New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 15th August 2022
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include a paperback edition of Nicholas Kenyon's examination of the power of music to bring people together in times of crisis; a collection of essays on the Baroque composer Georg Philipp Telemann; writings on French music from Berlioz to Boulez by author Roger Nichols; an analysis of the stage works of Philip Glass; a study of the relationship between opera and politics in the reign of Queen Anne; a collection of operatic photographs by Monika Rittershaus; a companion to Caribbean music; and an investigation of collaborations between jazz artists and independent filmmakers.
The Life of Music: New Adventures in the Western Classical Tradition
Nicholas Kenyon; Yale University Press; Paperback
Now available in paperback, this book explores the enduring appeal of the classical canon. Taking us from pianist Myra Hess's performance in London during the Blitz, to John Adams's composition after New York's 9/11 attacks, to Italian opera singers performing from their balconies amidst the 2020 pandemic, it shows that no matter how great the crisis, music has the power to bring us together.
Available Format: Book
Even as Georg Philipp Telemann's significance within eighteenth-century musical culture has become more widely appreciated in recent years, the English-language literature on his life and music has remained limited. This volume, bringing together sixteen essays by leading scholars, helps to redress this imbalance. The composer appears here not only as an important early Enlightenment figure, but also as a postmodern one.
Available Format: Book
Awarded the Legion d'Honneur by the French government in 2006 for his services to French culture, acclaimed writer and broadcaster Roger Nichols invites the reader to accompany him on his journey through the turbulent and fertile period in French music from Berlioz to Boulez. In compiling his collection of articles, interviews, radio plays and talks, Nichols begins with Berlioz's Symphonie fantastique and ends with his obituary of Pierre Boulez.
Available Format: Book
Philip Glass created stage works that have had a mesmerising effect on younger generations. This book analyses Glass and his music for the theatre in the context of other composers interested in so-called minimalist features. It also sheds light on Glass's philosophy regarding staging, text, and other theatrical components, which includes a defiance of conventional narrative, visual and aural dissociation as a theatrical technique, and deconstructionist concepts.
Available Format: Book
The reign of Queen Anne was pivotal for both politics and opera in Britain. This study brings together a wide range of sources to show how the worlds of politics and opera were entwined. Rather than a foreign invasion, it shows how the introduction of Italian-style opera was a native product that grew out of plans for a new theatre in the Haymarket, and uncovers how the early promotion and sponsorship of opera was, in fact, largely a Whig enterprise and cultural program.
Available Format: Book
The Scene and the Unseen: Opera in Pictures
Photographs by Monika Rittershaus; Arnoldsche; Paperback
Photographer Monika Rittershaus is regarded as an inspiring interpreter of musical theatre in all its diversity, opulence, and drama, but also in its human profundity and veracity. As a sensitive observer, she looks out over the on-stage activity, uncovering gentle, touching, and peripheral moments. In her highly stringent visual compositions, she depicts in a personalised way such influential directors as Barrie Kosky, Christof Loy, Patrice Chereau, Calixto Bieito, Robert Carsen, and many others.
Available Format: Book
The Cambridge Companion to Caribbean Music
Nanette de Jong (editor); Cambridge University Press; Paperback
The diverse musics of the Caribbean form a vital part of the identity of individual island nations and their diasporic communities. At the same time, they bear witness to collective continuities and the interrelatedness that underlies the region's complexity. This companion introduces music from different nations, from reggae, calypso and salsa to tambu, meringue and soca, revealing how the music was shaped by strategies of resistance and accommodation during the colonial past and how it has developed in the post-colonial present.
Available Format: Book
Improvising the Score: Rethinking Modern Film Music through Jazz
Gretchen L. Carlson; University Press of Mississippi; Paperback
On December 4, 1957, Miles Davis revolutionised film soundtrack production, improvising the score for Louis Malle's Ascenseur pour l'échafaud, a cinematic harbinger of the French New Wave. It was in this environment that many filmmakers valued improvisational techniques, featuring soundtracks from such seminal figures as Thelonious Monk and Duke Ellington. This book provides a vivid investigation of innovative collaborations between contemporary jazz artists and prominent independent filmmakers.
Available Format: Book
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