Music-History & Criticism

The venerable Dixie Hummingbirds stand at the top of the black gospel music pantheon as artists who not only significantly shaped that genre but, in the process, also profoundly influenced emerging American pop music genres from Rhythm & Blues and Doo-Wop to Rock 'n'...

In Auld Lang Syne: A Song and its Culture, M. J. Grant explores the history of this iconic song, demonstrating how its association with ideas of fellowship, friendship and sociality has enabled it to become so significant for such a wide range of individuals...

Komitas Vardapet is the most significant and iconic figure of Armenia. He is revered by all Armenians. A tragic figure and the genius of Armenian music, he survived the Armenian genocide, yet his story remains at the cultural center of the Armenian people and...

Stories of the secret underground Cold War-era Soviet music subculture that distributed forbidden music on used hospital x-rays. During the Cold War era, the songs that Soviet citizens could listen to were ruthlessly controlled by the state. But a secret underground subculture of music...

Winner of the 2023 ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Book AwardRecipient of a 2023 Certificate of Merit for Best Historical Research in Recorded Jazz from the Association for Recorded Sound Collections Keith Hatschek tells the story of three determined artists: Louis Armstrong, Dave Brubeck,...

Over several years, Bertrand Denzler and Jean-Luc Guionnet have interviewed approximately 50 musicians from various backgrounds about their practice of musical improvisation. Musicians include both the very experienced such as Sophie Agnel, Burkhard Beins, John Butcher, Rhodri Davies, Bill Dixon, Phil Durrant, Axel Dner,...

Of all of the 'classic' British rockers who came to prominence in the 1960s, only a very few have achieved significant, sustained success through to the present day. A list that comprises Paul McCartney and The Rolling Stones should also include Eric Clapton. His...

Who are "the folk" in folk music? This book traces the musical culture of these elusive figures in Britain and the US during a crucial period of industrialization from 1870 to 1930, and beyond to the contemporary alt-right. Drawing on a broad, interdisciplinary range...

This Companion presents a new understanding of the relationship between music and culture in and around the nineteenth century, and encourages readers to explore what Romanticism in music might mean today. Challenging the view that musical 'romanticism' is confined to a particular style or...

When Tim Smith died in July of 2020, he left behind a legion of adoring fans and an honorary doctorate in music. Not bad for someone who never had a top ten hit and who's music was so infamous during its heyday, that some...

Offers unique perspectives on the clarinet's historical role in various styles, genres, and ensembles, from jazz and ethnic traditions to classical chamber music, concertos, opera, and symphony orchestras. With essays written by leading performer-scholars, The Clarinet offers unique perspectives on the clarinet's historical role...

Since the early transformation of European music practice and theory in the cultural centers of Asia, Latin America, and Africa around 1900, music history has to be conceived globally - a challenge that musicology has hardly faced yet. This book discusses the effects of...

Mention the words 'heavy metal' with regards to the past four decades, and chances are one of the first names you'll get back is Iron Maiden. From their early days as front-runners of the New Wave Of British Heavy Metal in 1980, through to...

FAME Publishing first opened in 1959 and produced hits for great musicians like Etta James, Clarence Carter and Aretha Franklin.ot long after, the city of Muscle Shoals became known as the "Hit Recording Capital of the World." FAME was the foundation that produced Muscle...

Blues history is steeped in Chicago's sidewalks; it floats out of its restaurants, airport lounges and department stores. It is a fundamental part of the city's heritage that every resident should know and every visitor should be afraid to miss. Allow Rosalind Cummings-Yeates to...

"It's Time To Party," the first track off of I Get Wet, opens with a rapid-fire guitar line -- nothing fancy, just a couple crunchy power chords to acclimate the ears -- repeated twice before a booming bass drum joins in to provide a...

"I don't know where he's buried, but if I did I'd piss on his grave." --Jerry Wexler, best friend and mentor Here Comes the Night: Bert Berns and the Dirty Business of Rhythm and Blues is both a definitive account of the New York...

An engaging, practical, sometimes poetic account of the new world of percussion music -- from the 1930s (Varese, Cage) to today -- by one of its leading practitioners. In the beginning there was noise. Drumming, the world's most ancient instrumental tradition, re-emerged explosively in...

