Music-History & Criticism

A groundbreaking exploration of Belize's rich and diverse musical heritage, Music History of Belize: 1718-1985 traces the evolution of sound, culture, and identity from the colonial era to the rise of Punta Rock.Drawing on historical records, oral traditions, and cultural analysis, Derrick Straughan uncovers...

"Turandot: Full Score" provides the complete musical notation for Giacomo Puccini's final and perhaps most ambitious opera. Set in an ancient, mythological China, the narrative centers on the formidable Princess Turandot, who executes any suitor unable to answer her three riddles. When the mysterious...

More than 30 million Americans who were born between 1946 and 1956 and entered adolescence during the 1960s had no idea how wild the ride would be through that restless, freewheeling, chaotic, and at times angry decade, a blur of sights and sounds through...

An entertaining and deeply nostalgic dive into how female pop stars broke through the music industry in the 2000s and altered the cultural landscape forever, from the Ringer writer and Every Single Album podcast cohost "Hit Girls bridges our butterfly-clipped, bedazzled past with today's...

What if a groove could spark a revolution?What if one man's horn could rewire how a continent thinks about power, music, and freedom?Felasophy: Rhythm, Rebellion & the Politics of Afrobeat is a lively, sharp-minded exploration of Fela Kuti's music as both sonic innovation and...

Originally published in 1927, this illuminating study concerns three people, about two of whom much has already been written. The third, Princess Carolyne Sayn-Wittgenstein, has attracted less attention, in spite of her having occupied the greater part of Liszt's inner life. Author: William WallaceISBN-10:...

First published in 1920, The Music of Spain deals with historical periods, schools and style and appears to embrace everything related to music provided it affects or is affected by Spain in some degree, no matter how small or insignificant.Author: Carl Van VechtenISBN-10: 1032760648ISBN-13:...

The Spanish Civil War was a landmark conflict of the twentieth century with deep international, political, and cultural resonance. Even given its impact, sustained interest in the plethora of ways music was employed during the era is a much more recent development. Music, Propaganda...

Drop a Dime in the Jukebox and Let the Memories Play! 100 Greatest 60s Pop Songs transports you to a golden era when AM radio ruled the airwaves and every song felt like summer. Hear the behind-the-scenes stories from the artists, producers, and songwriters...

A landmark celebration of Edward Elgar's life, music and enduring influence, bringing together leading voices from across the musical world. Of the many biographies and other books published about Edward Elgar few have brought together as many composers, performers, and writers as this anthology,...

The Perfect Gift for Rock 'N' Roll Fans!Rock 'N' roll originated in 1950s America, during a time of social and cultural change. This new genre of music blended the traditionally African American and Black sounds of blues and gospel with the historically white sounds...

A Brief History of Misheard Lyricsby Lina RawlinsEvery song tells two stories - the one written by the artist, and the one we invent when we hear it wrong.From "Hold me closer, Tony Danza" to "We built this city on sausage rolls," this delightfully...

"Jenny Lind the Artist, 1820-1851" offers an intimate portrait of the celebrated opera singer, Jenny Lind, often referred to as the 'Swedish Nightingale.' This memoir, compiled from original documents, letters, and diaries collected by Mr. Otto Goldschmidt, delves into her art-life and dramatic career...

From prehistoric bone flutes to viral TikTok hits, 250 Random Music Facts takes you on a whirlwind tour through centuries of sound. Explore strange instruments, iconic moments, legendary artists, global traditions, and behind-the-scenes secrets from every corner of the music world.Whether you're a casual...

This book widens the context of our understanding of the "modern" American jazz of the 1940s, 50s, and 60s by looking at writing about it by both musicians and commentators. Jazz, Race, and Writing, 1945-1970 addresses jazz at its modernist apotheosis, from the 1940s...

"Richard Wagner's Rheingold" is the first of the four operas that constitute Der Ring des Nibelungen. Wagner weaves together Norse mythology, epic storytelling, and complex musical themes to create a powerful and enduring work of art. This libretto offers a glimpse into the world...

Planet of Sound is a collection of essays, retrospectives, artist interviews and album reviews penned by award-winning rock critic and music historian Rev. Keith A. Gordon. Originally published by the Rock and Roll Globe website, the Reverend covers a wide range of rock and...

This booklet is a companion piece to Cecelia Otto's 2020 American Songline program "Centennial of Suffrage." The booklet tells the story of women's fight for the vote through the songs that reflected the struggle as it was being waged, opening an entertaining and illuminating...

Iconic Albums - Paul McCartney: Memory Almost FullTake a deep dive into one of Paul McCartney's most personal, ambitious, and emotionally revealing solo albums with Iconic Albums - Paul McCartney: Memory Almost Full.Far from a nostalgic retread, Memory Almost Full is a bold and...

A guide to essential classical listening written by a brilliant cellist and conductorAuthor: Keith HorsfallISBN-13: 9798201649104Publisher: APS PublicationsLanguage: EnglishPublished: 12/13/2016Pages: 256Format: PaperbackWeight: 0.76lbsSize: 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.54d

Wagner as Man & Artist" is a classic book, that has held significant value throughout history, and to ensure its timeless wisdom is never lost, Alpha Editions has carefully preserved it by republishing it in a modern, accessible format for both present and future...

The Violin; Its Famous Makers and Their Imitators, is a classical book and has been considered important throughout the human history. So that this book is never forgotten we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this again in a...

Musicians of To-Day, a classical book, has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we at Alpha Editions have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future...

This book has been considered by academicians and scholars of great significance and value to literature. This forms a part of the knowledge base for future generations. So that the book is never forgotten we have represented this book in a print format as...

