Music Books

Book SynopsisThe correspondence of the composer-pianists Percy Grainger [1882-1961] and Ronald Stevenson [b. 1928], together with Stevenson's writings on Grainger and two interviews with Stevenson.In 1957 the Australian-American composer Percy Grainger, then 75 and in failing health, received a letter from another pianist-composer, the young Ronald Stevenson, writing from his home in West Linton, below Edinburgh. That firstcontact - requesting Grainger's reminiscences of Ferruccio Busoni, with whom he had studied - led to an exchange of 32 letters over the four years before Grainger's death in February 1961. The two men soon found that, despite their 46-year age-difference, they had many affinities. Both were pianists of staggering abilities and composers who combined a love for folk-music and working-class art with an aesthetic that proposed a `world music' to include the farthest reaches of humanity. Both made an art of piano transcription of a wide variety of works and were champions of little-known music and composers. And both revered the work of Walt Whitman, that great poet of inclusivity,the pioneering spirit and the open road. This book presents both the complete Grainger-Stevenson correspondence and Ronald Stevenson's many articles and lectures on Grainger and his music, edited by Teresa Balough, whosetwo interviews with Stevenson open and close the volume - which includes a CD of a lecture-recital on Grainger that Stevenson presented in Grainger's home in White Plains, New York, in 1976.Trade ReviewThis is a welcome addition to the Grainger literature in this fiftieth anniversary of his death. [...] there is much to enjoy and to think about from the pen and voice of a very fine composer [...] reflecting and illuminating our understanding of Grainger. [...] the book is beautifully produced, with many attractive and revealing illustrations. * DELIUS SOCIETY JOURNAL *Comrades in Art is a highly entertaining portrait of two composers: Percy Grainger and Ronald Stevenson. ... [A] must have for the Grainger enthusiast. The book is attractive in organization and content... . Comrades in Art is more than just the correspondence between two composers. It is a study of the music of Grainger and its place in music culture through the eyes of a scholarly admirer. * TEMPO *Ronald Stevenson proves himself an eloquent Grainger devotee, in his writings, in interview with Teresa Balough, and on the accompanying CD, noting the connection between Grainger and Busoni, the shared devotion he had to Whitman, and delight in Kipling. Stevenson is clearly a pianist in the Grainger manner, robust and forthright. It is a joy. * MUSIC & VISION DAILY *The subsequent, if short, correspondence ranged widely and they discovered common interests, folk music and the poetry of Walt Whitman among them. Perhaps Grainger's most astonishing claim is that he was the real pioneer in most aspects of modern music. [...] There is a lot of material available about Grainger and this unabashed tribute is a complement to that. And we get to make closer acquaintance with Ronald Stevenson along the way. * FANFARE *Fascinating and entertaining reading...The men correspond with a style and grace that seems remote in this e-mail age....Reading these letters...will have you fired up about two under-appreciated musical free-thinkers. * SCOTSMAN *

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Book SynopsisHans Keller's text and Milein Cosman's vibrant illustrations combine to produce a unique and enlightening book on Stravinsky.Stravinsky the Music-Maker is the third incarnation of a book that has been greeted with superlatives on each previous appearance. Hans Keller and Milein Cosman collaborated down the decades of their married life, Keller'spen analysing music, Cosman's catching its makers at work. Stravinsky was a source of fascination for them both, and their Stravinsky at Rehearsal appeared in 1962, to be expanded, two decades later, as Stravinsky Seen and Heard. Stravinsky the Music-Maker offers the most generous compilation of their work yet: it includes Keller's complete articles on Stravinsky, written between 1954 and 1980, and augments Cosman's celebrated prints and drawings with a number not previously published. The introduction, by the composer Hugh Wood, sites the Keller-Cosman partnership in the framework of the British musical life they enriched.HANS KELLER (1919-85) fled Austria in1938 and became a commanding critical voice in British music journalism and on the BBC from the end of the war until his death. He is the author of numerous books, many illustrated by his wife Milein Cosman, including Criticism (Faber), The Great Haydn String Quartets (Dent), Essays on Music (CUP), Jerusalem Diary, Film Music and Beyond and Music and Psychology (all Plumbago). A critic of insight and integrity throughout his life, he remains a powerful influence to this day.Trade ReviewOne writer and musicologist who embarked upon a deep study of the essence of Stravinsky, was the great Hans Keller - a Viennese intellectual who became a cultural Svengali at the BBC in the 1960s [...] This extremely well-produced, well-organised book [is] a fitting tribute, both to the critic and his composing hero. [...] what undoubtedly 'lightens the load' of this Stravinsky treasury, are the many curious and engaging illustrations from the pen of Keller's wife, the artist Milein Cosman. [...] Cosman's work provides the ideal epilogue to this survey of a great man's life. * QUARTERLY REVIEW *Now there is more than ever to provide insight into the variety, profundity, breadth and genius... of Stravinsky's work. It's meticulously-produced, well-indexed, closely annotated and referenced. ... [a] useful and recommendable book which you should certainly consider adding to your collection if you are interested in Stravinsky's work at all. * CLASSICAL.NET *

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Book SynopsisMeinrad Schütter is one of the most intriguing of recent Swiss composers. His music offers a highly personal synthesis of 20th-century European modernisms, from Hindemith to Bartók, Stravinsky, Berg and beyond.Meinrad Schütter (1910-2006) is one of the most intriguing of recent Swiss composers. He was born in Chur in the Swiss Alps, studied at the Zurich Conservatoire, attended Paul Hindemith's classes at Zurich University, and enjoyed early support from the conductor Hermann Scherchen. Schütter's wayward attitude towards authority resulted in his debarment from the Swiss Musicians' Association and its manifold opportunities for advancement, but avid study and a thirst to acquaint himself with the latest trends led to his developing an idiosyncratic style, initially Neo-Classical but later featuring elements of serialism and even aleatory. After retirement, Schütter enjoyed a remarkable Indian summer, bringing forth several dozen songs, chamber and orchestral works. Many have now been recorded, garnering enthusiastic reviews. This book is the first in English to examine his life and music.

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Book SynopsisAn anthology of the writings of the English composer William Alwyn [1905-85].The English composer William Alwyn was not only one of the most versatile creative figures of his age, writing music for the concert hall, recital room, operatic stage and film screen; he was also a virtuoso instrumentalist and conductor, the teacher of some of the most important composers of the succeeding generation, and the founder of a number of influential music committees such as the Composers' Guild of Great Britain. Alwyn was a gifted writer, too,alive to literature and art - especially pre-Raphaelite painting, on which he was an authority - as well as to music, and Composing in Words presents his most important writings: the autobiographical essay Winged Chariot; the diary, Ariel to Miranda, in which he chronicled the composition of his Third Symphony; an extract from Early Closing, Alwyn's reminiscences of his Northampton childhood; and essays on film music, and on other composers, among them Elgar, Bax and Puccini.Trade ReviewCertainly, Composing in Words offers much to the reader curious about the man and ideas behind the film and concert scores. Yet it is also to be recommended to those who want to know more about British music of this period, and about those who contributed to it. * MUSIC AND LETTERS *Admirably presented and edited...there's certainly something for everyone, and the wide interests and erudition of William Alwyn are impressively displayed. * GRAMOPHONE *A rewarding collection. * CHOICE *The reader will be impressed by the presentation of this volume...the editor has not imposed himself on the text, but has allowed Alwyn's voice to come through both loud and clear. It is a book that is essential and will long be in demand as research in William Alwyn and exploration of his music continues over the coming years. * MUSIC WEB INTERNATIONAL *

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Book SynopsisThe first English language discussion of the life and music of this twentieth century Norwegian composer.The Norwegian composer Ludvig Irgens-Jensen (1894-1969) was one of the towering creative figures of his native land, although his dignified and powerful music does not receive the attention its quality deserves, either at home orabroad. The success of his dramatic symphony Heimferd (Homecoming) in 1930 brought him national fame, but the post-War triumph of modernism, coupled with his personal modesty, pushed Irgens-Jensen's tonal music into the shadows: its contrapuntally based textures and its modally tinged harmonies were seen as things of the past. But a growing number of recordings is revealing him as one of the most distinguished and distinctive voices in twentieth-century music, a figure of international importance who wrote music of striking nobility and strength of purpose - with some meltingly lovely melodic lines. Arvid O. Vollsnes' Ludvig Irgens-Jensen: The Life and Music of a Norwegian Composer is the first discussion in English of this profoundly decent man and his life-enhancing music. A review of the original Norwegian publication of this book in Aftenposten, the main Norwegian daily paper, described it as 'a gripping biographical portrait. As well as Irgens-Jensen's life we get a broad picture of Norwegian musical life from the 1920s to his death in 1969'. A CD of extracts from Irgens-Jensen's works has been prepared to accompany the English edition, providing readers with an introduction to his highly individual and immediately appealing sound-world.Trade ReviewThis is thorough and solid first biography and Vollsnes is a passionate advocate of his subject. Beryl Foster's translation . . . is clear and nuanced. * GRAMOPHONE *Vollsnes . . . gives Irgens-Jensen's work the scholarly scrutiny it deserves, in the full context of the composer's eventful life. Extensive appendices, a discography, an index, and an accompanying music CD round out this superb resource especially recommended for music scholars and college library collections. * MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW *

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Book SynopsisThe internment diary of Austrian composer Hans Gál (1890-1987) with a biographical study of his life and career. Includes a CD of first recordings of three of his works from the period.The Austrian composer Hans Gál (1890-1987) was one of many Jewish refugees who fled to Britain from Hitler's Third Reich only to find themselves interned in prison camps in Britain as 'enemy aliens' - the result of Churchill's panic decision to 'collar the lot'. Gál thus spent five months over the summer of 1940 in internment camps - first in Donaldson's Hospital in Edinburgh, then at Huyton, near Liverpool, and finally in the Central Promenade Camp on theIsle of Man. Many of Gál's fellow internees went on, like Gál himself, to become shaping forces in the intellectual life of Britain - but in captivity this colourful parade of characters had to put up with bureaucratic inertia and the indifference of their captors to their undeserved fate. The diary Gál kept during his captivity vividly describes the difficulties the internees had to overcome to live as normal a life as possible. Gál's contribution, of course, was music, and the CD with this book presents first recordings of the Huyton Suite he wrote for two violins and flute (the only instruments available to him), the satirical review What a Life! composed on the Isle of Man and the piano suite he drew from it. Introductory chapters by Gál's daughter and by Richard Dove present a biographical survey of Gál's life and career and an examination of British internment policy; the Foreword is bythe distinguished economist Sir Alan Peacock, who studied composition with Gál. Together they throw light on one of the more shameful British responses to the threat of Nazi invasion.Trade ReviewReadable, often witty and informative. This book is completely successful in providing a significant introduction to a remarkable, but largely forgotten and ignored composer...an important addition to the music enthusiast's library. * SPIRITED *Biographies have appeared over the years and performances help to focus what this new book's blurb correctly calls the 'distinctive voice' of a 'master craftsman,' here illustrated with a CD of strikingly graceful music. . . . The diary is fascinating, detailed, informative and indeed unique. * MUSICAL TIMES *This is an important resource for musicians and historians [...] it is a welcome addition to the life and work of Hans Gál, who is finally being recovered as a lost master of the twentieth century. * TLS *Hopefully, this volume will inspire someone to undertake a much needed full-length biographical study of an underrated composer. [Five Stars] * BBC MUSIC MAGAZINE *[An] invaluable book ... A mine of information throughout, the core of the book is Gál's diary, written in a lively and eminently readable style. * GRAMOPHONE *[Hans Gál's] diary is typically insightful, witty and richly detailed, written in a vivid and engaging style that translates well and grips the reader ... Eva Fox-Gál provides an excellent biographical essay of her father's life ... An essential volume on this fascinating composer, and actually the first to appear in English. Unreservedly recommended. [Five Stars] * CLASSICAL MUSIC *A mine of information throughout, the core of the book is Gál's diary, written in a lively and eminently readable style. He emerges as a likeable and immensely capable character, aware of his own mettle yet wearing it lightly, and quite free from the pretensions of grandeur. * GRAMOPHONE *'This remarkable book presents a fine translation of the diary kept by Austrian composer Hans Gál during his internment in the summer of 1940, after he had fled Nazi-occupied Europe with his family. . . . His diary is typically insightful, witty and richly detailed, written in a vivid and engaging style that translates well and grips the reader. [. . . ] one of the joys of this book is a free accompanying CD which presents fine recording of the works he created. . . . This is music of such optimism and invention, that it is scarcely credible it was created under such duress. It deserves wider currency. [. . . ] Unreservedly recommended. -- -- Brendan G Carroll, Classical Music MagazineTable of ContentsAppendices Foreword by Sir Alan Peacock Hans Gál: A biographical Introduction Acknowledgements 'Most Regrettable and Deplorable Things have Happened': Britain's Internment of Enemy Aliens in 1940 Music behind Barbed Wire I: Donaldson's Hospital, Edinburgh Music behind Barbed Wire II: Huyton, near Liverpool Music behind Barbed Wire III: Central Promenade Camp, Douglas, Isle of Man Postlude: Gál in Britain Appendices Contributors Index of Gál's Works

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Book SynopsisThe Polish-born, British-based pianist André Tchaikowsky (1935-82) saw himself principally as a composer- one of several conflicting elements in his personality, charted by the diaries he kept between 1974 and 1982.André Tchaikowsky was only 46 when he died, internationally renowned as a pianist - and he made the headlines after his death when he left his skull to the Royal Shakespeare Company for use in performances of Hamlet. Yet for all his facility at the keyboard Tchaikowsky's real passion was composition. The internal conflict between pianist and composer compounded an already complex character. A Polish Jew and Holocaust survivor, Tchaikowsky was also a homosexual. The diaries he kept between 1974 and his death chronicle the struggles that ran through his life. Debt kept driving him back to the concert platform when his true wish was to find the time to compose. His spirited writing details the joys and vicissitudes of his life with striking candour. The diaries are introduced and annotated by Anastasia Belina-Johnson, who also provides a chronology of Tchaikowsky's life and a survey of his music. Includes a CDof the pianist in recital.Anastasia Belina-Johnson is Head of Classical Music at the Leeds College of Music.Trade ReviewAn absorbing read and a significant step in Tchaikowsky studies. * MUSIC & LETTERS *A valuable book in rediscovering a vital talent undeservedly overlooked for too long. * CLASSICAL MUSIC *This is a very well-researched 'biography'. The edited diaries [are] especially revealing, and I came away from them feeling I had really got under the skin of this fascinating character ... If [Belina-Johnson's] intentions were to reawaken an interest in this almost forgotten musician, she has truly succeeded. , January 2014 * MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL, January 2014 *

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Book SynopsisFirst volume of a gripping collection of the writings of one of the twentieth century's finest composers, the Anglo-Polish Sir Andrzej Panufnik (1914-91), consisting of a new edition of his 1984 autobiography Composing Myself, his complete programme notes on his own compositions, his essays and articles and his interviews. Sir Andrzej Panufnik used to say that he communicated in music, not words. But his literary legacy is substantial, as this anthology demonstrates. Its first volume consists of a fully annotated new edition of Composing Myself, the autobiography he wrote in 1985, long since a collector's item. It provides a graphic account of an often dramatic life. Panufnik's early success in pre-World War II Poland was soon eclipsed by the horrors of the Nazi occupation. Composing Myself documents in striking detail the desperate circumstances in which Panufnik repeatedly found himself - and the personal courage with which he responded. Post-War Poland then progressed from the overt terrors of Nazism to the deadening hand of Communism, and Panufnik charts the methodical attempts of Party orthodoxy to stifle independent thought. In spite of the success he enjoyed as a conductor, Panufnik was unable to compose under such restrictions, feeling he was being suffocated. Though a patriot to his bones, he boldly decided that escape to the west was the only option, and his account of his defection - in 1954, at the height of the Cold War - reads like a le Carré thriller. Safe in England, he was able to rebuild his career, overcoming official neglect of his music to become one of Britain's best-respected composers - and to be greeted as a national hero when he finally managed to return to his beloved Poland, free at last.Trade ReviewIt is remarkable to be able to describe an autobiography as a real page turner, yet Andrzej Panufnik's memoir is such a work on so many levels. -- Andrew Lorenz * AUSTA *As Simon Callow readily admits in his fascinating and personal Preface, the book must rank as one of the most significant autobiographical writings by any composer, alongside Berlioz's Memoirs and Wagner's My Life. -- Gary Higginson * MUSICWEB INTERNATIONAL *

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Book SynopsisA guide to the origins and music of Szymanowski's exquisitely beautiful opera King Roger.Karol Szymanowski (1881-1937), the most important Polish composer after Chopin, wrote only two operas, the second of which, King Roger, completed in 1924, is a masterpiece. After decades of neglect this magnificent work hasbegun to receive more attention around the world, and this first extended study of King Roger investigates its origins, uncovers its ideology, examines its music and documents its history. The book opens with an outline of the role the theatre played in Szymanowski's career, from his early operetta, Lottery for Husbands, and the rousing ballet panotmime, Harnasie, based on legends from the Polish highlands. Intracing the evolution of King Roger from conception to completion, Alistair Wightman, one of the leading Szymanowki scholars, examines the contribution of the co-librettist, Jaroslaw Iwaszkiewicz, and serveys the various strands which make up its ideology, from Euripides The Bacchae and Plato Phaedrus and The Symposium to works by Pater, Nietzsche, Merezhkovsky and Micinski. He charts Szymanowski's fascination with the historical background of the opera, the world of the twelfth-century ruler of Norman Sicily, Roger II (1095-1154). Szymanowski's own novel, Efebos, written in 1918-19 and only partially preserved offers intriguing parallels with hisopera. ALISTAIR WIGHTMAN has written extensively about Polish music of the early twentieth century and his translation, Szymanowski on Music was published by Toccata Press in 1999.Trade ReviewWightman writes with a deep love of the opera...Valuable for marshalling so much material on King Roger in relatively few pages, this book is an inspiring read. -- John Allison * BBC MUSIC *This impressive book delves deep into the opera, relating its composition from idea to completion, discusses its ideology . . . and its performance history . . . richly detailed. * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *

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Book SynopsisThe first-ever full-length biography in English of Engelbert Humperdinck, composer of the opera Hänsel und Gretel, examining the rest of his substantial output in a historical framework which sets him in the rich musical life of Wilhelmine Germany.Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hänsel und Gretel is one of the best-known in the repertoire, its melodies as familiar as folk-tunes - and yet no full-length biography of Humperdinck (1854-1921) has ever been published in English: although highly regarded a century ago, he has since been overshadowed by the continued success of his own fairy-tale creation. His other works remain essentially unknown, but they include five additional operas, ten furtherstage works (including music for four Shakespeare plays), pieces for orchestra and for chorus, and many songs. This book sets a pioneering examination of Humperdinck's entire output in a biographical framework, with detailed, illustrated descriptions accompanied by quotations from Humperdinck's contemporaries. Humperdinck was a quintessential composer of the Germany of the Kaisers: his maturation coincided with the establishment of the German Empire,and his training with teachers who remembered Beethoven and Schubert culminated in an apprenticeship with Richard Wagner. His talents won him entry to the Bayreuth inner circle and to the home of Johannes Brahms, and earned him areception with Kaiser Wilhelm II and an evening in Theodore Roosevelt's White House. His friends included Richard Strauss, Hugo Wolf, Gustav Mahler, Giacomo Puccini and Isadora Duncan. Kurt Weill, Leo Blech, and Hans Pfitzner were among his hundreds of students. Humperdinck was a prolific writer, too, and the detailed and candid letters and diary entries quoted here provide an inside view of musical life in Wilhelmine Germany, with its extraordinary number of theatres, orchestras, choral societies, music publishers, journals and conservatoires, their principal personalities generously illustrated in the pages of this book. William Melton, born in Philadelphia in 1954, did hisgraduate studies in music history at the University of California Los Angeles and spent his career in the horn section of the Sinfonie Orchester Aachen (Aix-la-Chapelle). In addition, he is a contributor to The Cambridge Wagner Encyclopedia (2013) and the author of The Wagner Tuba: A History (edition ebenos, Aachen, 2008). Further projects have included biographical essays on lesser-known Romantics like Friedrich Klose, Henri Kling, Felix Draeseke, and Friedrich Gernsheim, and he has researched and edited the scores of the 'Forgotten Romantics' series for the publisher edition ebenos.Trade ReviewMelton's book is important, one which should be in every German music library. -- Jürgen Schaarwächter * Die Musikforschung *Melton's book is very much a life-and-works survey, and he manages to weave discussion of music into the narrative with great skill. . . . [A] most fascinating and much-needed biography not only of a composer but also of a whole era in German music. * The Wagner Journal *Melton's book is a worthy tribute to a still-underestimated composer of opera. -- Benjamin Ivry * Opera Now *

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Book SynopsisThe story of singer Norman Platt's life in music and the rise and fall of the renowned Kent Opera Company.Norman Platt was seized by music at the age of five as a boy in industrial Lancashire, played professionally at the age of nine and made music in one form or another until his death in 2004. He sang in the choirs of King's CollegeCambridge and St Paul's Cathedral, was a founder member of the legendary Deller Consort and toured with Britten's English Opera Group. He was a principal at Sadler's Wells and broadcast regularly with the BBC. Yet, as theTimes obituarist wrote, "Norman Platt was probably as famous for his battles to save Kent Opera in the 1980's as he was founding the company in the first place in 1969. His was a long and thankless battle against the ArtsCouncil, which had decided by the end of the 1980's that the country had one opera company too many. Unfortunately his outspoken attacks on funding policies made him enemies in high places, which left the company vulnerable when the axe fell."Making Music, warmly received on publication in 2001, is the story of Norman Platt's life in music. At its heart is the story of the Kent Opera, which featured conductor Roger Norrington, directors likeJonathan Miller and Nicholas Hytner, and singers of the calibre of Jill Gomez and Felicity Palmer. It will be essential reading for anyone interested in the realities of the arts in the modern world.Trade ReviewWe now have from the Kent Opera's guiding light this well-written and evocative chronicle of its all-too-brief existence. -- Alan Blyth * GRAMOPHONE *This is the story of a small, seditious miracle...His story is deeply troubling but strangely inspiring. It is not a denunciation but a profession of faith. -- Michael Oliver * INTERNATIONAL RECORD REVIEW *To read [this book] is to be reminded of Platt's uncanny ability, genius even, for spotting and enabling talent. -- Rodney Milnes * THE TIMES *

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Book SynopsisAn insider's perspective on forty years of the Britten-Pears School, generously illustrated and with quotations from the eminent staff and their students - many of whom are now internationally famous.Moira Bennett worked at the Britten-Pears School in its hectic heyday in the 1980s. She charts its forty-year history, embodying its founders' initial vision of a bridge between conservatory and career for gifted young musicians,from ad hoc classes in a grainstore at Snape, to an annual calendar of non-stop courses for singers, string players and ensembles in its own building and fully staged operas in the Maltings, to its current incarnation as the Britten-Pears Young Artist Programme. Some of the most eminent teachers from Europe, the United States and beyond have come to teach at Snape. These include founder-director Peter Pears, Hans Hotter, Joan Sutherland, Galina Vishnevskaya, Jacqueline du Pré, Mitsuko Uchida, Mstislav Rostropovich, Ton Koopman, and members of the Amadeus Quartet. This authoritative and anecdotal historical survey of the work of the School is generously illustrated and studded withquotations from many faculty members and former students.Trade ReviewSelected by as one of the best music books of 2012. * . *This book is in a way a resurrection - a bringing to vivid life of how Britten's innocent words bore extraordinary fruit. * CLASSICAL MUSIC [Editor's Choice] *Written affectionately by one who was at the centre of it all, it illustrates clearly the vision and hard work behind [this] facility for advanced musical education, one uniquely allied to a festival, a village community and a landscape. * STRINGENDO *

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Book SynopsisThe ancient dragon Federigo il Barbarossa, more commonly known as Fred, reminisces about the good old days when he and his cohorts ruled the world, before, alas, they got above themselves and were slapped down, permanently as it turned out. During their abandoned spree, he and his fellows created creatures at will, sometimes to help out and some just because they could: the griffin, the opinicus, the basilisk, the hydra, the unicorn, the Pegasus, the questing beast, She that lives in Ness, and others. Richly illustrated with 45 stunning black and white drawings. MICHAEL MCCARTHY was a recognised expert in the field of ecclesiastical heraldry.

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Book SynopsisSchoenberg's quartets and trio, composed over a nearly forty-year period, occupy a central position among twentieth-century chamber music. This volume, based on papers presented at a conference in honor of David Lewin, collects a wide range of approaches to Schoenberg's pieces.

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Book SynopsisThis catalog highlights material from the Collection of Hans Moldenhauer and the Estate of Rudolf Kolisch that was included in a joint exhibition between the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek (Bavarian State Library, Munich) and Houghton Library in 1988. Written in English and German.

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Book SynopsisThe Hollywood Film Musical examines the cross-fertilization between the genre and the popular music industry, tracing the function of this relationship in aesthetic, ideological and industrial terms, and outlining the influence of minstrel shows, vaudeville, the Broadway stage, the recording industry, and stardom.Trade Review“Summing Up: Recommended. Lower-and upper-division undergraduates; general readers.” (Choice, 1 November 2012)Table of ContentsList of Plates ix Acknowledgments xiii Introduction 1 1 Historical Overview 7 2 Critical Overview 38 3 Gold Diggers of 1933 (1933) 55 4 Top Hat (1935) 70 5 The Pirate (1948) 85 6 West Side Story (1961) and Saturday Night Fever (1977) 99 7 Woodstock (1970) 116 8 Phantom of the Paradise (1974) 131 9 Pennies from Heaven (1981) and Across the Universe (2007) 146 References 165 Index 171

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Book SynopsisListen to David Hesmondhalgh discuss the arguments at the core of 'Why Music Matters' with Laurie Taylor on BBC Radio 4's Thinking Allowed here.Trade Review“Most notably the book is ambivalent about much of the promises claimed by the advocates of music’s transformative potential, but is never bleak, retaining a refreshing realism about the capacity of music to matter to people, publics and nations across the world.” (New Books In Critical Theory, 19 June 2014)Table of Contents1 Music as Intimate and Social, Private and Public 1 2 Feeling and Flourishing 11 2.1 Music, Affect, Emotion 11 2.2 Emotions, Narrative Play, and Music 14 2.3 Human Flourishing, Aesthetic Experience, and Music 17 2.4 Musical Flourishing Beyond Contemplative Cultivation 20 2.5 Musical Aesthetics and Bodily Experience: Dancing 30 2.6 Approaches to Music and Emotion in Everyday Life: Contributions and Limitations 35 2.7 Problems of Self-realization in Modern Life and Their Relation to Music 42 2.8 Competitive Individualism and Status Competition Through Music 48 2.9 Review: Music’s Constrained Enrichment of Lives 53 3 Love and Sex 57 3.1 Sex and Love and Rock and Roll 57 3.2 Two Approaches to Music, Sex, and Sexuality 58 3.3 The Pop-Rock Divide and Rock’s Sexual Politics 61 3.4 Post-War Pop’s Emotional Resources 65 3.5 Sex and Love on the Dance Floor 68 3.6 Critiques of Countercultural Sexual Freedom 71 3.7 Sex and Love in Punk, Alternative Rock, and Metal 74 3.8 Sexuality in Twenty-First-Century Pop 77 3.9 Black Music and Racialized Sexuality 81 4 Sociability and Place 84 4.1 Ways of Being Together: Forms of Publicness 84 4.2 Celebrations of Musical Participation and Their Limitations 87 4.3 That Syncing Feeling 97 4.4 Ordinary Sociability I: Singing Together 102 4.5 Ordinary Sociability II: Dancing Together 109 4.6 Playing Together: Amateur Musicians 112 4.7 Theorizing Positive Musical Sociality 115 4.8 Spectres of Capitalist Modernity Revisited: Class and Inequality 120 4.9 Uneven Musical Development 123 4.10 Elements of Thriving Musical Places 125 4.11 Quality of Working Life of Professional Musicians 127 5 Commonality and Cosmopolitanism 130 5.1 Mediated Commonality in Modern Societies 130 5.2 Aesthetic Experience and Aspirations to Commonality 131 5.3 Redeeming Aesthetic Experience? 133 5.4 Talk About Music, What It Tells Us, and What It Doesn’t 136 5.5 Music, Politics, and Publicness 142 5.6 Communities of Shared Taste? Subcultures, Scenes, and Fans 147 5.7 Nations, Ethnicity, Cosmopolitanism 151 5.8 Rock as Cosmopolitanism? 152 5.9 Complexities of Music and Nation 155 5.10 Strange Journeys: Working-Class and Ethnic Musics Become National Musics 157 5.11 Sentimental Citizenship 162 5.12 Music, the Nation, and the Popular 164 5.13 Music of the African Diaspora: Life-Affirming Collectivity in Decline? 165 5.14 A Critical Defense of Music 170 Acknowledgments 172 References 174 Index 187

