Andrew Motion's first work of biography won a Somerset Maugham Award in 1987.

'A biographical triumph.' "Observer"

'The story of the three Lamberts is as cruel and horrifying as any Greek tragedy... Its portrayal of the way in which the Lamberts instinctively yet unintentionally assisted in the destruction of their own offspring makes for truly compulsive reading.' "Harpers and Queen"

'Motion's project is not just to tell the story of passing generations, which he does very readably and well, but necessarily also to describe and evaluate aspects of English culture - revivalist painting, classical music in the Twenties and Thirties, the foundation of a native ballet, pop music in the Sixties - which he does with considerable confidence and resource.' "London Review of Books"

""

First published in 1998, Carley collates twelve essays by an international group of contributors reflects the truly cosmopolitan nature of Delius's life and his music. They reveal the manner in which he absorbed the culture of the nations he came to know, their music, art and literature, and the influences they brought to bare on his own work. Also discussed are some of the often mixed, but rarely equivocal reactions that performances of his music have reactions over the years, with Lionel Carley's in-depth study of the first production of Foleraadet in 1897, and a wide ranging analysis by Don Gillespie and Robert Beckhard of the critical reception of Delius's music in the United States between 1909 and 1920.

As John Cage once recalled, there were four musicians in the early '50s who, because of their deep interest in art, associated closely with the New York School of painters: Edgard Varèse, Stefan Wolpe, Morton Feldman, and Cage himself. This book explores the interaction and influences of the visual arts on these four seminal composers. Even though each composer stressed that his aesthetic derived mainly from the visual arts, the actual transference of an aesthetic form from one medium to another took many forms, reflecting the individual sensibilities and concerns of the artists involved. The theories of performance and composition that they evolved are still controversial; taking a new and unique perspective, Johnson and his collaborators give fresh insights into the music of our time.

As John Cage once recalled, there were four musicians in the early '50s who, because of their deep interest in art, associated closely with the New York School of painters: Edgard Varèse, Stefan Wolpe, Morton Feldman, and Cage himself. This book explores the interaction and influences of the visual arts on these four seminal composers. Even though each composer stressed that his aesthetic derived mainly from the visual arts, the actual transference of an aesthetic form from one medium to another took many forms, reflecting the individual sensibilities and concerns of the artists involved. The theories of performance and composition that they evolved are still controversial; taking a new and unique perspective, Johnson and his collaborators give fresh insights into the music of our time.

A century after his death Anton Bruckner still remains one of the most complex and enigmatic creative personalities of the nineteenth century. A leading avant-garde figure of his generation, he was an accomplished performer and teacher in addition to being a great composer; few people in the history of western music can boast his level of achievement in all these areas combined. This book, a collection of essays written by an international group of scholars, offers diverse theoretical and musicological perspectives on Bruckner the composer-teacher-performer. Facets of his formidable theoretical training and his application of it as part of the compositional process are explored. A variety of analytical methodologies is used to examine the Second through to the Ninth Symphonies, the heart of the composer's mature repertoire. Finally, aspects of Bruckner's career as a teacher and performer, his complex personality, his influence and dissemination of his music are considered.

First published in 1997, This volume brings together a wide selection of those articles which include interviews, personal recollections of Brian and several detailed analyses of some of his works, generously illustrated with music examples. The book concludes with a recently updated catalogue of works.

Based on lengthy interviews with Ellington's bandmates, family, and friends, Duke Ellington and His World offers a fresh look at this legendary composer. A.H. Lawrence gives us the first biography of the composer written by a fellow musician and African American. This fascinating book traces Ellington's life, from his early years in Washington, D.C. to his death in New York in 1974, and career, from the brothel to the cathedral, in terms of the social, cultural, political and economic realities of his times.

Drawing upon extensive archival research, interview material, and musical analysis, Female Composers, Conductors, Performers: Musiciennes of Interwar France, 1919-1939 presents an innovative study of women working as professional musicians in France between the two World Wars. Hamer positions the activities, achievements, and reception of women composers, conductors, and performers against a contemporary socio-political climate that was largely hostile to female professionalism. The musical styles and techniques of Marguerite Canal, Jeanne Leleu, Germaine Tailleferre, Yvonne Desportes, Elsa Barraine, and Claude Arrieu are discussed with reference to significant works dating from the interwar period. Hamer highlights the activities of Jane Evrard and her Orchestre feminin de Paris as well as the reception of the Orchestra of the Union des Femmes Professeurs et Compositeurs de Musique, a contemporary pro-suffrage organisation that was dedicated to defending the collective interests of musiciennes and campaigning for their employment rights. Beyond women composers and conductors, Hamer also sheds light on female performers and their contribution to the interwar early music revival.

