Brian Eno's seminal album Ambient 1: Music for Airports continues to fascinate and charm audiences, not only as a masterpiece of ambient music, but as a powerful and transformative work of art. Author John T. Lysaker situates this album in the context of twentieth-century art music, where its ambitions and contributions to avant garde music practice become even more apparent. To appreciate the album's multifaceted character, Lysaker advocates for "prismatic listening," an attentiveness that continually shifts registers in the knowledge that no single approach can grasp the work as a whole. Exploring each of the album's four tracks and their unique sonic arrangements, Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports argues that the album must be approached from at least three angles: as an ambient contribution to lived environments that draws upon cybernetics and the experiments of Erik Satie, as an exploration of what John Cage has termed the "activity of sounds," and as a work of conceptual art that asks us to think freshly about artistic creativity, listening, and the broad ecology of interactions that not only make art possible, but the full range of human meaning. If one listens in this way, Music for Airports becomes a sonic image that blurs the nature-culture distinction and rescues the most interesting concerns of avant-garde music from the social isolation of concert halls and performance spaces.

This book is the first to examine in depth the contributions of major British authors such as W. H. Auden and E. M. Forster, as critics and librettists, to the rise of British opera in the twentieth century. The perceived literary values of British authors, as much as the musical innovations of British composers, informed the aesthetic development of British opera. Indeed, British opera emerged as a simultaneously literary and musical project. Too often, operatic adaptations are compared superficially to their original sources. This is a particular problem for British opera, which has become increasingly defined artistically by the literary sophistication of its narrative sources. The resulting collaborations between literary figures and composers have crucial implications for the development of both opera and literature. Twentieth-Century British Authors and the Rise of Opera in Britain reveals the importance of this literary involvement in operatic adaptation to literature and literary studies, to music and musicology, and to cultural and theoretical studies.

Jazz, the Charleston, nightclubs, cocktails, cinema, and musical theatre: 1920s British nightlife was vibrant and exhilarating. But where did opera fit into this fashionable new entertainment world? Opera in the Jazz Age: Cultural Politics in 1920s Britain explores the interaction between opera and popular culture at a key historical moment when there was a growing imperative to categorize art forms as "highbrow," "middlebrow," or "lowbrow." Literary studies of the so-called "battle of the brows" have been numerous, but this is the first book to consider the place of opera in interwar debates about high and low culture. This study by Alexandra Wilson argues that opera was extremely difficult to pigeonhole: although some contemporary commentators believed it to be too highbrow, others thought it not highbrow enough. Opera in the Jazz Age paints a lively and engaging picture of 1920s operatic culture, and introduces a charismatic cast of early twentieth-century critics, conductors, and celebrity singers. Opera was performed during this period to socially mixed audiences in a variety of spaces beyond the conventional opera house: music halls, cinemas, cafes and schools. Performance and production standards were not always high - often quite the reverse - but opera-going was evidently great fun. Office boys whistled operatic tunes they had heard on the gramophone and there was a genuine sense that opera was for everyone. In this provocative and timely study, Wilson considers how the opera debate of the 1920s continues to shape the ways in which we discuss the art form, and draws connections between the battle of the brows and present-day discussions about elitism. The book makes a major contribution to our understanding of the cultural politics of twentieth-century Britain and is essential reading for anybody interested in the history of opera, the battle of the brows, or simply the perennially fascinating decade that was the 1920s.

This is the third volume of Carl Nielsen Studies which is an annual publication issuing from the Royal Library of Denmark, also home to the Carl Nielsen edition. Carl Nielsen's status as one of the twentieth-century's foremost composers is now well-established. These volumes provide a forum for the spectrum of historical, analytical and aesthetic approaches to the study of Nielsen's music from an international line-up of contributors. In addition, each volume features reviews and reports on current Nielsen projects and an updated Nielsen bibliography, making Carl Nielsen Studies the most important source for up-to-the minute research on the composer and his work. Carl Nielsen Studies is distributed outside Scandinavia by Ashgate; distribution within Scandinavia is handled by The Royal Library, Copenhagen, PB 2149, DK 1016 K, Denmark.

