Music-History & Criticism

In an extraordinary story unfolding across two hundred years, Kristina Gaddy uncovers the banjo's key role in Black spirituality, ritual, and rebellion. Through meticulous research in diaries, letters, archives, and art, she traces the banjo's beginnings from the seventeenth century, when enslaved people of...

The music of the peoples of South and Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean is treated with unprecedented breadth in this multi-volume work. Taking a sociocultural and human-centered approach, Music in Latin America and the Caribbean gathers the best scholarship from writers all over...

The music of the peoples of South and Central America, Mexico, and the Caribbean has never received a comprehensive treatment in English until this multi-volume work. Taking a sociocultural and human-centered approach, Music in Latin America and the Caribbean gathers the best scholarship from...

Celebrating its 100th anniversary, this extraordinary series continues to amaze and captivate its readers with detailed insight into the lives and work of music's geniuses. Unlike other composer biographies that focus narrowly on the music, this series explores the personal history of each composer...

A century onward, it still speaks to us, sometimes powerfully, sometime poignantly: the music of the years between World War I and World War II. These decades held both echoes and premonitions of danger, but also beauty and delight, all of that, and so...

History of the American Pianoforte - Its Technical Development, and theTrade is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1890. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine,...

Wagner's book-length essay on Beethoven is really about Wagner himself rather than Beethoven. It is generally regarded as the principal aesthetic statement of the composer's later years and is an essential text in the teaching of not only Wagnerian thought but also late nineteenth-century...

Liszt's Final Decade reveals in the composer's own words to his confidantes Carolyne von Sayn-Wittgenstein and Olga von Meyendorff how he resolved his conflicted self-image as a celebrated performer but underappreciated composer. Toward the end of his life Franz Liszt maintained extensive correspondence with...

In 1910, the Tuxedo Jazz Band played its first show at the Tuxedo Dance Hall in Storyville under Oscar Celestin. The popular ensemble went on to play all over New Orleans, as well as across the South and the nation. In 1953, it became...

Where did the major scale come from? Why does most traditional non-Western music not share Western principles of harmony? What does the inner structure of a canon have to do with religious belief? Why, in historical terms, is J.S. Bach's music regarded as a...

One of the greatest of composers, Ludwig van Beethoven was also a profound and sensitive thinker. Although they are not well known, his writings and quotations about art, nature, and suffering illuminate his music, give insight into his life, and provide an uncommon wisdom...

Throughout the history of popular music, the careers of many culturally significant artists and groups began on the small stages of local bars clubs, pubs, and discotheques. When the stories of The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and the New York punk hardcore and post punk...

A comprehensive introduction to film music, this book provides a concise and illuminating summary of the process of film scoring, as well as a succinct overview of the rich history of contemporary film music.Written in a non-technical style, this book begins by presenting a...

Clara Schumann: A Romantic Biography is a comprehensive book written by John N. Burk that explores the life and legacy of Clara Schumann, a renowned pianist and composer of the Romantic era. The book delves into Clara's early life, her musical education, and her...

When Billy J. Kramer's "Do You Want To Know A Secret?" by Lennon and McCartney topped the charts in 1963, he was the first singer in the world to have a number one hit with a Beatles song, apart from the Fab Four themselves....

Poor Gal: The Cultural History of Little Liza Jane chronicles the origins and evolution of a folk tune beloved by millions worldwide. Dan Gutstein delves into the trajectory of the "Liza Jane" family of songs, including the most popular variant "Li'l Liza Jane." Likely...

The Language of the Modes provides a study of modes in early music through eight essays, each dealing with a different aspects of modality. The volume codifies all known theoretical references to mode, all modally ordered musical sources, and all modally cyclic compositions. For...

Poldowski (Irène Dean Paul née Wieniawska) 1879-1932 was the youngest daughter of the celebrated violinist/composer, Henryk Wieniawski. The only member of her family to follow her father into the music profession, she developed from a child prodigy into one of the most important and...

In February 1968 and March 1976, the Who performed shows in the same venue, almost ten years apart: San Francisco's Winterland. Generally considered as two marginal years in the Who's career, they are only apparently so. These two years represent a screen grab of...

Immerse yourself in the world of American music with Daniel Gregory Mason's book The Art of Music: Music in America. This enlightening account covers American music from its earliest times to the onset of the 20th century. Mason delves into the various musical forms...

A detailed and insightful analysis of J.S. Bach's seminal work, 'The Well-Tempered Clavier', offering a fresh perspective on the music, its composition, and its historical context. This book is an essential resource for students and scholars of music theory, history, and performance.This work has...

The number of surviving medieval secular poems attributed to named female authors is small, some of the best known being those of the trobairitz the female troubadours of southern France. However, there is a large body of poetry that constructs a particular textual femininity...

This updated and expanded edition of Tommy at Fifty is the definitive illustrated companion to the album that made the Who one of the greatest and most influential bands of the rock era. Written by two leading experts on, and close associates of, the...

The evolution of the record producer from organizer to auteur, from Phil Spector and George Martin to the rise of hip-hop and remixing.In the 1960s, rock and pop music recording questioned the convention that recordings should recreate the illusion of a concert hall setting....

A biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams, published in collaboration with the Bard Music Festival. Ralph Vaughan Williams (1872-1958) was one of the most innovative and creative figures in twentieth-century music, whose symphonies stand alongside those of Sibelius, Nielsen, Shostakovich, and Roussel. After his death,...

Music and Urban Life in Baroque Germany offers a new narrative of Baroque music, accessible to non-music specialists, in which Tanya Kevorkian defines the era in terms of social dynamics rather than style and genre development. Towns were crucial sites of music-making. Kevorkian explores...

