'An absolutely masterly work' Stephen Fry Alex Ross, renowned author of the international bestseller The Rest Is Noise, reveals how Richard Wagner became the proving ground for modern art and politics-an aesthetic war zone where the Western world wrestled with its capacity for beauty and violence. For better or worse, Wagner is the most widely influential figure in the history of music. Around 1900, the phenomenon known as Wagnerism saturated European and American culture. Such colossal creations as The Ring of the Nibelung, Tristan und Isolde, and Parsifal were models of formal daring, mythmaking, erotic freedom, and mystical speculation. A mighty procession of writers, artists, and thinkers, including Charles Baudelaire, Virginia Woolf, Isadora Duncan, Vasily Kandinsky, and Luis Bunuel, felt his impact. Anarchists, occultists, feminists, and gay-rights pioneers saw him as a kindred spirit. Then Adolf Hitler incorporated Wagner into the soundtrack of Nazi Germany, and the composer came to be defined by his ferocious anti-Semitism. His name is now almost synonymous with artistic evil. Wagnerism restores the magnificent confusion of what it means to be a Wagnerian. A pandemonium of geniuses, madmen, charlatans, and prophets do battle over Wagner's many-sided legacy. The narrative ranges across artistic disciplines, from architecture to the novels of Philip K. Dick, from the Zionist writings of Theodor Herzl to the civil-rights essays of W. E. B. Du Bois, from O Pioneers! to Apocalypse Now. In many ways,Wagnerism tells a tragic tale. An artist who might have rivalled Shakespeare in universal reach is implicated in an ideology of hate. Still, his shadow lingers over twenty-first century culture, his mythic motifs coursing through superhero films and fantasy fiction. Neither apologia nor condemnation, Wagnerism is a work of intellectual passion, urging us toward a more honest idea of how art acts in the world.

In this original memoir following Billy Idol from his childhood in England to his fame at the height of the punk-pop revolution, the iconic superstar tells the real story behind the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll that he is famous for. A member of the punk rock revolution whose music crossed over into the pop mainstream during the 1980s, Billy Idol is a rock 'n' roll legend. Dancing With Myselfwill cover the events and the people who shaped his life, his music, and his career, including accounts of his childhood in England and the U.S., his year at Sussex University, his membership in the Bromley Contingent, his period spent hanging out with the Sex Pistols, his time in Siouxsie and the Banshees, Chelsea, and Generation X. Idol also tackles his successful solo career, which involved collaboration with Steve Stevens and, ultimately, some of the most influential, ground-breaking music videos ever seen on MTV. In Dancing With Myself, Idol renders detailed accounts of his life's highs and lows with the unapologetically in-your-face attitude and exuberance that made him famous. In part a survivor's story, but equally a very funny and always riveting account of one man's creative drive.

A masterly account of a fraught relationship between Schoenberg (the teacher) and Wellesz (his pupil), set against the intellectual and musical currents of the day. Egon Wellesz studied music only briefly with Arnold Schoenberg but remained forever captivated by his personality. Yet, unlike Alban Berg or Anton Webern, he never wholly succumbed to his master but developed his own style: in the1920s he emerged as a distinctive opera composer, and after emigrating to Britain in 1938 became a prolific symphonist who also produced sensitive settings of English poetry. Schoenberg resented this lack of loyalty, and not onlyrefused to acknowledge Wellesz as a pupil but rather directed at him some intemperate outbursts. Moreover, Schoenberg's general mistrust of musicologists extended to Wellesz, who had trained at Vienna University with Guido Adlerand later helped to shape the study of music in British universities. Yet, as the first biographer, Wellesz did much to promote Schoenberg's cause, especially in France and England. Bojan Bujic weaves these strands together in a masterly and meticulously researched account of a fraught relationship that brings into focus the outstanding intellectual and musical currents of the day in both Austria and Britain.

In his first and only official autobiography, music icon Elton John reveals the truth about his extraordinary life, which is also the subject of the film Rocketman. The result is Me - the joyously funny, honest and moving story of the most enduringly successful singer/songwriter of all time.

Christened Reginald Dwight, he was a shy boy with Buddy Holly glasses who grew up in the London suburb of Pinner and dreamed of becoming a pop star. By the age of twenty-three, he was on his first tour of America, facing an astonished audience in his tight silver hotpants, bare legs and a T-shirt with ROCK AND ROLL emblazoned across it in sequins. Elton John had arrived and the music world would never be the same again.