For anyone wanting to get to grips with Britten's music and his eclectic compositional style - crucial reading. MUSIC AND LETTERS Fascinating and persuasive blend of documentary and critical study. MUSICAL TIMES Benjamin Britten's interest in the musical traditions of the Far East had a far-reaching influence on his compositional style; this book is the first to investigate the highly original cross-cultural synthesis he was able to achieve through the use of material borrowed from Balinese, Japanese and Indian music. Britten's visit to Indonesia and Japan in 1955-6 is reconstructed from archival sources, and shown to have had a profound impact on his subsequent work: the techniques of Balinese gamelan music were used in the ballet The Prince of the Pagodas (1957), and then became an essential feature of Britten's compositional style, at their most potent in Death in Venice(1973). The No drama and Gagaku court music of Japan were the inspiration for the trilogy of church parables Britten composed in the 1960s. The precise nature of these influences is discussed; Britten's sporadic borrowings from Indian music are also fully analysed. There is a survey of critical response to Britten's cross-cultural experiments.Accompanying CD of original Balinese, Japanese and Indian recordings used by Britten as source material.Dr MERVYN COOKE lectures in music at the University of Nottingham.

The grotesque is one of art's most puzzling figures - transgressive, comprising an unresolveable hybrid, generally focussing on the human body, full of hyperbole, and ultimately semantically deeply puzzling. In Bluebeard's Castle (1911), The Wooden Prince (1916/17), The Miraculous Mandarin (1919/24, rev. 1931) and Cantata Profana (1930), BartA(3)k engaged scenarios featuring either overtly grotesque bodies or closely related transformations and violations of the body. In a number of instrumental works he also overtly engaged grotesque satirical strategies, sometimes - as in Two Portraits: 'Ideal' and 'Grotesque' - indicating this in the title. In this book, Julie Brown argues that BartA(3)k's concerns with stylistic hybridity (high-low, East-West, tonal-atonal-modal), the body, and the grotesque are inter-connected. While BartA(3)k developed each interest in highly individual ways, and did so separately to a considerable extent, the three concerns remained conceptually interlinked. All three were thoroughly implicated in cultural constructions of the Modern during the period in which BartA(3)k was composing.

George Gershwin blossomed as an accompanist before his talent as a songwriter opened the way to Broadway where he fashioned his own brand of American music. He composed a run of musical comedies, with his brother Ira as lyricist, and several classical works while he became a favoured guest in New York social circles. His 1924 Rhapsody in Blue was an instant classic rooted in his absorption of African American music. A decade later came Porgy and Bess, his magnum opus. The brothers left New York to write songs for Hollywood-but their work was cut short when George developed a brain tumour and died at thirty-eight. Richard Crawford traces the arc of Gershwin's remarkable life, seamlessly blending colourful anecdotes with a discussion of Gershwin's unforgettable oeuvre.

With many new photos and an updated introduction, The Day John Met Paul, a critically-acclaimed Beatles book, re-appears in a visually stunning second edition. The book is an hour-by-hour account of the fateful day the two founding Beatles met in July 1957. But it is much more than that: it's a spellbinding story of how fate brought together two men who would radically change the face of popular music, from its look and feel to its sound. Jim O'Donnell, a veteran rock music writer, spent eight years researching The Day John Met Paul. Published in 1996 and translated into several languages, the book was widely praised for its blend of accurate reporting and colorful storytelling. Long out of print, but revered among Beatles fans, the new printing enlivens the text with many well-chosen photos of the Liverpool landmarks--from Strawberry Field to Penny Lane--that played a role in the Beatles' lives and works.

The Day John Met Paul chronicles the first Day in the Life of the Beatles--a day that changed the musical world.

