Music-Essays

In this penetrating volume, Harvey Sachs, acclaimed biographer and historian of classical music, takes readers into the hearts of ten extraordinary works of classical music in ten different genres, showing both the curious novice and the seasoned listener how to recognize, appreciate, and engage...

Elizabeth (Bess) Cronin, 'The Queen of Irish Song', as S amus Ennis called her, is probably the best-known Irish female traditional singer of our time. Her reputation was such that collectors came from far and near to hear and record her singing. This publication...

'Wagner's art refuses to stand still, declines to play by the rules and will not observe any of the social graces'What is it that makes Wagner's art so endlessly powerful? So influential, seductive and repellent? So simultaneously creative and destructive? And why does it...

The final installment of John Zorn's major series of new music theory, with Oren Ambarchi, Peter Blegvad, Annea Lockwood, Henry Threadgill and many moreInitiated in 1997 and now in its tenth and final installment, John Zorn's acclaimed Arcana series is a major source of...

Fifty great writers reflect on the albums that shaped them in this captivating collection curated by the New Statesman's Tom Gatti. Our favorite albums are our most faithful companions: we listen to them hundreds of times over decades, we know them far better than...

Pop music surrounds us - in our cars, over supermarket speakers, even when we are laid out at the dentist - but how often do we really hear what's playing? Switched on Pop is the book based on the eponymous podcast that has been...

By the bestselling author of Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll and Last Train the Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, this dazzling new book of profiles is a culmination of Peter Guralnick's remarkable work, which from the start has encompassed...

Writings and interviews engaging the artists and themes from Blank Forms' public programming, from Thulani Davis to Charles CurtisThis iteration privileges new texts produced for the publication. These include an interview with the idiosyncratic Texan singer-songwriter and visual artist Terry Allen, conducted by curator...

Founded in 1967 by Aubrey "Po" Powell, Storm Thorgerson, and Peter Christopherson, graphic design firm Hipgnosis gained legendary status by transforming the look of album art through their designs for AC/DC, Black Sabbath, the Police, Genesis, Led Zeppelin, Pink Floyd, Paul McCartney, Syd Barrett,...

This Swiss composer's conceptual and practical guide to the mind/body overlap in music and martial artsOver the past 20 years, Swiss musician and composer Nik B舐tsch (born 1971) has performed around the world and released a number of albums with ECM Records. During this...

Secrets of master guitarists, revealed in conversation. Guitar Talk offers interviews with many of the most creative guitarists of our time. This new book presents these conversations, between Joel Harrison and Nels Cline, Pat Metheny, Fred Frith, Bill Frisell, Julian Lage, Elliott Sharp, Michael...

An idiosyncratic and affordable cross-genre history of sound art, from Alexander von Humboldt to liane RadigueIn Sounding Things Out, Dutch composer and sound artist Esther Venrooy (born 1974) seeks to enlarge and diversify the narrative on sound art by highlighting important pioneers in the...

How do you explain a mystery? This opaque mythology is something that pervades a lot of the poems here, inspired by the sideways, the askew, the fables of Aphex Twin. This isn't intended to be a discovery of who Aphex is, nor necessarily what...

A team of experts write about each era of the band's existence, examining what they were doing for each of their original 12 UK-release albums.This informative work tells the story of the famous Liverpool musicians, from the band's formative days in Hamburg and Liverpool...

"Doucet takes a refreshingly genre-free approach, careening from heady dub reggae to pastoral folk-rock, from unreal disco workouts to mind-bending electronica. His enthusiasm is such that you'll be stopping on every page to track down the songs being discussed." -- Aquarium DrunkardLet go of...

'The loveliest - and certainly the most human - book about pop music I've ever read ... A delightful and humane soap opera, a real page-turner, full of rounded and entirely recognisable characters.'Jon Ronson, Daily TelegraphTHE DEFINITIVE HISTORY OF BRITPOP - BLUR, OASIS, ELASTICA,...

A monumental work of musical history, Yeah! Yeah! Yeah! traces the story of pop music through songs, bands, musical scenes, and styles from Bill Haley and the Comets' "Rock around the Clock" (1954) to Beyoncé's first megahit, "Crazy in Love" (2003). Bob Stanley--himself a...