His life has been full of drama, from the early rejection of his work with song-writing partner Bernie Taupin to spinning out of control as a chart-topping superstar; from half-heartedly trying to drown himself in his LA swimming pool to disco-dancing with the Queen; from friendships with John Lennon, Freddie Mercury and George Michael to setting up his AIDS Foundation. All the while, Elton was hiding a drug addiction that would grip him for over a decade.

In Me, Elton also writes powerfully about getting clean and changing his life, about finding love with David Furnish and becoming a father. In a voice that is warm, humble and open, this is Elton on his music and his relationships, his passions and his mistakes. This is a story that will stay with you, by a living legend.

The Art of Tango offers a systematic exploration of the performance, arrangement and composition of the universally popular tango. The author discusses traditional practices, the De Caro school and the pioneering oeuvre of four celebrated innovators: Pugliese, Salgan, Piazzolla and Beytelmann. With an in-depth focus on both reception and practice, the volume and its companion website featuring supplementary audio-visual materials analyse, decode, compare and discuss literature, scores and recordings to provide a deeper understanding of tango's artistic concepts, characteristics and techniques. River Plate tango is explored through the lens of artistic research, combining the study of oral traditions and written sources. In addition to a detailed examination of the various approaches to tango by the musicians featured in this book, three compositions by the author embodying creative applications of the research findings are discussed. The volume offers numerous tools for developing skills in practice, inspiring new musical output and the continuation of research endeavours in the field. Illustrating the many possibilities of this musical language that has captivated musicians and audiences worldwide, this book is a valuable resource for everyone with an interest in tango, whether they be composers, performers, arrangers, teachers, music lovers or scholars in the field of popular music studies.

In November 2020, Depeche Mode were inducted into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame, and Dave Gahan, accepting the honour, said: "I'd like to thank Anton Corbijn who thank God came in at the right time and actually made us look cool." Also in the fall of 2020, TASCHEN released the limited edition Depeche Mode by Anton Corbijn (81-18) signed by Depeche Mode and Anton Corbijn, and it became one of the fastest selling collector's editions in the publishing company's history. This equally epic, but more wallet friendly XL edition, is a testament to Corbijn's unique vision, and indeed "cool" as Gahan acknowledged so movingly in his speech; a detailed illustrated history of how Corbijn, who became in 1986 the band's de facto creative director, and helped cement Depeche Mode's reputation as the biggest cult band in the world. Featuring over 500 photographs from Corbijn's extensive archives, some never seen before, including formal and informal portraits from places such as Madrid, Hamburg, the California desert, Prague and Marrakech (some taken during the making of iconic videos such as "Enjoy the Silence" and "Personal Jesus"); a multitude of off-the-cuff, candid images; and stunning live shots from all their tours since 1988. In addition to the photographs, there are sketches and designs for stage sets and album covers, Corbijn's handwritten captions throughout the book, placing the reader right in the middle of the shoots, and an extended interview with the Dutch master. Created with the full collaboration of the band, who share some insights on working with Corbijn, Depeche Mode by Anton Corbijn (81-18) trumpets how one man's original aesthetic, that has encompassed all of their photography, most of their music videos, album graphics and set designs, helped shape the band's enduring popularity. Reflecting on his role in Depeche, Corbijn recalls in the book's introduction: "A lot of it came down to me, and I wanted it to be right for them. I wanted to think for them. To be great for them." This book is a tribute to the depth and breadth of that greatness, a celebration of one of the most creative and enduring collaborations in rock history.

'The best non-fiction book I've ever read. It's magical. Stunning' Dan Schreiber, No Such Thing As a Fish 'A pop biography for people who don't read pop biographies' Dorian Lynskey, Guardian 'Brilliant, discursive and wise' Ben Goldacre 'Utterly irresistible and totally brilliant' The Quietus 'A thing of endlessly fascinating, utterly demented genius' Alexis Petridis They were the bestselling singles band in the world. They had awards, credibility, commercial success and creative freedom. Then they deleted their records, erased themselves from musical history and burnt their last million pounds in a boathouse on the Isle of Jura. And they couldn't say why. This is not just the story of The KLF. It is a book about Carl Jung, Alan Moore, Robert Anton Wilson, Ken Campbell, Dada, Situationism, Discordianism, magic, chaos, punk, rave, the alchemical symbolism of Doctor Who and the special power of the number twenty-three. Wildly unauthorised and unlike any other music biography, THE KLF is a trawl through chaos on the trail of a beautiful, accidental mythology. 10th ANNIVERSARY EDITION UPDATED WITH NEW MATERIAL