French Music Since Berlioz explores key developments in French classical music during the nineteenth and twentieth centuries. This volume draws on the expertise of a range of French music scholars who provide their own perspectives on particular aspects of the subject. Deirdre Donnellon's introduction discusses important issues and debates in French classical music of the period, highlights key figures and institutions, and provides a context for the chapters that follow. The first two of these are concerned with opera in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries respectively, addressed by Thomas Cooper for the nineteenth century and Richard Langham Smith for the twentieth. Timothy Jones's chapter follows, which assesses the French contribution to those most Germanic of genres, nineteenth-century chamber music and symphonies. The quintessentially French tradition of the nineteenth-century salon is the subject of James Ross's chapter, while the more sacred setting of Paris's most musically significant churches and the contribution of their organists is the focus of Nigel Simeone's essay. The transition from the nineteenth to the twentieth century is explored by Roy Howat through a detailed look at four leading figures of this time: Faure, Chabrier, Debussy and Ravel. Robert Orledge follows with a later group of composers, Satie & Les Six, and examines the role of the media in promoting French music. The 1930s, and in particular the composers associated with Jeune France, are discussed by Deborah Mawer, while Caroline Potter investigates Parisian musical life during the Second World War. The book closes with two chapters that bring us to the present day. Peter O'Hagan surveys the enormous contribution to French music of Pierre Boulez, and Caroline Potter examines trends since 1945. Aimed at teachers and students of French music history, as well as performers and the inquisitive concert- and opera-goer, French Music Since Berlioz is an essential companion for anyone interested in the culture of France.

The vast majority of writing on film music is concentrated on Hollywood in particular and on a canon of North American scores and films more generally. Recent scholarship acknowledges other traditions of film scoring but little has been written about European film music specifically. Miguel Mera and David Burnand present a volume that redresses the balance by exploring specific European filmic texts, composers and approaches to film scoring that have hitherto been neglected. Films involving British, French, German, Greek, Irish, Italian, Polish and Spanish composers are considered in detail. Starting from a study of the influence of propaganda on musical aesthetics in Nazi Germany the book includes an analysis of Italian neo-realist cinema, a consideration of the Ealing Comedies, experimental music in contemporary Spanish scoring, the invocation of traditional music, the portrayal of classical music performers, the use of space, silence and manipulation of time, and the depiction of the processes of scoring in independent film-making. Important issues that permeate all the essays involve the working relationship of composer and director, the dialectic between the diegetic and non-diegetic uses of music in films, the music-image synergism and the levels of realism that are created by the audio-visual mix. The book will appeal to those working in film studies, popular music studies, musicology, media studies and cultural theory.

This volume showcases key theoretical ideas and practical considerations in the growing area of scholarship on musical gesture. The book constructs and explores the relations between music and gesture from a range of differing perspectives, identifying theoretical approaches and examining the nature of certain types of gesture in musical performance. The twelve chapters in this volume are organized into a heuristic progression from theory to practice, from essay to case study. Theoretical considerations about the interpretation of musical gestures are identified and phrased in terms of semiotics, the mimetic hypothesis, concepts of musical force, immanence, quotation and topic, and the work of musical gestures. The lives of musical gestures in performance are revealed through engaging with their rhythmic properties as well as inquiring into the breathing of pianists, the nature of clarinettists' bodily movements, and the physical acts and personae of individual artists, specifically Keith Jarrett and Robbie Williams. The reader is encouraged to listen to the various resonances and tensions between the chapters, including the importance given to bodies, processes, motions, expressions, and interpretations of musical gesture. The book will be of significance to musicologists, theorists, semioticians, analysts, composers and performers, as well as scholars working in different research communities with an interest in the study of gesture.

An acknowledged master of melodie, Francis Poulenc's prolific song oeuvre exceeds the collections of all other French composers who wrote in this genre. Yet despite Poulenc's prolific output and its significance to art song repertoire, few volumes dedicated to study of Poulenc's works have appeared in print. This text offers a theory on the marginalized popularity of Poulenc's songs and strategies for their study that can assist performers in their appreciation and interpretation of his work. The Melodies of Francis Poulenc is the first work to contain the complete collection of Poulenc's song compositions, providing IPA transcriptions and word-for-word translations in an easy reference format. Also included are the highly regarded poetic translations of Winifred Radford. In their introduction to the songs, Deeter and Peavler formulate a methodology for the proper interpretation and study of the Poulenc's works. Finally, this work features a musical terms index, select discography of downloadable sound files, and a song title index. Teachers of singing, vocal coaches, professional singers, accompanists, and students of art song will find the The Melodies of Francis Poulenc an invaluable tool for the study and instruction of Poulenc's songs.