"May be the best book ever written about jazz."--David Thomson, Los Angeles Times In eight poetically charged vignettes, Geoff Dyer skillfully evokes the music and the men who shaped modern jazz. Drawing on photos, anecdotes, and, most important, the way he hears the music,...

With technology, music has never been more constant. It is heard on phones and in waiting rooms, in coffee shops and on television. Despite such exposure, the number of people able to make music for themselves is dwindling. Classical Christian schools have a unique...

Three decades of celebrity portraiture from an acclaimed master of the genreThe celebrity portraits of Austrian photographer Manfred Baumann (born 1968) capture distinct personalities while also framing them as special--larger than life. Through the lens of his Leica, Baumann has photographed countless celebrities of...

Fun, bright, and playful, Power Pop is a sometimes adored, sometimes maligned, often misunderstood genre of music. From its heyday in the 70 s and 80 s to its resurgence in the 90 s and 00 s, Power Pop has meant many things to...

The definitive oral history of the New Romantics. Sweet Dreams charts the British cultural explosion that happened in the ten years from 1975-1985 -- the rise of the New Romantics. Growing out of the remnants of the post-punk period, the New Romantics introduced club...

If you are a singer or voice teacher looking for training options, you will soon discover that there are multitudes of people, products, and ideas out there claiming to be able to help you. How do you sort it out? How can you advocate...

In one corner, a godless young warrior, Voltaire's heralded 'philosopher-king', the It Boy of the Enlightenment. In the other, a devout if bad-tempered old composer of 'outdated' music, a scorned genius in his last years. The sparks from their brief conflict illuminate a turbulent...

Edited by iconic musician Kim Gordon and esteemed writer Sin饌d Gleeson, this powerful collection of award-winning female creators shares their writing about the female artists that matter most to them. This book is for and about the women who kicked in doors, as pioneers...

By the bestselling author of Sam Phillips: The Man Who Invented Rock 'n' Roll and Last Train the Memphis: The Rise of Elvis Presley, this dazzling new book of profiles is a culmination of Peter Guralnick's remarkable work, which from the start has encompassed...

A collection of essays on music and life by the famed classical pianist and composer Stephen Hough is one of the world's leading pianists, winning global acclaim and numerous awards, both for his concerts and his recordings. He is also a writer, composer, and...

In 1977, Art Ensemble of Chicago Publishing Co. published Jarman's Black Case, a collection of writing conceived across America and Europe between 1960 and 1975. Comprised largely of Jarman's flowing, fiery free verse--influenced by Amus Mor, Henry Dumas, Thulani Davis, and Amiri Baraka--the book...

The greatest interviews with the greatest rock stars, movie stars, and cultural icons -- uncensored and unfiltered -- are published together in one remarkable volume in celebration of Rolling Stones 40th anniversary.Author: Joe LevyISBN-10: 0316005266ISBN-13: 9780316005265Publisher: Back Bay BooksLanguage: EnglishPublished: 11/01/2007Pages: 496Format: PaperbackWeight: 1.16lbsSize:...

Written in 1968 and revised in 1972, Awopbopaloobop Alopbamboom was the first book to celebrate the language and the primal essence of rock 'n' roll. But it was much more than that. It was a cogent history of an unruly era, from the rise...

The team behind the longest running food podcast, Snacky Tunes, presents a one-of-a-kind book exploring chefs' profound relationship with music through never-before-seen stories and recipesFounded in 2009 by Darin and Greg Bresnitz, the podcast Snacky Tunes served as the first platform to discuss food...

Through the precession of simulacra, we have arrived at a landscape of e-girls and sad boys, the aesthetic values of our time transposed onto the ecstatic communications of the hyperreal. Through Baudrillardian analysis, Alex Mazey attempts to trace a genealogy of Sad Boy Aesthetics,...

'Fascinating and illuminating' STYLIST 'Perceptive and candid' IRISH TIMES 'Wide-ranging, deep-dive, soul-baring interviews, full of candid, intimate, spiky meditations on inspiration, artistry, sexuality, race, love, self-doubt, abuse, defiance and everything in between' OBSERVER 'Variously optimistic, troubling, joyful, illuminating, fierce and thoughtful' GUARDIAN INTERVIEWS WITH...