For better or worse, The Bee Gees' music and image has long been synonymous with the 1970s, and the career trajectory of brothers Barry, Robin, and Maurice Gibb in that ten-year span meanders between dizzying highs and devastating lows. The Bee Gees began 1970 as non-existent - bitterly split after succumbing to the pressures and excesses of their first wave of international fame in the latter part of the 1960s. By 1979, they were one of the most successful music acts on the planet. In between, the brothers crafted timeless works that defied genre, transcended societal boundaries, and permeated generations of listeners. The Bee Gees would go on to sell over 200 million records, making them among the best-selling music artists of all time; they would be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame, the Australian Recording Industry's Hall of Fame, and the Songwriters Hall of Fame, and receive lifetime achievement awards from the British Phonographic Industry, the American Music Awards, World Music Awards and the Grammys. According to Billboard magazine the Bee Gees are one of top three most successful bands in their charts' history.

A stunning musical biography of Stevie Nicks that paints a portrait of an artist, not a caricature of a superstar. Reflective and expansive, Mirror in the Sky situates Stevie Nicks as one of the finest songwriters of the twentieth century. This biography from distinguished music historian Simon Morrison examines Nicks as a singer and songwriter before and beyond her career with Fleetwood Mac, from the Arizona landscape of her childhood to the strobe-lit Night of 1000 Stevies celebrations. The book uniquely: Analyzes Nicks's craft-the grain of her voice, the poetry of her lyrics, the melodic and harmonic syntax of her songs. Identifies the American folk and country influences on her musical imagination that place her within a distinctly American tradition of women songwriters. Draws from oral histories and surprising archival discoveries to connect Nicks's story to those of California's above- and underground music industries, innovations in recording technology, and gendered restrictions.

A unique tribute from David Bowie's official photographer and creative partner, Mick Rock, compiled in 2015, with Bowie's blessing. In 1972, David Bowie released his groundbreaking album The Rise and Fall of Ziggy Stardust and the Spiders from Mars. With it landed Bowie's Stardust alter ego: a glitter-clad, mascara-eyed, sexually ambiguous persona who kicked down the boundaries between male and female, straight and gay, fact and fiction into one shifting and sparkling phenomenon of '70s self-expression. Together, Ziggy the album and Ziggy the stage spectacular propelled the softly spoken Londoner into one of the world's biggest stars. A key passenger on this glam trip into the stratosphere was fellow Londoner and photographer Mick Rock. Rock bonded with Bowie artistically and personally, immersed himself in the singer's inner circle, and, between 1972 and 1973, worked as the singer's photographer and videographer. This collection brings together spectacular stage shots, iconic photo shoots, as well as intimate backstage portraits. It celebrates Bowie's fearless experimentation and reinvention, while offering privileged access to the many facets of his personality and fame. Through the aloof and approachable, the playful and serious, the candid and the contrived, the result is a passionate tribute to a brilliant and inspirational artist whose creative vision will never be forgotten.

Chopin's oeuvre holds a secure place in the repertoire, beloved by audiences, performers, and aesthetes. In Harmony in Chopin, David Damschroder offers a new way to examine and understand Chopin's compositional style, integrating Schenkerian structural analyses with an innovative perspective on harmony and further developing ideas and methods put forward in his earlier books Thinking about Harmony (Cambridge, 2008), Harmony in Schubert (Cambridge, 2010), and Harmony in Haydn and Mozart (Cambridge, 2012). Reinvigorating and enhancing some of the central components of analytical practice, this study explores notions such as assertion, chordal evolution (surge), collision, dominant emulation, unfurling, and wobble through analyses of all forty-three Mazurkas Chopin published during his lifetime. Damschroder also integrates analyses of eight major works by Chopin with detailed commentary on the contrasting perspectives of other prominent Chopin analysts. This provocative and richly detailed book will help transform readers' own analytical approaches.

In this companion volume to Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, Christoph Wolff contextualises his famous subject by delving deeply into the composer's rich collection of music. Emerging from this complex and massive oeuvre, Bach's Musical Universe is a focused discussion of a meaningful selection of compositions. Unlike any previous study, this book details Bach's creative process across the various instrumental and vocal genres, and centres on what the composer himself judiciously presented in carefully designed benchmark collections and individual works-all consequential to Bach's musical art. Tracing Bach's evolution as a composer, Wolff compellingly illuminates the ideals and legacy of this giant of classical music in a new, refreshing light for everyone, from the amateur to the virtuoso.

