New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 5th September 2022
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include a collection of essays on Rachmaninoff; the story of how the young Vaughan Williams encountered the extraordinary world of folksong; an examination of Mozart's work in relation to the places in which he lived; books for children helping them to discover the music of JS Bach, the instruments of the orchestra, and life backstage at an opera house; a new analytical approach to sonata form; a consideration of eighteenth-century culture in relation to the music of Haydn; a guide to transcribing and editing early music; insights into how music can be used to support developmental needs at all stages in life; and an exploration of the life and music of Polish composer, Grażyna Bacewicz.
Sergei Rachmaninoff has often been dismissed by critics as a conservative, nostalgic holdover of the nineteenth century and a composer fundamentally hostile to musical modernism. The essays collected here show how he was more responsive to aspects of contemporary musical life than is often thought, and how his deeply felt sense of Russianness coexisted with an appreciation of American and European culture.
Available Format: Book
The Captain's Apprentice: Ralph Vaughan Williams and the Story of a Folk Song
Caroline Davison; Chatto & Windus; Hardback
In January 1905 the young Vaughan Williams visited King's Lynn, Norfolk, and heard an old fisherman perform 'The Captain's Apprentice', a brutal tale of torture sung to the most beautiful tune he had ever heard. With this transformational moment at its heart, this book traces the contrasting lives of the well-to-do composer and a forgotten King's Lynn cabin boy who died at sea, bringing fresh perspectives on Edwardian folk-song.
Available Format: Book
In exhilarating prose, this book mixes biographical storytelling with deep dives into the experience of listening to Mozart's music to reveal a musician in dialogue with culture at its most sweepingly progressive, when Europe was caught between two historical worlds. It follows Mozart from his adolescence in Salzburg to his early death; from his close and rivalrous relationship with his father to his romantic attachments; from his hugely successful operas to intimate compositions on the keyboard.
Available Format: Book
It's opening night of The Nutcracker, and the performers at the Royal Opera House are getting ready to step onto the stage. Meanwhile, Figaro - the opera house's resident cat - is poised to take readers on a behind-the-scenes tour to meet the many people working to make the performance a resounding success. This backstage tour takes readers from department to department to discover what's involved in putting on such a performance.
Available Format: Book
The Very Young Person's Guide to the Orchestra: With 10 Musical Sounds!
Tim Lihoreau; Dorling Kindersley; Hardback
Discover the main instruments of the orchestra accompanied by sound clips of famous pieces, including The Lark Ascending, Flight of the Bumblebee, Carnival of the Animals, Rhapsody in Blue, and more. Follow Ava and Jayden on a magical journey as they discover the instruments of the orchestra, explore beautiful scenes inspired by the music, and learn about the composers and their dazzling pieces.
Available Format: Book
Children can discover the magic of Bach's music by hearing five beautiful tunes in this enchanting sound book. The animal orchestra travels around, playing Bach's music and telling us a bit about his life as they go. This is a perfect introduction to one of the greatest composers of all time.
Available Format: Book
How Sonata Forms: A Bottom-Up Approach to Musical Form
Yoel Greenberg; Oxford University Press; Hardback
Traditional approaches to musical form have always adopted a top-down perspective, whereby a work's form unifies the individual parts of the work through an overarching logic. This book turns that view on its head: relying on a corpus of over a thousand works, it illustrates how the elements of sonata form arose independently of one another, with an idea of form only emerging at the tail end of the eighteenth century.
Available Format: Book
The Haydn Economy: Music, Aesthetics, and Commerce in the Late Eighteenth Century
Nicholas Mathew; University of Chicago Press; Hardback
This book uses the career of Joseph Haydn to consider a host of critical issues: how we tell the history of the Enlightenment and Romanticism; the relation of late-eighteenth-century culture to nascent capitalism and European colonialism; and how the modern market and modern aesthetic values were-and remain-inextricably entwined. Ultimately, it claims, Haydn's historical trajectory compels us to ask what we might usefully retain from the cultural and political practices of European modernity.
Available Format: Book
A Performer's Guide to Transcribing, Editing, and Arranging Early Music
Alon Schab; Oxford University Press; Hardback
This book provides instruction on three tasks that early music performers often undertake: first, it provides help with using early sources. It then illuminates priorities behind basic editorial decisions, determining what constitutes a "version" of a musical piece, and how to choose the source for that version. Lastly, it offers advice about arranging music for early instruments, including how to consider instruments' ranges and registers, how to exploit the unique characteristics of period instruments, and how to produce convincing accompaniment textures.
Available Format: Book
Understanding the Old Hispanic Office: Texts, Melodies, and Devotion in Early Medieval Iberia
Emma Hornby, Kati Ihnat, Rebecca Maloy, Raquel Rojo Carrillo (editors); Cambridge University Press; Hardback
This is the first methodological primer in English on the liturgical tradition of early medieval Spain. For non-specialists, the authors introduce the main features of Old Hispanic liturgy, its manuscripts, its services and its liturgical genres. For specialists, they model a variety of ways to work with the Old Hispanic materials in depth, incorporating notational, musical, theological and historical perspectives.
Available Format: Book
Collaborative Insights: Interdisciplinary Perspectives on Musical Care Throughout the Life Course
Neta Spiro & Katie Rose M. Sanfilippo (editors); Oxford University Press; Paperback
This book provides new perspectives informed by interdisciplinary thinking on musical care throughout the course of life. It defines musical care as the role that music plays in supporting any aspect of people's developmental needs, including physical and mental health, cognitive and behavioural development, and interpersonal relationships.
Available Format: Book
Music, Communities, Sustainability: Developing Policies and Practices
Huib Schippers & Anthony Seeger (editors); Oxford University Press; Hardback
This volume traces the genesis, implementation, and development of the influential 2003 UNESCO Convention on Safeguarding of the Intangible Cultural Heritage and its impact on music practices around the world. With insights from established and emerging scholars who have been there from the early beginnings to those who work with it in communities today, it tells a riveting story that celebrates the rise in awareness that approaching music as Intangible Cultural Heritage has brought.
Available Format: Book
Grazyna Bacewicz, The First Lady of Polish Music
Diana Ambache; Cambridge University Press; Paperback
Grażyna Bacewicz lived a remarkable life in Poland, navigating the complex world of Polish communist society and Soviet dominance after the Second World War, and brought Polish music to wider European attention. This book describes the historical context of her life, her major achievements, and the language and development of her compositions, which attracted notable interest in Polish musical life.
Available Format: Book
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