New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 20th April 2020
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include a biography of Francis Poulenc; the collected memoirs of pianist András Schiff; a collection of essays looking at British music after Benjamin Britten; an examination of music in theory and practice during the fourteenth century; the impact of changing copyright laws on performance since the late eighteenth century; a guide to buying pianos; an exploration of music and sound in the films of Charlie Chaplin; a history of the gramophone in Britain; and biographies of Queen, Oasis, Led Zeppelin, and Abba.
Classical Music, Composers, & Performers
Poulenc excelled in a wide repertoire - opera, songs, ballet scores, chamber works, piano music, choral works, orchestral pieces, and concertos. This book fully covers this wide range, while also describing the vicissitudes of Poulenc's life and the many important relationships he had with major figures such as Satie, Ravel, Stravinsky, Diaghilev, Cocteau and others.
Available Format: Book
This collection of revised reprints of essays, reviews and analyses first published between 1995 and 2018 surveys a cross-section of contemporary classical composition in the UK. The governing perspective is the impact of the life and work of Benjamin Britten on British composers who, with the exception of Michael Tippett and Robert Simpson, were born between the 1930s and the 1980s.
Available Format: Book
Music and the moderni, 1300-1350: The ars nova in Theory and Practice
Karen Desmond; Cambridge University Press; Paperback
Music theorists labelled the musical art of the 1330s and 1340s as 'new' and 'modern'. Challenging prevailing accounts, this book presents the 'new art' within the intellectual context of its time, and presents the intersection of theory and practice during a crucial era in music history.
Available Format: Book
Copyright and the Value of Performance, 1770-1911
Derek Miller; Cambridge University Press; Paperback
In the nineteenth century, copyright law expanded to include performances of theatrical and musical works. These laws transformed how people made and consumed performances. Exploring precedent-setting litigation on both sides of the Atlantic, this book traces how courts developed definitions of theatre and music to suit new performance rights laws.
Available Format: Book
For more than thirty years, piano technician Larry Fine has guided piano buyers through the maze and myriad possibilities of the piano market. In this companion volume to The Best of Acoustic & Digital Piano Buyer, Fine provides list prices for most piano and digital-piano brands and models, plus advice on how to estimate actual street prices. Specifications for hundreds of models of digital piano are also included.
Available Format: Book
Rock & Pop Artists
ABBA was the biggest-selling pop group of the 1970s, recording and releasing ninety-eight unique songs This book takes a look at every single song by the Swedish supergroup, written by a life-long ABBA fan. Find out what inspired the songs, what went in to recording them, and their impact around the world in the 1970s and 80s and beyond.
Available Format: Book
Shellac and Swing!: A Social History of the Gramophone in Britain
Bruce Lindsay; Fonthill Media; Hardback
This is the story of the gramophone's "golden age", from 1900-1955. Focusing on Emile Berliner's invention in the 1880s, it also includes a brief outline of the first attempts to record the human voice, and of Edison's invention of the cylinder and the phonograph. It uses primary evidence, images and interviews with DJs, fans, musicians, and historians to explore this fascinating and often eccentric tale.
Available Format: Book
Zen Buddhist practice has its own indigenous music: the ritual chanting which, along with bells and percussion instruments, forms a part of virtually every Zen ceremony and formal event, both monastic and lay. The purpose of this book is to study how the tension between the conflicting desires for purity and innovation plays out in different aspects of chanting.
Available Format: Book
Over ten years after this seminal biography was first released comes this major and extensively-researched revision, providing an unflinching look at life inside one of the biggest-selling rock bands of all time. It presents the definitive, final word on the band that wrote the rulebook for on-the-road excess and eventually paid the price for it with disaster, drug addiction and death.
Available Format: Book
Queen FAQ: All That's Left to Know About Britain's Most Eccentric Band
Daniel Ross; Backbeat Books; Paperback
This book delves into every aspect of one of the longest-lasting and most successful bands of all time. Discover their journey from long-haired rockers obsessed with mythology to creators of slick chart-toppers, and their unexpected second life after the death of Freddie Mercury in 1991, taking them right up to date with sell-out world tours and an Oscar-winning movie.
Available Format: Book
Filled with interviews with the cast and crew, original behind-the-scenes photography, a deeper look into Evan's fictional world and the visual world of the show, unreleased lyrics, and of course the libretto, this book tells the story of the hit musical from its conception nearly a decade ago to the Broadway stage.
Available Format: Book
James Longstaffe - Head of Retail