Aaron Copland is one of America's best-known composers and writers on twentieth century music. This volume brings together for the first time the best of his published essays on music, with previously unpublished material from his diaries, letters, and writings to present a complete picture of Copland as a cultural critic.

for SATB, piano, and optional saxophone, bass, and drum kit Ophelia, Caliban, and Miranda puts a jazzy twist on three Shakespearean characters. With newly written texts by Charles Bennett, each of the three movements focuses in on Ophelia from Hamlet and Caliban and Miranda from The Tempest. In the funky opener, 'River Bride', the upper voices take the part of Ophelia, while the tenors and basses play a lover figure. Caliban's song, 'Ariel taught me how to play', is a reflective ballad in which the slave tells Miranda, who has escaped his advances, about the spirit helper Ariel teaching him to play the saxophone. The final movement, 'All good things come to an end', is a sassy yet tender number, where Miranda bids farewell to her beloved husband Ferdinand, declaring: 'I've gone back to the island to remember who I am'. The saxophone, bass, piano, and drum kit parts may be played as written or serve as a guide.

Relatively little has been written about film scores and soundtracks outside of Hollywood cinema. Hollywood Theory, Non-Hollywood Practice addresses this gap by looking at the practices of film soundtrack composition for non-Hollywood films made after 1980. Annette Davison argues that since the mid-1970s the model of the classical Hollywood score has functioned as a form of dominant ideology in relation to which alternative scoring and soundtrack practices may assert themselves. The first part of the book explores some of the key theoretical issues and debates in film studies and film music studies. The second part comprises a series of case studies of non-Hollywood scores. Starting with Jean Luc Godard's Prenom: Carmen (1983), Davison argues that the film's score offers a deconstruction of the relationship between sound and image proposed by classical Hollywood film. Derek Jarman's The Garden (1990) takes the debate a step further in its exploration of the possibility that a film's soundtrack may be liberated from slavery to the image track. Wings of Desire (1987) directed by Wim Wenders offers, Davison believes, a negotiation between classical and alternative scoring and soundtrack practices; while David Lynch's Wild at Heart (1990) actually fully integrates scoring and soundtrack practices so that sounds and dialogue are used in musical ways. Seeking to stimulate debate about the aesthetics and interpretation of film scores and soundtracks in general, this book develops an important synthesis of film studies and musicology.

'Wonderful ... we need music in our lives now more than ever' HERBIE HANCOCK 'Joan Koenig is on a wonderful mission to enrich children's lives through music' DR GUY DEUTSCHER A pioneering music educator reveals how parents and caregivers can harness the power of music and use it to supercharge early childhood development. Since opening her famed Parisian conservatory over three decades ago, Joan Koenig has led a global movement to improve children's lives and minds with the transformative power of music. With a curriculum and philosophy drawn from cutting-edge science, L'Ecole Koenig has educated and empowered even the youngest students. From baby Max, whose coordination and communication grow as he wiggles and coos along to targeted songs and dance; to five-year-old Sara, who nourishes her empathy, creativity, and memory, while practising music from other cultures. In The Musical Child, Koenig shares stories from her classrooms, along with tips about how to use the latest research during these critical years, when children are most sensitive to musical exposure-and most receptive to its benefits. A gift for parents, caregivers, musicians, and educators, The Musical Child reveals the multiple ways music can help children thrive-and how, in the 21st century, its practice is more vital than ever. * Filled with at-home activities and musical games * Recordings and tutorials available instantly with scannable QR codes

The 1990s work of six British composers forms the focus of this collection of essays, arising from a conference that took place at University of Surrey Roehampton in February 1999. The composers whose music is discussed are James Dillon, Thomas Ades, Harrison Birtwistle, Jonathan Harvey, Edwin Roxburgh and Sebastian Forbes. Reflecting the aims of the conference, this volume brings together composers and musicologists to discuss significant works from the last decade of the twentieth century, and also some of the wider issues surrounding British music. Arnold Whittall and Julian Johnson provide perspectives on the plurality of contemporary British music. Edwin Roxburgh offers a personal account of 'The Artists' Dilemma', whilst the essays that follow explore aspects of musical form and structure in a variety of works. The second half of the book comprises interviews with most of the composers whose music is discussed in Part I, adding a further dimension to our understanding of the preoccupations of British composition at the end of the twentieth century.

