Sosa and the Multiple Meanings of Folk Music 142 6. The Music of Globalization: Gustavo Santaollalo and the Production of Rock Latino 179 Conclusion 216 Notes 221 Bibliography 249 Index 263
£72.25
Duke University Press Musicians in Transit
Book SynopsisIn Musicians in Transit Matthew B. Karush examines the careers of seven major twentieth-century Argentine popular musicians in the transnational context to show how their engagement with foreign genres, ideologies, and audiences helped them create innovative new music and shape new Argentine cultural and national identities.Trade Review"Thanks to his command of cultural, social, and historical contexts and deftness in illuminating and interpreting the dialectic between musicians and the forces of transnationalism and globalization, [Karush] succeeds in presenting a nuanced, sweeping view of Argentinian music history that also reads as an engaging narrative. . . . Highly recommended." -- G. R. Innes * Choice *“... Karush ultimately presents a very interesting interpretation of Argentine popular musicians in a transnational context and offers a compelling depiction of the intricacies and complexities involved in the construction of any national identity.” -- Vera Wolkowicz * Music and Letters *"Karush tells a story of artistic individual agency and transnational influences that avoids simplistic conclusions about cultural imperialism and authenticity. . . . This is an ambitious work that successfully explores uncharted territory in Argentine history." -- Natalia Milanesio * American Historical Review *"Expertly crafted. . . . [Musicians in Transit] deserves to be read by anyone interested in the development of Latin American identity in the twentieth century." -- Brian Bockelman * The Americas *“It is impossible to do justice to this complex book in a brief review. Musicians in Transit is an ambitious exploration of globalization, national identity, and ethnicity viewed through the multidimensional lens of these seven musicians….The book will have broad cross-disciplinary appeal and, like its subject, transnational relevance and impact.” -- Deborah Jakubs * Hispanic American Historical Review *“Musicians in Transit constitutes an excellent addition that will surely establish itself as a reference for the study of twentieth-century Argentine popular music and its relationship with nation-ness.” -- Ignacio Aguiló * Journal of Latin American Studies *"This book commands attention both for its creativeness and daring. . . . This book will be read with profit and enthusiasm not only by popular music specialists and students of Latin American musical culture, but anyone interested in cultural industries broadly conceived." -- Sean Bellaviti * Bulletin of Latin American Research *"A lucid and carefully articulated contribution. . . . The book resonates with recent musicological scholarship that is particularly concerned with the roles that media and mediators play in the articulation of local musical identities in South America. . . . This is a book rich with detail and lucid insight, and is essential reading for scholars of Argentine popular music." -- Michael S. O’Brien * Canadian Journal of Latin American and Caribbean Studies *“Musicians in Transit is an important contribution to both the history of Argentine popular music and to the study of the transnational logic of cultural industries, which Karush had brilliantly explored in his previous book on the influence of radio, cinema, and tango on the birth of Peronism.” -- Esteban Buch * Latin American Research Review *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments ix Note about Online Resources xi Introduction 1 1. Black in Buenos Aires: Oscar Alemán and the Transnational History of Swing 15 2. Argentines into Latins: The Jazz Histories of Lalo Schifrin and Gato Barbieri 39 3. Cosmopolitan Tango: Astor Piazzolla at Home and Abroad 70 4. The Sound of Latin America: Sandro and the Invention of Balada 108 5. Indigenous Argentina and Revolutionary Latin America: Mercedes Sosa and the Multiple Meanings of Folk Music 142 6. The Music of Globalization: Gustavo Santaollalo and the Production of Rock Latino 179 Conclusion 216 Notes 221 Bibliography 249 Index 263
£19.79
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Hugo Wolfs Lieder and Extensions of Tonality
Book SynopsisStudy of the harmonic language of the late 19c based on songs by Hugo Wolf.The harmonic language of the late nineteenth-century is studied here as a development of common-practice tonality, taking as a model selected songs by Hugo Wolf. Late nineteenth-century romantic composers employed extended-tonallanguage in a variety of genres, and a special feature of such tonal exapansion was the use of extra musical elements. Hugo Wolfs output, encompassing over 160 miniature masterworks, displays all the necessary characteristics, and makes an ideal subject for studying extensions of tonality. The study is organised to focus on individual techniques of tonal expanison, then to explore the foundations of that technique, and finally, to illustrate the conclusions with particular Wolf songs. Necessarily, Wolf's relationship to Richard Wagner, and to Wagner's revolutionary musical language, forms a part of this study, and so too does the similarity of Wolf's music to that of his contemporaries.
£26.34
MP-ALA American Library Assoc A Basic Music Library Essential Scores and Sound
Book SynopsisFeaturing the many records selected by experts in dozens of specialised and popular areas of music, this title is divided into three sections: classical music (organised by genre, composer, and title); popular music (organised by genre and artist); and, world music (organised by geographic area, genre, and artist).
