New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 16th August 2021
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include new paperback editions of books on Brahms and Chopin; an encyclopedia of the life and works of Stravinsky; the history of Erard pianos in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries; an examination of the origins of the coloratura soprano in nineteenth-century opera; an exploration of Kurt Weill's time in America; ideas for making music with very young children; strategies for using cognitive science to optimise practice and performance; a tribute to rock and roll icon, Marianne Faithfull; and a collection of essays discussing the professional challenges facing ethnomusicologists.
Based on ten years of research and a vast cache of primary sources this monumental book, now available in paperback, is the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English. It sets out to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin, with particular focus on his childhood and youth in Poland, and his romantic life with George Sand, with whom he lived for nine years.
Available Format: Book
The Cambridge Stravinsky Encyclopedia
Edward Campbell & Peter O'Hagan (editors); Cambridge University Press; Hardback
Igor Stravinsky is one of a small number of early modernist composers whose music epitomises the stylistic crisis of twentieth-century music. With entries written by more than fifty international contributors from Russian, European and American traditions, this encyclopedia presents multiple perspectives on the life, works, writings, and aesthetic relationships of this multi-faceted creative artist.
Available Format: Book
Now available in paperback, this collection of essays opens with topics including Brahms's Hamburg childhood, his move to Vienna and his rich social life, and also considers professional matters from finance to publishing and copyright, the musicians who shaped his works, and the musical styles that influenced him. It closes with chapters on reception, recordings, historical performance, and his compositional legacy.
Available Format: Book
Sebastien Erard's inventions have had an enormous impact on instruments and musical life and are still at the foundation of piano building today. Drawing on an unusually rich set of archives from both the Erard firm and the Erard family, this book shows how the Erard piano played an important and often leading role in the history of the instrument, beginning in the late eighteenth century and continuing into the final decades of the nineteenth.
Available Format: Book
Vocal Virtuosity: The Origins of the Coloratura Soprano in Nineteenth-Century Opera
Sean M. Parr; Oxford University Press; Hardback
Agile, rapid-fire coloratura singing was originally essential for all singers, but its function changed greatly when it became the speciality of particular sopranos over the course of the nineteenth century. This book reveals the instigators of this change in vocal practice and examines the historical traces of Parisian singers who were the period's greatest exponents of vertiginous vocality as archetypes of the modern coloratura soprano.
Available Format: Book
Throughout his life, Kurt Weill was fascinated by the idea of America. His European works depict America as a capitalist dystopia. But in 1935, it became clear that Europe was no longer safe for Weill, and he set sail for the New World, where his engagement with American culture shifted. This book treats Weill as a node in a transnational network of musicians, writers, artists, and other stage professionals, all of whom influenced each other.
Available Format: Book
Music is key to early childhood development and contributes to socialisation, speaking, motor skills and more. This book is packed full of fun and accessible ideas for singing, creating instruments from recycled materials, exploring sounds and making music together. From making maracas, tambourines and rainsticks in the music workshop to beatboxing, singing, stomping and even writing rhythms, every activity uses easy-to-source equipment or no equipment at all.
Available Format: Book
Thinking and Playing Music: Intentional Strategies for Optimal Practice and Performance
Sheryl Iott; Rowman & Littlefield; Paperback
This book investigates the relevance of cognitive science to musical development, and distills the best teaching and learning methods for musicians of all skill levels based on these scientific concepts. Filled with over 100 musical examples, it imparts practical suggestions and advice that anybody can incorporate into their own practice.
Available Format: Book
Marianne Faithfull carved her name into the history of rock 'n' roll to chart a career spanning five decades. Whether exploring her rise to celebrity, her drug addiction and fall from grace as a spurned 'muse', or her reinvention as a sober, soulful chanteuse subverting all expectations for an ageing woman in music, this remarkable feminist history of the iconic artist reaffirms the deep connection between creator and listener.
Available Format: Book
Voices of the Field: Pathways in Public Ethnomusicology
León F. García Corona & Kathleen Wiens (editors); Oxford University Press; Paperback
Ethnomusicologists face complex and challenging professional landscapes for which graduate studies in the field do not fully prepare them. The essays in this book capture the experiences of scholars who have simultaneously navigated the worlds within and outside of academia. Power and organisational structures, marketing, content management, and production are among the themes explored as an extension and re-evaluation of what constitutes the field of ethnomusicology.
Available Format: Book
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