Gold Award, Independent Publisher Book AwardsNominated, Award of Excellence in Historical Sound Research by the Association for Recorded Sound CollectionsThe Ballad of Tommy LiPuma is the story of one of America's most successful record producers, whose work with seminal artists like Miles Davis, Diana...

An all-star lineup of rock-n-rollers-from Jane's Addiction's Perry Farrell to Suzi Quatro and Verdine White of Earth, Wind & Fire-relay the uproariously wild, sentimental, and unexpected pre-stardom stories behind their favorite records. Rock Stars on the Record is a collection of first-hand tales by...

When all else fails, when our compass is broken, there is one thing some of us have come to rely on: music really can give us a sense of something like home. With It Gets Me Home, This Curving Track, legendary music critic Ian...

In The Sound of Memory, concert violinist Rebecca Fischer wrestles with the life of a performing artist in the twenty-first century, the physical and material components of memory, the nature of musical inheritance, and the gifts and pressures of a calling that runs generations...

"There are many sounds in Lauren Turner's Shape Note Singing and the notes played are precise and unnamable, the questions holy and vast. Turner gives us vision; a body of work that recognizes the possibilities of listening when we relinquish control. These poems reverberate...

"WhateverTom Piazza writes is touched with magic." --Douglas BrinkleyAcclaimed author Tom Piazza follows hisprize-winning novel City of Refuge and the post-Katrinaclassic Why New Orleans Matters with a dynamic collection ofessays and journalism about American music and American character, in DevilSent the Rain."TomPiazza's writing is...

"Whether hanging out with musicians between sets or pressing up against the stage while they play, Tricarico seeks intimacy as well as energy." --Washington Post"Unique and highly recommended." --Midwest Book ReviewIn the late 1990s bands like Fugazi, Branch Manager, the Make-Up, Deep Lust, Quix*o*tic,...

Nobel Prize winner Bob Dylan's life in music is revisited by his foremost interpreter -- weaving individual moods and moments into a brilliant history of their changing times. The book begins in Berkeley in 1968, and ends with a piece on Dylan's show at...

In this collection of essays, legendary theatre director Peter Brook reflects on the role of music in theatre and performance and revisits some of the best-known productions from his long and distinguished career, including Titus Andronicus, Don Giovanni, The Magic Flute, and The Prisoner....

This two-volume set, Poesy Matters and Other Matters, presents selected texts by the Swedish polymath Catherine Christer Hennix. Volume one, Poesy Matters, is divided into two sections: poetry and drama, with each section also containing pieces of commentary by Hennix or her longtime collaborator...

The remarkable rags-to-riches story of Ruffhouse Records founder Chris Schwartz, who battled poverty, abuse, and addiction to start one of the most pivotal labels in hip-hop history and launch the careers of Ms. Lauryn Hill, The Fugees, Wyclef Jean, NAS, Cypress Hill, DMX, Jermaine...

Captures seven hit-making decades during the American recording industry's glittering, freewheeling years.Tommy LiPuma was one of America's most successful record producers whose work with seminal artists like Miles Davis, Diana Krall, Barbra Streisand, Rickie Lee Jones, George Benson, and Willie Nelson went on to...

'Young Hearts Run Free' is an antidote to 'I Love the 1970s'; it is the real story of the 1970s from the critically acclaimed author of 'Manchester, England'.The 1970s is a decade frequently miscast; a parade of fashion disasters backed by a soundtrack of...

Communal music has the power to shape a soul and a society.In many places today, a culture of singing and making music remains robust, despite pressure from the commercial music industry. Or it was until the Covid pandemic hit and we glimpsed what a...

Here is one of the most enjoyable and illuminating books ever published for the music lover, a feast of delightful anecdotes that reveal the all-too-human side of the great composers and performers. There are stories of appetites (Handel eating dinner for three), embarrassments (Brahms...

In the fall of 2015, a collection of faculty at liberal arts colleges began a conversation about the challenges we faced as instructors: Why were there so few course materials accessible to undergraduates and lay readers that reflected current scholarly debate? How can we...

Gathering together shards of autobiography, poetry, and critical commentary on music and writing, Sheets of Sound evokes DeWald's experiences as a musician and poet, father and teacher, movie-lover and teenage skater. This debut collection of essays-by turns lyric and philosophic-reflects on jazz improvisation, poetic...