THE AMADEUS BOOK OF THE VIOLIN CONSTRUCTION HISTORY AND MUSICAuthor: Walter KolnederISBN-10: 1574670387ISBN-13: 9781574670387Publisher: AmadeusLanguage: EnglishPublished: 03/01/2003Pages: 600Format: PaperbackWeight: 2.25lbsSize: 9.20h x 7.30w x 1.20dReview Citation(s): Library Journal 09/15/1998 pg. 82

Listen to This stands out as the first book exclusively dedicated to Davis's watershed 1969 album, Bitches Brew. Victor Svorinich traces its incarnations and inspirations for ten-plus years before its release. The album arrived as the jazz scene waned beneath the rise of rock-and-roll...

The Beatles' North American tours turned the entertainment business on its ear and forever changed the landscape of the concert touring industry. In February 1964, after finally achieving a number-one hit in America, the Fab Four came to the country with high hopes, performing...

Place any musical style in front of Faith No More, and seemingly, a timeless song of their own would soon be created. Between 1985-1997, Faith No More issued six full-length recordings (including such classic titles as 'The Real Thing' and 'Angel Dust') and in...

"Funny and smart" (The New Yorker) criticism of why we turn to art--specifically to poetry and popular music--and how it serves as an essential tool to understanding life. How can art help us make sense--or nonsense--of the world? If wrong life cannot be lived...

Released in 1979, AC/DC's Highway To Hell was the infamous last album recorded with singer Bon Scott, who died of alcohol poisoning in London in February of 1980. Officially chalked up to "Death by Misadventure," Scott's demise has forever secured the album's reputation as...

The history of garage rock's rebirth is now told - through the new book The Knights of Fuzz: the new garage & psychedelic music explosion. The ongoing Knights of Fuzz history project began as a 1990 book titled Echoes In Time. This first modern...

EIGHT MILES HIGH FOLK ROCK'S FLIGHT FROM HAIGHT ASHBURY TO WOODSTOCKAuthor: Richie UnterbergerISBN-10: 0879307439ISBN-13: 9780879307431Publisher: Backbeat BooksLanguage: EnglishPublished: 05/01/2003Pages: 370Format: PaperbackWeight: 1.33lbsSize: 9.32h x 6.10w x 0.90dReview Citation(s): Choice 02/01/2004 pg. 1088

AMERICAN BASSES AN ILLUSTRATED HISTORY AND PLAYERS GUIDEAuthor: Jim RobertsISBN-10: 0879307218ISBN-13: 9780879307219Publisher: Backbeat BooksLanguage: EnglishPublished: 05/01/2003Pages: 210Format: PaperbackWeight: 1.20lbsSize: 10.90h x 8.40w x 0.60d

Spanning nine decades and showcasing the most memorable songs, dazzling dancing, and brightest stars ever to grace the silver screen, Must-See Musicals is the guide to the greatest musicals of all time from the most trusted authority on film: Turner Classic Movies. Movie musicals...

An approach to music as an instrument of philosophical inquiry, seeking not so much a philosophy of music as a philosophy through music.Author: Victor ZuckerkandlISBN-10: 069101759XISBN-13: 9780691017594Publisher: Princeton University PressLanguage: EnglishPublished: 10/21/1969Pages: 407Format: PaperbackWeight: 1.00lbsSize: 8.07h x 5.05w x 1.03d

When Jimi Hendrix died, the idea of a black man playing lead guitar in a rock band seemed exotic. Yet ten years earlier, Chuck Berry had stood among the most influential rock and roll performers. Why did rock and roll become white? Jack Hamilton...

National Book Critics Circle Award-winning author Carol Brightman brings the Grateful Dead and their history to life in this fascinating and "cogent, intelligent look at the Dead and the structure of American culture into which they so successfully tapped" (Publishers Weekly, starred review). San...

