New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 5th October 2020
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include several volumes marking the 250th anniversary of Beethoven's birth; an analysis of Brahms's violin sonatas; the history and construction of minimalist music; handbooks from Oxford University Press on topics including intellectual culture in the nineteenth century, dance and reenactment, and choral pedagogy; a guide to making your own bassoon reeds; an examination of sadomasochistic and fetishistic tendencies in modern operatic productions; the life and legacy of jazz saxophonist Dexter Gordon; the latest edition of the Rare Record Price Guide; and suggestions and tips on teaching music to students with autism.
Classical Music
Beethoven: A Political Artist in Revolutionary Times
William Kinderman; University of Chicago Press; Hardback
We have long regarded Beethoven as a great composer, but he was also an eminently political artist, living through many tumultuous events including the French Revolution, the rise and fall of Napoleon Bonaparte, and the Congress of Vienna. This book unveils the role of politics in his oeuvre, elucidating how the inherently political nature of Beethoven's music explains its power and endurance.
Available Format: Book
Despite the ups and downs of his personal life and professional career, Beethoven remained remarkably consistent in his most basic convictions about his art. This inner consistency provides the key to understanding his life and works. The iconic scowl so familiar from later images of the composer is but one of many attitudes he could assume and project through his music.
Available Format: Book
Lewis Lockwood, himself a much-lauded Beethoven biographer, tells the story of Beethoven biography, from the earliest attempts made directly after the composer's death to the present day. By following the story through to our own time, Lockwood identifies traditions that today's scholars and writers need to be aware of. Each biography reflects not only the individual writer's knowledge and interests, but also his inner sense of purpose, working within the intellectual framework of his time.
Available Format: Book
Brahms's Violin Sonatas: Style, Structure, Performance
Joel Lester; Oxford University Press; Paperback
Through close readings and annotated musical examples, this book guides practitioners to develop their own informed interpretation of Brahms's sonatas, eschewing the notion of a single "correct" interpretation. By exploring not only the sonatas' musical elements, but also their relationship to important events in the composer's life, it shows how subtle components can communicate the gestures, moods, personalities, and emotions that make Brahms's music so compelling.
Available Format: Book
We Have Always Been Minimalist: The Construction and Triumph of a Musical Style
Christophe Levaux; University of California Press; Paperback
Rising out of the American art music movement of the late 1950s and 1960s, minimalism sparked an active writing culture around the controversies, philosophies, and forms represented in the music's style and performance. Focusing on how facts about music are constructed, negotiated, and continually remodelled, this book retraces the story of these battles that led to the triumph of minimalism.
Available Format: Book
The Oxford Handbook of Music and Intellectual Culture in the Nineteenth Century
Paul Watt, Sarah Collins, & Michael Allis (editors); Oxford University Press; Hardback
Writings about music are often viewed as supplemental to understanding music itself. Yet in the nineteenth century, scholarly interest in music flourished in fields as disparate as philosophy and natural science, dramatically shifting the relationship between music and the academy. This volume draws attention to the people and institutions of this period who worked to produce these writings.
Available Format: Book
The Way of Cane: The Science, Craft, and Art of Bassoon Reed-making
Eric Arbiter; Oxford University Press; Paperback
As the sound-producing mechanism for the bassoon, the reed is a vital component in the sound of the entire instrument. While pre-manufactured reeds are widely available, many bassoonists instead choose to make their own reeds. This book demystifies this nuanced craft, explaining the range of variables that can contribute to the ultimate goal of producing a bassoonist's ideal sound.
Available Format: Book
A Sound Mind: How I Fell in Love with Classical Music (and Decided to Rewrite its Entire History)
Paul Morley; Bloomsbury; Hardback
Writer Paul Morley weaves together memoir and history in a spiralling tale that establishes classical music as the most rebellious genre of all. A soaring polemic, a grumpy reflection on modern rock, and a fan's love note, this book rejects the idea that classical music is an outdated establishment, offering a compelling history with a rich and often deviant past.