£207.00
Boydell Press On Mahler and Britten
Book SynopsisCritical essays and studies reflecting the latest thinking on two major figures in 20c music.In this Festschrift for Donald Mitchell, the foremost authority on the life and works of Gustav Mahler and Benjamin Britten, distinguished composers, scholars, colleagues and friends from around the world have written on aspects of these two composers closest to Mitchell's heart, producing a volume which not only reflects some of the latest thinking on this pair of remarkable figures in the music of our century, but which also pays full tribute to the impact of Mitchell's own work on these composers over the last fifty years. The volume includes the fullest bibliography of Mitchell's writings yet compiled.Table of ContentsPart 1 On Mahler: Mahler and Viennese Modernism, Paul Banks; Gustav Mahlers sprache, Herta Blaukopf; Mahler and the BBC, Asa Briggs; Gustav Mahler - memories and translations, Peter Franklin; Mahler and the New York Philharmonic - the truth behind the legend, Henry-Louis de la Grange; Vestdijk on Mahler, 1924-69, Eveline Nikkels; Mahler on Stamps, Gilbert Kaplan; Mahler and self-renewal, Colin Matthews; in search of Mahler's childhood, David Matthews; a new transition - pages from the Third Movement of Mahler's Ninth Symphony, Edward R. Reilly; the song of the Earth - some personal thoughts, Peter Sculthorpe; Mahler the factual, Erwin Stein; Mahler and Pfitzner - a parallel development, John Williamson. Part 2 On Britten: from No to Nebuchadnezzar, Mervyn Cooke; Britten and his fellow composers, David Drew; a (Far Eastern) note on "Paul Bunyan", Somsak Ketukaenchan; the key to the parade, Oliver Knussen; notes on a theme from "Peter Grimes", Ludmila Kovnatskaya; the making of Auden's "Hymn for St Cecilia's Day", Edward Mendelson; Edinburgh diary 1968, Kathleen Mitchell; towards a genealogy of "Death in Venice", Christopher Palmer; Venice, 1954, Myfanwy Piper; on the sketches for "Billy Budd", Philip Reed; "Abraham and Isaac Revisited" - reflections on a theme and its inversion, Eric Roseberry; not all the way to the tigers - Britten's "Death in Venice", Edward W. Said; Donald Mitchell as publisher - a personal recollection, Peter du Sautoy; writing and copying - a superficial survey of Benjamin Britten's music, Rosamund Strode; along the knife-edge - the topic of transcendence in Britten's musical aesthetic, Arnold Whittall; a bibliography of Donald Mitchell's writings, Maureen Buja.
£25.99
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Mozarts Piano Concertos Dramatic Dialogue in the
Book SynopsisThe theoretical and musical background to the relationship between the piano and orchestra in Mozart's concertos.The interactive relationship between the piano and the orchestra in Mozart's concertos is an issue central to the appreciation of these great works, but one that has not yet received serious attention, a gap which this new study seeks to remedy by exploring the historical implications and hermeneutic potential of dramatic dialogue. The author shows that invocations of dramatic dialogue are deeply ingrained in late-eighteenth-century writings on instrumental music, and he develops this theme into an original and highly positive view of solo/orchestra relations in Mozart's concertos. He analyses behavioural patterns in the concertos and links them to theoretical discussion oflate-eighteenth-century drama and to analogous relational development in Mozart's operas Idomeneo, Die Entführung aus dem Serail, Le nozze di Figaro and Don Giovanni.Mozart's piano concertos emerge afresh from this new approach as an extraordinary medium of Enlightenment, as significant in their way as the greatest late-eighteenth-century operatic and theatrical works. SIMON P. KEEFE is James Rossiter Hoyle Chair of Music, University of Sheffield.Trade ReviewKeefe's book unites concepts from eighteenth-century music theory, drama, opera, and instrumental music in an illuminating matrix. Closely focused ... this masterly study will expand every reader's appreciation of Mozart's most original genre. NOTES [Andrew Willis] This closely written and thoroughly researched study adds much to our appreciation of the concept of dramatic dialogue in Mozart's mature piano concertos ... What Keefe does offer us is fascinating ... His book is of value in that the higher meaning of these subtle works is often obscure [...] he does much to make it clearer. INTERNATIONAL PIANO A lucid, enthusiastic study, carefully documented, and on the whole wearing lightly the author's hugely impressive learning - he knows the works intimately, and is also very well informed about more general considerations. PETER BRANSCOMBE The book has a great deal to offer ... an impressive accomplishment. -- David Breitman * MOZART SOCIETY OF AMERICA NEWSLETTER *Table of ContentsHeinrich Christoph Koch's Commentary on the Late-Eighteenth-Century Concerto: Towards an Understanding of Dialogue, Drama and Solo/Orchestra Relations in Mozart's Piano Concertos
£76.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd The Best Years of British Film Music 19361958
Book SynopsisA study of the British contribution to film music, detailing the idiosyncracies of British film, and showing how the differences between it and Hollywood affected composers on both sides of the Atlantic.Jan Swynnoe's study is concerned with the special British contribution to film music, detailing how the idiosyncracies of British film, and of the British character, set it apart from its Hollywood counterpart. She shows how the differences between the two industries in all aspects of film making variously affected composers on both sides of the Atlantic.In the mid 1930s, when film composers in America were perfecting the formulae of the classical Hollywood score, film music in Britain scarcely existed; within a year or so, however, top British composers were scoring British films. How this transformation was brought about, and how established British concert composers, including Vaughan Williams and Arnold Bax, faced the challenge of the exacting and often bewildering art of