New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 16th November 2020
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include three introductions to music history for children; a study of how music creates emotion; a guide to twenty-first century vocal repertoire; an examination of the compositions of Johann Joseph Fux and their relation to the works of Bach and Handel; an investigation into technological developments in the world of computer music; handbooks from Oxford University Press on music in social media and the operatic canon; and a biography of dancing legend Gene Kelly.
Budding music fans will love this visual journey through the world of music, where they can discover musical geniuses of every era from Mozart to David Bowie. Featuring instruments and genres from across the world, this book looks at music throughout history, beginning with the first-known melody and covering modern music phenomena from K Pop to hip-hop.
Available Format: Book
This inspiring introduction to music history showcases diverse composers and artists through the ages, from Vivaldi, Bach, Beethoven, Mozart, and Tchaikovsky, to Ella Fitzgerald, Frank Sinatra, Chuck Berry, Aretha Franklin, The Beatles, Bob Dylan, David Bowie, Bjork, and Kraftwerk. The friendly text and illustrations help children to appreciate the music, highlighting interesting biographical facts and picking out key details.
Available Format: Book
Learn about how different genres started - including classical, folk, jazz, gospel, rock 'n' roll, country, punk, grunge and pop. Discover the stories of maestros including Beethoven, Django Reinhardt, The Beatles, Joni Mitchell, David Bowie, Maria Callas, Nina Simone, and Louis Armstrong. Marvel at the orchestra with a huge illustration set in the Royal Albert Hall, and find out about ancient instruments from all over the world.
Available Format: Book
A History of Emotion in Western Music: A Thousand Years from Chant to Pop
Michael Spitzer; Oxford University Press; Hardback
When asked to describe what music means to them, most people talk about its power to express or elicit emotions. However, little has been written about how music creates emotions and how musical emotion has changed its meaning for listeners across the last millennium. This landmark study provides the first history of musical emotion in the Western world, from Gregorian chant to Beyoncé.
Available Format: Book
Vocal Repertoire for the Twenty-First Century, Volume 1: Works Written Before 2000
Jane Manning; Oxford University Press; Paperback
Internationally-celebrated soprano Jane Manning provides guidance and insight into a comprehensive selection of contemporary art songs ranging from the avant-garde to the more easily accessible. Each of the selections is accompanied by a detailed performance guide, music examples, levels of difficulty, and a brief encapsulation of vocal characteristics or challenges contained in the piece.
Available Format: Book
The Musical Discourse of Servitude: Authority, Autonomy, and the Work-Concept in Fux, Bach and Handel
Harry White; Oxford University Press; Hardback
Examining, for the first time, the compositions of Johann Joseph Fux in relation to his contemporaries Bach and Handel, this book presents a new theory of the late baroque musical imagination. It contrasts musical "servility" and "freedom", with Fux tied to the prevailing servitude of the day's musical imagination, contrasting with both Bach and Handel who represented an autonomy of musical discourse.
Available Format: Book
Inside Computer Music
Michael Clarke, Frederic Dufeu, & Peter Manning; Oxford University Press; Paperback
This book is an investigation of how new technological developments have influenced the creative possibilities of composers of computer music in the last fifty years. It combines detailed research into the development of computer music techniques with nine case studies that analyse key works in the development of computer music.
Available Format: Book
The Oxford Handbook of the Operatic Canon
Cormac Newark & William Weber (editors); Oxford University Press; Hardback
Opera has always been a complex mixture of commercial and aesthetic concerns, of bourgeois politics and elite privilege. This handbook examines how opera has become the concrete edifice it was never meant to be, by tracing its evolution from a market driven by novelty to one of the most canonic art forms still in existence. Throughout the book, a lively assembly of musicologists, historians, and industry professionals tackle key questions of opera's past, present, and future.
Available Format: Book
In 1959, the Bolshoi Ballet arrived in New York for its first ever performances in the United States, part of the Soviet-American cultural exchange arranged as part of the two governments' Cold War strategies. Drawing on both Russian and English archival sources, this book demonstrates that the separation between Soviet and American ballet lies less in how the ballets look and sound, and more in the ways that Soviet and American viewers were trained to see and hear.
Available Format: Book
This volume brings together leading dance scholars to provide a vivid picture of the state of contemporary dance research. It contains eleven chapters that each map out a specific area of inquiry: Dance Pedagogy, Practice-As-Research, Dance and Politics, Dance and Identity, Dance Science, Screendance, Dance Ethnography, Popular Dance, Dance History, Dance and Philosophy, and Digital Dance.
Available Format: Book
The Oxford Handbook of Social Media and Music Learning
Janice L. Waldron, Stephanie Horsley, & Kari K. Veblen (editors); Oxford University Press; Hardback
The rapid pace of technological change over the last decade, particularly the rise of social media, has deeply affected the ways in which we interact as individuals, in groups, and among institutions. This handbook investigates the ways in which social media is now firmly engrained in all aspects of music education, providing fascinating insights into the ways in which social media, musical participation, and musical learning are increasingly entwined.
Available Format: Book
Gene Kelly: The Making of a Creative Legend
Earl J. Hess & Pratibha A. Dabholkar; University Press of Kansas; Hardback
Gene Kelly lives on in our memory as a fantastic dancer in MGM musicals, especially Singin' in the Rain. But dancing was only one of his many gifts. This book offers a full picture of Kelly as the Renaissance man he actually was - dancer, yes, but also choreographer, actor, clown, singer, director, teacher, and mentor.
Available Format: Book
Although his activity as a recording artist spanned just three years, from 1967 to 1970, Jimi Hendrix created a body of work that has exerted a significant influence on a number of artists. This book focuses on a superlative storyteller who was able to combine melody and lyrics in order to create pieces that take pride of place in the pantheon of post-war popular music.
Available Format: Book
James Longstaffe - Head of Retail