This volume sheds new light on the origins of early serial music at the end of the 1940s and the beginning of the 1950s. Current music historical accounts of the development of serial music need to be revised in two ways. It is important...

Woody Guthrie's songs about the Dust Bowl Migration and the Great Depression give expression to one of the bleakest periods in the history of the United States, bearing witness both to the economic and political turmoil and to the human erosion of the 1930s....

This book discusses the historical development of South African indigenous choral music. The purpose is to demonstrate how South African indigenous choral music composers, in their attempt to establish some choral tradition that would determine their cultural identities, tried to incorporate indigenous musical elements...

Though the music of twelfth century nun composer, Hildegard of Bingen, has intrigued singers, musicologists and audiences since its modern rediscovery, the full implications of its innovative style have yet to be thoroughly investigated. This study aims to demonstrate that the original features of...

This work traces the development of jazz saxophonist Charlie Parker from the musical and cultural environment of Kansas City. Interviews with primary sources provide new information and insight concerning the events and chronology of Parker's early life. Transcription and analysis of sixteen early solos...

This study examines three styles of textural music -- phonography, noise, and free improvisation -- music which is based upon the layering of spectrally dense "fabrics" of sound, often improvised and performed live in front of an audience. In particular, I discuss the American...

Submitted as a graduate student's Master Degree thesis, Fall and Redemption is the story of a man's journey of recovery from drug use, and how playing country music helped him through it. The student/addict moved to his home town to come clean. His solaces...

John Cage (1912--1992) is probably best known for works that challenge the fundamental definition of music---for example, his groundbreaking 4'33". In the last six years of his life, however, Cage wrote 48 compositions now known as the Number Pieces---works, usually scored for conventional Western...

Donald Martino (1931-2005) has received a significant amount of recognition for his work both as a composer and a scholar. To date, however, a detailed theoretical-analytical study of Martino's music has yet to be published. Moreover, while Martino's twelve-tone compositions have received attention in...

This book presents the editions of Chopin's works as cultural texts and gives account of the main events in their reception history. Based on a new typology and an overview of copyright and economics, 140 editions evidence a dominance of a few popular works...

Baroque opera is entirely plurimedial. Like no other medium, it offers unique possibilities to create, transform and reinterpret common historical images and figures, using different but closely intertwined semantic levels (drama, music, acting). This makes baroque opera a promising subject of historical, political and...

A handbook of musical history and bibliography from St. Gregory to the present time is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1898. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking...

The Evolution of the Beautiful in Sound - A treatise, in two sections is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1888. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and...

The Theory of Sound in its Relation to Music is an unchanged, high-quality reprint of the original edition of 1888. Hansebooks is editor of the literature on different topic areas such as research and science, travel and expeditions, cooking and nutrition, medicine, and other...

The employment of civic musicians was a practice in most European countries in early modern Europe, all the way from London and Venice to small Danish towns. This study's objective is to lay out which kinds of civic musicians (stadsmusikanter) Denmark had, and to...

Alfonso I d'Este ruled Ferrara from 1505 to 1534. His passionate patronage raised the arts and music to unprecedented heights despite frequent wars and chronic economic difficulties. His reign was characterized by a stunning proliferation of sacred and profane musical images, reflecting the central...

This publication is the revised, expanded, and updated version of the book in French that appeared in 2010 from the same publisher: Les ducs d'Arenberg et la musique au xviiie siecle. Histoire d'une collection musicale. The study explores in depth the development of a...

Pietro Antonio Locatelli (Bergamo 1693 - Amsterdam 1764) was a composer and violin virtuoso. After his period of education in Rome he became an itinerant virtuoso; in 1729 he settled in Amsterdam where he dedicated himself to the publication of his nine Opus numbers...

The twenty surviving works of Antoine Bruhier (b. c. 1460 or 1470; d. after 1521) raise an unusually large number of tantalizing, sometimes perplexing, and ultimately thought-provoking issues. His earliest known composition, for example, is Latura tu, No. 7 in the present edition, published...

Mauro Calcagno, Introduction, Franco Piperno, Petrarch, Petrarchism, and the Italian Madrigal, James Haar, The Madrigali a quattro, cinque, et sei voci: Marenzio's maniera assai differente dalla passata, Seth Coluzzi, Tirsi mio, caro Tirsi: Il pastor fido and the Roman Madrigal, James Chater, Family Matters:...

Is editing music a fallacy? It may appear so when consulting the Oxford English Dictionary, which defines editing as to prepare an edition (of a literary work or works by an earlier author), or to prepare, set in order for publication (literary material which...

Rene Descartes's Compendium musicAe was one of the most widely-read texts on the mathematics of music in the second half of the seventeenth century, offering a succinct and lucid summary of its subject. It was translated into English, French and Dutch before the end...

Organized in conjunction with the bicentenary of the birth of Giuseppe Verdi, this book contains fourteen contributions in which international scholars investigate the reception of Verdi's operas in Europe and United States: ten chapters are dedicated to England, France, Germany, Greece, Italy, Poland, Russia,...

In an article published in 1979, Ludwig Finscher defined imitation and text treatment as the main parameters of the stylistic shift he detected in motet composition around 1500, and Josquin Desprez as the composer whose works embodied them most clearly. This volume of twenty-five...

Great was the interest among Vivaldians and opera-lovers when a score of a large portion of Vivaldi's lost opera Motezuma (1733) was unexpectedly discovered among manuscripts from the Sing-Akademie zu Berlin returned to Berlin from Kiev in 2000. The find was providential, since in...

This publication offers a critical edition of all the secular works of the Danish composer Mogens Pederson(1585?-1623?), together with a historical-critical introduction, diplomatic and diplomatic-interpretative editions of the poetic texts and three appendixes. The following themes are examined in the introduction: the biography and...