A beloved member of the country music community, David "Stringbean" Akeman found nationwide fame as a cast member of Hee Haw. The 1973 murder of Stringbean and his wife forever changed Nashville's sense of itself. Millions of others mourned not only the slain couple but the passing of the way of life that country music had long represented. Taylor Hagood merges the story of Stringbean's life with an account of murder and courtroom drama. Mentored by Uncle Dave Macon and Bill Monroe, Stringbean was a bridge to country's early days. His instrumental savvy and old-time singing style drew upon a deep love for traditional country music that, along with his humor and humanity, won him the reverence of younger artists and made his violent death all the more shocking. Hagood delves into the unexpected questions and uneasy resolutions raised by the atmosphere of retribution surrounding the murder trial and recounts the redemption story that followed decades later.

The last major interview with John Lennon and Yoko Ono, conducted by New York Times bestselling author David Sheff, featuring a new introduction that reflects on the fortieth anniversary of Lennon's death.

Originally published in Playboy in 1981 just after John Lennon's assassination, All We Are Saying is a rich, vivid, complete interview with Lennon and Yoko Ono, covering art, creativity, the music business, childhood beginnings, privacy, how the Beatles broke up, how Lennon and McCartney collaborated (or didn't) on songs, parenthood, money, feminism, religion, and insecurity. Of course, at the heart of the conversation is the deep romantic and spiritual bond between Lennon and Ono.

Sheff's insightful questions set the tone for Lennon's responses and his presence sets the scene, as he goes through the kitchen door of Lennon and Yoko's apartment in the Dakota and observes moments at Lennon's famous white piano and the rock star's work at the stove, making them grilled cheese sandwiches. Sheff's new introduction looks at his forty-year-old interview afresh, and examines how what he learned from Lennon has resonated with him as a man and a parent. This is a knockout interview: unguarded, wide-ranging, alternately frisky and intense.

The Beatles are the biggest band there has ever been. James Bond is the single most successful movie character of all time. They are also twins. Dr No, the first Bond film, and 'Love Me Do', the first Beatles record, were both released on the same day - Friday, 5 October 1962. Most countries can only dream of a cultural export becoming a worldwide phenomenon on this scale. For Britain to produce two on the same windy October afternoon is unprecedented. Bond and the Beatles present us with opposing values, visions of Britain and ideas about male identity. LOVE AND LET DIE is the story of a clash between working-class liberation and establishment control, and how it exploded on the global stage. It explains why James Bond hated the Beatles, why Paul McCartney wanted to be Bond and why it was Ringo who won the heart of a Bond Girl in the end. Told over a period of sixty dramatic years, this is an account of how two outsized cultural monsters continue to define our aspirations and fantasies and the future we are building. Looking at these touchstones in this new context will forever change how you see the Beatles, the James Bond films and six decades of British culture.

Rufus Hallmark's book explores Robert Schumann's beloved yet controversial song cycle Frauenliebe und Leben and the poems of Adelbert von Chamisso on which it is based, setting them in the context of the challenges and social expectations faced by women in early nineteenth-century Germany. Hallmark provides the most extensive English-language study of Chamisso, a poet little known today outside Germany, including a biographical sketch and excerpts from his other poetry. He examines a range of poems about women, by Chamisso and others, and discusses the reception of the poetic and musical cycles, including illustrated editions, contemporary reviews, and other musical settings. Based on new studies of Schumann's manuscript sources and on comparative analyses of his songs and settings by Carl Loewe, Heinrich Marschner, Franz Lachner and others, Hallmark provides fresh musical and interpretive insights into each song.

Jack Boss takes a unique approach to analyzing Arnold Schoenberg's twelve-tone music, adapting the composer's notion of a 'musical idea' - problem, elaboration, solution - as a framework and focusing on the large-scale coherence of the whole piece. The book begins by defining 'musical idea' as a large, overarching process involving conflict between musical elements or situations, elaboration of that conflict, and resolution, and examines how such conflicts often involve symmetrical pitch and interval shapes that are obscured in some way. Containing close analytical readings of a large number of Schoenberg's key twelve-tone works, including Moses und Aron, the Suite for Piano Op. 25, the Fourth Quartet, and the String Trio, the study provides the reader with a clearer understanding of this still-controversial, challenging, but vitally important modernist composer.