Ten Thousand Voices is a history of choral music at the University of Virginia viewed through the lens of the oldest musical organization at UVA, the Virginia Glee Club. On the occasion of the Glee Club's 150th anniversary, the book explores the roots of...

Author: Alfred E. LemmonISBN-10: 0917860659ISBN-13: 9780917860652Publisher: Historic New Orleans CollectionLanguage: EnglishPublished: 03/01/2014Pages: 284Format: HardcoverWeight: 2.30lbsSize: 10.70h x 8.20w x 0.60d

An audiobook reflecting on the meaning of the revolutionary band Nirvana, their leader Kurt Cobain, and the band's personal, musical and cultural contexts in the '90s.It has been three decades since Nirvana upended the pop cultural landscape with Nevermind, the landmark album that became...

Sounds, Ecologies, Musics poses exciting challenges and provides fresh opportunities for scholars, scientists, environmental activists, musicians, and listeners to consider music and sound from ecological standpoints. Authors in Part I examine the natural and built environment and how music and sound are woven into...

An account of nineteenth-century music in Atlantic worlds told through the history of the art's elemental medium, the air. Often experienced as universal and incorporeal, music seems an innocent art form. The air, the very medium by which music constitutes itself, shares with music...

A ground-breaking study of the rise of the catch and glee in Georgian England. The rise of the catch and glee in Georgian England represents a rare example of indigenous forms establishing themselves within a wide musical and social context. This study examines a...

Articles on English music, from the medieval period to the present day, centred on four of the major areas of scholarly enquiry. The major themes of the essays in this collection reflect the work of the distinguished scholar John Caldwell, professor of music at...

VINYL MAY BE FINAL NAIL IN CD'S COFFIN ran the headline in a Wired magazine article in October 2007. Ever since the arrival of the long--playing record in 1948, the album has acted as the soundtrack to our lives. Record collections--even on a CD...

Author: John BehrensISBN-10: 1456729527ISBN-13: 9781456729523Publisher: AuthorhouseLanguage: EnglishPublished: 03/03/2011Pages: 164Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.85lbsSize: 10.90h x 8.20w x 0.50d

On the Drumhead is a book that contains a selection of the writing of Mike Quin. Mike Quin is an accomplished writer who has written extensively on a variety of topics, including politics, culture, and music. This book brings together some of his most...

PHOEBE BRIDGERS released her debut album STRANGER IN THE ALPS in 2017.Her second album PUNISHER came three years later in 2020 and was then followed by three EPs.She has also been part of several groups, including SLOPPY JANE, BETTER OBLIVION COMMUNITY CENTER, and BOYGENIUS....

Transfigured New York presents conversations with iconic, genre-bending artists who shaped the sounds of experimental movements like no wave, avant-jazz, and electronic music. As an undergrad in the 1980s, Brooke Wentz hosted the show Transfigured Night on Columbia University's WKCR-FM, discussing art and ideas...

Explore the rich history of music in Maine with this fascinating book. From fiddlers' conventions to classical ensembles, the author covers it all, shedding light on the people, places, and events that have shaped Maine's musical traditions. Featuring photographs, personal stories, and in-depth research,...

Today, country music enjoys a national fan base that transcends both economic and social boundaries. Sixty years ago, however, it was primarily the music of rural, working-class whites living in the South and was perceived by many Americans as "hillbilly music." In Smile When...

Handel is recognized as one of the principal creative figures in Baroque music. In this Companion acknowledged experts on Handel make their expertise accessible to the interested general reader and music lover. All the genres in which Handel composed are considered including oratorio, chamber...

Just as the preoccupations of any given cultural moment make their way into the language of music, the experience of music makes its way into other arenas of life. To unearth these overlapping meanings and vocabularies from the Victorian era, Ruth A. Solie examines...

The five countries that make up Northern Europe--Denmark, Sweden, Norway, Finland, and Iceland--have, over the course of the last several centuries, developed and unique and viable art music history that easily rivals that of their continental neighbors. Nordic Art Music: From the Middle Ages...

An audiobook reflecting on the meaning of the revolutionary band Nirvana, their leader Kurt Cobain, and the band's personal, musical and cultural contexts in the '90s.It has been three decades since Nirvana upended the pop cultural landscape with Nevermind, the landmark album that became...

Jim Sullivan - a 2023 inductee into the New England Music Hall of Fame - spent 26 years writing for the Boston Globe and two decades more writing for national publications. He has interviewed and reviewed countless musicians, many of them multiple times. The...

Since its first performance in 1724, J.S. Bach's St. John Passion has captured the spiritual and musical attention of audiences and congregations. Combining expert theological and musical analysis, this booklooks at this monumental work from a twenty-first century perspective, providing a new English translation...

A rich and fascinating account of one of music history's most ancient, varied, and distinctive instruments From its origins in animal horn instruments in classical antiquity to the emergence of the modern horn in the seventeenth century, the horn appears wherever and whenever humans...

This enlightening book reframes the history of hip-hop--and this time, women are given credit for all their trailblazing achievements that have left an undeniable impact on music. FIRST THINGS FIRST, hip-hop is not just the music, and women have played a big role in...

Vaporwave is music as Internet meme, an ironic and difficult to classify microgenre born online at the turn of the 2010s in an explosion of millennial ambivalence. Vaporwave blends an unlikely spectrum of musical elements - from Muzak and the incidental sounds of music...

Scouse Pop is a journey into the personalities and music of the successful pioneering Liverpool pop bands of the late seventies and eighties. It examines their motivations, their uniqueness and the routes to success which made them into enduring musical innovators. It looks at...