Music-Individual Composer & Musician

Biography of the late American composer Leon Kirchner (1919-2009), exploring his work and important personal associations. In this first biography of American composer, pianist, conductor, and teacher Leon Kirchner (1919-2009), Robert Riggs paints a vivid picture of an extraordinary, multifaceted musician. Refugees from Hitler's...

Selected as one of the Best Jazz Books of the Year (2021) by The New York City Jazz Record The New Yorker recently referred to Pat Metheny as "possibly the most influential jazz guitarist of the past five decades." A native of Lee's Summit,...

Although in 2000 he became the first sideman inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, "King Curtis" Ousley never lived to accept his award. Tragically, he was murdered outside his New York City home in 1971. At that moment, thirty-seven-year-old King Curtis...

Morton Feldman viewed Piano and String Quartet as his capstone work--the culminating example of the aesthetic that Feldman spent his life seeking. Written in 1985, the year before Feldman's death, this single movement, roughly eighty-minute composition was heralded by Steve Reich as "the most...

This book celebrates Madvillainy as a representation of two genius musical minds melding to form one revered supervillain. A product of circumstance, the album came together soon after MF DOOM's resurgence and Madlib's reluctant return from avant-garde jazz to hip-hop. Written from the alternating...

In Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles, Revised Edition, Kenneth Womack brings the band's story vividly to life-from their salad days as a Liverpool Skiffle group and their apprenticeship in the nightclubs and mean streets of Hamburg through their early...

In Long and Winding Roads: The Evolving Artistry of the Beatles, Revised Edition, Kenneth Womack brings the band's story vividly to life-from their salad days as a Liverpool Skiffle group and their apprenticeship in the nightclubs and mean streets of Hamburg through their early...

After a string of commercial disappointments, in 1986 Australian rock band The Church were simultaneously dropped by Warner Brothers in the US and EMI in Australasia. The future looked bleak. Seemingly from nowhere, their next record, Starfish, became an unlikely global hit. Its alluring...

Regurgitator's second full-length album, Unit (1997), was produced in a DIY warehouse studio at a time when this was unusual for a major label band. The album went three times Platinum in Australia and won five esteemed ARIA Awards in 1998, including Album of...

Iannis Xenakis' Persepolis stood as witness to one of the most important events in modern human history, the Iranian Revolution in 1979. Its existence is owed to an invitation to participate in the 1971 Shiraz Arts Festival, which was overseen by Empress Farah Pahlavi....

Featuring exclusive interviews with key figures, from Napalm Death vocalist Barney Greenway to guitarist Bill Steer of Gentlemans Pistols, Carcass, and Napalm Death, this is your guide through the history of death metal. Guitars playing abrasive, discordant riffs, the thunderous double-kick of the drums...

Chico Buarque comprises a critical appreciation of the self-titled album (1978), which is one of the Brazilian artist's most representative. This vibrant collection displays the singer-songwriter's singular talents as a composer/poet of songs with both popular appeal and keen analytical skills. The 11 tracks...

ESG were one of the first bands to sign to British indie label Factory Records, working with famed producer Martin Hannett on their early EPs. The band's signature guitar sound from iconic single 'UFO' has been sampled in hundreds of hip hop records, and...

Come to My Garden (1970) introduced the world to Minnie Riperton, the solo artist. Minnie captivated listeners with her earth-shattering voice's uncanny ability to evoke melancholy and exultance. Born out of Charles Stepney's masterful composition and Richard Rudolph's attentive songwriting, the album fused a...

It is not an exaggeration that Matsutoya Yumi-better known by her stage name Yuming-is one of the most influential figures in Japanese popular music history. A singer-songwriter recognized globally for her songs used in Miyazaki Hayao's beloved animations, Yuming has captured the hearts of...

Understanding That's the Way of the World requires appreciating Earth, Wind & Fire founder Maurice White's multifaceted vision for his band. White created a band that performed various styles of music that sought to uplift humanity. His musicians personified a new form of Black...