scoring for feature film, is vividly described here, and the resulting scores compared with the work of seasoned Hollywood composers. JAN SWYNNOE researched the material on which her book is based over several years, at the same time pursuing her musical life as pianist, percussionist and composer.Trade ReviewThis acute and entertaining book will be indispensable for film-music buffs and enthusiasts for British music generally. Swynnoe writes out of deep knowledge and love of the subject. BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE A timely and persuasive critical work on British film scoring, the book makes a significant contribution to a subject which has been largely neglected. ALBION An extremely interesting book on a subject which has barely begun to be explored in detail.. Equally valuable as a contribution to the cartography of the lost continent of British music as it is to that of British cinema. * JOURNAL OF BRITISH CINEMA & TELEVISION *Table of ContentsDifferences between British aand American films - a historical perspective; formulae in the classical Hollywood score; a comparison between British and American composers in their approach to film scoring; British composers' use of themes for narrative development; Arnold Bax's musico-dramatic treatment of "Oliver Twist"; three other first attempts at feature film scoring - "49th Parallel", "The Halfway House" and "Blue Scar"; dialogue scoring of British films of the 1930s; the impact of the Second World War on British films, and developments in dialogue scoring in the 1940s; a look at some British films scored by foreign composers; the decline of British cinema in the 1950s and the consequences for British film scores.
£76.00
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Television Opera The Fall of Opera Commissioned
Book SynopsisThe conventions of television and their impact on composer and opera are discussed, with particular reference to Amahl and the Night Visitors, Owen Wingrave, and The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit.Television opera - that is, opera commissioned for television - was one of the earliest attempts by television to bridge the distinction between high culture and popular culture: between 1951 and 2002, in Britain and the United States, over fifty operas were commissioned for television. This book discusses three case studies, the first a live broadcast, the second a video recording, and the third a filmed opera made for television: Gian Carlo Menotti's Amahl and the Night Visitors (NBC, 1951); Benjamin Britten's Owen Wingrave (BBC, 1971), taking into account Britten's earlier television experiences with The Turn of the Screw (Associated Rediffusion, 1959)and Billy Budd (NBC, 1952 and BBC 1966); and Gerald Barry's The Triumph of Beauty and Deceit (1995), part of Channel 4's decision in 1989 to embark upon a series of six hour-long television operas. In each case, thecomposer's response to the demands of television, and his place within the production's hierarchy, are examined; and the effect of the formats and techniques peculiar to television on the process of composing are discussed. JENNIFER BARNES is Assistant Principal and Dean of Studies at Trinity College of Music, London.Trade ReviewThe book's downbeat subtitle says it all: the genre seems to be dying on its shaky feet. It is a slightly esoteric subject, but one the author has pursued with laudable persistence based on extensive research. -- Alan Blyth * GRAMOPHONE *[This] study is a significant contribution to the growth of the still-young scholarship on mediated opera. * NOTES *Packed with closely researched detail, precisely and elegantly argued. It makes for compulsive and intelligent reading. * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *Table of Contents"A daring experiment"; Britten, opera and television; trial by television.
£58.50
Boydell & Brewer Ltd How We Hear Music
Book SynopsisCovers much of the acoustics a student needs, without mathematics or scientific background.Choice Outstanding Academic Title A survey of intervals and scales, tone pitch, loudness and time in Western music raises many questions about the hearing mechanism and throws doubt on the conventional role of harmonics. James Beament's account of how musical sounds are coded by the ear and the brain's processing units, provides answers to most of these questions. It concludes that music started with simple instruments which voices imitated, and that the need to know sound direction determined the characteristics of hearing. This book will interest students, practising musicians and music psychologists, and assumes no scientific knowledge. The late ProfessorSir JAMES BEAMENT was a distinguished scientist and musician, who taught and examined music students at Cambridge University.Trade ReviewInformed by a broad expertise comprehending all of the disciplines for which human hearing is pertinent. Beament['s] model for the hearing of music...is not only the most speculative section of the book but also the most brilliant. Recommended warmly... it should find a niche in virtually every college, university and professional music library. * CHOICE *Table of ContentsPart 1 Preliminaries. Part 2 Aural archaeology. Part 3 Hearing selects intervals. Part 4 The beguiling harmonic theory. Part 5 The imitating voice. Part 6 Hearing simultaneous pitches. Part 7 Patterns in harmony. Part 8 Loudness: the basic dynamic scale. Part 9 Music through the hearing machine. Part 10 A sense of direction. Part 11 Time and rhythm. Part 12 Conclusions.
£19.99
Liveright Dreams to Remember Otis Redding Stax Records and
Book Synopsis
£20.89
Texas Christian University Press Weird Yet Strange Notes from an Austin Music
Book SynopsisA collection of the music art created by Danny Garrett from the ’70s and ’80s in Austin, Texas. Describing the evolution of the Austin music poster, Garrett richly and poignantly details the history of the music, musicians, and venues that brought the surprising harmony of “the Austin sound” to a country otherwise polarized by antagonistic cultural, social, and political perspectives.
