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Books > Music > Composers & musicians
The first comprehensive discography on one of Wagner's music dramas, this volume lists all complete performance recordings, all major selections recorded, and hundreds of individually-recorded excerpts, both vocal, and instrumental, from the earliest acoustic recordings to recent laser discs. Many excerpts have never appeared in discographies or other works on Wagner, and pirate recordings have been identified. Precise information is given as to date and place of recording and record numbers as well as performers, choruses, orchestras, and conductors. Musical incipits introduce each excerpt. The index provides access to more than 230 singers of the principal roles and over 130 conductors. A lengthy introduction provides a lively and provocative commentary on the recordings. Written in Australia where Parsifal has never been fully staged, the discography was researched in major libraries and archives of Europe and the United States as well as old record shops in New York, London, Paris, and Sydney. The result is an important resource for the discographer and record collector, the student of opera and vocal art, and all lovers of Wagner in performance.
When Yes ran into problems recording their tenth album in Paris at the end of 1979, it was almost the end. Yet in the 80s, the band rallied, firstly as part of an unlikely collaboration with new wave duo The Buggles, then with 90125, the most successful album of their career, which spawned a number one hit in the USA with 'Owner Of A Lonely Heart'. The band failed to capitalise on this success, however, lingering too long over its successor Big Generator and by the end of the decade, Yes had effectively split into two versions of the same group. With most authors concentrating on the group's 1970s career, Yes in the 1980s looks in forensic detail at this relatively underexamined era of the band's history, featuring rarely seen photos researched by author David Watkinson. The book follows the careers of all nine significant members of the group during a turbulent decade which saw huge highs but also many lows. Not only does it consider the three albums the band itself made across the decade, but also the solo careers and other groups - including Asia, XYZ, The Buggles, Jon and Vangelis and GTR - formed by those musicians as the decade wound towards a reunion of sorts in the early 1990s
I have no time for lies and fantasy, and neither should you. Enjoy
or die.--John Lydon
If, as Robert Craft remarked, 'religious beliefs were at the core of Stravinsky's life and work', why have they not figured more prominently in discussions of his works? Stravinsky's coordination of the listener with time is central to the unity of his compositional style. This ground-breaking study looks at his background in Russian Orthodoxy, at less well-known writings of Arthur Lourie and Pierre Souvtchinsky and at the Catholic philosophy of Jacques Maritain, that shed light on the crucial link between Stravinsky's spirituality and his restoration of time in music. Recent neuroscience research supports Stravinsky's eventual adoption of serialism as the natural and logical outcome of his spiritual and musical quest.
This comprehensive study treats the wind works of Anton Bruckner as a complete genre and uses them to illustrate how the composer evolved in style throughout his career. A major nineteenth-century composer, organist, and church musician, Bruckner's compositional style changed dramatically in the early 1860s, dividing his career into two distinct parts. During his early career he immersed himself in the study of traditional musical principles including form, harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration. The second phase of his career, in which he composed the symphonies upon which much of his current reputation rests, was marked by his experimental approaches to harmony and tonality. Many of his early compositions exhibit landmarks of his later style. The wind instrument pieces incorporate the best aspects of both of Bruckner's styles and reflect the progress of his professional life. Organized chronologically, the music is studied and classified within set time periods. Each wind work of a particular period is reviewed according to the historical circumstances contributing to its creation, its specific musical content, and its success as a musical work in relation to wind music and specifically to Bruckner's development. The analyses of Bruckner's compositions are enhanced by musical examples throughout the text.
Known the world over for her unique musical style, distinctive look and a voice that propelled her into the charts time and time again, Dusty Springfield was undoubtedly one of the biggest and brightest musical stars of the twentieth century.Never one to be shy of the spotlight, Dusty broke the mould as the first female entertainer to publicly admit she was bisexual, and was famously deported from South Africa for refusing to play to segregated audiences during apartheid in 1964, just a year after the launch of her solo career.Combining brand-new material, meticulous research and frank interviews with friends, lovers, employees and confidants, journalist Karen Bartlett reveals sensational new details about the soul diva's unconventional upbringing, tumultuous relationships and unbridled addictions, including a lifelong struggle to come to terms with her sexuality.Named one of the Sunday Times's best musical biographies of 2014, this is the intimate portrait of an immensely complicated and talented woman - the definitive account of one of music's most legendary figures.