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Book SynopsisBringing to life not only portraits of musicians, composers, and conductors whose stories and recollections are woven into the fabric of this book, but musical scores and concert halls, Musical Maryland is an engaging, authoritative, and bold look at an endlessly compelling subject.Table of ContentsPrelude1. Drawing Rooms, Taverns, Churches, and Tobacco FieldsOvertureComplete Gentlemen and Agreeable WomenPlaying by HeartPlaying Music for a LivingA Passion for TheaterDance and Dance MusicLiturgical MusicMusic and Independence2. Something for EveryoneFrom Cathedral to Camp MeetingBaltimore Theater at the Dawn of the New RepublicDancingEffusionMusical EntrepreneurshipParlor MusicSheet Music and Civics LessonsMusic to Work ByOff HoursClassical TastePiano Making and Musical InstructionMusically GermanCelebrity Singers and the Clamor for OperaPopular Song and Racial Prejudice3. IntermissionHome of the BraveParlor to PatriotismMy MarylandMaryland Sings for the SouthMaryland's Songs for UnionMusic EncampedMusic of the Maryland US Colored TroopsSotto Voce4. Toward Union and ConcordA New Birth of MusicThe Enchanted FluteOut on the TownChambers, Beer Gardens, and Festivals FortissimoSturm und Drang at the PeabodyBaltimore Builds the LyricPrelude to an Orchestra5. My MarylandResuscitating the Conservatory; Envisioning an OrchestraGreat War, Popular FearsAin't Misbehavin'American RhapsodyThe Pennsylvania Avenue RagLeaving Home for HarlemPleasures of the Pit OrchestraSummertime6. Musical Airs, Aired MusicBest Out-of-Town FeedDepressionAmateur Hour"Straight Americanese" from East BaltimoreHome, Home on the ShoreMusic on the Home FrontWar WorkThe Baltimore Civic Opera in Peace and WarOverture to EqualityOnce More, with FeelingCodaNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisA rousing, poignant look at the cultural history of rock & roll during the early 1960s. Received Gold for the IPPY Book Award in the Catergory of Popular Culture by the Independent PublisherIn the early 1960s, the nation was on track to fulfill its destiny in what was being called the American Century. Baby boomers and rock & roll shared the country's optimism and energy. For one brief, shining moment in the early 1960s, both President John F. Kennedy and young people across the country were riding high. The dream of a New Frontier would soon give way, however, to a new reality involving assassinations, the Vietnam War, Cold War crises, the civil rights movement, a new feminist movement, and various culture wars. From the former host of NPR's Rock & Roll America, Richard Aquila's Rock & Roll in Kennedy's America offers an in-depth look at early 1960s rock & roll, as well as an unconventional history of Kennedy's America through the lens of popular music. Based on extensive researchTrade Review[Aquila] presents to readers what he contends is the vibrant, innovative, and contextually assorted music scene during the time span of 1959 to 1964.Readers will be delighted by the knowledgeable Aquila's survey of a period not completely covered by his earlier works.—Library JournalTable of ContentsIntroduction: Only in America Part I. New Directions for Early 60s Rock & Roll Chapter 1. "It's Now or Never": Rock & Roll Enters a New Decade Chapter 2. "What Does a Girl Do?" The Girl Group Revolution of the Early 60s Chapter 3. "Heat Wave": Motown's Hot Sounds for Young America Chapter 4. "Surfin' Safari": Surf Music, Car Songs, and the Mythic WestPart II. Old Styles Rock On Chapter 5. "On Broadway": R&B Rock Takes Center Stage Chapter 6. "Let's Have a Party!": Rockin' the Country Chapter 7. "A Teenager in Love": Veteran Pop Rockers in the Early 60s Chapter 8. "Take Good Care of My Baby": Pop Rock's Second Wave Chapter 9. "Wild Weekend": Top Tunes, News, and WeatherPart III. Rockin' on the New Frontier Chapter 10. "God, Country and My Baby": Rock & Roll and the Culture of the Cold War Chapter 11. "This Magic Moment": Rock & Roll in Kennedy's AmericaAcknowledgmentsInterviewsNotesIndex

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Book SynopsisHow cumbia villera and Argentine popular culture reshape and reflect the changes in gender relations among the country's underclass youthTrade Review"After the Mexicanization of Colombian cumbia, now the Argentines are dancing to cumbia and making it their own! Troubling Gender combines a dynamic discursive and social analysis of the explicit sexual content of the lyrics of cumbia villera with a rich, ethnographic discussion of how the young men and women dancers (dis)identify with the lyrics while enjoying the danceable rhythms. The authors' examination of the gender and sexual dynamics that this music triggers among its fans reminds us that the gender wars in Latin America are not over, despite the increasing presence of sex in media and the public space." -Frances Aparicio, author of Listening to Salsa: Gender, Latin Popular Music, and Puerto Rican Cultures "Troubling Genderis a groundbreaking book on the relationship between gender struggle in the context of changing opportunities for men and women and the representation of violence in the cumbia villera genre. This focus enables Vila and Seman to track quite expertly the transformation of social conflicts relating to work, urban life, and gender relations into the cultural field. The authors offer not only a rich sociological reflection on the negotiation of female autonomy in the context of popular music but also an interesting analysis of the lyrics of the genre. Troubling Gender also pays attention to the context within which the songs are played and emitted, something usually left aside in the sociology and anthropology of music." -George Yudice, author of The Expediency of Culture: Uses of Culture in the Global Era "Troubling Gender offers a nuanced interpretation of the envelope-pushing sexuality associated with cumbia villera, demonstrating how its young musicians and fans are imagining and performing their identities within an unstable socioeconomic context. This is an important book with a great deal to contribute to the literature on both gender relations and Latin American popular music and dance cultures, as well as to discussions of the impact of media and economic inequalities on young people's lives." -Deborah Pacini Hernandez, author of Oye Como Va! Hybridity and Identity in Latino Popular Music (Temple)Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Introduction 1. The History. Trajectory and Consolidation of the Cumbia in the Field of Argentine Music * Eloisa Martin (Translated by Pablo Vila) 2. The Lyrics 3. What Boys Have to Say 4. What Girls Have to Say Conclusion Postscript: Moving away from Name-Calling * Maria Julia Carozzi Notes References Index

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Book SynopsisHow popular music reflects the contradictions and dreams of communities searching for more sustainable ways to liveTrade Review"In this elegantly argued book, Pedelty...probes deeply the relationship between music, especially rock and folk, and the environment... [T]he great value of Pedelty's book is that... [t]rue to his field work roots, Pedelty himself straps on a guitar in order to make music and to participate in a local music scene... Pedelty urges us to get up off our chairs and dance, sing, clap, dig, vote, and record as we move from being passive recipients of music to being active creators of the soundscape of our lives." - The Journal of Ecocriticism, January 2013 "Mark Pedelty's engaging and readable Ecomusicology brings attention to an insufficiently explored subject... Pedelty's 'search for sustainable music'... centers not so much on lyrics, but on the environmental implications of musical production and performance - a standard by which most popular rock bands on world tours fail miserably... His personal experience gives insights on both songwriting strategies and the challenges of trying to save the world while also trying to get people to listen in a crowded bar... Pedelty points the way toward a harmonious reconciliation of music-making and ecocriticism." - ISLE: Interdisciplinary Studies in Literature and Environment, Winter 2013 "Ecomusicology is among the first large-scale works to merge the discourse of environmental justice and ecocriticism with an analysis of the social experience of music... [It] is a welcome addition to the literature that illustrates a plethora of potential approaches to musical ecocriticism. Pedelty's book opens up new interpretive possibilities for the ongoing study of the relationship between music and the environment." - Environmental Values "In his book Mark Pedelty asks the question of how music can be used to promote sustainability. He takes us through the political ecology of rock, using examples in a geographic exposition from global (Live Aid megaconcerts), national (political music in USA), regional (bioregions in North America) to local music. Taking an ethnographic approach, Pedelty interfaces these geographical components with an analysis of music as communication, advocacy and to a lesser degree as art." - Social AnthropologyTable of ContentsIntroduction; 1; Pop ecology on the global stage; 2; Whose land? Popular music and the American soundscape; 3; Music makes place: Regional geographies in popular song; 4; A tonic for the troops: Local music, community, and ecology; Conclusion; Bibliography; Discography; Filmography.