Described by Maurice Ravel as one of the most considerable talents in French music of his generation, Darius Milhaud remains a largely neglected composer. This book reappraises his contribution, focusing on the emergence of the composer's style until his Jewish background forced his exile to the United States on the eve of the World War II. The period 1912-1939 spans the crucial years that mark the development of Milhaud's mature style. It was also during this time that he published his most important writings on contemporary music and its relationship to the past. Barbara Kelly discusses the extent to which Milhaud's complex views on the idea of a French national musical heritage relate to his own practice, and considers how his works reflect the balance between innovation and tradition. Drawing comparisons with contemporaries, such as Debussy, Satie, Schoenberg, Stravinsky and Poulenc, the book argues that the rhythmic vitality of Milhaud's style and his modal approach within a polytonal context mark him out as an original and distinctive composer.

Born in 1916, Henri Dutilleux is one of France's leading composers, enjoying an international reputation for his beautifully crafted works. This is the first translation into English of a series of interviews between Dutilleux and the French writer and journalist Claude Glayman which took place in 1996. Dutilleux discusses aspects of his life including his early training at the Paris Conservatoire, the German occupation of France and the time that he spent in the United States. The interviews reveal much about his music and his approach to composition, as well as the influences on his musical style. Originally published by Actes Sud in 1997, this English edition is the work of translator Roger Nichols, one of the UK's leading specialists on French music.

Revealing much about the workings of the musical world, these conversations will not only be essential reading for composers and composition students, but also contemporary music lovers more generally Julian Anderson is renowned internationally as one of the leading composers of his generation. This substantial book of conversations with the scholar and critic Christopher Dingle captures Anderson's thoughts and memories in-depth for the first time, not only providing biographical information and background material, but also capturing the workings of a remarkable mind. It is rare to find a composer prepared to speak extensively and honestly on as broada range of topics as Anderson. These extraordinarily diverse conversations range far beyond his own compositions and even beyond the sphere of music, exploring issues of broad cultural interest. Of particular value, providing insights into the practicalities and psychology of composing, are the glimpses of Anderson's thoughts on works in progress during the conversations, including the period from composing the score for his ENO opera Thebans to its first production, as well as his violin concerto, his 3rd String Quartet and his Berlin Philharmonic commission Incantesimi. Anderson's work with dance, his love of the voice and his varied collaborations with orchestras, soloists and conductors are also explored. With their wide range of musical and artistic topics, these conversations will be essential reading not only for composers and composition students, but for those interested inculture more generally.

The story of Nicolas Nabokov's involvement with the CIA-funded Congress for Cultural Freedom (CCF) is a story of the politics and sociology of culture; how music was used for political ends and how intellectual groups formed and functioned during the Cold War. The seemingly independent CCF, established to counteractA apparent Soviet successes in the fields of the arts and intellectual life, appointed Nabokov (a Russian emigre and minor composer) as its Secretary General in 1951.A Over the next ten years he gave music a high profile in theA work of the organisation, producing four international musical festivals, the first and most ambitious of which was 1952's L'Oeuvre du XXe Siecle in Paris, an event which showcased the work of no less than 62 composers. As Ian Wellens reveals, Nabokov'sA musical involvement with the CCF was in fact a struggle on two fronts.A Apparently aA defenceA ofA Western modernism against 'backward', 'provincial' Soviet music, Nabokov's writings show this to have meshed closely with theA domestic concernA - shared byA many intellectuals -A that high culture was being undermined by an increasingly culturally aware middle class. His attacks on Soviet cultural policy, and his unflattering assessments of Shostakovich, are seen to be not merely salvos in the cold war but part of a broader campaign aimed at securing the authority and prestige ofA intellectuals.