This comprehensive study of the evolution of Finnish art music from continental predecessors and native folk music traces the development of Sibelius's musical language from his first major work, Kullervo, the first genuine Finnish recitative, to the last tone poem, Tapiola. De Gorog asserts the importance of En Saga, Sibelius's first major, purely orchestral work, as a composition that affirms the composer's belief in both rhythm and in the variation method (the germ motif technique). The impact of folk music on the germ motif technique as well as on melody, phrase construction, and harmony are also analyzed. Although Sibelius's use of rhythm was more restrained than that of Bartok, Stravinsky, or Prokofiev, similarities in basic trends and folk music influences are noted by de Gorog. From Sibelius to Sallinen emphasizes the importance of various aspects of Finnish culture, the historical events that shaped that culture, and Finnish nationalism in the evolution of Finnish music in general. It also delineates the major sources of inspiration for Sibelius's unique musical idiom. The volume clarifies Sibelius's position as founder of Finnish art music and considers the evolution of trends established by him in the works of younger Finnish composers. The first three chapters provide an historical prism through which to view Finnish culture and music, discuss Finnish music prior to Sibelius, and relate Finnish nationalism to the composer's philosophy and music. Chapters 4 through 7 focus on Sibelius, his compositions, and their lasting impact. Two final chapters address instrumental music after Sibelius and stage and vocal music in Finland. A discography provides ready access and fullinformation on the works and completes the volume as an informative resource for students, teachers, researchers, musicologists, and performers as well as a valuable addition to university music libraries and conservatories.
Following the pattern established with his pioneering works String Music of Black Composers and Woodwind Music of Black Composers, Aaron Horne now presents a comparable work for the piano and related instruments (such as accordion, harpsichord, and organ). Composers from Africa as well as the Diaspora are covered in this volume, the most comprehensive work on the topic yet published. Organized in alphabetical order by composer, each of the more than 200 entries provides information, where available, on the composer's life and career, and then details all works that include piano as well as information about commission, premiere, and composer bibliography and discography. The volume includes a keyboard music index as well as a general discography and a bibliography. This work should prove invaluable for scholars examining the impact of Black composers on music and dance, and it will be equally valuable to those devising repertoire for teaching and concert purposes.
Johann Sebastian Bach dominates the field of organ music like no other composer dominates any other repertory. It comes as no surprise, therefore, that Bach's organ works have long attracted scholarly attention. Still, the subject has by no means been exhausted. The sheer number of Bach's surviving organ compositions will always prevent anyone from having the "last word" on the subjects, either the music's stylistic diversity, or its complexity. In addition, Bach's organ works have exerted a profound and lasting influence on later generations, including many of the greatest composers, performers, conductors, critics, and scholars in the whole history of music. In J. S. Bach at His Royal Instrument, author Russell Stinson delves into various unexplored aspects of these masterpieces. Drawing on previous research and new archival sources, he sheds light on many of the most mysterious aspects of this music and its reception. Beginning with a critique of the literature, Stinson questions recent hypotheses regarding authorship and provenance of several of Bach's most famous pieces. From there he discusses the music itself, revealing compositional procedures that not only illuminate key aspects of the chorales, but those of the composer's contemporaries and predecessors as well. From there, Stinson turns to reception. From Mendelssohn and Schumann to Emerson, Lake, & Palmer, Stinson shows how Bach's music has remained a part of Western culture for nearly three hundred years. J. S. Bach at His Royal Instrument casts new light on these foundational pieces of Western music, and is essential reading for students, scholars and fans of Bach, and "the king of instruments."
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Arthur Sullivan is best known as W. S. Gilbert's collaborator in the Savoy Operas, However, Sullivan was far from being simply a composer of light operettas. At the height of his fame and popularity in late Victorian Britain, Sullivan was regarded as the nation's leading composer of sacred oratorios on a par with Mendelssohn and Brahms. Yet despite his contemporary popularity and enduring legacy, little attention has been given to Sullivan's sacred work. The last twenty years have seen a considerable revival of interest in and critical appreciation for this aspect of Sullivan's work. Lost Chords and Christian Soldiers provides the first detailed, comprehensive, critical study and review of Sullivan's church and sacred music. As well as exploring issues of repertoire and ecclesiology involved in these and other formative influences and experiences, consideration will be given to how far Sullivan's own personal beliefs and faith influenced his settings of sacred texts and the extent to which his own spiritual and theological leaning are expressed in his choice of material and style of setting. Sullivan's motivation in setting religious texts will be probed and comparison will be made with the motivation, output and approach of his closest contemporaries in this field, most notably Stainer.