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Book SynopsisHow the music of human interaction can help us better understand the nature of social science researchTable of Contents1. Strange Music: Notes Toward a Dialogic Sociology 2. Sociologizing the Strange: A Strong Programme for a Weak Sociology 3. Stranger Danger: Response to Michael Mayerfeld Bell's "Strange Music" 4. A Sisyphean Process? Dialogue on Dialogical Sociology 5. Growing a Chorus 6. Why I Like Contemporary Classical Music and Contemporary Sociological Theory: 7. Response to Michael Bell: Reflections Based on Perspectives from Popular Culture, Fine Arts, and Globalization 8. A Three Part Recension 9. Strange to the Structure: A Dialogue on "Strange Music," Performance Studies, Jazz Trumpet, and Billie Holiday 10. Re-Creating Music in the Moment: Reflections on Michael Bell's "Strange Music" and on Musical Performance 11. If You Have All the Answers You Don't Have All the Questions

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Book SynopsisUnlike most introductory texts that take a topical approach to studying sociology, this smart, challenging, and accessibly written text looks at the core principles of the discipline, making links to a contemporary context.Trade ReviewEngaging, accessible, and written in a lively and often humorous style. Highly recommended. -- CHOICE An introduction to the discipline and an exercise in critical thinking and learning. -- Teaching SociologyTable of ContentsPreface Introduction Part One: Why Think Sociologically? 1. Visions and Profiles of Students Today 2. Generation Z and the Promise of Sociology 3. The Light of Reason: Higher Education's Challenges Part Two: The Classical Tradition 4. Marx and the Dialectic of Dynamic, Unstable Social Formations 5. Marx, the Communist Manifesto, and Modernity 6. From Descartes to Durkheim: Toward a Science of Society 7. Durkheim and the Systematic Study of Social Facts 8. Weber and the Interpretive Understanding of Social Action 9. The Spirit of Capitalism, Modernity, and the Postmodern World Part Three: Sociology and Contemporary Popular Culture 10. Culture and Critique 11. The Dialectics of Popular Culture 12. Rock 'n' Roll as Complex Culture 13. The Promise of Sociology Glossary of Key Terms and Names Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThis exhaustive bibliography, reflecting current interest in electronic music, includes all available citations of books, articles, and monographs pertaining to "musique concrète," "Elektronische Musik," "tape music," and "computer music" from  publications in fourteen languages. Organized alphabetically by author, or, in the case of unsigned works, by title, and including a classified subject index, this book will appeal primarily to persons or organizations who are founding or maintaining electronic music centres, composing or performing electronic music, or pursuing original research in experimental music and related disciplines.

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Book SynopsisIlluminates the ways in which music, as an artifact, a practice, and a discourse redefines established political, social, gender, and cultural conventions in Modern Spain. Dissonances of Modernity looks back across the centuries, seeking the role of music in the very formation of identity in the peninsula.

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Book SynopsisReality first appeared in the late 1980sin the sense not of real life but rather of the TV entertainment genre inaugurated by shows such as Cops and America's Most Wanted; the daytime gabfests of Geraldo, Oprah, and Donahue; and the tabloid news of A Current Affair. In a bracing work of cultural criticism, Eric Harvey argues that reality TV emerged in dialog with another kind of entertainment that served as its foil while borrowing its techniques: gangsta rap. Or, as legendary performers Ice Cube and Ice-T called it, reality rap.Reality rap and reality TV were components of a cultural revolution that redefined popular entertainment as a truth-telling medium. Reality entertainment borrowed journalistic tropes but was undiluted by the caveats and context that journalism demanded. While N.W.A.'s Fuck tha Police countered Cops' vision of Black lives in America, the reality rappers who emerged in that group's wake, such as Snoop Doggy Dogg and Tupac Shakur, embraced reality's visceral tabloTrade Review[Who Got the Camera?] is a rich, readable history that underscores all the ways in which hip-hop served essential documentary function. * Rolling Stone, "Best Music Books of 2021" *Who Got The Camera? is an essential read for anyone interested in classic Hip-Hop and American history. * Rock the Bells *Harvey examines the reality entertainment and tabloid culture of the late ’80s into the ’90s, skillfully uncovering how gangsta rap—or 'reality rap,' as it was initially called—existed in dialogue with and in opposition to this kind of reportage. * Pitchfork *A skilled and fascinating analysis tracing the interwoven threads of emerging media, hip-hop’s transformation from street art to commercial juggernaut, and Black civil rights in the United States. For scholars of, and readers with an interest in, any or all three. * Library Journal *[An] absorbing new book...Who Got the Camera? uses captivating narratives, carefully reasoned arguments, and a touch of humor to help readers fit rap music and rap artists with historical trends and tensions...Who Got the Camera? is a book crafted with great respect for both its subjects and for us, its readers. Harvey cares as much about revealing the meaning of the cultural phenomena so easily dismissed by most scholars as he does about good, clear prose. * Journal of Popular Music Studies *Harvey's meticulously researched book reveals the symbiotic connection between rap's multiple overlapping messages and a sensationalist media culture's years-long campaign to portray young Black men as criminals, drug addicts and threats to US society. He...paints a fascinating mural of US culture, torn as it always is between prudence and Puritanism, condemning that which it eagerly consumes. His clear, vivid prose matches the energy of his subject matter, and he never falls into the academic trap of explaining what he's going to do instead of just doing it. This is a valuable work of history and cultural analysis that's also a blast to read. * The Wire *[An] impressive work of media criticism...The book is an immersive and comprehensive case study with a wide depth and breadth of research subjects. It explores the vast intersections between the prominent rappers and television personalities who dominated American popular culture in the ’90s...Harvey indicts the media at large for speaking from a cop-first perspective across seven strong chapters...a profound work of cultural criticism. [Harvey] reveals exactly how media outlets have always sought to protect the powerful at the expense of the powerless. * Bearded Gentlemen Music *Who Got the Camera? draws a line from [Gil] Scott-Heron to Kendrick Lamar — and focuses particularly on the era from the late '80s to the mid-1990s, from Straight Outta Compton (1988) to the 1997 death of the Notorious B.I.G. ... Who Got the Camera? is an important history of an incredibly important and complex point in American popular music, but it also points to the need to elevate Black women's voices in a discussion where they've too rarely been given platforms. * The Current *[An] absorbing and wide-ranging account of the changing parameters of what rap counts as real. * The Quietus *Harvey...does an excellent job in discussing not just the evolution of the culture of [the late ‘80s to the mid ‘90s], but also the evolving technology at the time...The real key to this book is that Harvey is able to write it all in such a way that it’s accesible to the average hip hop fan who’s curious about this history, but he’s not sacrificing any academic standards in the process. This book is thoroughly research and carefully plotted out to tell this history effectively. * Scratched Vinyl *Table of ContentsPreface: Eavesdropping Introduction: It’s Like That, and That’s the Way It Is Chapter 1: Peace Is a Dream, Reality Is a Knife Chapter 2: Don’t Quote Me, Boy, ’Cause I Ain’t Said Shit Chapter 3: Get Me the Hell Away from This TV Chapter 4: I’m Gonna Treat You Like King! Chapter 5: Who Got the Camera? Chapter 6: Stop Being Polite and Start Getting Real Chapter 7: 2 of Amerikaz Most Wanted Conclusion: Deeper Than Rap Notes Index

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Book SynopsisIn sunbaked Terlingua, Texas (pop., a few hundred), residents joke that there is a musician under every rock. Located ten miles from Mexico in one of the remotest corners of the United States, the town had a recording studio before it had a school, a well-stocked grocery store, or even a water utility. Open jam sessions are a daily ritual, and some songwriters make a living from their craft despite being thousands of miles from New York or Nashville. Why does such a tiny and isolated place ring with singing and guitars?Based on more than two years of on-the-ground research, On the Porch tells the story of this small but remarkable community. Chase Peeler invites us into the music, introducing us to a cast of characters as unique as the town itself. He reveals how novices and experts perform togethera rarity in contemporary America. He recounts the devastation brought on by a border closure and describes how music is once again uniting people across the Rio Grande. He considers the impaTrade ReviewInteresting and compelling...Peeler’s sentences soar most when he’s describing the landscape of Terlingua, so much so that it’s impossible not to daydream about seeking out this incredible town. * Texas Observer *On the Porch makes the case that Terlingua’s famous community porch is home to one of the most important and unique musical scenes in the state...As commercial tourism continues to grow in the region, there are some who worry that Terlingua’s musical culture could fade away. For those of us with our own porch stories, this book is a comforting testament that, whatever comes, these musicians and their music will always be remembered. * Texas Monthly *Table of ContentsPrologue: On the Porch Introduction: Hundred Miles from Nowhere 1. Starlight and Stage Lights 2. In the Incubator 3. The Austin Effect 4. Voices From Both Sides 5. Getting Fatter Epilogue: Green Chile Stew Acknowledgments Notes Index

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Book SynopsisAlexandra T. Vazquez listens to the music and history of Miami to explore the city's sonic cultures and its material and social realities.Trade Review“Alexandra T. Vazquez’s bold, brilliant, and refreshingly unconventional meditation on sonic placemaking in Florida is fearless and groundbreaking. Compressing the deep, wide, and volatile politics and poetics of the global South into a focused exploration of the “Sunshine State,” The Florida Room reminds readers of what daring, innovative, and challenging theory looks and sounds like. This luminous book opens up our notions of what counts as theory as well as who gets identified as theorists.” -- Daphne A. Brooks, author of * Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound *“Not only does The Florida Room come to us at just the right time in the history of Miami cultures, it arrives from a scholar who is a great interpreter of the interplay between music, performance, and the social. Alexandra T. Vazquez amasses an archive of fascinating materials, listens to them in every sense for what they say about themselves and that which circulates around them, and accounts for that creativity and thought in prose that is virtuosic and open to surprises. This singular book is a true gift.” -- Antonio López, author of * Unbecoming Blackness: The Diaspora Cultures of Afro-Cuban America *"As Vazquez identifies unexpected resonances and collaborations—snaking her way through singer Betty Wright, the Indigenous rock group Tiger Tiger, and Miami bass’s Luke Skyywalker Records—her prose is lively and darting, as if refusing to let a central narrative congeal. It's a loving and rich account of somewhere that exists both in real life and the imagination, too abundant to be contained." -- Cat Zhang * PItchfork, Best Music Books of 2022 *Table of ContentsPreface. Head for the Beach ix 1. The Florida Room 1 2. Miami from the Spoils 46 3. Drums Take Time 81 4. Bass is the Place 117 Afterword 156 Acknowledgments 159 Notes 165 Bibliography 203 Index 215

