New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 15th June 2020
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include a new paperback edition of a biography of Alma Mahler; the first full-length biography in English of Engelbert Humperdinck, composer of the beloved opera, Hänsel und Gretel; analyses of Allegri's Miserere, Bizet's Carmen, and Beethoven's Piano Sonatas; a handbook of music and medievalism; a survey of music and drama in Early Modern English schools; an examination of the relationship between music and time; a biography of pop sensation, Billie Eilish; and a collection of essays exploring music in India.
Classical Composers
Now available in paperback, this book draws extensively on previously unpublished diaries and letters to illuminate the passionate spirit of an extraordinary artist and intellect: Alma Mahler, whose life spanned one of the most captivating and dramatic periods in history. A talented composer in her own right, her first husband was Gustav Mahler.
Available Format: Book
Engelbert Humperdinck's opera Hänsel und Gretel is one of the best-loved in the repertoire, and yet no full-length biography of the composer has ever been published in English. His other works remain essentially unknown, but they include five additional operas, ten further stage works, pieces for orchestra and for chorus, and many songs. This book sets an examination of his entire output in a biographical framework, with detailed, illustrated descriptions accompanied by quotations from his contemporaries.
Available Format: Book
The Miserere attributed to the Italian composer Gregorio Allegri (1582-1652) is one of the most popular choral pieces of late Renaissance/early Baroque music. Yet the Miserere known today bears little resemblance to Allegri's original or to its method of performance before 1900. This book is the first detailed account of this iconic work's performance history in the Sistine Chapel, in particular focusing on its heyday in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries.
Available Format: Book
The latest volume in the Oxford Keynotes series explores the evolution of Carmen's story and its meaning, illuminating how the titular heroine has maintained her status as a universally recognisable cultural icon. Drawing on a wealth of critical theory, it traces the textual, operatic, and cinematic tellings and retellings of the story, navigating terrains of racial and gendered discourse and ideology and uncovering elements of the story that give it cultural salience and resonance.
Available Format: Book
This new paperback edition of Charles Rosen's authoritative guide places Beethoven's sonatas in context and provides an understanding of the formal principles involved in interpreting this repertoire, covering such aspects as sonata form, phrasing, and tempo, as well as the use of pedal and trills. It includes a CD of Rosen performing extracts from several of the sonatas, illustrating points made in the text.
Available Format: Book
Music History & Theory
The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism
Stephen Meyer & Kirsten Yri (editors); Oxford University Press; Hardback
The Oxford Handbook of Music and Medievalism brings together international scholars from a wide range of disciplines to provide a snapshot of the diverse ways in which medievalism - the retrospective immersion in the images, sounds, narratives, and ideologies of the European Middle Ages - powerfully transforms many of the varied musical traditions of the last two centuries.
Available Format: Book
Music, Dance, and Drama in Early Modern English Schools
Amanda Eubanks Winkler; Cambridge University Press; Hardback
This is the first book to systematically analyse the role that the performing arts played in English schools after the Reformation. Combining rigorous archival research with phenomenological and performance studies approaches, it demonstrates how the schoolroom intersected with the church, the court, the domicile, the concert room, and the professional theatre, and thereby provides fresh perspectives on well-known operas performed by children, as well as lesser-known works.
Available Format: Book
Music in Time - Phenomenology, Perception, Performance
Suzannah Clark & Alexander Rehding (editors); Harvard University Press; Paperback
Music exists in time. All musicians know this fundamental truth, but what does it actually mean? Thirteen scholars probe the temporality of music from a great variety of perspectives, including theory, history, ethnomusicology, aesthetics, performance practice, cognitive psychology, and dance studies. In these investigations, music emerges as an art form that has an important lesson to teach.
Available Format: Book
Popular & World Music
With a number-one album in multiple countries, Billie Eilish is a global star. Known and admired for her forthright views on subjects ranging from body image to veganism, this book documents her incredible rise to fame, from releasing free tracks on SoundCloud to selling out concert arenas. It reveals the story behind the hits and explores what makes Billie Eilish a most extraordinary teenage star.
Available Format: Book
Music, Modernity, and Publicness in India
Tejaswini Niranjana (editor); Oxford University Press; Hardback
This collection of essays focusing on the role of music in the formation of a public in India across the twentieth century looks at aspects such as modern performance spaces, certain forms of music assuming the status of classic, the creation of a national and nationalistic tradition, the circulation of music in popular politics, and broadcast technology. Through exploring these questions it provides new entry-points for the discussion of music and modern-day cultural practice in India.
Available Format: Book
This new paperback edition tells the inside story of Wham! and Andrew Ridgeley's life-long friendship with George Michael, from the day they met in Watford in 1975 to their iconic final concert in front of tens of thousands of tearful fans at Wembley Stadium in 1986. He reveals what it was like being at the centre of a pop hurricane and talks of his love for and friendship with George.
Available Format: Book
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