The Beatles have been at the top for fifty years, their music remains exciting, their influence is still huge, their acclaim and achievements cannot be surpassed. But who really were the Beatles, and how did they and everything else in the 1960s fuse so explosively? Mark Lewisohn's three-part biography is the first true and accurate account of the Beatles, a contextual history built upon impeccable research and written with energy, style, objectivity and insight. This first volume covers the crucial and less-known early period - the Liverpool and Hamburg years of a hungry rock and roll band, when all the sharp characters and situations take shape. This is the Beatles like you've never read them before. It isn't just 'another book', it's the book, from the world-acknowledged authority. Forget what you know and discover The Complete Story.
The real key to this distinctive book lies in its subtitle. The book's core is an astonishingly detailed medical history of Mozart, spanning his entire life, compiled with great ingenuity and skill from varied and sometimes surprising sources. Davies, a British physician specializing in internal medicine, has already established his credentials with a series of substantial journal articles concerning Mozart's final illness and death. Here he expands and consolidates his research, offering a presumably definitive account of the intricate cluster of ailments and disabilities, some stretching back over many years, that eventually contributed to Mozart's early death. After reading Davies, one wonders not at Mozart's early end but, rather, how he survived for so long. . . . Davies advances unexpected medical causes for some Mozartean peculiarities of behavior, and surely these ideas will provoke much interest among Mozart scholars. For college or university libraries that already have the `basic' Mozart items, here is a unique and most rewarding addition. Choice There have been many studies of Mozart, but few offer as rich an understanding of the composer's character as this book. Mozart in Person appraises the physical, mental, and spiritual aspects of Mozart's health and its effect on his creativity. As Erna Schwerin says in the introduction, Mozart emerges as a human being, realistically perceived with twentieth-century sensibility, yet retrospectively in the light of eighteenth-century mores. This is the first volume to describe all of Mozart's known illnesses and to present a detailed discussion of the controversial cause of his premature death, with a convincing refutation of the alleged poisoning theories. Davies defines Mozart's enigmatic, complex personality, and presents fascinating insights into Mozart's relationships with his pastimes and stresses. The health of Mozart's family, especially the personality, illnesses, and death of his father are discussed. The author explores many of the myths surrounding this great and often misunderstood composer and clarifies our understanding of Mozart's flaws and shortcomings through authentic documentation, thereby eliminating some of the distortions created in recent popular plays and films. There is a detailed review of Mozartian economics, including the composer's debts, extravagance, and gambling proclivities. Yet another highlight of the book is an up-to-date account of exciting recent research on Mozart's skull and the bronze death mask. The first book in English devoted entirely to Mozart's physical and mental health, Mozart in Person contains a comprehensive bibliography of books and articles from musical and medical literatures. The state of medical knowledge in eighteenth-century Europe and glossary of medical terms are presented. Although suitable for nonspecialist research, this volume will also have wide academic appeal in the study of medicine, psychology, and music, and will be a welcome addition to all general libraries.
Carl Schmidt's catalogue of Poulenc's works lists and describes the musical works of one of France's most important 20th-century composers. The book reveals a wealth of information about a composer whose music is heard constantly in concert halls and on record around the world, and adds the names of a small group of works to his musical canon for the first time.
Although born Giuseppe Guttovergi to a poor, immigrant Italian family, it was as Paul Creston that Giuseppe rose to prominence, becoming one of the most widely performed American composers. Rhythm was a continued subject of research for this composer, and by 1945 he had established a terminology of rhythmic structures, which he observed both in his music and the music of other composers, even writing two books on the subject. This volume presents for the first time a complete descriptive account of the life of the composer, as well as access to currently available materials by and about him.
Through the middle years of this century, a formidable stream of Russian pianists - Gilels, Richter, Berman, Ashkenazy - took the musical world by storm, revealing by their virtuosity and musicianship the continuation of a great pianistic tradition. The Central School of Music and the Moscow Conservatory were the shrines where this tradition was passed on by dedicated and gifted teachers. Dmitry Paperno, himself a brilliant pianist, was a witness to this golden age of the piano. His memoirs, translated for the first time into English, take us into the halls of these celebrated schools, where the reader encounters not only the great pianists of the period but other legendary names: Oistrakh, Kogan, Rostropovich. Towering above all is his beloved teacher, Alexander Borisovich Goldenweiser. The rich musical life of Moscow and the tensions of international competition are vividly described along with the brutal repression of the Stalin years. The author recalls his performing career and gives an account of his years teaching in America since his emigration, rounding out this reminiscence.