£23.36
Dumbarton Oaks Research Library & Collection A Home of the Humanities The Collecting and
Book Synopsis
£999.99
Toccata Press The Music of Aaron Copland
Book SynopsisFirst survey of Copland's entire output for some 30 years - a period seeing some of his most important works.Aaron Copland was one of the twentieth century's most popular and distinguished composers. Copland was born in 1900 in Brooklyn, where he began his musical career, before moving to the Paris in the 1920s, where Stravinsky, Prokofiev and Les Six were the centre of attention. On his return to the United States at the end of the decade he began to produce a series of works which could leave no one in any doubt that American composers were capable of writing music equal to the best of their European contemporaries. This chronological survey of Copland's work discusses ever one of his compositions and examines his influential writings on music. Profusely illustrated with musicexamples and photographs, it includes a conversation on the piano music with Aaron Copland and Leo Smit and also features sketches of Copland in rehearsal by Milein Cosman. NEIL BUTTERWORTH was formerly Head of Music atNapier College, Edinburgh.
£23.75
Toccata Press Dallapiccola on Opera
Book SynopsisBrings out Dallapiccola's enduring importance as critic as well as composer.The Italian composer Luigi Dallapiccola [1904-75] always characterised himself as a `man of the theatre', and Il Prigioniero [The Prisoner] has been performed more often than any other Italian opera since Puccini. Dallapiccola on Opera, the first collection of his writings to appear in English, proves that he was also an inspired essayist and critic. To the directness and psychological insight of his narrative style, Dallapiccola adds probing observation of details in the critical texts that form the core of this book. Whether writing about familiar masterpieces like Mozart's Don Giovanni and Verdi's Falstaff, Mussorgsky's Boris Godunov and Debussy's Pelleas et Melisande, or discussing such great but problematic works as Monteverdi's Il Ritorno di Ulisse in patria, Busoni's Doktor Faust and Verdi's Simon Boccanegra, Dallapiccola illuminates fundamental, previously unnoticed dramatic and musical aspects.
£13.99
Toccata Press The Music of Franz Schmidt 1 The Orchestral
Book SynopsisA major step in the rediscovery of one of the towering composers of the twentieth century; this brings to Schmidt's music the scholarship it so richly merits.Franz Schmidt is increasingly being recognised as a major composer. His music covers symphonies, quartets, opera and oratorio, and works and organ. In all of these genres he proves himself a master of large-scale symphonic form and one of the most substantial lyric geniuses of all time. Schmidt spent most of his life in Austria [he died in Vienna in 1939] where his importance was universally agreed. Here, Harold Truscott, the outstanding authorityon Schmidt in the English-speaking world, examines the orchestral works, taking the reader and listener through each of these mighty scores. Introduced by the `Personal Recollections' of Hans Keller, who knew Schmidt well in pre-World-War-II Vienna, the book also features the first-ever translation into English of Schmidt's Autobiographical Sketch, where the composer tells of his early childhood in Hungary, his teenage years near Vienna and his life as acellist in the Vienna Philharmonic. HAROLD TRUSCOTT is a composer and writer. He was Principal Lecturer in Music at Huddersfield Polytechnic and has performed widely as a pianist in recital, broadcast and concert work.
£23.75
Toccata Press Experiencing Music A Composers Notes
Book SynopsisHere, Holmboe discusses many issues facing the composer, performer and listener, giving especial attention to the most basic questions about musical experience.Vagn Holmboe [1909-96], was one of the most important composers of his era, and arguably the most important Danish composer after Carl Nielsen. A composer for over 60 years, and a teacher for more than 30, he wrote over 300 compositions in nearly every musical genre, music criticism, many other articles and two other books. Here, in a volume intended for the general reader, he discusses the nature of music, from the point of view of the composer, the performer and the listener. Where do musical ideas come from? What are composers' working methods, and how much are they really aware of them? What is the role of performers, and what sort of freedom do they have in interpreting music?What do listeners do in listening to music? What, essentially, is the musical experience? Professor Paul Rapoport contributes a lengthy introduction to this book, although, as he points out, `this is not a book about Vagn Holmboe nor a book addressed solely to musicians ... Holmboe's prose, like his music, is addressed to his fellow human beings, whoever and wherever they may be'.
£15.19
Toccata Press Experiencing Music
Book SynopsisHere, Holmboe discusses many issues facing the composer, performer and listener, giving especial attention to the most basic questions about musical experience.Vagn Holmboe [1909-96], was one of the most important composers of his era, and arguably the most important Danish composer after Carl Nielsen. A composer for over 60 years, and a teacher for more than 30, he wrote over 300 compositions in nearly every musical genre, music criticism, many other articles and two other books. Here, in a volume intended for the general reader, he discusses the nature of music, from the point of view of the composer, the performer and the listener. Where do musical ideas come from? What are composers' working methods, and how much are they really aware of them? What is the role of performers, and what sort of freedom do they have in interpreting music?What do listeners do in listening to music? What, essentially, is the musical experience? Professor Paul Rapoport contributes a lengthy introduction to this book, although, as he points out, `this is not a book about Vagn Holmboe nor a book addressed solely to musicians ... Holmboe's prose, like his music, is addressed to his fellow human beings, whoever and wherever they may be'.
