New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 30th September 2019
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include a biography of George Gershwin; a paperback edition of Cambridge's Encyclopedia of Brass Instruments; a collection of essays looking at the impact of digital technology on musical culture; a revised edition of a classic text on Russian Opera and the Symbolist movement; a study of musical irony in the works of Mozart and Mahler; an insight into Arabic music; a discussion of the links between country music and American politics; a compendium of documents relating to the life of Handel between 1742 and 1750; and a musical puzzle book from Classic FM.
It's time to put your knowledge of classical music to the test with this collection of questions and puzzles designed to challenge, to entertain, and to educate. Blending together basic trivia, complex wordplay and a range of visual teasers, this book provides hours of music-themed challenges, with difficulty levels varying from pleasantly tricky to fiendishly hard.
Available Format: Book
George Gershwin's talent as a songwriter opened the way to Broadway where he fashioned his own brand of American music. He composed a run of musical comedies, with his brother Ira as lyricist, as well as several classical works. Richard Crawford traces the arc of Gershwin's remarkable life, blending colourful anecdotes with a discussion of Gershwin's unforgettable oeuvre.
Available Format: Book
George Frideric Handel: Collected Documents Volume 4 (1742-1750)
Donald Burrows (editor); Cambridge University Press
Handel's life is copiously and intricately documented through a huge variety of contemporary sources. Volume Four begins with the re-establishment of his career in London following his return from Dublin in 1742, and covers the period to 1750 which saw the composition of a succession of his greatest English works for his oratorio seasons, including Samson, Semele, Judas Maccabaeus, and Solomon.
Available Format: Book
This wholly-revised edition of Simon Morrison's influential text exploring music and the occult during the Russian Symbolist movement includes previously-unavailable archival materials about Prokofiev and Tchaikovsky. Topics range from decadence to pantheism, musical devilry to narcotic-infused evocations of heaven, the influence of Wagner, and the significance of contemporaneous Russian literature.
Available Format: Book
In this wide-ranging study of musical irony, Michael Cherlin draws upon the rich history of irony as developed by rhetoricians, philosophers, literary scholars, poets, and novelists. With occasional reflections on film music and other contemporary works, the principal focus of the book is classical music, both instrumental and vocal, ranging from Mozart to Mahler.
Available Format: Book
This book continues David Damschroder's radical reformulation of harmonic theory, presenting a dynamic exploration of the compositions of Mendelssohn and Schumann. Damschroder presents detailed analyses of movements from piano, vocal, and chamber music, and compares his outcomes with those of other analysts, including Benedict Taylor, L. Poundie Burstein, and Peter H. Smith.
Available Format: Book
Discover the magic of Swan Lake in this musical retelling of the ballet - push the button on each scene to hear the sound of an orchestra playing from Tchaikovsky's score. The book also includes a biography of the composer, details about the composition of the piece, and a discussion of the instruments, rhythms and musical techniques that make it so powerful.
Available Format: Book
This encyclopaedia on the design, manufacture, performance and history of brass musical instruments includes over one hundred illustrations, with information about the way they are played, the uses to which they have been put, and the importance they have had in classical music, sacred rituals, popular music, jazz, brass bands and the bands of the military.
Available Format: Book
Inside Arabic Music: Arabic Maqam Performance and Theory in the 20th Century
Johnny Farraj & Sami Abu Shumays; Oxford University Press
Despite its popularity and influence, Arabic music remains widely misunderstood. Inside Arabic Music presents theoretical insights that will be useful to practitioners from the beginner to the expert, bringing in ideas from Saussurean linguistics, network theory, and Lakoff and Johnson's theory of cognition as metaphor, offering a lens into the deeper relationships between music, culture, and human community.
Available Format: Book
The Cambridge Companion to Music in Digital Culture
Nicholas Cook (editor); Cambridge University Press
The impact of digital technologies on music has been overwhelming: since the commercialisation of these technologies in the early 1980s, the practice of music has changed almost out of all recognition. This Companion brings the relationship between digital technology and musical culture alive by providing a comprehensive and balanced introduction to the place of music within digital culture.
Available Format: Book
I'd Fight the World: A Political History of Old-Time, Hillbilly, and Country Music
Peter La Chapelle; University of Chicago Press
This book traces the bonds between country music and politics, from the rise of amateur fiddler-politicians such as populist firebrand Tom Watson and Tennessee governors Bob and Alf Taylor in the nineteenth century, to twentieth-century figures like Pappy O'Daniel, Roy Acuff, George C. Wallace, Al Gore, Sr., and Richard Nixon, who all played or harnessed music for electoral success.
Available Format: Book
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