TURN ON YOUR MIND FOUR DECADES OF GREAT PSYCHEDELIC ROCKAuthor: Jim DeRogatisISBN-10: 0634055488ISBN-13: 9780634055485Publisher: Hal Leonard Publishing CorporationLanguage: EnglishPublished: 12/01/2003Pages: 658Format: PaperbackWeight: 1.89lbsSize: 8.82h x 6.04w x 1.34dReview Citation(s): Library Journal 02/15/2004 pg. 128

"...the best extant map of our sonic shadowlands, and it has changed how I listen."--Alex Ross, The New Yorker "...an essential survey of contemporary music."--New York Times "...sharp, provacative and always on the money. The listening list alone promises months of fresh discovery, the...

Mach has produced a book of uncommon interest. -- Washington PostMach's interviews will enhance the pleasure of any concertgoer. -- PeopleIn this rich collection of fascinating interviews with 25 of the world's greatest pianists of the contemporary era, Elyse Mach has chosen to let...

Independent of his international renown as a humanitarian, Albert Schweitzer is well known as a great musicologist; a reputation that rests largely upon this book. Schweitzer's J. S. Bach is one of the great full-length studies of the composer, his life, and his work....

"As you read, light bulbs switch on: that's what was going when she recorded that; now I can see where he got that sound."--LA Weekly43 Jazz Conversations Miles Davis, Gil Evans, Dizzy Gillespie, Jon Hendricks, Max Roach, Betty Carter, Jackie McLean, Don Cherry, Sonny...

Los Lobos leaped into the national spotlight in 1987, when their cover of "La Bamba" became a No. 1 hit. But what looked like an overnight achievement to the band's new fans was actually a way station in a long musical journey that began...

For as long as people have worshipped together, music has played a key role in church life. With O Sing unto the Lord, Andrew Gant offers a fascinating history of English church music, from the Latin chant of late antiquity to the great proliferation...

Electronic music evokes new sensations, feelings, and thoughts in both composers and listeners. Opening the door to an unlimited universe of sound, it engages spatialization as an integral aspect of composition and focuses on sound transformation as a core structural strategy. In this new...

Native American Music in Eastern North America is one of many case-study volumes that can be used along with Thinking Musically, the core book in the Global Music Series. Thinking Musically incorporates music from many diverse cultures and establishes the framework for exploring the...

National Bestseller * Named one of Rolling Stone's Best Music Books of 2018 * One of Newsweek's 50 Best Books of 2018 * A Billboard Best of 2018 * A New York Times Book Review "New and Noteworthy" selectionThe author of the critically acclaimed...

Learn the story behind the song performed by Andra Day in "United States vs. Billie Holiday" now on Hulu Recorded by jazz legend Billie Holiday in 1939, "Strange Fruit" is considered the first significant song of the Civil Rights movement and the first direct...

"[A] magical, profound, and elegant look at the continued need for high quality in our throw away society." --Douglas Brinkley, HistorianThis intensely human story, which moves from an ageless workshop in Brooklyn to the rehearsal rooms of Carnegie Hall and Lincoln Center, and across...

Bedroom Rapper is a book for obsessive music fans who are looking for the definitive take on what's happened in the last two decades of hip hop, from Cadence Weapon, aka Rollie Pemberton: Pitchfork critic, award-winning musician, producer, DJ, and poet laureate. Tracing his...

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...

Music represents one of humanity's most vivid contemplations on the nature of time itself. The ways that music can modify, intensify, and even dismantle our understanding of time's passing is at the foundation of musical experience, and is common to listeners, composers, and performers...

Few, if any bands, have been as prolific or consistently creative as Genesis were in the 1970s, both together and apart. Across that decade, the mothership released eight studio and two live albums, played a thousand concerts and launched the solo careers of four...

Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville surveys the opera's fascinating performance history, mapping out the myriad changes that have affected the work since its premiere, exploring many of the personalities responsible for those alterations, and taking into account the range of reactions that these...

Ever since their debut single was released in 1983, The Smiths have influenced musicians worldwide with their jangly guitar pop, infectious melodies and front man Morrissey's passionate lyrics. During their relatively short lifespan (1982-1987) the quartet released four now iconic albums and lots of...

The definitive book on Australian punk and post-punk music, long unavailable, now reissued in a much-expanded new edition with 175 photos. Stranded offers the inside story of the emergence of the Saints, the Birthday Party, the Laughing Clowns, the Go-Betweens, Nick Cave, the Triffids,...