New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 15th May 2023
Welcome to our latest selection of new music publications, including biographies of Samuel Barber and Sergei Rachmaninoff, the two latest instalments in the London Symphony Orchestra's series of guides for children on instruments of the orchestra, an analysis of the compositions of Ferruccio Busoni, an exploration of how stagings of Handel's operas impact our interpretations of the narrative, a final collection of essays by the late musicologist Richard Taruskin, an overview of the groundbreaking work carried out by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, and an investigation into the changing forms and principles of modernism in music.
This biography offers an account of Samuel Barber's life and music, from his precocious youth to a career where he consistently received prizes, fellowships, and other recognition. Stylistic analyses of works like the Adagio for Strings, the Violin Concerto, Knoxville, and the operas Vanessa and Antony and Cleopatra, stand alongside discussions of the music’s commissioning, performance, reception, and legacy. Throughout, it weaves in tales of Barber’s encounters with colleagues like Copland and Poulenc, performers from Leontyne Price to Vladimir Horowitz, and an eloquent portrait of his decades-long relationship with composer Gian Carlo Menotti.
Available Format: Book
The musical child of Russia’s golden age, Rachmaninoff was arguably the last of the great Romantics. This biography investigates his intense and often melodramatic life, following him from imperial Russia to his years of exile as a wandering virtuoso and his death in Beverly Hills during the Second World War, worn out by his punishing schedule. In this new edition, it tells the colourful story of a life that spanned two centuries and two continents.
Available Format: Book
Continuing the acclaimed series of children's books from the London Symphony Orchestra is this new volume on the cello. Join cellist, Matt, and find out what it's like to be a musician on tour performing at different venues around the world. Discover how the cello is made, how it is played and its role within the orchestra. Immerse yourself in the joy of music at Matt's spectacular concert in Vienna. With panels that offer suggestions for music to listen to and exclusive music to download from the LSO, this is a multi-sensory experience in which to learn about the cello.
Available Format: Book
Also new in the series is this volume on the flute. Follow flautist, Sonja, as she plucks up the courage to play a flute solo in tonight's concert. Discover how the flute is played, the different sounds it can make, and its role within the orchestra, and listen along to the vibrant concert performance at the end. Like the cello volume above, the book contains suggestions for music to listen to and exclusive music to download from the LSO.
Available Format: Book
This book presents the composer as an innovator inspired not only by past musical traditions but also by a contemporary interest in experimentalism. Through a broad analysis of Busoni's compositional activities, it brings his music into dialogue with more recent accounts of modernism in music that move beyond elitist esotericism and notions of rupture with the past, whilst in addition facilitating a discourse between Busoni and other twentieth-century artists to explore how Busoni's spatialised architectural music left a lasting imprint on future generations of musicians and early film pioneers.
Available Format: Book
What should we consider when thinking about the relationship between an onstage performance and the story it tells? This book explores this question by analysing the narratives of Handel's operas in relation to the rich fabric of performance used to convey them, thereby proposing that when engaging with opera, distinguishing between the performance we see and hear on the stage and the story represented offers a meaningful approach to interpreting a work.
Available Format: Book
Musical Lives and Times Examined: Keynotes and Clippings, 2006–2019
Richard Taruskin; University of California Press; Paperback
In this final collection following his death last year, Richard Taruskin gathers a sweeping range of keynote speeches, reviews, and critical essays. With twenty-three essays in total, it presents five lectures delivered in Budapest on Hungarian music and ten essays on Russian music. Reviews of contemporary work in musicology and reflections on the place of music in society showcase Taruskin’s trademark wit and breadth.
Available Format: Book
In 1958, an anonymous group of overworked BBC employees set out to make some new sounds for radio and TV, ending up changing the course of twentieth-century music in the process. For millions of people, the work of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop was the first electronic music they ever heard. Sampling, loops, and the earliest synthesisers made up the groundbreaking scores for many programmes, including the iconic theme for Doctor Who. Ignored for decades by music historians, the Workshop is now recognised as one of the most influential forebears of electronica, psychedelia, ambient music, and synth-pop.
Available Format: Book
Transformations of Musical Modernism
Erling E. Guldbrandsen & Julian Johnson (editors); Cambridge University Press; Paperback
Profound transformations in the composition, performance and reception of modernist music have taken place in recent decades. This collection brings fresh perspectives to bear upon key questions surrounding the forms that musical modernism takes today, how modern music is performed, and its relationship to earlier music. Leading figures in the field examine modernist music in terms of compositional practices, musical materials, aesthetic principles, and the changing contextual frameworks in which musical modernism has been understood.
Available Format: Book
The Lost Album of The Beatles: What if the Beatles hadn't split up?
Daniel Rachel; Cassell Reference; Paperback
The end of The Beatles wasn't inevitable. It came through miscommunication, misunderstandings and missed opportunities to reconcile. But what if it hadn't happened? What if they had made one last, great album? Examining their untimely demise, this book looks at what could have been, compiling a track list for an imagined final album by pulling together unfinished demos, forgotten B-sides, and hit solo songs to argue that together they form the basis of a lost Beatles masterpiece.
Available Format: Book
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