£10.99
Toccata Press The Music of E.J. Moeran
Book SynopsisChronological examination of Moeran's output, from his early piano and chamber music and tone-poems to the late masterpieces of the Cello Concerto and Cello Sonata.E.J. Moeran [1894-1950] is one of the outstanding British composers of his generation, his music championed by Sir Adrian Boult, Vernon Handley, Norman Del Mar and others. His work covers a considerable variety of forms, from thewidely acclaimed Symphony in G minor to exquisite songs and piano miniatures. But hi life and career were far from easy. A grievous shrapnel wound in World War I left him with a tendency towards alcoholism, exacerbated by a riotous four-year sojourn with Peter Warlock, which inhibited his ability to compose. Freed from the weight of Warlock's personality, Moeran went on to complete his Symphony, two concertos, and much else of enduring value and importance. In this first-ever full-length study of his music, Geoffrey Self examines Moeran's output chronologically, from his early piano and chamber music and tone-poems to the late masterpieces of the Cello Concerto and Cello Sonata. GEOFFREY SELF was Head of Music at Cornwall Technical College until 1981. He received a B.Mus. from the University of London and an M.Phil. from Exeter.
£23.75
Toccata Press Havergal Brian on Music
a huge range and FREE tracked UK delivery on ALL orders.
£16.14
Toccata Press Pfitzners Palestrina The Musical Legend and its
Book SynopsisInvestigation of unjustly neglected opera.Hans Pfitzner's `musical legend' Palestrina is considered in the German-speaking countries to be one of the supreme masterpieces of music, and yet it is all but unknown elsewhere. The opera, first performed in 1917, tells the story of the composer Palestrina, his struggle to compose following the death of his wife and in the face of anti-musical decrees from the Church, and his eventual composition of the Missa Papae Marcelli, which, it is said, wasdictated to him by angles and reconciled the Church to contrapuntal music. The story, set against the historical background of the Council of Trent, is an allegory of the individual artist in society, as well as a statement of Pfitzner's own beliefs about the musical climate of his time. Toller discusses the music and the dramatic structure, and presents a comprehensive introduction to the background material in the many diverse fields encompassed by the opera. OWEN TOLLER is Head of Mathematics at Merchant Taylor's School; he is a member of the London Symphony Chorus and sings with a number of other groups. His interest in Pfitzner began when he sang in the first British performance of Palestrina, a semi-professional production by Abbey Opera in London in 1979.
£27.00
Toccata Press Schubert and the Symphony A New Perspective
Book SynopsisFirst full-length study of Schubert's career as a symphonist.Astonishingly, Schubert's symphonies have never received the detailed study that their prominence in the orchestral repertoire would suggest they deserve. In this book Professor Brian Newbould, perhaps the best-known of contemporary Schubert scholars, examines each symphony for its individuality and shows its relationship to Schubert's symphonic ouvre. He gives particular attention to the sketched works that have recently emerged in his own completions andto the two familiar masterpieces of Schubert's maturity, the `Unfinished' and the `Great C major'. He also casts new light on the role of Haydn and Mozart as models for the younger Schubert. Schubert and the Symphony is conceived as a companion to the symphonies for the listener, the professional musician and the student. BRIAN NEWBOULD is Professor of Music at the University of Hull. He has lectured extensively in Europe and North and South Ameica, and occasionally finds time to compose, conduct and perform.
£23.75
Toccata Press The VillaLobos Letters
Book SynopsisPresents for the first time the complete surviving correspondence of the outstanding Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos [1887-1959], one of the most colourful figures in twentieth-century music.This complete edition of the letters of the Brazilian composer Heitor Villa-Lobos, collected for the first time in any language, details his stay in the Paris of the 1920s, his work in Brazil and the 1930s and `40s and his international travels as conductor of his own music. The letters also discuss commissions for ballets, concertos and other works. Lisa M. Peppercorn, who knew Villa-Lobos, is the acknowledged expert on the life and music of this colourful figure, and she gives a detailed commentary on the events giving rise to the letters. A chronology gives a detailed account of Villa-Lobos' life, which is thoroughly illustrated with photographs of the persons and places associated with Villa-Lobos, facsimiles of works and concert programmes, and so on. The letters thus form a guide to the most productive years of his life.
£16.14
Toccata Press The Harmonious Musick of John Jenkins I
Book SynopsisThis is the first in a two-volume study of Jenkins and his music. It concerns itself exclusively with the superb consorts for viols which dominate the early part of the composer's career.
