New Publications,
New Music Book Publications - 4th September 2023
Welcome to our latest selection of new music publications, including a history of song from the troubadours to the present day, an anatomical and physiological guide to playing the violin, paperback editions of books on composers Ivor Gurney and Stephen Sondheim, a study of Mozart's operas in Prague, essays on African music by noted scholar Kofi Agawu, a biography of nineteenth-century American music critic John Sullivan Dwight, an exploration of the relationship between music and the environment in medieval northern France, suggestions for building strong relationships in the music industry, and a collection of writings by singer Amy Winehouse.
The song form has captivated audiences and performers for centuries, from the music of the troubadours and the Christian liturgy, classical composers such as Bach and Schumann, up to Britten, Berio, and the rise of popular music. Choosing twelve key works, this book offers a personal tour through this vital tradition, from John Dowland’s Flow My Tears to George Gershwin’s Summertime, detailing who wrote and sang these joyful masterpieces, and what they mean to singers and audiences today.
Available Format: Book
The Living Art of Violin Playing: Progressive Form
Maureen Taranto-Pyatt & Peter Stickel; Indiana University Press; Paperback
With this book, violinists will learn to appreciate the physics and geometry of movement with an understanding of anatomy and physiology in order to facilitate a nuanced flow of compression and release. Featuring nearly 400 images and music examples to illustrate elements of technique, balance, and gesture, this guide will help musicians manifest deeper meaning and greater satisfaction in making music.
Available Format: Book
Now available in paperback, this is the first comprehensive biography of a composer whose life was haunted by fighting in the First World War and confinement in a mental asylum. Spanning literary criticism, history, psychiatry and musicology, it sets Gurney's life and work against the backdrop of war and his institutionalisation, probing the links between madness, suffering and creativity.
Available Format: Book
This is the first reference volume devoted to the works of this prolific composer and lyricist, who died in November 2021. Now in paperback, its entries provide detailed information about Sondheim's work and key figures in his career, including all of his major works such as Assassins, Company, A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum, Gypsy, Into the Woods, A Little Night Music, Sunday in the Park with George, Sweeney Todd, and more.
Available Format: Book
Mozart's Operas and National Politics: Canon Formation in Prague from 1791 to the Present
Martin Nedbal; Cambridge University Press; Hardback
As an in-depth study of Mozart criticism and performance practice and a history of how eighteenth-century opera was appropriated by later political movements, this book explores the reception of Mozart's operas in Prague between 1791 and the present. Individual chapters focus on adaptations of Mozart's operas for Prague's theatres, criticism published in Prague's journals, and endeavours of cultural activists to construct monuments in recognition of the composer.
Available Format: Book
On African Music: Techniques, Influences, Scholarship
Kofi Agawu; Oxford University Press; Paperback
Written by one of the best-known academic writers on the subject, this collection of essays addresses various scholarly approaches to African music. Dealing with analytical and interpretive issues, the politics of scholarship, and salient features of African music, it is laced with provocative viewpoints, and should appeal not only to readers curious about the structural underpinnings of African music but also to those who wish to reflect on how we study and write about the music of that continent.
Available Format: Book
John Sullivan Dwight: The Life and Writings of Boston's Musical Transcendentalist
Bill F. Faucett; Oxford University Press; Hardback
John Sullivan Dwight was, for much of the nineteenth century, America's leading music critic. Educated at several premier Boston schools, he befriended Ralph Waldo Emerson, Elizabeth Palmer Peabody, Margaret Fuller, and others of a similarly progressive mindset. Charting Dwight's relationships with other musicians and thinkers, as well as his evolution into a powerful writer in his own right, this book illuminates his enormous body of writings to reveal his influence on music criticism.
Available Format: Book
Song, Landscape, and Identity in Medieval Northern France: Toward an Environmental History
Jennifer Saltzstein; Oxford University Press; Paperback
Informed by environmental history and harnessing musicological and ecocritical approaches, this volume draws connections between the nature imagery that pervades songs written by the trouvères of northern France to the physical terrain and climate of the lands on which their authors lived. In doing so, it analyses the different ways in which composers' lived environments related to their songs and categorises their use of nature imagery as realistic, aspirational, or nostalgic.
Available Format: Book
How To Build Relationships in the Music Industry: A Guide for Musicians
Arlette Hovinga; Rowman & Littlefield; Paperback
Are you frustrated with promoters and other industry people leaving your emails unanswered? Do you wish to get more bookings but don’t know how to approach the right people? Through interviews with dozens of professionals from across the globe, this book presents valuable insights and anecdotes that will help any musician present their next project in a way that works in the long term, leading to better relationships, more bookings, and a stronger following.
Available Format: Book
This book shines a spotlight on Amy Winehouse's incredible writing talent, wit, charm, and lust for life. Bringing together Amy’s own never-before-seen journals, handwritten lyrics and family photographs for the first time, this intimate tribute traces her creative evolution from growing up in North London to global superstardom, providing a rare insight into the girl who became a legend.
Available Format: Book
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