New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 14th November 2022
Welcome to our latest selection of new music books. Our picks this time round include an exploration of the relationship between music and homesickness in the works of Dvořák, Elgar, Bartók and Britten; a paperback edition of Oxford University Press's handbook of opera; a picture book introducing children to musical notation from Julie Andrews using the famous song, "Do, Re, Mi" from The Sound of Music; the history of the bnajo and its role in Black spirituality, ritual and rebellion; a discussion of French art song in the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; a biography of the iconic choreographer, George Balanchine; a collection of writings on jazz by Black journalists and critics; the complete lyrics of Nick Cave from 1978 up to the present day; and a biography of Kate Bush.
How does music heard over many years inform one's sense of home? Edward Dusinberre, the English first violinist of the Takács Quartet, explores changing ideas of home, exile and return in the lives of four composers: Dvořák, Elgar, Bartók and Britten. A resident of Boulder, Colorado for nearly three decades, Dusinberre discovers ways in which music may both accentuate and ameliorate homesickness, as he visits and imagines some of the places crucial to these composers' creative inspiration.
Available Format: Book
In this handbook, now available in paperback, fifty scholars cast opera as a fluid entity that continuously re-invents itself, with essays engaging with repertoire from Monteverdi, Mozart, and Meyerbeer to Strauss, Henze, and Adams, in studies of composition, national identity, transmission, reception, sources, iconography, humanism, the art of collecting, theory, analysis, commerce, singers, directors, criticism, editions, politics, race, and gender.
Available Format: Book
The First Notes: The Story of Do, Re, Mi
Julie Andrews & Emma Walton Hamilton; Little, Brown & Company; Hardback
A stunning picture book from Julie Andrews and her daughter, Emma Walton Hamilton, that introduces readers to the remarkable story of the development of written music. Featuring the illustrated lyrics to "Do-Re-Mi" and an author's note about Julie Andrews's connection to the classic Rodgers & Hammerstein song.
Available Format: Book
This book uncovers the banjo's key role in Black spirituality, ritual and rebellion. It traces the banjo's beginnings from the seventeenth century, when enslaved people of African descent created it from gourds or calabashes and wood, and shows how the enslaved carried this unique instrument as they were transported and sold by slave-owners throughout the Americas, to Suriname, the Caribbean and the colonies that became US states, including Louisiana, South Carolina, Maryland and New York.
Available Format: Book
French Art Song: History of a New Music, 1870-1914
Emily Kilpatrick; University of Rochester Press; Hardback
French art song was one of the most radical art-forms of the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. It was also among the most intimate, a genre of experimentation, hesitation and unfiltered artistic conversation. This book charts the literary stimuli, the friendships and rivalries, critical narratives and performance practices that shaped French art song between 1870 and the First World War.
Available Format: Book
This is the first major biography of the figure who modernised dance: an intimate portrait of the man behind the mythology, set against the vibrant backdrop of the century that shaped him. Balanchine's radical approach to choreography reinvented the art of dance and his richly evocative ballets made him a lasting legend.
Available Format: Book
Ain't But a Few of Us: Black Music Writers Tell Their Story
Willard Jenkins (editor); Duke University Press; Paperback
Despite the fact that most of jazz's major performers have been African American, the majority of jazz journalists, critics, and authors have been white men. This book presents over two dozen candid dialogues with black jazz critics and journalists ranging from Greg Tate, Farah Jasmine Griffin, and Robin D. G. Kelley to Tammy Kernodle, Ron Welburn, and John Murph, in which they discuss the obstacles to access for black jazz journalists and how they contend with the world of jazz writing dominated by white men.
Available Format: Book
The complete lyrics from cultural icon Nick Cave, spanning his entire career to date. From his writing for The Birthday Party, to highly acclaimed albums like Murder Ballads, Henry's Dream, DIG, LAZARUS, DIG!!!, and Ghosteen, this is a must-have book for all fans of the dark, the beautiful and the defiant - for all fans of the songs of Nick Cave.
Available Format: Book
This is a multi-faceted biography of this famously elusive figure, viewing her life and work from fresh and illuminating angles. Featuring details from the author's one-to-one conversations with Kate, as well as vignettes of her key songs, albums, videos and concerts, this candid and often brutally funny portrait introduces the reader to the real Kate Bush. Along the way, the narrative also includes vivid reconstructions of transformative moments in her career, plus insights from the friends and collaborators closest to Kate.
Available Format: Book
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