New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 7th March 2022
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include the story of Janáček’s Jenůfa; a re-evaluation of the relationship between singer Emma Bardac and Claude Debussy; an exploration of film scores by John Barry; a collection of lectures by composer Elliott Carter; a biography of Nellie Melba; the English version of the third volume in Carus's series on the historical performance practice of organ music; a study of French musical life in the 100 years leading up to World War Two; a celebration of London's Barbican Centre; essays discussing the medieval song manuscript known as "Trouvère MS C"; an evaluation of Jewish musical life in early modern Italy; and the history of sound and music in the British North American fur trade.
There are few compositions with such an engaging and convoluted story as Janáček’s Jenůfa. This book provides a great deal of new information which has come to light as a result of the research for the critical edition of the score, taking the reader back to the origins of the work as well as discussing the most important productions which were given during Janáček’s lifetime. It includes a large number of documents and photographs, many of which are published here for the first time.
Available Format: Book
The singer Emma Bardac has often been presented as a woman who ensnared Claude Debussy because she wanted to be associated with his fame and to live a life of luxury. Indeed, in many biographies of Debussy the only mentions that she receives are brief and derogatory. This book brings to light little-known facts about her background and family, advances new insights into her relationship with Debussy, and provides a glimpse of an early twentieth-century Parisian milieu.
Available Format: Book
Elliott Carter Speaks: Unpublished Lectures
Laura Emmery (editor); University of Illinois Press; Hardback
These previously unpublished lectures date to the summer of 1967, when the composer taught at the Contemporary Music Workshop held by the University of Minnesota. Carter gave nine hours of lectures covering topics such as how to live with the musical present and whether the symphony orchestra was a relic of the past. This book presents the complete text from each session alongside introductions, commentary, and annotated examples that provide valuable context for readers.
Available Format: Book
Nellie Melba is remembered as a squarish, late middle-aged woman dressed in furs and large hats, an imperious Dame whose voice ruled the world for three decades and inspired a peach and raspberry dessert. But she had to battle social expectations and misogyny that would have preferred her to stay a housewife in outback Queensland. This biography presents a different portrait of the great diva, celebrating both her musical contributions and her rich and colourful personal life.
Available Format: Book
Historical Performance Practice in Organ Playing Part 3: Modern and Contemporary Music
Jon Laukvik (editor); Carus Verlag; Paperback
Carus's organ method has now become established as a standard work, aimed at organists who want to incorporate the latest thinking on historical performance practice into their interpretations. Now finally available in English, this third part focuses on modern and contemporary music. Alongside personal recollections and analytical essays is an introduction to the techniques and aesthetics of new music, plus new chapters for the English edition by Kevin Bowyer.
Available Format: Book
French Musical Life: Local Dynamics in the Century to World War II
Katharine Ellis; Oxford University Press; Hardback
The historical musicology of post-Revolutionary France has focused on Paris as a proxy for the rest of the country. This book is a study of French musical centralisation and its discontents during the period leading up to and beyond the "provincial awakening" of the Belle Epoque. It explains how different kinds of artistic decentralisation and regionalism were hard won (or not) across a politically turbulent century from the 1830s to World War II.
Available Format: Book
Published in celebration of the fortieth birthday of the Barbican Arts Centre, and compiled by the Barbican's managing director Nicholas Kenyon, this is an in-depth exploration of the centre, drawing on the vast array of material available in its archives, much of which has never been seen before. It includes plans and photographs from the centre's design and construction, original signage and branding, and brochures and programmes, accompanied by a wealth of photographs of the huge range of performances and exhibitions that have taken place over the years.
Available Format: Book
This book provides piano students with the techniques and fundamentals they need to flourish into independent, versatile musicians who play with confidence and sensitivity. The topics offer endless flexibility for instructors while guiding students in a step-by-step approach through the development of essential keyboard skills such as reading, harmonisation, improvisation, and accompaniment, supporting concepts learned in music theory, ear training, private lessons, methods classes, and ensemble courses.
Available Format: Book
A Medieval Songbook: Trouvère MS C
Elizabeth Eva Leach, Joseph W. Mason, & Matthew P. Thomson (editors); Boydell & Brewer; Hardback
The songbook known variously as trouvère manuscript C or the "Bern Chansonnier" is one of the most important witnesses to musical life in thirteenth-century France, providing the texts to over five hundred Old French songs, and offering a unique insight into song-making on the borders between French and German-speaking lands. This collection of essays explores the process of creating the manuscript and examines the work of the scribes and artists who contributed to it.
Available Format: Book
Music and Jewish Culture in Early Modern Italy: New Perspectives
Lynette Bowring, Rebecca Cypress, & Liza Malamut (editors); Indiana University Press; Paperback
Musical culture in Jewish communities in early modern Italy was much more diverse than originally thought. This reassessment evaluates the social, cultural, political, economic, and religious circumstances that shaped this community, exploring the diverse understandings of music in daily life, the many ways that Jewish communities conceived of music, and the reception of and responses to Jewish musical culture.
Available Format: Book
Listening to the Fur Trade: Soundways and Music in the British North American Fur Trade, 1760-1840
Daniel Robert Laxer; McGill-Queen's University Press; Hardback
As fur traders were driven across North America by economic motivations, the landscape over which they plied their trade was punctuated by sound: shouting, singing, dancing, gunpowder, rattles, jingles, drums, fiddles, and - very occasionally - bagpipes. Fur trade interactions were, in a word, noisy. This book uses the written record, oral history, and material culture to reveal histories of sound and music in an era before sound recording.
Available Format: Book
Black Ephemera: The Crisis and Challenge of the Musical Archive
Mark Anthony Neal; New York University Press; Paperback
In an era of Big Data and algorithms, easy access to the archive of contemporary and historical Blackness is unprecedented. While this book celebrates this access, it also questions the crisis and the challenge of the Black musical archive in a moment when Black American culture has become a global export, arguing that the cultural DNA of Black America has become obscured in the transformation from analogue to digital.
Available Format: Book
This is the first book to offer a detailed presentation of the social and cultural impact of The Beatles as understood through the experiences and lives of women. Drawing on a mix of interviews, archival research, textual analysis, and autoethnography, it depicts how the group has profoundly shaped and enriched the lives of women, while also re-examining key, influential female figures within the group's history.
Available Format: Book
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