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Book SynopsisAlexandra T. Vazquez listens to the music and history of Miami to explore the city's sonic cultures and its material and social realities.Trade Review“Alexandra T. Vazquez’s bold, brilliant, and refreshingly unconventional meditation on sonic placemaking in Florida is fearless and groundbreaking. Compressing the deep, wide, and volatile politics and poetics of the global South into a focused exploration of the “Sunshine State,” The Florida Room reminds readers of what daring, innovative, and challenging theory looks and sounds like. This luminous book opens up our notions of what counts as theory as well as who gets identified as theorists.” -- Daphne A. Brooks, author of * Liner Notes for the Revolution: The Intellectual Life of Black Feminist Sound *“Not only does The Florida Room come to us at just the right time in the history of Miami cultures, it arrives from a scholar who is a great interpreter of the interplay between music, performance, and the social. Alexandra T. Vazquez amasses an archive of fascinating materials, listens to them in every sense for what they say about themselves and that which circulates around them, and accounts for that creativity and thought in prose that is virtuosic and open to surprises. This singular book is a true gift.” -- Antonio López, author of * Unbecoming Blackness: The Diaspora Cultures of Afro-Cuban America *"As Vazquez identifies unexpected resonances and collaborations—snaking her way through singer Betty Wright, the Indigenous rock group Tiger Tiger, and Miami bass’s Luke Skyywalker Records—her prose is lively and darting, as if refusing to let a central narrative congeal. It's a loving and rich account of somewhere that exists both in real life and the imagination, too abundant to be contained." -- Cat Zhang * PItchfork, Best Music Books of 2022 *Table of ContentsPreface. Head for the Beach ix 1. The Florida Room 1 2. Miami from the Spoils 46 3. Drums Take Time 81 4. Bass is the Place 117 Afterword 156 Acknowledgments 159 Notes 165 Bibliography 203 Index 215

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Book SynopsisExamines reggae culture as an expression of cultural, racial, and gender empowerment in the West Indian DiasporaIn popular media Caribbean culture has either been reduced to stereotypes of laziness, marijuana, and reggae music, or conversely, to an identity centered around a refutation of colonialism. Both are oversimplifications, and do not explain the enduring Caribbean identity and empowerment throughout the diaspora. Vibes Up offers an exploration of Caribbean culture as it is felt, understood, and expressed, centered on research conducted in Brooklyn and Costa Rica.Sabia McCoy-Torres demonstrates how reggae culturewhich encompasses the music and performance modes of both roots and dancehallhelps to shed light on dynamics relating to migration, diaspora, queerness, Blackness, and Caribbean cultural subjectivity. Through an examination of elements of the Black outdoors, including nightlife venues, sidewalks, and streets in front of homes, the book shows

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Book SynopsisExamines reggae culture as an expression of cultural, racial, and gender empowerment in the West Indian DiasporaIn popular media Caribbean culture has either been reduced to stereotypes of laziness, marijuana, and reggae music, or conversely, to an identity centered around a refutation of colonialism. Both are oversimplifications, and do not explain the enduring Caribbean identity and empowerment throughout the diaspora. Vibes Up offers an exploration of Caribbean culture as it is felt, understood, and expressed, centered on research conducted in Brooklyn and Costa Rica.Sabia McCoy-Torres demonstrates how reggae culturewhich encompasses the music and performance modes of both roots and dancehallhelps to shed light on dynamics relating to migration, diaspora, queerness, Blackness, and Caribbean cultural subjectivity. Through an examination of elements of the Black outdoors, including nightlife venues, sidewalks, and streets in front of homes, the book shows

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Book SynopsisTakes a fresh look at sound in the poetry and prose of colonial Latin American poet and nun Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz (1648/51-95). Hearing Voices highlights the importance of sound and - in most cases - its relationship with gender in Sor Juana's work and early modern culture.Trade Review"Sarah Finley’s Hearing Voices: Aurality and New Spanish Sound Culture in Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz makes a noteworthy contribution to our understanding of the various ways in which sound is manifest in the works of Mexico’s celebrated seventeenth-century nun poet, Sor Juana Inés de la Cruz."—Colleen R. Baade, Tulsa Studies in Women's Literature"Hearing Voices stands as a solid piece of scholarship that achieves its broad and straightforward exploration of establishing new paradigms for listening to Sor Juana’s oeuvre that exceed textual and linguistic limits."—Nicholas R. Jones, Bulletin for Spanish and Portuguese Historical Studies“A much-needed and valuable contribution to the field of Sor Juana studies. The book’s focus on Sor Juana’s ‘engagement with non-musical sound’ significantly complements existing scholarship on musical sound, whether from a musicological or literary perspective. The broad approach to aurality and sound that the author undertakes—from harmony to resonance, sound, echo, and silence—will make it an indispensable study on the subject.”—Mario Ortiz, associate professor of Spanish at the Catholic University of America“Sarah Finley brings a unique combination of expertise in early modern musicology and current sound studies to illuminate a web of connections among aesthetic, philosophical, scientific, gendered, and political contexts. This book will interest scholars in early modern European and Hispanic colonial literary studies and musicology and in gender and women’s studies.”—Emilie Bergmann, professor of Spanish and Portuguese at the University of California, Berkeley, and coeditor of Approaches to Teaching Sor Juana Ines de la CruzTable of ContentsList of Illustrations Acknowledgments Introduction: Prelude 1. Harmony: Order and Authority in Occasional Poems 2. Resonance: Intersections of Music and Other Arts 3. Sound: Female Auralities in the Villancicos 4. Echo: Repercussions of Feminine Intellect 5. Silence: Transgressions and Feminine Revoicings 6. Coda: Re-sounding Voices Notes Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisMusician and music historian Craig Harris tells the compelling stories of contemporary Indigenous musicians of North America in their own words.Trade Review“Spanning from its origins and early documentation to its renewed interest in the twenty-first century, Rise Up! brings Indigenous music full circle for the first time. The ancient heartbeat of the drum that connects each Indigenous person to the earth is finally explored.”—Dom Flemons, multi-instrumentalist, singer, and songwriter“Rise Up! takes us on a journey into the deepest part of ourselves, beyond the wounds of our recent past, and into the heartbeat of our history, toward an unrestricted future full of possibility. . . . This book will be a help to many on our educational, healing, and reconciliation journeys.”—Sandra Sutter, Métis singer-songwriter“Craig Harris has done a remarkable job in opening the door for anyone and everyone who reads this excellent book, introducing the reader to this amazing music as well as the lives of many who have created it and preserve it.”—David Amram, renowned multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger, and conductorTable of ContentsList of Photographs Foreword, by Stephen Butler Preface 1. Fingerprints 2. Anthropologists 3. Assimilation 4. Stereotypical 5. Defiance 6. Beating of the Heart 7. Sound of the Wind 8. Ancestral Voices 9. Sing It Loud 10. Rockin’ the Rez 11. Rocksteady 12. Tongue Twisters 13. Connections Coda List of Interviews Notes Index

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Book SynopsisAs countries went into lockdown in 2020, people turned to music for comfort and solidarity. Neighbours sang to each other from their balconies; people participated in online music sessions that created an experience of socially distanced togetherness. Nicholas Cook argues that the value of music goes far beyond simple enjoyment. Music can enhance well-being, interpersonal relationships, cultural tolerance, and civil cohesion. At the same time, music can be a tool of persuasion or ideology. Thinking about music helps bring into focus the values that are mobilised in today’s culture wars. Making music together builds relationships of interdependence and trust: rather than escapism, it offers a blueprint for a community of mutual obligation and interdependence. Music: Why It Matters is for anyone who loves playing, listening to, or thinking about music, as well as those pursuing it as a career.Trade Review‘A witty, concise, and far-reaching book about music in a global context.’Suddhaseel Sen, Indian Institute of Technology, Bombay‘A ringing riposte to the assumption that music has little to say about the critical issues of our time. Cook shows us just a few of the countless ways in which music is an indelible aspect of what it means to be human – most crucially, because music teaches us nothing less than how to live.’George E. Lewis FBA, Columbia UniversityTable of ContentsAcknowledgements or maybe it doesn’t? music for good or ill ideology in disguise music, race, colonialism after BLM music and asocial individualism music, nostalgia, delusion music and administered society musical togetherness music, covid, ethics pandemic intimacy Notes Further Reading