Ed Kuepper's history as a rock pioneer with The Saints and Laughing Clowns means that his albums of the early 1990s represent a remapping of the singer-songwriter concept. His classic Honey Steel's Gold shares a looseness with blues and folk recordings of the 1940s...

Ed Kuepper's history as a rock pioneer with The Saints and Laughing Clowns means that his albums of the early 1990s represent a remapping of the singer-songwriter concept. His classic Honey Steel's Gold shares a looseness with blues and folk recordings of the 1940s...

Rock 'n' roll may not have toppled the USSR, but it definitely rumbled through its foundations. Unlike the often-saccharine pop music sanctioned by the Soviet state, Ukrainian punk musicians of the 1980s Kyiv underground adapted ideologies of rock to roast the absurdities of late...

Rock 'n' roll may not have toppled the USSR, but it definitely rumbled through its foundations. Unlike the often-saccharine pop music sanctioned by the Soviet state, Ukrainian punk musicians of the 1980s Kyiv underground adapted ideologies of rock to roast the absurdities of late...

Sin Documentos is a landmark album in Spanish popular culture and continues to maintain considerable popularity more than two decades after its release. The characteristic guitar riff of the title song, a kind of rumba-rock, still occupies a place at every party in Spain....

Sin Documentos is a landmark album in Spanish popular culture and continues to maintain considerable popularity more than two decades after its release. The characteristic guitar riff of the title song, a kind of rumba-rock, still occupies a place at every party in Spain....

This first critical appreciation of T Bone Burnett reveals how the proponent of Americana music and producer of artists ranging from Robert Plant and Alison Krauss to B. B. King and Elvis Costello has profoundly influenced American music and culture. T Bone Burnett is...

A moving and essential exploration of what it takes to find your voice as a woman, a survivor, an artist, and an icon. The first time Lynn Melnick listened to a Dolly Parton song in full, she was 14 years old, in the triage...

Experiencing Music Composition in Middle School General Music is designed to help teachers and students create original music through materials and activities that are enticing and accessible. The text offers an innovative approach to composition teaching and learning to promote the development of the...

Experiencing Music Composition in Middle School General Music is designed to help teachers and students create original music through materials and activities that are enticing and accessible. The text offers an innovative approach to composition teaching and learning to promote the development of the...

Born the son of Scotland's last telescope-maker, Stuart Braithwaite was perhaps always destined for a life of psychedelic adventuring on the furthest frontiers of noise in MOGWAI, one of the best loved and most ground-breaking post-rock bands of the past three decades. Modestly delinquent...

'Magical and transporting'Maggie O'Farrell 'A gorgeous account of outsiderness and survival... A quietly defiant and moving work' Sin饌d Gleeson 'An epic in miniature . . . I loved - and lived - every sentence' Benjamin MyersIn 1968, Vashti Bunyan gave up everything and everybody...

Each solo in this book features pianistic freedom within the style and form of the piece. Even when the hands move freely around the keyboard, the goal was to keep the technique required to play each piece within limited boundaries to ensure student success....

The autobiography of one of the 20th century's most innovative and wittiest composers/performers/authors who witnessed the birth of modern music.Author: Nicolas SlonimskyISBN-10: 1438491638ISBN-13: 9781438491639Publisher: Excelsior Editions/State University of New YoLanguage: EnglishPublished: 03/01/2023Pages: 432Format: HardcoverWeight: 1.92lbsSize: 9.00h x 6.00w x 1.19d

It's Dilla Time. Finally. Dilla Time is the story of the invention of a new kind of time, a new kind of sound by the most influential music producer of the last 25 years, someone you may never heard of: J. Dilla. He's revered...

From the streets of Baltimore to the halls of the New Mexico Philharmonic, a musician shares his remarkable story in I'm Possible, an inspiring memoir of perseverance and possibility. "Powerful . . . equal parts heartwarming and heart-wrenching. White is a gifted storyteller." --Washington...

Charles Ives (1874-1954) moved traditional compositional practice in new directions by incorporating modern and innovative techniques with nostalgic borrowings of 19th century American popular music and Protestant hymns. Matthew McDonald argues that the influence of Emerson and Thoreau on Ives's compositional style freed the...