£31.50
Toccata Press Szymanowski on Music Selected Writings of Karol
Book SynopsisThe first comprehensive selection of Szymanowski's writings to be published in English, containing all the most important of the composer's essays and interviews.Karol Szymanowski [1882-1937] is now widely acknowledged to be the most important Polish composer since Chopin. He was also a considerable thinker on musical topics: the role of music in society, the goal of musical education, thepurpose of criticism, the nature of Romanticism, the hallmarks of national identity - indeed, he was passionately concerned with the emergence of the Polish voice in music, and the role of Chopin in particular. Szymanowski on Music is the first comprehensive selection of his writings to be published in English. It contains all the most important of the composer's essays and interviews, throws light on the trying conditions under which he was obliged to work in the 1920s and '30s, especially in education, and gives perceptive assessments of the work of some of the major composers of the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries - Wagner, Strauss, Stravinsky, Ravel, Satie and others - and the trends they embodied. A number of pieces of a more biographical nature are also included. Overall it provides, in the words of the translator Alistair Wightman, `abundant evidence of the breadth and depthof Szymanowski's personal culture, and at the same time a telling demonstration of his search for an all-embracing humanistic synthesis'. Dr Wightman faces his pioneering translations from Szymanowski's Polish originals with an extensive introductory essay that places his literary activities in the context of his life and career. This book will be a vital element in the rediscovery of the music of one of the twentieth century's most appealing composers.
£31.50
Boydell & Brewer Ltd Ronald Stevenson The Man and his Music. A
Book SynopsisThis collection of essays covers virtually all of Stevenson's enormous output and features contributions from leading authorities.Ronald Stevenson is one of Britain's leading composers, and almost certainly its most prolific. He is best known for his massive Passacaglia on DSCH - at 80 minutes long, the biggest single-movement work in the piano literature. But he has an enormous number of other fine works to his credit: a vast corpus of original and exciting works for the piano, the instrument of which he is an acknowledged master, a number of innovative and impressive scores for orchestra [including four concertos], many attractive pieces of chamber music, and over two hundred songs. All of them testify to Stevenson's enduring belief in the value of melody. Stevenson is also one of the last representatives of the great tradition of Romantic composer-pianists - the tradition that embraced Paderewski and Busoni, two figures with whom he feels a particularly affinity, and whose heritage he has extended, both as performer and creative personality, into the modern age. This collection of essays covers virtually all of Stevenson's enormous output. It features contributions from a number of leading authorities: Malcolm MacDonald on the orchestral music, Ates Orga on the piano works, Alistair Chisholm on the chamber music, Derek Watson on the songs, Harold Taylor on Stevenson's pianism, Jamie Reid Baxter on the choral music and on Stevenson's position in Scottish culture. It also reproduces a selection of Stevenson's exquisite piano miniatures, in facsimiles of the composer's calligraphic script. In a Foreword written shortly before his death, Lord Menuhin describes Stevenson as 'one of the most original minds in the composition of music' and predicts that 'his music will be appreciated more and more'. This book is a major step in that process of discovery. COLIN SCOTT-SUTHERLAND has contributed several articles on RonaldStevenson's work to various journals, and a chapter on his music to British Music Now.
£40.50
Toccata Press Richard Flury The Life and Music of a Swiss
Book SynopsisThe first extensive study of the life and music of the Swiss composer, Richard Flury (1896-1967).The late-Romantic composer Richard Flury (1896-1967) was born in Biberist, a tiny town outside the Baroque city of Solothurn in northern Switzerland. He went to school in Solothurn, later taught there, conducted its orchestra, andhad his operas and ballets performed at the local theatre by its semi-professional ensemble. But Flury was more than just another conservative composer stuck in the provinces. His teachers included Ernst Kurth and JosephMarx of Vienna, and his music was performed by conductors such as Felix Weingartner and Hermann Scherchen and star instrumentalists like Wilhelm Backhaus and Georg Kulenkampff. His first opera was conducted by a former student ofBerg and Schoenberg who became his staunch advocate, and during the Second World War Flury worked closely with several Jewish emigré writers and musicians from Germany and Czechoslovakia.In his music of the early 1930s, the influence of Berg and Hindemith became apparent as Flury dabbled in modernism and free tonality before moving back to a more traditionalist stance; but he was also a fine tunesmith who loved writing Viennese waltzes and violin miniatures after the manner of Kreisler. In both his aesthetic and his career, Flury offers a fascinating case of a man negotiating constantly between the centre and the periphery - and composing some very good music in the process.The book includes a 23 track CD of Flury's music. CHRIS WALTON teaches music history at the Basel University of Music in Switzerland. He is the author of Othmar Schoeck: Life and Works (2009) and Richard Wagner's Zurich: The Muse of Place (2007).Trade ReviewProfessor Walton, himself a most engaging writer, beautifully evokes the provincial musical life, rural culture and landscapes of the German-speaking part of Switzerland in the first half of the 20th century. * MUSICAL TIMES *
£23.75
Toccata Press The Harmonious Musick of John Jenkins II Volume