Max Baca is one of the foremost artists of Tex-Mex music, the infectious dance music sweeping through the Texas-Mexico borderlands since the 1940s. His Grammy-winning group, Los Texmaniacs, and his extensive work with the accordionist Flaco Jimmenez established the Albuquerque-born and San Antonio-based bajo sexto player/bandleader as a spokesperson for a too-often-maligned culture. The list of artists who have contributed to Los Texmaniacs' albums include Alejandro Escovedo, Joe Ely, Rick Trevino, Ray Benson of Asleep at the Wheel, David Hidalgo, Cesar Rosas, Steve Berlin of Los Lobos, and Lyle Lovett. Max Baca was born to play music. By his eighth birthday, he was already playing in his father's band. Polkas, redovas, corridos, boleros, chotises, huapangos, and waltzes were in his blood. Baca's music grew out of the harsh life of the borderland, and the duality of borderland music--its keening beauty--remains a recurring theme in everything he does.

*** 'Eddie was there very early doors. His story is of the many.' Paul Weller 'A total riot! Takes me right back to the 70s. A Superb book' Mani, The Stone Roses 'What a wonderful book. Mod isn't about what decade you lived in, it's about your attitude, and this book has tons of it' Kenney Jones, The Small Faces WITH A FOREWORD BY PAUL WELLER This is the memoir of a teenage mod from the East End of London. A journey of discovery for a schoolboy dabbling with punk, funk, record shops, discos and clothes, and then... WHAAAM! An unstoppable wave of like-minded kids fall headlong in love with 60s mod culture, revived and reformatted for the 70s and 80s generation. Eddie Piller was one such kid. His life was changed forever. Written with humour, passion and attention to detail, CLEAN LIVING UNDER DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES is perhaps the ultimate mod memoir, taking us from meeting the Small Faces as a toddler, to the 1979 Mod revival, through the more purist 1980s mod scene and eventually to Acid Jazz. A born storyteller, Eddie takes us evocatively into a world of scooters, clothes, and music. We run with the crowd to decaying seaside towns, East End backstreet boozers and sweaty teenage gigs, all fizzing with an uncontainable excitement and often exploding into violence. Once mod touched your soul it changed the way you looked at life, unexpectedly broadening your horizons. In Eddie it awakens a can-do attitude that sees him setting up a fanzine, putting on club nights, hustling jobs in the music industry, and eventually setting up a record label. It even takes him to Ireland at the height of the troubles and to Australia where the local mods take him on a military exercise... Visceral and always entertaining, CLEAN LIVING UNDER DIFFICULT CIRCUMSTANCES is a stand-out memoir that relives the thrill of the 70s and 80s, and the movement that helped make mod the most enduring and successful British youth culture of all time.

Most know that the legendary English rock band the Who performed concerts at ear-splitting volume, smashed their instruments, and became one of the world's most influential groups. Their period from 1964 to 1976 saw the creation of such classic songs as "My Generation", "Pinball Wizard" and "Won't Get Fooled Again" as well as the Tommy, Who's Next, and Quadrophenia albums. But how many know the stories of those fans affected by their music and live performances, or the angst and insecurities that drove bandleader Pete Townshend to new heights during this time? Who saw Pete Townshend handing his guitar from the stage to a grateful fan, and what happened next? Or who has seen photos of bassist John Entwistle being anything but the "Quiet One"? Or what happened backstage at Woodstock and the Monterey Pop Festival? This book offers what Pete Townshend himself describes as an "intriguing and extremely insightful take on the Who and myself". The reader will be thrown into untold stories, hundreds of previously unpublished photographs, and uncirculated recordings clarifying the misinformation, myths, and legends. It is a labour of love from a fan for fans that gives voice to a collective consciousness that might otherwise fall silent over time.

- Applies cutting-edge musical-linguistic approach to the music of early modern England - Uses analysis of emphasis to produce new insights into composers' liturgical music, showing how their settings create different interpretations of the religious text - Relevant to musicology, music theory, and religious history

'Don't live life worrying about it, just T. Rex the s*** out of it.' - Sylvain Sylvain The New York Dolls were called many things; glam, proto-punk, hard rock, but are probably best understood as a 'dirty rock & roll' band. Combining an aggressively androgynous style with street smart New York attitude and campy humour, the New York Dolls ushered in the era of CBGBs, heroin chic, loud guitars and referential lyrics which gave rise to Patti Smith, The Ramones, Television and many more. Fans of the band range from Guns N' Roses to Morrissey, who organised the reformation of the band when he curated Meltdown festival in 2004. Sylvain Sylvain was there from the start, and this is his story. Taking in his early life in New York, the rise, fall and rise again of the New York Dolls, and all his misadventures between, There's No Bones in Ice Cream is the true story of one of rock's greatest, told in his own authentic voice. 'In any great band it's often The Quiet One who has the best stories. There's No Bones in Ice Cream would be a superb book even if Sylvain worked in a bank. As it is it's one of the best rock biographies ever. Ten out of ten.' - Classic Rock