Sir Arthur Bliss was one of England's most renowned twentieth-century composers. This bio-bibliography provides a brief biography prepared with the assistance of the composer's widow. It then presents a complete list of works and performances, classified by genre and arranged alphabetically by title of composition. Each entry contains a list of premiere performances, with references to commentaries from performance reviews cited in the bibliography. Brief details are also given concerning original manuscripts and their location. The next section contains a discography of commercially and privately produced sound recordings. An annotated bibliography of writings by the composer and about him and his music follows. Annotations are often in the form of quotations from performance reviews. The bibliography concludes with appendices providing alphabetical and chronological listings of Bliss's works and a complete index of names and titles.
More than 40 stories from the glory days of rock’n’roll, featuring Lou Reed, Elton John, Sting and The Clash. Allan Jones brings stories – many previously unpublished – from the golden days of music reporting. Long nights of booze, drugs and unguarded conversations which include anecdotes, experiences and extravagant behaviour. - A band's aftershow party in San Francisco being gatecrashed by cocaine-hungry Hells Angels - Chrissie Hynde on how rock'n'roll killed The Pretenders - What happened when Nick Lowe and 20 of his mates flew off to Texas to join the Confederate Air Force - John Cale on his dark alliance with Lou Reed Allan Jones remembers a world that once was – one of dark excess and excitement, outrageous deeds and extraordinary talent, featuring legends at both the beginnings and ends of their careers.
Benjamin Britten was arguably the greatest English composer of his time. His music crossed boundaries of genre and form to include opera, ballet, orchestral and chamber music, and film and incidental music. The result of twenty years of research, DEGREESIBenjamin Britten DEGREESR provides up-to-date and comprehensive details about Britten's life and music, including works, performances, and recordings--an effort never before undertaken. Certain to be of use to any scholar of British music or 20th century composition, this reference work is an invaluable addition to the literature on this important artist. Following a brief biography of the subject, author Stewart Craggs provides a complete list of works and performances, arranged by genre; a discography, and an annotated bibliography. Rounding out the volume are two lists of compositions, one arranged alphabetically and the other chronologically, and a general index.
This long overdue examination of Carole King offers her legions of fans the chance to see how her work has developed over time, understand what her music means to other contemporary performers, and grasp its significance in American music at large. Name a Carole King song. Anyone who's been a fan of popular music over the past 45 years should be able to do it with ease. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow?, Take Good Care Of My Baby, The Locomotion, One Fine Day, Up On The Roof, A Natural Woman, I Feel The Earth Move, Smackwater Jack, It's Too Late, So Far Away, You've Got A Friend. Few writers can claim such a formidable catalogue. Fewer still can with justice claim to have spoken for a generation. After collaborating with Paul Simon in high school and composing hits for The Shirelles; Aretha Franklin; The Monkees; Blood, Sweat & Tears; and other artists throughout the 1960s, Carole King launched herself into the spotlight with the 1971 album Tapestry. Tapestry sold over 22 million copies, and was one of the most important feminist statements of the day, not just because of the words or music, but because King maintained almost total control over her product. Carole King has continued composing and performing breakthrough work since Tapestry, though over the past 15 years audiences are more likely to have heard her music in films such as One True Thing, You've Got Mail, and A League of Their Own. In 1988, the National Academy of Songwriters presented King and her one-time husband and collaborator Gerry Goffin with the Lifetime Achievement Award. Goffin and King were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame as non-performers in 1990. Carole King was inducted into the Songwriters Hall of Fame in 1986. Although Tapestry still stands as King's masterpiece, she recorded many other albums, including Fantasy, Colour of Your Dreams, City Streets, Pearls, Wrap Around Joy, Touch the Sky, Simple Things, Thoroughbred, Love Makes the World, Welcome Home, and Really Rosie. All of these are discussed in the course of this volume, as are songs covered and performed by other artists.
Paul Robeson was a towering figure in American culture, conquering many disparate venues-from football and film to law to Shakespeare. An extraordinary athlete-scholar-actor-singer, Robeson also became a crusader for human rights. And though he was admired by many, his controversial support of the Soviet Union during the Cold War and the era of McCarthyism led to ostracism and his declining health. In Robeson: An American Ballad, Arnold H. Lubasch chronicles the remarkable life of this twentieth-century original. In this concise and readable account, Lubasch-a New York Times veteran for almost 40 years-reports on Robeson's life story more accurately and clearly than any previous books. In addition to detailing the highs and lows of Robeson's life and career, Lubasch offers several personal anecdotes about this American icon, and includes commentary on the 100th-anniversary celebration of Robeson's birth. This engaging work will be of interest to virtually everyone, but especially to scholars and students of U.S. and African American history and culture. |
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