New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 10th August 2020
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include a biography of the influential Hollywood composer, Max Steiner; a collection of essays on the music of James MacMillan; a pair of books on Nadia Boulanger; an exploration of the international popularity of Bizet's celebrated opera, Carmen; a guide to improvisation at the piano; an examination of the performances of gospel singer, Mahalia Jackson; a new paperback edition of a biography of Gershwin; and an analysis of the impact of Russian emigrant composers, such as Stravinsky and Prokofiev, on interwar Paris.
Music by Max Steiner: The Epic Life of Hollywood's Most Influential Composer
Steven C. Smith; Oxford University Press; Hardback
With his iconic work for such classics as Casablanca, King Kong, Gone with the Wind, The Searchers, and over 200 other movies, Max Steiner did more than any other composer to establish the language of film music. This first full biography interweaves the dramatic incidents of his personal life with an exploration of his composing methods and experiences, bringing to life the story of a musical pioneer who helped to create a vital new art.
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. Now available in paperback, this book traces the arc of Gershwin's remarkable life, blending colourful anecdotes with a discussion of his unforgettable oeuvre.
Available Format: Book
In Stravinsky's Orbit: Responses to Modernism in Russian Paris
Klára Móricz; University of California Press; Hardback
The Bolsheviks' 1917 political coup caused a seismic disruption in Russian culture. Carried by the first wave of emigrants, Russian culture migrated west, transforming itself as it interacted with the new cultural environment. This book explores the transnational emigrant space of Russian composers Igor Stravinsky, Vladimir Dukelsky, Sergey Prokofiev, Nicolas Nabokov, and Arthur Lourie in interwar Paris.
Available Format: Book
This collection of essays takes us from the late nineteenth century, when many careers in music were almost entirely closed to women, to the moment in the late twentieth century when those careers were becoming a reality. Contributors consider Nadia Boulanger's work in the worlds of composition, analysis, and pedagogy, and explore the geographies of transatlantic and international exchange and disruption within which her career unfolded.
Available Format: Book
Nadia Boulanger - Thoughts on Music
Jeanice Brooks & Kimberly A. Francis (editors); University of Rochester Press; Hardback
The impact of Nadia Boulanger on twentieth-century music was vast, whether as composer, performer, conductor, impresario, or pedagogue. Few today realise, though, that she also wrote numerous essays and reviews that offer unparalleled insight into her thinking and illuminate aspects of musical culture in Europe and America from the rare point of view of an internationally prominent female artist.
Available Format: Book
James MacMillan Studies
George Parsons & Robert Sholl (editors); Cambridge University Press; Hardback
The Scottish composer James MacMillan is one of the major figures of contemporary music, with a reputation for his modernist engagement with religious images and stories. Beginning with a foreword from the composer himself, this collection of essays offers analytical, musicological, and theological perspectives on a selection of MacMillan's musical works.
Available Format: Book
Carmen Abroad: Bizet's Opera on the Global Stage
Richard Langham Smith & Clair Rowden (editors); Cambridge University Press; Hardback
This history of the performance and reception of Bizet's Carmen provides new understanding of the opera's enduring yet ever-evolving and resituated presence and popularity. As it reveals the ways in which the opera swiftly travelled the globe from its Parisian premiere, readers will understand how the story, the music, the staging, and the singers appealed to audiences in diverse geographical, artistic and political contexts.
Available Format: Book
This book charts Handel's working relationship with his librettist, the gifted but demanding Charles Jennens, and looks at his evolving company of singers together with his royal patronage. Through examination of the manuscript and Handel's own conducting score, it explores the complex issues around the performance of sacred texts in a non-sacred context.
Available Format: Book
Keyboard artists in the time of J.S. Bach were simultaneously performers, composers, and improvisers. This book opens a pathway of musical discovery as the reader learns to improvise with confidence and joy. Even the most complex ideas are explained in a lucid, conversational tone, accompanied by hundreds of musical examples.
Available Format: Book
This resource for schools is packed with practical strategies and advice for teaching music in the classroom. Focused on flexible, bite-sized ideas that can be used to revitalise existing schemes of work, it also includes access to audio, video and teaching resources. Primarily written for KS3, much of the material can be tailored to all levels of classroom music-making.
Available Format: Book/Online-Media
The relationship between popular music and consumer brands has never been so cosy. Activities that once attracted charges of 'selling out' are now considered savvy, or even ordinary, strategies for artists to be heard and make a living. This book traces the evolution of 'selling out' debates in popular music culture and considers what might be lost when the boundary between culture and commerce is dismissed as a relic.
Available Format: Book
Mahalia Jackson is undoubtedly the most widely-known Black gospel singer, having achieved fame among African American communities in the 1940s then finding a wider audience after she signed with Columbia Records in 1954. This book places Jackson's performances and their reception against key changes in twentieth-century America, including transformations of the music industry, increasing visibility of the Civil Rights movement, and a florescence of Cold War-era religiosity.
Available Format: Book
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