Available Format: Book
Dance, Opera, & Musicals
Deviant Opera: Sex, Power, and Perversion on Stage
Axel Englund; University of California Press; Hardback
For decades, radical stage directors have repeatedly dressed canonical operas, from Handel and Mozart to Wagner and Puccini, in whips, chains, leather, and other regalia of sadomasochism and fetishism. This book seeks to understand this phenomenon, approaching the contemporary visual code of perversion as a lens through which opera focuses and scrutinises its own configurations of sex, gender, power, and violence.
Available Format: Book
First published in 2007, this book tells the full story of the beloved Rodgers and Hammerstein musical. This new and fully revised edition draws further on recently released sources, including the Rouben Mamoulian Papers at the Library of Congress, with additional correspondence, contracts, and even new versions of the working script used - and annotated - throughout the show's rehearsal process.
Available Format: Book
Jazz & Popular Music
Sophisticated Giant: The Life and Legacy of Dexter Gordon
Maxine Gordon; University of California Press; Paperback
Reading like a jazz composition, this blend of research, anecdote, and a selection of personal letters reflects the colourful life and legacy of tenor saxophonist Dexter Gordon, one of the major innovators of modern jazz. This essential book is an attempt to fill in the gaps created by our misperceptions as well as the gaps left by Dexter himself.
Available Format: Book
Popular Music Matters: Essays in Honour of Simon Frith
Lee Marshall & Dave Laing; Routledge; Paperback
Simon Frith has been one of the most important figures in the emergence and subsequent development of popular music studies. From his earliest academic publication, The Sociology of Rock, to his recent work on the live music industry in the UK, he has probably been cited more than any other author in the field. The contributions to this volume of essays seek to honour Frith's achievements, reflecting major themes in his work that can also be found within popular music studies more generally.
Available Format: Book
Launched in 1987 and published biennially, the Rare Record Price Guide is the world's most comprehensive guide to prices of UK releases from 1950 to the current day. With over 100,000 entries, the 1400+ page publication provides an A-to-Z guide to rare and collectable UK releases with catalogue numbers, B-sides and current mint values for every UK single worth over £5, EP and 12 single over £10, LP over £15 as well as other collectable formats like 10 LPs, flexi and picture discs.
Available Format: Book
Music Education & Therapy
The Oxford Handbook of Choral Pedagogy
Frank Abrahams & Paul D. Head (editors); Oxford University Press; Paperback
Contributors to this handbook address the full range of issues in contemporary choral pedagogy, from repertoire and voice science to the social and political aspects of choral singing. They also cover the construction of a choral singer's personal identity, the gendering of choral ensembles, social justice in choral education, and the role of the choral art in society more generally.
Available Format: Book
How to Teach Whole-Class Instrumental Lessons: 50 inspiring ideas
Kay Charlton; HarperCollins; Paperback
This book presents fifty diverse ideas for teachers of every instrument. The suggestions are concise, easy to implement and tackle everything from repertoire to behaviour management. Whether you're new to teaching or a seasoned practitioner, this practical handbook offers fresh and varied ways to invigorate lessons with any group.
Available Format: Book
Teaching Music to Students with Autism
Alice M. Hammel & Ryan Hourigan (editors); Oxford University Press; Paperback
This book offers fully up-to-date information on the diagnosis of autism, advocating for students, and creating and maintaining a team-approach when working with colleagues. A significant portion of the book is focused on understanding the communication, cognition, behavior, sensory, and socialisation challenges inherent in students with autism, ways to structure classroom experiences, and learning opportunities for all students.
Available Format: Book
Music Therapy in a Multicultural Context: A Handbook for Music Therapy Students and Professionals
Melita Belgrave & Seung-A Kim (editors); Jessica Kingsley Publishers; Paperback
Music therapy professionals work with diverse population groups, and this book provides therapists, and those in training, with the tools to integrate understanding of different cultural and social identities into their practice. Topics addressed include heritage, age, location, identity and health beliefs, and how to understand the dynamics of the variety of different cultures which music therapists will encounter in the course of their practice.
Available Format: Book
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