Description
Book SynopsisExplores the ways in which 'classical' music made its way into late twentieth-century American mainstream culture - in pop songs, movie scores, and print media. This book proposes a holistic musicology in which disparate musical elements might be brought together in dynamic and humane conversation.
Trade Review"This extraordinary work demands and deserves to be read and re-read, time and again, for the ideas presented here are innovative, thought provoking, and among the freshest and most exciting to emerge in recent years." -- Ellen Flint American Music Teacher "Extremely well written and thought-provoking." -- C. A. Traupman-Carr Choice "At the heart of this brilliant ... book is an aesthetic vision of what classical music has come to mean." Journal Of The Society For American Music (Jsam) "Long has succeeded in that most welcome of humanistic scholarly achievements: to take a much-studied and familiar thing and find an original and persuasive way to see it, to hear it, and to understand it." Journal Of Musicological Research "Beautiful Monsters is...doubly significant; it not only problematises the boundary between popular music and classical music, but also questions the disciplinary boundary between popular music studies and musicology." Popular Music
Table of ContentsContents Acknowledgments Introduction Part One. Registering the Classic 1. The Expressive Vernacular 2. Making Overtures 3. Yiddishkeit and the Musical Ethics of Cinema Part Two. Envisioning the Classic 4. Hearing Monsters 5. The Fantastic, the Picturesque, and the Dimensions of Nostalgia 6. Listening in Dark Places 7. Concertos, Symphonies, Rhapsodies (and an Opera) Conclusion: Sitting Down with Mnemosyne Notes Selected Bibliography Index