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Book SynopsisFans and detractors of popular music tend to agree on one thing: popular music is a bellwether of an individual's political and cultural values. In the United States, for example, one cannot think of the counterculture apart from its music. For that reason, in virtually every country in the world, some group identifies popular music as a source of potential danger and wants to regulate it. Policing Pop looks into the many ways in which popular music and artists around the world are subjected to censorship, ranging from state control and repression to the efforts of special interest or religious groups to limit expression. The essays collected here focus on the forms of censorship as well as specific instances of how the state and other agencies have attempted to restrict the types of music produced, recorded and performed within a culture. Several show how even unsuccessful attempts to exert the power of the state can cause artists to self-censor. Others point to material that taxes even the most liberal defenders of free speech. Taken together, these essays demonstrate that censoring agents target popular music all over the world, and they raise questions about how artists and the public can resist the narrowing of cultural expression. Author note: Martin Cloonan teaches Popular Music Culture at the University of Glasgow and is the author of Banned! Censorship of Popular Music in Britain, 1967-1992. Reebee Garofalo is Professor at the College of Public and Community Service and is affiliated with the American Studies Program at the University of Massachusetts, Boston; his most recent book is Rockin' Out: Popular Music in the USA.Trade Review"Policing Pop not only provides a fascinating survey of the ways in which pop has been censored and restricted, it also makes an eloquent argument for the political and social importance of popular music. This book serves as a rich reminder of how songs can make the powerful nervous and the powerless bold."-John Street, University of East Anglia "Music censorship! What censorship? Policing Pop introduces the reader to the underlying mechanisms of music censorship and its effects on individuals and society in different parts of the world. Policing Pop will inspire and challenge further dissemination and the unveiling of appalling cases as well as concealed causes for censorship in this hitherto disregarded area of academic research."-Marie Korpe, Executive Director, Freemuse (Freedom of Musical Expression), The World Forum on Music & Censorship "This fascinating, albeit at times disturbing, read will make you nod in agreement or sigh in disbelief at the measures people have taken to control popular music."-Multicultural Review "Policing Pop works well as a collection that reinforces the common themes of music regulation and practice, and is an effective teaching text for popular music and cultural studies."-Perfect Beat "All in all, Policing Pop takes the reader on quite a ride. Its contributing authors include, among others, musicologists, sociologists, and law professors who offer intellectually rewarding insights and eloquent arguments for the political and cultural importance of popular music, something with which even young people would agree, if they could be enticed to read them."-Popular Music and SocietyTable of ContentsAcknowledgmentsIntroductionPart I: Defining Issues and Themes1. Call That Censorship? Problems of Definition - Martin Cloonan2. I Want My MP3: Who Owns Internet Music" - Reebee Garofalo3. Twenty Years of Music Censorship Around the World - Vanessa Bastian and Dave Laing4. Remote Control: Legal Censorship of the Creative Process - Steve Greenfield and Guy OsbornPart II: Controlling the Artistic5. Death Metal and the Limits of Musical Expression - Keith Kahn-Harris6. Marxists in the Marketplace - Mike Jones7. Argh Fuck Kill-Canadian Hardcore Goes on Trial: The Case of the Dayglo Abortions - Rob Bowman8. Strelnikoff: Censorship in Contemporary Slovenia - David ParvoPart III: Up Against the State9. Music in the Struggle to End Apartheid: South Africa - Michael Drewett10. Confusing Confucius: Rock in Contemporary China - Jeroen de Kloet (Holland)11. German Nazi Bands: Between Provocation and Repression - Alenka Barber-Kersovan (Germany)12. Popular Music and Policing in Brazil - Jose Roberto Zan (Brazil)13. Challenging Music as Expression in the US - Paul D. Fischer (US)About the Contributors

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Book SynopsisLeading authorities explore, in direct and accessible language, chamber-music masterpieces by twenty-one prominent composers since 1900.

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Book SynopsisAn exploration of the meaning and reception of "modernist" music. The debate over modernist music has continued for almost a century: from Strauss's Elektra and Webern's Symphony Op.21 to John Cage's renegotiation of musical control, the unusual musical practices of the Velvet Underground, and Stanley Kubrick's use of Ligeti's Lux Aeterna in the epic film 2001. The composers discussed in these pages -- including Bartók, Stockhausen, Bernard Herrmann, Steve Reich, and many others -- are modernists inthat they are defined by their individualism, whether covert or overt, and share a basic urge toward redesigning musical discourse. The aim of this volume is to negotiate a varied and open middle ground between polemical extremes of reception. The contributors sketch out the possible significance of a repertory that in past discussions has been deemed either meaningless or beyond describable meaning. With an emphasis on recent aesthetics and contexts-- including film music, sexuality, metaphor, and ideas of a listening grammar -- they trace the meanings that such works and composers have held for listeners of different kinds. None of them takes up the usual mandate of "educated listening" to modernist works: the notion that a person can appreciate "difficult" music if given enough time and schooling. Instead the book defines novel but meaningful avenues of significance for modernist music, avenues beyond those deemed appropriate or acceptable by the academy. While some contributors offer new listening strategies, most interpret the listening premise more loosely: as a metaphor for any manner of personal and immediate connection with music. In addition to a previously untranslated article by Pierre Boulez, the volume contains articles (all but one previously unpublished) by twelve distinctive and prominent composers, music critics, and music theorists from America, Europe, Australia, and South Africa: Arved Ashby, Amy Bauer, William Bolcom, Jonathan Bernard, Judy Lochhead, Fred Maus, Andrew Mead, Greg Sandow, Martin Scherzinger, Jeremy Tambling, Richard Toop, and Lloyd Whitesell. Arved Ashby is Associate Professor of Music at the Ohio State University.Trade ReviewA superb compilation of essays that will provoke discussion and thought on all sides. The writers are first and foremost music-lovers, and that standpoint informs all of the essays. Urgently recommended. --composer, from a review at amazon.com -- David D. McIntire, composer, from a review at amazon.comThere are few recent books on serious musical matters which ask more pressing questions and provide more thought-provoking -- even pleasurable -- answers than this one; few other books in which so many facets of modern culture. . . are brought together so productively. [Ashby's] introduction and opening chapter alone contain enough material for several books. . . I expect to be referring to the arguments and examples given here for some time to come. -- Arnold Whittall * THE GRAMOPHONE *Excellent collection. . . anyone with even the slightest concern for the topic should take the time to chew on what is in this book...an invaluable resource. * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *The Pleasure of Modernist Music presents the reader with a significant array of possible listening strategies for music otherwise dismissed as un-listenable. . . . Where these essays overlap is as fascinating as where they diverge in that the overlapping reveals the compositions, personalities, and ideologies most influential in a musical century that was conflicted at best. To the benefit of the present day listener, professional musician or otherwise, these essays represent a bold step forward in rescuing a body of music from that conflict, as well as from its own self-imposed alienation. * MLA NOTES, 2006 *Table of ContentsIntention and Meaning in Modernist Music The End of the Mannerist Century A Fine Analysis In Memory of a Receding Dialectic: The Political Relevance of Autonomy and Formalism in Modernist Musical Aesthetics Twentieth-Century Tonality, or, Breaking Up Is Hard to Do "Tone-Color, Movement, Changing Harmonic Planes": Cognition, Constraints and Conceptual Blends in Modernist Music Sexual and Musical Categories Listening to Schizophrenia: The Wozzeck Case The Musician Writes: The Deaf Man Looks On? "Are You Sure You Can't Hear It?": Some Informal Reflections on Simple Information and Listening A Fine Madness "One Man's Signal is Another Man's Noise": Personal Encounters with Post-Tonal Music The "Modernization" of Rock & Roll, 1965-75 Refiguring the Modernist Program for Hearing: Steve Reich and George Rochberg Modernism Goes to the Movies

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Book SynopsisThe first detailed narrative of the Composers' Forum, documenting the vast array of composers, musical styles, ideologies, and audience responses in New York in the 1930s. The New York Composers' Forum was a weekly series of new-music concerts sponsored by the Federal Music Project and Works Progress Administration. It showcased the music of modern American composers such as Aaron Copland, Amy Beach, Henry Cowell, and Ruth Crawford Seeger, and included question-and-answer sessions between the composers and audiences. These sessions led to discussions, arguments, and sometimes even riots, all documented in nearly complete transcripts. This book is the first to tell the story of the Composers' Forum. Following the fascinating threads of dialogue from the transcripts, Melissa de Graaf explores the remarkable diversity of composers and musical styles represented, including numerous composers who have since been ignored or forgotten. She also examines the composers' and listeners' attitudes toward modernism, politics, gender, race, and American identity. In this important study of a unique and overlooked American institution, de Graaf shows that "modern" aesthetics in the 1930s comprised far more diverse styles and thought than we imagine today. Melissa J. de Graaf is Associate Professor ofMusicology at the University of Miami.Trade ReviewThoroughly grounded in primary source research, including meticulous work with the Composers' Forum archive. Provides a case study of many intersecting strands of U.S. cultural and political life. . . . [De Graaf's] work offers a model for scholarship and teaching that probes into systems of privilege and oppression [and] invites scholars and teachers to construct courses exploring various musical styles from the classical, folk and popular traditions and the connected social issues that will resonate with and inspire the people we teach to take action. * JOURNAL OF THE SOCIETY FOR AMERICAN MUSIC *An unusually engaging and stimulating account. . . . The abundant issues she raises intersect with some of the most elusive, yet central topics to have shaped modern music, . . . namely race, politics, nationalism, gender, and sexuality. Brings much previously untouched archival evidence to light, with unprecedented emphasis on the Forum's audiences as they confronted a challenging range of contemporary music. A 'who's who' of twentieth-century American music, with Roy Harris, Charles Ives, Otto Luening, Walter Piston, Randall Thompson, and Virgil Thomson among the many prominent participants. Highly readable, critically apt, and well documented. That nearly every chapter has music examples must be commended, along with the author's apposite observations about scores. By helping to focus the dissonance and din of that unusually fervent decade [the 1930s] during the great creative ferment of its latter half, Melissa J. de Graaf provides exemplary service. -- Daniel E. Mathers * MUSIC & LETTERS *De Graaf analyzes the spectrum of modern music styles and the audiences/ reactions to them. . . . A stimulating array of related topics such as gendered reception of modern music, the melting pot of American musical identity, and the search for authenticity in voice. * MIDWEST BOOK REVIEW *A lively and engaging presentation of the urban American 'new music' scene during the late 1930s. De Graaf's book provides a fascinating examination of New Yorkers' musical opinions -- both enthusiastic and hostile -- in copious and vivid detail. This is a superb study of the genuinely diverse character of 'modern' musical life in 1930s New York, which deserves to be widely read. --Thomas L. Riis, Director, American Music Research Center, University of Colorado, Boulder * . *Table of ContentsIntroduction: The Significance of the Composers' Forum The Composers' Forum in Context: Modernism and Diversity in the 1930s Reactions to Modernist Style and Ideas The Gendered Reception of Modern Music Orientalism, Jewish Music, and the Search for Spiritual Authenticity White Composers and Representations of Race: The Forum as Battleground over Issues of Authenticity and Appropriation Creating American Identity: Folk Song and Nationalism Conclusion: The Demise and Impact of the Composers' Forum Appendixes Composers and Works Student Composers and Works Composers' Forum Selection Committees Notes Selected Bibliography Index