Michael Davidson - author of the highly acclaimed Mozart and the Pianist - casts new light on some of the most masterly sonatas written for the piano and on the uniqueness of these great compositions and their composers. Excepting the considerable literature on Beethoven, few studies are available which explore the interpretation of this much played repertoire. This study is not only a detailed look at fourteen sonatas; one can also learn more about other works by these composers and about aspects of 'style' - that magical quality which differentiates Haydn from Mozart, Beethoven from Schubert, Liszt from Brahms.

Jazz in New Orleans provides accurate information about, and an insightful interpretation of, jazz in New Orleans from the end of World War II through 1970. Suhor, relying on his experiences as a listener, a working jazz drummer, and writer in New Orleans during this period, has done a great service to lovers of New Orleans music by filling in some gaping holes in postwar jazz history and cutting through many of the myths and misconceptions that have taken hold over the years. Skillfully combining his personal experiences and historical research, the author writes with both authority and immediacy. The text, rich in previously unpublished anecdotes and New Orleans lore, is divided into three sections, each with an overview essay followed by pertinent articles Suhor wrote for national and local journals including Down Beat and New Orleans Magazine. Section One, "Jazz and the Establishment," focuses on cultural and institutional settings in which jazz was first battered, then nurtured. It deals with the reluctance of power brokers and the custodians of culture in New Orleans to accept jazz as art until the music proved itself elsewhere and was easily recognizable as a marketable commodity. Section Two, "Traditional and Dixieland Jazz," highlights the music and the musicians who were central to early jazz styles in New Orleans between 1947 and 1953. Section Three, "An Invisible Generation," will help dispel the stubborn myth that almost no one was playing be-bop or other modern jazz styles in New Orleans before the current generation of young artists appeared in the 1980s.

This collection uncovers how music criticism contributed to national and transnational preoccupations and agendas. Music Criticism in France examines the aesthetic battles that animated and informed French musical criticism during the interwar period (1918-1939). Drawing upon a rich corpus of critical writings and archival documents, the book uncovers some of the public debates surrounding classical music in the immediate aftermath of the Great War until the eve of World War II. As such, it provides new insights into the priorities, values and challenges that affected the musical milieu of this war-bound generation. This collection of essays brings together scholars from different areas of musicology and related humanities disciplines; it also draws on different anglophone and francophone intellectual traditions. As well as considering the reception of individual works, the contributors examine key individuals, composer-critic pairings, the composer as critic and technician, the role of influential journals, and music criticism as a pedagogical tool for concert-going and radio audiences. Focusing on the themes of authority, advocacy and legacy, it shows the contribution of principal critics such as Vuillermoz, Vallas, Prunieres, Schloezer and Koechlin to shaping our understanding of music in the first half of the twentieth century in France. We see how criticism contributes to national and transnational preoccupations and agendas, which were of considerable importance throughout the interwar period and continue to have relevance today. BARBARA L. KELLY is Director of Research and Professor of Musicology at the Royal Northern College of Music, Manchester. CHRISTOPHER MOORE is Associate Professor of Musicology at the University of Ottawa. Contributors: PHILIPPE CATHE, MICHEL DUCHESNEAU, KIMBERLY FRANCIS, JACINTHE HARBEC, BARBARA L. KELLY, PASCAL LECROART, CHRISTOPHER MOORE, RACHEL MOORE, JANN PASLER, CAROLINE RAE, DANICK TROTTIER, MARIANNE WHEELDON

This collection of essays provides vivid new insights into Poulenc's world, his particular rapport with painters, writers and fellow musicians, and with the social elite who promoted his music through their salons. Contributions from international Poulenc scholars include the influence of various artists on his music, the nature of his affinity for Eluard's poetry, his response to texts by Cocteau and Bernanos, and his constant search for suitable libretti. New light is thrown on two friendships, the first with his childhood friend Raymonde Linossier who introduced him to the world of books, the second to his teacher Charles Koechlin who greatly influenced his choral style. A detailed study is also provided of Poulenc's four choral works with orchestra. Finally, the reader is allowed a rare view of Poulenc at the microphone, not as interviewee but as radio presenter, in his 1947-1949 series of programmes 'A bActons rompus'.