New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 24th February 2020
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include a guide to the music of Mendelssohn; discussions of the music of composers such as William Byrd, and Ernest Bloch; the collected writings of Andrzej Panufnik; a biography of "Hitler's Pianist", Ernst Hanfstaengl; a social history of the drum kit; explorations of symbolism and semiotics in opera and music of the Middle Ages; a comprehensive handbook on learning how to become a DJ; a reassessment of traditional music in post-War Sri Lanka; and volumes on jazz musicians Dave Brubeck and Duke Ellington.
Classical Composers & Performers
The greatest musical prodigy since Mozart, Felix Mendelssohn excelled in everything he did. This manual offers a guide to his musical output, providing points of entry into a large body of work, much of which remains far too little known. There's much more to Mendelssohn than the Italian Symphony and the Midsummer Night's Dream Overture, and a whole creative world of vivid, expressive, and fantastical music is ready for exploration.
Available Format: Book
Verse and Voice in Byrd's Song Collections of 1588 and 1589
Jeremy L. Smith; Boydell & Brewer; Paperback
This first full-length study devoted to William Byrd's English-texted music provides a close reading of all of the works he published in the late 1580s, constituting nearly half of his total song output. It delves into the musical, political, literary, and sequential qualities of Byrd's 1588 and 1589 published collections, revealing and interpreting an overall grand narrative, while remaining fully attentive to the particularities of each individual piece.
Available Format: Book
Ernest Bloch Studies
Alexander Knapp & Norman Solomon (editors); Cambridge University Press; Paperback
Ernest Bloch left his native Switzerland to settle in the United States in 1916, where he was influenced by a range of genres and styles. Setting the significance of his output in its historical and cultural contexts, this book provides scholarly analyses as well as a list of online resources, catalogue of published and unpublished works, and selected further reading.
Available Format: Book
Hitler's Piano Player: The Rise and Fall of Ernst Hanfstaengl - Confidant of Hitler, Ally of Roosevelt
Peter Conradi; Duckworth; Paperback
Ernst Hanfstaengl was pianist, and foreign press chief for Hitler, claiming to have devised the chant of "Sieg Heil". When the two men fell out he fled to Britain, where he was interned and transferred to America. There he worked on Roosevelt's 'S-Project,' informing on 400 leading Nazis. Through newly declassified documents and interviews with surviving family members, this book recounts his life.
Available Format: Book
Instruments & Genres
Written by veteran guitar instructor Christopher Berg, this anthology of guitar exercises, etudes, and pieces encourages students to work based on their own strengths and weaknesses. Sections contain text and examples that connect material to fingering practices of composers and practice strategies that open a path to interpretive freedom in performance, serving as a helpful companion for many years of guitar study.
Available Format: Book
This provocative social history of the drum kit looks closely at key innovators in its development, including inventors and manufacturers like the Ludwig and Zildjian dynasties. Tackling the history of race relations, global migration, and the changing tension between high and low culture, it makes the case for the drum kit's role as one of the most transformative musical inventions of the modern era.
Available Format: Book
Music and Culture in the Middle Ages and Beyond: Liturgy, Sources, Symbolism
Benjamin Brand & David Rothenberg; Cambridge University Press; Paperback
The fifteen essays in this collection explore three areas of inquiry that proved particularly significant in research on medieval music: the liturgy, sources (musical and archival), and musical symbolism. In so doing, they not only acknowledge past achievements but also illustrate how this broad, interdisciplinary approach remains a source for scholarly innovation.
Available Format: Book
Singing in Signs: New Semiotic Explorations of Opera
Gregory J. Decker & Matthew Shaftel; Oxford University Press; Hardback
A bold assessment of the state of opera study as seen through the lens of semiotics, this collection combines traditional and emerging methodologies in order to engage with composer-constructed and work-specific music-semiotic systems, broader socio-cultural music codes, and narrative strategies, with implications for performance and staging practices today.
Available Format: Book
Multivocality: Singing on the Borders of Identity
Katherine Meizel; Oxford University Press; Paperback
This book frames vocality as a way to investigate the voice, encompassing the negotiation of sound and Self, individual and culture, medium and meaning, and ontology and embodiment. As singers habitually perform across different styles and cultural contexts, it suggests that they are not only performing in multiple vocalities, but are performing multivocality - creating and recreating identity through the process of singing.
Available Format: Book
Jazz, Pop, & World Music
In 2003, music journalist Philip Clark was granted unparalleled access to jazz legend Dave Brubeck. Over the course of ten days, he shadowed the Dave Brubeck Quartet during their extended British tour, recording an epic interview with the bandleader. Structured around this extended interview and intensive new research, this book unearths many hitherto unknown aspects of Brubeck's career.
Available Format: Book
This engaging yet scholarly volume explores Duke Ellington's long career and his rich cultural legacy, examining his influence on jazz, its criticism, and its historiography. It reflects a wealth of new directions that have emerged in jazz studies, including focuses on music in media, class hierarchy discourse, globalisation, cross-cultural reception, and the role of marketing, as well as manuscript score studies and performance studies.
Available Format: Book
This guide covers all the technical foundations for DJ-ing in any genre or style, from fundamental skills such as beat-matching right through to using effects, scratching and beat-juggling. Featuring clear step-by step instructions, diagrams, at-a-glance guides to genres, and comments from professional DJs, this book will inspire and guide you through the creative and thrilling techniques required to become a DJ.
Available Format: Book
The Musical Gift: Sonic Generosity in Post-War Sri Lanka
Jim Sykes; Oxford University Press; Paperback
This book argues that the genres we recognise today as Sri Lanka's traditional music were not originally about ethnic or religious identity, but were gifts to gods and people intended to foster protection. Drawing on fieldwork conducted over a span of eleven years, including the first study of Sinhala Buddhist drumming in English, it brings anthropology's canonic literature on "the gift" into music studies.
Available Format: Book
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