New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 27th March 2023
Welcome to our latest selection of new music publications, including a paperback edition of Steven Isserlis's book discussing Bach's Cello Suites, a guide to improvising fugues at the keyboard, the story of ballerina and choreographer Nina Anisimova and her survival in the Soviet gulag, an approach to teaching choral singing using the Kodály concept, an assessment of British musical films after the Second World War, an exploration of how science has helped to shape the evolution of music as an art form, and a collection of classic photographs of The Beatles by iconic photographer Terry O'Neill.
Bach's six Cello Suites are among the most cherished of all works in the classical music literature. Shrouded in mystery - they were largely unknown for some two hundred years after their composition - they have acquired a magical aura which continues to fascinate audiences. Now available in paperback, this book by award-winning cellist Steven Isserlis aims to take the reader further into the world of the suites in order to enhance the experience of hearing some of the greatest works ever composed.
Available Format: Book
Improvising Fugue: A Method for Keyboard Artists
John J. Mortensen; Oxford University Press; Paperback
This is a guide for those who aspire to the highest levels of fluency as inventors of spontaneous music at the keyboard. It begins with a comprehensive course in eighteenth century Italian partimento, the system of musicianship training that strengthens improvisation, counterpoint, harmony, and keyboard skills, and then moves on to cover every aspect of fugue improvisation in depth, including subjects, countersubjects, tonal and real answers, episodes, presentations, pedal points, and stretti.
Available Format: Book
Dancing for Stalin: A True Story of Extraordinary Courage and Survival in the Soviet Gulag
Christina Ezrahi; Elliott & Thompson Limited; Paperback
Nina Anisimova was one of Russia’s most intriguing ballerinas and one of the first Soviet female choreographers, yet few knew that her exemplary career concealed a dark secret. In 1938, at the height of Stalin’s Great Terror, she was accused of being a Nazi spy and sentenced to forced labour in a camp in Kazakhstan. She was ultimately freed and managed to return to her former life, just as war broke out. Nina's irrepressible determination set her on the path to become an icon of the Kirov Ballet.
Available Format: Book
Choral Artistry: A Kodály Perspective for Middle School to College-Level Choirs, Volume 1
Micheál Houlahan & Philip Tacka; Oxford University Press; Paperback
Grounded in current research, this book provides a practical approach to teaching choral singing and sight-reading. Topics include framing a curriculum based on the Kodály concept; sight-reading; progressive music theory sequences; teaching strategies; and rehearsal plans.
Available Format: Book
Acting as a sequel to Adrian Wright's Cheer Up! British Musical Films, 1929-1945, this volume offers the first major reassessment of the British musical film from the end of Second World War up to the beginning of the 1970s, including films such as King's Rhapsody, Beat Girl, The Tommy Steele Story, Rock You Sinners, The Golden Disc, and Oliver!.
Available Format: Book
Accenting the Classics: Editing European Music in France, 1915-1925
Deborah Mawer, Barbara Kelly, Rachel Moore, & Graham Sadler (editors); Boydell & Brewer; Hardback
This book brings new insights to the music of well-known composers by telling the little-known story that French composers, through the lens of Jacques Durand's Édition Classique, acted as editors of eighteenth- and nineteenth-century European classics, primarily for piano. Among them were Fauré, Saint-Saëns, Debussy, Ravel and Dukas; the objects of their enquiries included core works by Rameau, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Schumann and Chopin.
Available Format: Book
Opera and the Politics of Tragedy: A Mozartean Museum
Katharina Clausius; University of Rochester Press; Hardback
This book captures the tumultuous impact of the so-called Telemacomania crisis through key artefacts: pamphlets, spoken dramas, paintings, engravings, and opera librettos. Reading and listening across various cultural spaces, it showcases the Enlightenment's disorderly historical revisionism alongside its progressive politics to expose the fertile creativity that can emerge out of the ambiguous space between what is "ancient" and what is "modern."
Available Format: Book
The Science of Music: How Technology has Shaped the Evolution of an Artform
Andrew May; Icon Books; Paperback
How can music - an art form - have anything to do with science? Yet there are myriad ways in which the two are intertwined, from the basics of music theory and the design of instruments to hi-fi systems and how the brain processes music. This book traces the surprising connections between science and music, from the theory of sound waves to the way musicians use mathematical algorithms to create music.
Available Format: Book
The Beatles by Terry O'Neill: Five decades of photographs, with unseen images
Terry O'Neill; Welbeck Publishing Group; Hardback
Iconic photographer Terry O'Neill worked with The Beatles across five decades, capturing the band at the beginning of their rise to the top and the solo years beyond. From recording sessions, rehearsals and larking around town at the height of Beatlemania, to intimate shots at weddings, at home and on tour in the solo years after the band had split, he captured countless photographs, many of which are being published for the first time here.
Available Format: Book
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