New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 9th March 2020
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include a study of Mahler's Eighth Symphony; a biography of Mozart during his final decade in Vienna; Steven Isserlis's take on Schumann's Advice to Young Musicians; a discussion of music and the English countryside; an examination of music's role during the Great War; a collection of lyrics by Stephen Sondheim; an account of how popular songs were used as political tools during the early years of the American nation; and the latest volumes in Faber & Faber's Greatest Hits series, which reprints books that have taken writing about music in new directions for the twenty-first century.
Classical Music
This biography focuses on Mozart's dual roles as a performer and composer and reveals how his compositional processes are affected by performance-related concerns. It traces consistencies and changes in his professional persona and modus operandi, and sheds light on other prominent musicians, audience expectations, publishing, and dramatic practices and traditions.
Available Format: Book
Robert Schumann's Advice to Young Musicians: Revisited by Steven Isserlis
Steven Isserlis; Faber & Faber; Paperback
In 1848, Robert Schumann wrote his famous Advice to Young Musicians, a book that is still deeply relevant today. In this volume, celebrated cellist Steven Isserlis has taken Schumann's words of wisdom and set them in a modern context with his own extensive commentary. By turns practical, humorous and profound, this book is a must for music-lovers of all ages.
Available Format: Book
Vaughan Williams's The Lark Ascending has come to define the mythical concept of the English countryside. Yet, the landscape is not really an unaffected utopia, but a living and working environment that has forged a nation's musical personality. Taking us from post-war poets and artists to the free party scene embraced by the acid house and travelling communities, Richard King explores how Britain's history and identity have been shaped by the mysterious relationship between music and nature.
Available Format: Book
Sounds of War: Music in the British Armed Forces during the Great War
Emma Hanna; Cambridge University Press; Hardback
This study is the first to examine music's presence in a range of military contexts including camps, ships, aerodromes and battlefields, canteen huts, hospitals and PoW camps during the Great War. Emma Hanna argues that music was omnipresent in servicemen's wartime existence and was a vital element for the maintenance of morale. She shows how music was utilised to stimulate recruitment and fundraising, for diplomatic and propaganda purposes, and for religious, educational and therapeutic reasons.
Available Format: Book
In this wonderfully wide-ranging and illuminating book that will delight music lovers of all stripes, Shaun Usher brings together a riveting collection of letters by and about some of the musicians and music that enrich our lives. It includes letters by: Ludwig van Beethoven, Nick Cave, Helen Keller, Keith Richards, Yo-Yo Ma, Tom Waits, Erik Satie, Angelique Kidjo, Leonard Cohen, John Coltrane, Kim Gordon, & many more.
Available Format: Book
A Guide to Library Research in Music (Second Edition)
Pauline Shaw Bayne & Edward Komara; Rowman & Littlefield; Paperback
This guide introduces students to the process and techniques for researching and writing about music, providing examples of different types of writing, and offering a thorough introduction to music literature. This second edition discusses the latest innovations in library catalogue searching, new matters in digital technology, and the expansion in musical genres for library research.
Available Format: Book
Rock, Pop, & World Music
Stephen Sondheim's brilliant songs and lyrics of genius have entertained us for more than half a century. Working together with Sondheim, editor Peter Gethers has selected lyrics from across Sondheim's career, drawn from shows including West Side Story, Gypsy, Company, Follies, A Little Night Music, Sweeney Todd, Sunday in the Park with George, and Into the Woods.
Available Format: Book
Hail Columbia! American Music and Politics in the Early Nation
Laura Lohman; Oxford University Press; Hardback
Laura Lohman uncovers hundreds of songs circulated in newspapers, broadsides, song collections, sheet music, manuscripts, and scrapbooks over the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. The book provides evidence that a diversity of Americans employed music for political purposes, creating new and deeply partisan lyrics to famous tunes of Yankee Doodle, The Star-Spangled Banner, and the like.
Available Format: Book
The Soundtrack Album: Listening to Media
Paul Reinsch & Laurel Westrup (editors); Routledge; Paperback
Soundtrack albums have been part of our media and musical landscape for decades, enduring across formats from vinyl and 8-tracks to streaming playlists. This book makes the case that soundtrack albums are more than promotional tools for films, television shows, or video games - they are complex media texts that reward a detailed analysis.
Available Format: Book
Though nowadays considered national treasures, The Beatles inspired phobia as well as mania in 1960s Britain. As symbols of modernity, they functioned as a stress test for British institutions and identities, at once displaying the possibilities and establishing the limits of change. Drawing upon a wealth of sources, this book offers a new understanding of the band as existing in creative tension with post-war British society.
Available Format: Book
Ken Mansfield takes a touching and comprehensive look back on those forty-two fascinating minutes of The Beatles' monumental rooftop concert on January 30, 1969. As one of the few remaining insiders who accompanied the band up onto the cold windswept roof of the Apple building, he shares his memories of that moment.
Available Format: Book
Ignoring nearly all rock traditions, experimenting in near-total secrecy in their Dusseldorf studio, Kraftwerk fused sound and technology, graphic design and performance, modernist Bauhaus aesthetics and Rhineland industrialisation to change the course of modern music. This is the story of the cultural phenomenon who turned electronic music into avant-garde concept art and created the soundtrack to our digital age.
Available Format: Book
Syd Barrett was the lead guitarist, vocalist, and principal songwriter in the original line up of Pink Floyd. During his brief time with the band (1966-68) he was the driving force behind the unit. Rob Chapman's book is the first authoritative and exhaustively researched biography of Syd Barrett that fully celebrates his life and legacy as a musician, lyricist and artist.
Available Format: Book
In the Country of Country: A Journey to the Roots of American Music
Nicholas Dawidoff; Faber & Faber; Paperback
Nicholas Dawidoff travels to the origins of country music and talks to the musicians who created this American art form, including Johnny Cash, Merle Haggard, and Patsy Cline. This exhilarating journey conveys the spirit and passion that informs country music and confirms Dawidoff's reputation as one of the most gifted cultural commentators of his generation.
Available Format: Book
Disco emerged from the fall-out of the Black Power Movement and an almost exclusively gay scene in a blaze of poppers, strobe lights, tight trousers, hysterical diva vocals and synthesised beats in the late sixties. Featuring artists such as Chic, Sylvester, Donna Summer and Frank Grasso, this book illustrates why and how disco changed the face of popular culture forever.
Available Format: Book
This book tells the fascinating story of the individuals and circumstances that combined to form the ground-breaking band Roxy Music, and how the art school avant-garde of the 1960s met the sweat and attitude of chart-topping pop. Written with the co-operation of those involved, including Bryan Ferry, Brian Eno, Andy Mackay, and Phil Manzanera, this is the definitive account of a new pop vision that would dominate the 1970s.
Available Format: Book
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