Search results for ""Author Martin Hargreaves""

Passionate and pioneering, Liszt’s biography of Chopin flaunts its author’s celebrity while straddling the divide between the scholarly and the popular. In this volume Meirion Hughes combines a new translation of the first edition with an introduction that places the work in its cultural and political context. In his introduction Hughes explores the complex relationship between the two composers, the highly charged political context in which the book was written, and the discourse of cultural nationalism and progressivism that dominates content. He argues that Chopin (put in italics) was more than a tribute to an erstwhile friend, but rather a polemic of national music rooted in the politics of that ‘year of revolutions’, 1848-9. Hughes remains faithful to the original while putting clarity before strict adherence to what is, by general agreement, a quirky text. Controversial in its approach, Liszt’s ‘Chopin’ challenges the long-held view of the memoir is as lightweight, inaccurate portrait of its subject, but rather as one of the most important and daring musical biographies of the nineteenth century.

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The works of interdisciplinary artist Kira O’Reilly use the uncertain boundaries of bodies as the starting point for their enquiry. Specifically, O’Reilly asks what kind of societies become possible in collaborations across species, organisms and bodies, and she explores these questions through sustained and experimental engagements with politics, biopolitics, change (social, corporeal, chemical, reactive) and the complex relations between the human and the non-human. This book is the first to offer an in-depth engagement with her many works across diverse formats. Bringing together writings by major artists and thinkers, such as Marina Abramović, Shannon Bell and Tracey Warr, alongside extensive documentation of the artist’s work from two decades of practice, the contributions engage with such topics as ideas of performance, feminist political aesthetics, biotechnical practices, image-making and the intersections of humans and animals. The book also includes interviews, archive material and O’Reilly’s own writings. Publication Forum (Finland) lists this book as a Level 2 publication, where ‘the highest-level publications are directed as a result of extensive competition and demanding peer-review’. For Intellect’s full listings in this catalogue, please click here.

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In 'Digging up stories', James Thompson explores the problems of theatre practice in communities affected by war and exclusion. Each chapter or 'story' is written in a lively and accessible style and draws on a range of contemporary performance theories. The chapters discuss: - participatory theatre in refugee camps - theatre workshop and stories of a massacre - traditional dance-dramas in an insurgent controlled village - 'Forum' theatre with the Mahabharata - ethical issues - the struggle to teach the author to dance'Digging up stories' documents a range of theatre practice and includes project reports, ethnographic accounts, performance analysis and diary-style reflection. Taken from Thompson's research and practice in Sri Lanka, these diverse examples question the link between applied theatre, traditional performance and performances in everyday life. The book blurs lines between research and travel writing to create rich and provocative accounts of applying theatre in a troubled setting.

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