Book SynopsisThe long-awaited sequel to Andrew Ashbee's pioneering study of the life and music of John Jenkins (1592-1678). The primary focus of this second volume is Jenkins' huge output of fantasia-suites, but his vocal music also comes under examination, and a complete source-list of Jenkins' music is provided.John Jenkins (1592-1678) was both the most prolific and the most esteemed of English composers in the fifty years or so between the death of William Byrd and the rise of Henry Purcell. After his apprenticeship Jenkins became renowned as a skilled performer on lute and viol, once playing to Charles I 'as one that performed somewhat extraordinary'. Throughout his long life he was employed as a resident musician in East Anglia in households of the nobility, where, as well as playing, teaching and directing the music-making, his duties would include the composing and copying of music. At the restoration of Charles II Jenkins became a court musician, although, in view of his advanced age, he spent little time there. He died on 27 October 1678 at Kimberley, Norfolk, where he is buried. As a composer, Jenkins' preferred medium was instrumental music, and he wrote little else. He came to maturity in the 1620s,when the consort fantasia for viols was in its prime. In later years he turned to the newer music then in vogue, such as the fantasia-suite and suites of dances, contributing significantly to their development. This book is the second in a two-volume study of Jenkins and his music. Volume I contains a full biographical introduction before concerning itself exclusively with the superb consorts for viols which dominate the early part of the composer's career. This second volume surveys the rest of his output, setting each group of pieces in context, beginning with his innovative series of fantasia-suites. Although often unpretentious and geared to amateur performance, his 'horsloads' of airs maintain a lively and varied character. More than fifty works for bass viol(s) are among the best of their kind, as are the pieces featuring the lyra viol in both solo and consort works. The book ends by examining Jenkins' vocal music. Whatever medium he chose, Jenkins was able to add important pieces to the repertory. An growing list of recordings endorses Christopher Simpson's view that he was 'the ever Famous and most Excellent Composer,in all sorts of Modern Musick'.Trade ReviewSequels often have a tendency to disappoint, the more long-awaited the more acute that feeling can be. Not so in this case. . . . Taken together Ashbee's two-volume study is an impressively comprehensive account of Jenkins, the man and the music. As was the first volume, this second instalment will be essential reading for anyone interested in English music of the seventeenth century and will no doubt feed into other larger-scale narratives in due course. -- John Cunningham * Journal of the Viola da Gamba Society *The book is in the clear prose that we have come to expect from Andrew Ashbee, and the publisher has produced a handsome volume to match Volume One. . . .[A]n excellent study of John Jenkins's music, now complete in its two volumes. The author deserves our thanks for introducing all of Jenkins's music and making it more accessible. -- Richard Rastall * The Consort *
£42.75
Toccata Press Havergal Brian on Music Volume Two European and
Book SynopsisThis second volume of Brian's writings shows him to have been one of the most perceptive commentators on contemporary music in the twentieth century.In this second volume of selections from his journalism, written over four decades between 1907 and 1946, the maverick English composer Havergal Brian [1876-1972] directs his enquiring mind at the music being composed in France,Germany, Italy and elsewhere, while he and his British contemporaries were fighting to establish new music at home. Richard Strauss figures prominently among the composers discussed, beginning with reviews of Hallé and Queen's Hall concerts in 1907 and 1910. But even Strauss was not treated as lavishly as another whose music clearly fascinated Brian deeply: Arnold Schoenberg. From Gurrelieder to the Violin Concerto, Brian emerges as one of Schoenberg's most sympathetic and understanding champions among the English critical fraternity in the inter-War period. Other composers featured include Bartók, Berg, Busoni, Debussy, Dohnányi, Dukas, Glazunov, Grieg, Hindemith, Kilpinen, Lehár,Mahler, Messager, Puccini, Rachmaninov, Ravel, Respighi, Shostakovich, Sibelius, Sousa, Stravinsky, Szymanowski, Tailleferre and Varèse - as well as figures now obscure such as Alfred Bruneau, August Bungert, César Géloso and Wilhelm Kienzl. Malcolm MacDonald's introductions and annotations provide the background to each piece and cast light on Brian's more obscure references.Trade Review[E]ine... wichtige Veröffentlichung, gerade weil man einen durch Musikjournalismus gefilterten Blick auf das Musikleben der ersten Hälfte des 20. Jahrhunderts, vor allem der 30er Jahre erhält. Die * MUSIKFORSCHUNG *A fascinating read. * THE DELIAN *This second volume of Brian's writing...makes for tantalising reading...What Malcolm MacDonald's meticulously annotated volume shows is the work of a highly intelligent commentator...at the critical vanguard. [Editor's Choice] * CLASSICAL MUSIC [Editor's Choice] *A body of writing second to none for its insight into the musical world of the earlier twentieth century, as one of its most pertinent commentators saw it.music journalism such as Brian's is a salutary reminder of what ought to be possible. * INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW *MacDonald's editing is up to its usual high standards - his footnotes alone make fascinating reading. * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *[B]oth a work of scholarship and an important historical source for an understanding of the British music of the early 20th century. * ELGAR FOUNDATION *This is a golden treasury of fascinating journalism from a period in British musical history that can easily be bypassed when leaping from Elgar to Britten and beyond, and penned by a writer of great skill, broad musical perception and understanding, and above all the insights of a remarkable composer. * MUSIC & VISION DAILY *
£40.50
Toccata Press Discovering Berlioz
