New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 24th January 2022
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include a collection of essays on Russian composer Alexander Scriabin; a re-assessment of the female characters in four of Mozart's operas; an exploration of Inuit music-making in Alaska; an introduction to music and liturgy in medieval Britain and Ireland; a guide to the analysis of songs and text in musical theatre; a consideration of the influence of the Martha Graham Dance Company on contemporary artists; a study of the importance of the 1970s Soviet Underground scene to the music of Arvo Pärt; and a pedagogical volume devoted to jazz singing.
This book is an innovative contribution to Scriabin studies, covering aspects of his life, personality, beliefs, training, creative output, as well as his interaction with contemporary Russian culture. It offers new and original research from leading and upcoming Russian music scholars. Key Scriabin topics such as mysticism, philosophy, music theory, contemporary aesthetics, and composition processes are covered. Musical coverage spans the composer's early, middle and late period.
Available Format: Book
Understanding the Women of Mozart's Operas
Kristi Brown-Montesano; University of California Press; Paperback
For generations of critics, historians, and directors, Mozart's men have mattered most. Too often, the female characters have been understood from the male protagonist's point of view. This lively book offers a detailed exploration of the female roles in Mozart's four most frequently performed operas, taking a close look at the music, libretto, literary sources, and historical factors that give shape to a character, re-evaluating common assumptions and proposing fresh interpretations.
Available Format: Book
Sound Relations: Native Ways of Doing Music History in Alaska
Jessica Bissett Perea; Oxford University Press; Paperback
This book delves into Inuit musical life in Alaska to register the significance of sound as integral to self-determination and sovereignty. Offering radical and relational ways of listening to performances across a range of genres from hip hop to Christian hymnody and traditional drumsongs to funk and R&B, it registers how a density of ways of making music sounds out entanglements between structures of indigeneity and colonialism.
Available Format: Book
Music and Liturgy in Medieval Britain and Ireland
Ann Buckley & Lisa Colton (editors); Cambridge University Press; Hardback
From music written in praise of Irish, Scottish, Welsh, and English saints to the selection of Gospel readings by the Dominicans, this book introduces the richness of medieval liturgical culture from across Britain and Ireland. Its focus on Insular liturgy allows readers to learn about the devotional, political and creative networks at play in shaping liturgical practices.
Available Format: Book
How many times have you experienced a musical that was fabulous or just didn't work at all, but you had no idea how to communicate why? How do you differentiate between a flaw in the performance portrayal of a character to a structural flaw in the musical itself? How do you analyse musical theatre songs that are so subjective in its very nature? This book answers these questions and gives students of musical theatre the tools they need to understand and articulate how musicals work.
Available Format: Book
The Martha Graham Dance Company: House of the Pelvic Truth
Blakeley White-McGuire; Bloomsbury; Paperback
What is the legacy of Martha Graham and why does it endure? How and why did the philosophy and subsequent canon of Martha Graham flood out into an artistic diaspora that is still a wellspring of inspiration for contemporary artists? All of these questions and more are considered in this book, authored by one of the Martha Graham Company's ex-principal dancers.
Available Format: Book
Sounds Beyond: Arvo Part and the 1970s Soviet Underground
Kevin C. Karnes; University of Chicago Press; Hardback
This book studies the alternative music and art scenes in the USSR during the second half of the 1970s, revealing the audacious origins of some of Arvo Pärt's most famous music. It advances a new understanding of his music as an expression of the aesthetic and religious commitments shared, nurtured, and celebrated by many in Soviet underground circles.
Available Format: Book
This book merges the worlds of jazz and classical singing in a comprehensive guide for those teaching and singing jazz. It combines jazz stylisation and improvisational techniques with classic voice pedagogy to outline a method that builds the jazz voice upon a strong foundation of proper alignment, efficient breathing, healthy phonation, a clear understanding of vocal anatomy, and the physics of singing.
Available Format: Book
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