New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 2nd September 2019
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include examinations of the music of composers including Gershwin, Korngold, Handel, and Prokofiev; a biography of acclaimed conductor Willem Mengelberg; an interactive family guide to the great composers from Classic FM; a history of the guitar in Stuart England; a handbook of music criticism through the centuries; a look at the development of postbop jazz in the 1960s; an exploration of the concept of repetition in popular music; and biographies of Ed Sheeran and Dusty Springfield.
George Gershwin is often described as a quintessentially American composer. This Cambridge Companion explains why, engaging with the ways in which his music was shaped by American political, intellectual, cultural and business interests. This interdisciplinary exploration of Gershwin's life and music describes his avowed pursuit of an 'American' musical identity and its ongoing legacy.
Available Format: Book
This collection of essays examines Korngold's operas and film scores, the critical reception of his music, and his place in the milieus of both the Old and New Worlds. It also features numerous historical documents (many previously unpublished and in their first-ever English translations), including essays by the composer as well as memoirs by his wife, Luzi Korngold, and his father, the renowned music critic Julius Korngold.
Available Format: Book
Now available in paperback, this book tells the story of a young German composer who in 1712, followed his princely master to London and who remained there for the rest of his life. Jane Glover tells a story of music-making and musicianship, of practices and practicalities, but also of courts and cabals, of theatrical rivalries and of eighteenth-century society.
Available Format: Book
Drawing on a wealth of primary source materials and engaging with recent scholarship in Slavonic studies, this book investigates encounters between Prokofiev's late operas and the aesthetics of socialist realism, contemporary culture (including literature, film, and theatre), political ideology, and the obstacles of bureaucratic interventions and historical events.
Available Format: Book
Conductor Willem Mengelberg, 1871-1951: Acclaimed and Accused
Frits Zwart; Amsterdam University Press
Willem Mengelberg was not only one of the world’s greatest conductors, he also had an excellent reputation as a trainer of orchestral ensembles, responsible for the international reputation of his own Concertgebouw as well as many others including the New York Philharmonic. In this biography, Frits Zwart contests that few have ever surpassed Mengelberg‘s international musical status.
Available Format: Book
Carols From King's: The Stories of our Favourite Carols from King's College
Alexandra Coghlan; BBC Publications
Now available in paperback, this book takes a journey through the fascinating history of carols, from the very first - sung by the angels to the shepherds at Bethlehem - to anecdotes from contemporary choristers at King's College, Cambridge, and explains how carols have evolved from pagan songs to become one of our nation's most sacred treasures.
Available Format: Book
Swan Lake has had a special role in the repertory of The Royal Ballet since 1934. This beautifully-produced new Royal Ballet branded book with exclusive photographs by Bill Cooper shines the spotlight on Tchaikovsky's ballet, and features some of the finest dancers on stage today, giving an exclusive insight into the Royal Ballet's work.
Available Format: Book
Nineteenth-Century Opera and the Scientific Imagination
David Trippett & Benjamin Walton (editors); Cambridge University Press
Scientific thinking has long been linked to music theory and instrument making, yet the profound and often surprising intersections between the sciences and opera during the long nineteenth century are here explored for the first time, touching on a wide variety of topics, including vocal physiology, theories of listening and sensory communication, technologies of theatrical machinery and discourses of biological degeneration.
Available Format: Book
Music of the Twentieth Century: A Study of Its Elements and Structure
Ton de Leeuw; Amsterdam University Press
Ton de Leeuw is probably one of the most influential composers at the crossroads between Eastern philosophy and Western technique. His work is a lucid and impassioned discussion of the elements, structures, compositional principles and terminologies in modern music that can be regarded as most innovative.
Available Format: Book
The Guitar in Stuart England: A Social and Musical History
Christopher Page; Cambridge University Press
This is the first history of the guitar during the reign of the Stuarts, a time of great political and social upheaval in England. Christopher Page gathers a rich array of portraits, literary works and other, previously unpublished, archival materials in order to create a comprehensive picture of the guitar from its early appearances in Jacobean records, through its heyday at the Restoration court in Whitehall, to its decline in the first decades of the eighteenth century.
Available Format: Book
The Matter of Song in Early Modern England: Texts in and of the Air
Katherine R. Larson; Oxford University Press
Opening up the notion of song from a performance-based perspective, this book considers the implications of reading song not simply as lyric text but as an embodied and gendered musical practice. Animating the traces of song preserved in physiological and philosophical commentaries, singing handbooks, poetic treatises, and literary texts, it confronts song's ephemerality, its lexical and sonic capriciousness, and its airy substance.
Available Format: Book
Music criticism has played a fundamental and influential role throughout music history, with numerous composers such as Berlioz, Schumann, and Wagner maintaining careers as writers and critics. This book goes beyond these accounts and reaches back to medieval times, expanding the geographical reach both within and beyond Europe, and including the story of criticism in jazz, popular music and world music.
Available Format: Book
Postbop Jazz in the 1960s: The Compositions of Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea
Keith Waters; Oxford University Press
Innovations in postbop jazz compositions of the 1960s occurred in several dimensions, including harmony, form, and melody, with composers such as Wayne Shorter, Herbie Hancock, and Chick Corea breaking with earlier tonal jazz traditions. This book develops analytical pathways through a number of compositions to understand their harmonic syntax, melodic and formal designs, and general principles of harmonic substitution.
Available Format: Book
Jazz Theory: From Basic to Advanced Study (Second Edition - Textbook and Workbook Package)
Dariusz Terefenko; Routledge
A comprehensive textbook for those with no previous study in jazz, as well as those in advanced theory courses. Written with the goal to bridge theory and practice, it provides a strong theoretical foundation from music fundamentals to post-tonal theory, while integrating ear training, keyboard skills, and improvisation. The accompanying workbook contains all the written exercises in addition to brand-new keyboard drills.
Available Format: Book
Over and Over: Exploring Repetition in Popular Music
Olivier Julien & Christophe Levaux (editors); Bloomsbury
From the Tin Pan Alley 32-bar form, through the cyclical forms of modal jazz, to the more recent accumulation of digital layers, beats, and breaks in electronic dance music, repetition as both an aesthetic disposition and a formal property has stimulated a diverse range of genres. From the angles of musicology, psychology, sociology, and technology, this book reassesses the complexity connected to notions of repetition in a variety of musical genres.
Available Format: Book
Sean Smith traces the journey of the shy little boy with a stammer who grew up to be a global phenomenon. Through new research and interviews, he tells the story of Ed's mum and dad who gave their son the courage to pursue his dreams, the friends and mentors who encouraged him and the lovers who inspired his best-known songs.
Available Format: Book
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