Book SynopsisThe writings of David Cairns have played a major part in the relatively recent acceptance of Berlioz as a central figure in western classical music. Discovering Berlioz collects articles, lectures and other texts from several decades of advocacy, throwing new light on this outsize personality - the Romantic composer par excellence.For the past half-century and more David Cairns has been one of the world's pre-eminent Berlioz scholars, translating Berlioz's freewheeling memoirs and writing a monumental biography of the composer that earned a procession of awards. But many of Cairns' writings on Berlioz were intended for particular audiences - the Berlioz Society Bulletin, articles in books and journals, contributions to newspapers (he was a critic for The Sunday Times for 25 years) and lectures - and have never been collected between a single set of covers. Discovering Berlioz presents nearly 40 essays from the past five decades that even now throw unexpected light on this most quixotic and profound of composers - firebrand and philosopher almost in the same breath. These articles follow the chronology of Berlioz's life, examining the influences of his provincial childhood on his music, the revelations of Virgil, Gluck, Shakespeare and Beethoven, the tribulations of his professional life in Paris, when the pressure to earn a living as a reviewer and writer robbed him of the time he should have spent on composition, and finally focusing on the masterpiece that crowned Berlioz's difficult life, the operatic epic Les Troyens. Discovering Berlioz also charts the history of Berlioz reception: the composer who in the mid-twentieth century was regarded as aneccentric outsider is now seen as one of the most vital figures in the history of western music - a re-assessment for which David Cairns himself deserves much of the credit.Trade ReviewInterest and diversity are maintained throughout...crammed full of useful, relevant and readable insights. For readers both familiar and unfamiliar with the biographical and musical material that occupy Cairns's first three Berlioz volumes, not to mention complete beginners with this composer, this should be an essential purchase. * GRAMOPHONE *Full of reminiscences, rich in appreciation of the great Berlioz conductors and scholars of the past and present, Cairns's book is a goldmine of analysis and memories. * MUSICAL OPINION *
£35.55
Toccata Press Martinu and the Symphony
Book SynopsisThe first systematic assessment of the symphonic style of the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu [1890-1959], tracing the evolution of his musical language and including detailed analyses of all six symphonies.Over the past few decades the music of the Czech composer Bohuslav Martinu (1890-1959) has enjoyed a slow but steady rise in popularity, and his six symphonies, written between 1942 and 1953, have now been recorded many times; concert performances are on the increase, too. But Martinu and the Symphony is not only the first book in English intended to help the music-lover to a deeper understanding of these glorious works - it is by far the most comprehensive work on the subject in any language. Each Symphony is examined in turn, the analyses revealing what makes each creation so individual yet also so clearly part of a close-knit family of works and identifying the elements of his melodic, harmonic and instrumental style which produce Martinu's very personal vibrant and organic symphonic manner.Martinu and the Symphony is illustrated with almost 200 musical examples, taken not only fromthe Symphonies but also from his other works for large orchestra. His path to symphonic mastery is examined in unprecedented detail: attention is at last paid to the early orchestral works which, although largely unperformed andunpublished even now, afford fascinating glimpses of the composer to come. A study of the late triptychs The Frescoes of Piero della Francesca and The Parables rounds out this appraisal of Martinus enthralling symphonic and orchestral legacy.Trade ReviewCrump quotes with approval Martinu's injunction to composers to 'be wary of false magnitude' [...]. He has evidently taken that injunction to heart and applied it to his own writing, and in the process he has produced an engaging book that should do much to enhance the esteem of a unique and treasurable corner of the symphonic repertory. * MUSIC & LETTERS *Crump provides... a sequence of magnificently enlarged programme essays that will surely resonate with the composer's admirers and also provoke wider interest. ... [Crump's] passion is infectious. * TLS *Crump's comprehensive investigation of Martinu's symphonic legacy is a particularly welcome occasion. ... [the author's] musical descriptions provide a personal perspective that acts as a counterweight to the more formal analysis. This dual approach seems perfectly suitable, and indeed reflects the music of Martinu itself. * MLA NOTES *This is the first book in English on this topic intended to help the music-lover to a deeper understanding of the Symphonies and orchestral music of Martinu. The author identifies the elements of his melodic, harmonic and instrumental style which produce Martinu's very personal vibrant and organic symphonic manner. The book is illustrated with almost 200 musical examples, taken not only from the Symphonies but also from Martinu's other works for large orchestra. * MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL *Dans la langue de Shakespeare (quoique dans un style facilement abordable), Michael Crump nous invite à une exploration très pédagogique des ouvres symphoniques du maître de Poliuka. [...] Crump livre également -en trois chapitres séparés- une brillante synthèse analytique sur le style mélodique, l'harmonie et l'art de l'orchestration de Martinu [...] Cet ouvrage trouve une place de choix dans la bibliothèque des admirateurs de Martinu. * CRESCENDO *[A] major study of his music, based round his set of six Symphonies, is to be welcomed in the wake of the anniversary of his death. Michael Crump really knows his Martinu, and he obviously wants to share his enthusiasm with us [...] handsomely produced. * MUSICAL POINTERS *
£45.00