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Book SynopsisThe first study focusing on the composition of new plainchant in northern-French confraternities for masses and offices in honor of saints thought to have healing powers Starting in the fourteenth century, northern France saw the rise of confraternities and other lay communities of men and women, organized around trades and religious devotions dedicated to specific patron saints. The composition of new plainchant for masses and offices in honor of saints thought to have healing powers occupied an important place in the devotional landscape of the region. Sarah Ann Long's deeply researched new book highlights the decentralized nature of religious and spiritual authority from 1300-1550, which allowed confraternities to cultivate liturgical practices heavily influenced by popular devotional literature. It challenges pre-conceived notions of the power of the Catholic Church at that time, and the extent to which religious devotions were regulated and standardized. The resulting conclusion is that confraternity devotions occupied a liminal space that provided a certain amount of musical freedom. Examining musical culture at the intersection of the medieval and early modern eras, this work explores such subjects as manuscript production and early music printing; and it investigates not only plainchant, but a broad range of musical styles from the fourteenth through the sixteenth centuries. These include polyphonic embellishments of chant written by some of the most famous composers of the era, which were performed at the French, Burgundian, and Papal Courts.Trade ReviewA fascinating way to delve into a research area that was only peripherally examined in the past. Long writes clearly. Richly illustrated with images of manuscripts, musical examples, texts (with English translations). * AMERICAN RECORD GUIDE *Long is dealing with a very broad cross-section of medieval urban society. [The texts explored here] seek with remarkable directness to ensure the health and spiritual well-being of confraternity members. Long's study is an important contribution to our understanding of late medieval liturgical music outside the chancels of cathedrals and other elite institutions. * JOURNAL OF THE AMERICAN MUSICOLOGICAL SOCIETY *Table of ContentsAcknowledgments Abbreviations Editorial Procedures for Foreign Languages and Music Examples Introduction Confraternities and Popular Devotions to St. Barbara in Tournai Relic Translation and Healing in Liturgies for St. Catherine and St. Nicholas in Paris Historical Narratives and the Importance of Place in Masses for St. Sebastian Compositional Practice, Networks, and the Dissemination of the Mass Ordinary in Confraternity Sources The Role of the Parisian Book Production Community in the Perpetuation of Popular Devotions Conclusion Appendix 1 Sources Appendix 2 Inventories of Sources from Tournai Appendix 3 Scribal Hands and Gatherings in the Tournai Notary Confraternity Manuscripts Notes Bibliography Index of Chant and Polyphonic Compositions Index of Early Printed Liturgical Books Index of Manuscripts General Index

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Book SynopsisMusicals, it is often said, burst into song and dance when mere words can no longer convey the emotion. This book argues that musicals burst into song and dance when one body can no longer convey the emotion. Rogers shows how the musical's episodes of burlesque and minstrelsy model the kinds of radical relationships that the genre works to create across the different bodies of its performers, spectators, and creators every time the musical bursts into song. These radical relationships - borne of the musical's obsessions with 'bad' performances of gender and race - are the root of the genre's progressive play with identity, and thus the source of its subcultural power. However, this leads to an ethical dilemma: Are the musical's progressive politics thus rooted in its embrace of regressive entertainments like burlesque and minstrelsy?The Song Is You shows how musicals return again and again to this question, and grapple with a guilt that its joyous pleasures are based on exploiting the laboring bodies of its performers. Rogers argues that the discourse of 'integration' - which claims that songs should advance the plot - has functioned to deny the radical work that the musical undertakes every time it transitions into song and dance. Looking at musicals from The Black Crook to Hamilton, Rogers confronts the gendered and racial dynamics that have always under-girded the genre, and asks how we move forward.Trade Review“Bradley Rogers takes us on an adventure through American musical theatre to prove that the much-touted concept of integration is a fraud. Discovering new rhythms, new pleasures, and new choreographies in canonical and noncanonical musicals alike, The Song Is You represents revisionist history at its most invigorating.”—David Savran, author, Highbrow/ Lowdown: Theater, Jazz, and the Making of the New Middle Class “Rogers charts a fascinating and important new road through musical theatre theory, connecting the genre’s roots in minstrelsy, burlesque, and vaudeville with performative impersonations, psychic displacements, and most of all, a repudiation of integration. His argument, both elegant and persuasive, attends to the dynamics of performance and reception within the realms of history, politics, power, gender, race, and the body.”—Stacy Wolf, author, Beyond Broadway: The Pleasure and Promise of Musical Theatre Across America

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Book SynopsisNashville native Drew Bratcher writes musically about memory and memorably about music in uncommonly beautiful essays that announce the arrival of a major new voice. The title essay, a requiem in fragments, tells the story of a grandfather through his ear, comb, hands, El Camino, and clothes. Bratcher delivers a tough and moving tribute to a man who “went on ahead, on up the road, and then the road turned.” Elsewhere, Bratcher directs his attention to Johnny Cash’s looming presence over his childhood, the relative pain of red paper wasp stings, Dolly Parton’s generative homesickness, the humiliations and consolations of becoming a new father, the experience of hearing his name in a Taylor Swift song, and the mystifying hymns treasured by both his great grandmother and D. H. Lawrence. Seamlessly blending memoir and arts criticism and aiming at both the heart and the head, this is a book about listening closely to stories and songs, about leaving home in order to find home, and about how the melodies and memories absorbed along the way become “a living music that advances and prevails upon us at formative moments, corralling chaos into the simple, liberating stockade of verse, chorus, verse.”

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Book SynopsisAs anyone who has ever taken a music lesson knows, the key to playing well is practice. The same is true for another transformative discipline-meditation-and yet so often meditation and music fail to harmonize to the degree they could. IN TUNE takes you through twelve ways to sync them perfectly in pursuit of greater mindfulness: a kind of awareness that colors your everyday activities, and perks up your ears to truly hear the symphony of sounds, and silences, all around.In this clear, straightforward guide drawn from years of personal and professional experience, award-winning music veteran Richard Wolf outlines how the skills and intentions of music and mindfulness can help nurture and complement each other. There's the conceptual "bridges" they share, of Dedication, Concentration, Patience & Perseverance, Silence, and more; plus a broad repertoire of music-based meditation and awareness exercises, ranging from basics like counting the beats of the breath to more advanced. Along the path are colorful anecdotes of famous musicians that illustrate how great an impact mindfulness can have on accessing creative potential, in music or any kind of art. As we come more fully in tune with our personal soundtracks-from the sound of the breath to the sounds of cars and dogs outside the window-we can enter into deeper harmony with ourselves and others. Practice-whether it's listening to a favorite song, refining the performance of a piece of music, or settling into a meditation seat-becomes a joy in and of itself over time, and its payoff of inner silence more accessible as we move through our increasingly noisy world.

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Book SynopsisJoe Davis, the focus of The Melody Man enjoyed a 50-year career in the music industry, which covered nearly every aspect of the business. He hustled sheet music in the 1920s, copyrighted compositions by artists as diverse as Fats Waller, Carson Robison, Otis Blackwell, and Rudy Vallee, oversaw hundreds of recording session, and operated several record companies beginning in the 1940s. Davis also worked fearlessly to help insure that black recording artists and song writers gained equal treatment for their work. Much more than a biography, this book is an investigation of the role played by music publishers during much of the twentieth century. Joe Davis was not a music ""great"" but he was one of those individuals who enabled ""greats"" to emerge. A musician, manager, and publisher, his long career reveals much about the nature of the music industry and offers insight into how the industry changed from the 1920s to the 1970s. By the summer of 1924, when Davis was handling the ""Race talent"" for Ajax records, he had already worked in the music business for most of a decade and there was more than five decades of musical career ahead of him. The fact that his fascinating life has gone so long under-appreciated is remedied by the publication of Never Sell A Copyright. Originally published in England, in 1990, Never Sell a Copyright: Joe Davis and His Role in the New York Music Scene, 1916-1978 was never released in the United States and available in a very limited print run in England. The author, noted blues scholar and folklorist Bruce Bastin, has worked with fellow music scholar Kip Lornell to completely update, condense, and improve the book for this first-ever American edition.

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Book SynopsisAt least since the rise of the “Nashville sound” in the 1950s, Tennessee’s capital city has attracted numerous books and articles offering insight into the celebrity machine known as Music City. But behind the artist in the limelight are a host of support personnel and contributors who shape the artist’s music. Of these myriad occupations within the music industry, only two have received significant attention: executives at the major labels and elite songwriters who have forged a path to the top of the charts. In Making Music in Music City, sociologist John Markert compiles and assesses more than one hundred interviews with industry professionals whose roles have been less often examined: producers, publishers, songwriters, management, studio musicians, and more.The book naturally pivots around the country music industry but also discusses Nashville’s role in other forms of modern music, such as rock, Christian, and rap. Markert’s in-depth interviews with key music professionals provide a fresh perspective on the roles of critical players in Nashville’s music industry. This book sheds light not only on the complexities of the industry and the occupational changes taking place but on the critical role of those who work behind the scenes to shape the music that ultimately reaches the public.Through firsthand accounts, Making Music in Music City analyzes just what it takes to create, produce, and disseminate the Nashville sound.

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