Notoriously reticent about his early years, violinist Jascha Heifetz famously reduced the story of his childhood to "Born in Russia. First lessons at 3. Debut in Russia at 7. Debut in Carnegie Hall at 17. That's all there is to say." Tracing his little-known...

For Denise Von Glahn, listening is that special quality afforded women who have been fettered for generations by the maxim "be seen and not heard." In Music and the Skillful Listener, Von Glahn explores the relationship between listening and musical composition focusing on nine...

Bruce Springsteen has been cherished by his fans for decades, from his early days playing high school gymnasiums through globally successful albums and huge stadium shows to solo performances in intimate theaters. As his long and illustrious career has evolved, the legendary devotion of...

Who would have thought you could play classical music on a ukulele? But you can! Here are compositions from the Romantic Era - transcribed for the Low G ukulele. The Ten Etudes by Giulio Regondi, a child prodigy and master of the guitar during...

Who would have thought you could play classical music on a ukulele? But you can! Here are Baroque Lute pieces by Robert de Vis馥 arranged in tablature and modern notation for Low G ukulele. Robert de Vis馥, (1655 - 1732/33) In 1686 Robert de...

Who would have thought you could play classical music on a ukulele? But you can! Here are Baroque Lute pieces by Robert de Vis馥 arranged in tablature and modern notation for Low G ukulele. Robert de Vis馥, (1655 - 1732/33) In 1686 Robert de...

Who would have thought you could play classical music on a ukulele? But you can! Here are Baroque Lute pieces by Robert de Vis馥 arranged in tablature and modern notation for Low G ukulele. Robert de Vis馥, (1655 - 1732/33) In 1686 Robert de...

'One of the best biographies you'll ever read.' - Robb Flynn, Machine HeadToday, Metallica are known as consummate musicians, but it wasn't always that way. Their early career is marked by a gradual evolution from garage thrash to sophisticated, progressive heights - an evolution...

Johnny Thunders: In Cold Blood is the definitive portrait of the condemned man of rock'n'roll, from the baptism of fire and tragedy that was the New York Dolls, through the junkie punk years of the Heartbreakers, to his sudden and mysterious death in 1991....

An expert and informative appraisal of all of Elgar's works - from his juvenilia to the unfinished 3rd symphony - by the author of the acclaimed Gerald Finzi. The new Diana McVeagh book on Elgar is first-rate, wrote Gerald Finzi of her earlier study...

There is no other way to put it: Elvis is the King. Note the present tense: even though Elvis (supposedly) died nearly forty years ago, he has lived on in our hearts, as a sound, as an image, and as an especially vigorous personality....

Mauro Giuseppe Sergio Pantaleo Giuliani (1781 - 1829) was an Italian guitarist and composer and is considered by many to be one of the leading guitar virtuosi of the early 19th century. Here are compositions from the 19th Century - the Romantic Era -...

Schubert's Workshop offers a fresh study of the composer's compositional technique and its development, rooted in the author's experience of realising performing versions of Franz Schubert's unfinished works. Through close examination of Schubert's use of technical and structural devices, Brian Newbould demonstrates that Schubert...

Schubert's Workshop offers a fresh study of the composer's compositional technique and its development, rooted in the author's experience of realising performing versions of Franz Schubert's unfinished works. Through close examination of Schubert's use of technical and structural devices, Brian Newbould demonstrates that Schubert...

Lennon and McCartney: Painting with Sound explores the work of two of the most influential composers of the twentieth century. Five decades after the breakup of the Beatles, the music of John Lennon and Paul McCartney continues to fascinate and inspire. Evidence suggests that...

As Megan Volpert stood over train tracks preparing to surrender to the psychedelic blindness of simple human misery, of all the Heartbreakers tracks available to come through her headphones, "Straight Into Darkness" is the one that did. In this highly philosophical and deeply personal...

This first-of-its-kind catalog of Elton John's decades-long career tells the story of one of rock's all-time greatest artists, album-by-album and track-by-track. Organized chronologically and covering every album and song that EGOT-winner Sir Elton Hercules John has ever released, Elton John All the Songs draws...