Series Information:
Composer Resource Manuals

"You have the luck of Croesus on stilts (as my Auntie Vi would have said) if you've had the sort of career, ups and downs, warts and all that I have in that wondrous little corner of show business called musical theatre." One of the most successful and distinguished artists of our time, Andrew Lloyd Webber has reigned over the musical theatre world for nearly five decades. The winner of numerous awards, including multiple Tonys and an Oscar, Lloyd Webber has enchanted millions worldwide with his music and numerous hit shows, including Jesus Christ Superstar, Evita, Cats, The Phantom of the Opera-Broadway's longest running show-and most recently, School of Rock. In Unmasked, written in his own inimitable, quirky voice, the revered, award-winning composer takes stock of his achievements, the twists of fate and circumstance which brought him both success and disappointment, and the passions that inspire and sustain him. The son of a music professor and a piano teacher, Lloyd Webber reveals his artistic influences, from his idols Rodgers and Hammerstein and the perfection of South Pacific's 'Some Enchanted Evening,' to the pop and rock music of the 1960s and Puccini's Tosca, to P. G. Wodehouse and T. S. Eliot. Lloyd Webber recalls his bohemian London youth, reminiscing about the happiest place of his childhood, his homemade Harrington Pavilion-a make-believe world of musical theatre in which he created his earliest entertainments. A record of several exciting and turbulent decades of British and American musical theatre and the transformation of popular music itself, Unmasked is ultimately a chronicle of artistic creation. Lloyd Webber looks back at the development of some of his most famous works and illuminates his collaborations with luminaries such as Tim Rice, Robert Stigwood, Harold Prince, Cameron Mackintosh, and Trevor Nunn. Taking us behind the scenes of his productions, Lloyd Webber reveals fascinating details about each show, including the rich cast of characters involved with making them, and the creative and logistical challenges and artistic political battles that ensued. Lloyd Webber shares his recollections of the works that have become cultural touchstones for generations of fans: writing songs for a school production that would become his first hit, Joseph and the Amazing Technicolor Dreamcoat; finding the coterie of performers for his classic rock opera Jesus Christ Superstar; developing his first mega-hit, Evita, which would win seven Tonys Awards, including Best Musical; staking his reputation and fortune on the groundbreaking Cats; and making history with the dazzling The Phantom of the Opera. Reflecting a life that included many passions (from architecture to Turkish Swimming Cats), full of witty and revealing anecdotes, and featuring cameo appearances by numerous celebrities-Elaine Paige, Sarah Brightman, David Frost, Julie Covington, Judi Dench, Richard Branson, A.R. Rahman, Mandy Patinkin, Patti LuPone, Richard Rodgers, Norman Jewison, Milos Forman, Placido Domingo, Barbra Streisand, Michael Crawford, Gillian Lynne, Betty Buckley, and more-Unmasked at last reveals the true face of the extraordinary man beneath the storied legend.

This is a comprehensive guide to research on the American composer Elliott Carter (b. 1908), widely acknowledged as one of the greatest composers of the twentieth century. It contains a chronology, complete list of works, detailed discography, and fully annotated bibliography of over 1,000 books, articles, interviews, video recordings, and Carter's own writings. This essential reference book covers the most significant works in English, French, German, and Italian, from the 1940s,when Carter's music first began to attract attention,to the 1990s.

eBook available with sample pages: 0203906551

'Songs That Saved Your Life - The Art of The Smiths 1982 -87' reveals the stories behind every track (including unreleased out-takes), catalogues all the group's UK television, radio and concert appearances and features interviews with original band members, producers and associates.

CAPS LOCK ON: Lyrics + Debris 2007-2022 is the exclusive artist-approved lyric book for the band Everything Everything. This full-colour, limited, hardback edition presents the lyrics to all songs released by the band including b-sides, rarities and music released in 2022. A treasure trove of previously unseen images feature alongside the lyrics, including behind-the-scenes archive material of notebooks, chord sheets, set lists and photos, making this a must-have edition for any Everything Everything fan.

Rolland's biography attempts to provide an overview of Handel's life and works from his early lessons in music to the classical context in which he is commonly placed. Originally published in English in 1916, Hull's translation gives an insight into biographical facts and the musical pieces composed by Handel including his operas, oratorios and chamber music. This title will be of interest to students of music and musical history.

The living embodiment of The Beatles and a musical juggernaut without parallel, Paul McCartney is the patriarch of pop. Ahead of McCartney's 80th birthday and Glastonbury headline set, acclaimed author Howard Sounes creates the most accurate and extensive profile of McCartney ever built, leaving no stone unturned, and no shadow unexplored. He is the torch-bearer of the Beatles - the greatest band in pop - and one of the most closely studied stars in show business. But surprises and secrets still linger in the life of Sir Paul McCartney. In FAB, his full story is told for the first time. Acclaimed author Howard Sounes spent more than two years investigating every aspect of Sir Paul's life and work, including interviewing over 200 people. The result is the richest and more comprehensive biography of McCartney ever written. Uniquely, FAB pays equal attention to the story of Paul McCartney both in the Beatles and post-Beatles, creating a unique narrative spanning the arc of the artist's life. FAB culminates in the sensational human story of Sir Paul's calamitous marriage to Heather Mills, which is fully revealed for the first time. Sounes proves a judicious critic of the music of an iconic star while also delivering a superb psychological portrait of the man.

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 everyone from Karen O to Kathleen Hanna lists the South Bronx group as a direct influence. So why do the Scroggins sisters appear as nothing more than a footnote in the 1980s music scene? Through interviews with founding member Renee Scroggins, alongside cult-figures from 1980s New York and North England, this book follows the story of a group of sisters who made it out of the New York projects and into the heart of the dancefloor. Come Away With ESG repositions ESG in their rightful place as punk pioneers and explains how their primal beats have paved the way for modern dance music today.

Stephen Sondheim is arguably the most important writer for the American musical stage today, the equivalent in his field of Miller, Albee, O'Neill, and Williams. Yet he has rarely been treated seriously within the academy.
Reading Stephen Sondheim: A Collection of Critical Essays is an attempt to remedy that situation. Bringing together scholars and critics from a wide variety of literary and theoretical perspectives, this book undertakes to examine all of Sondheim's major productions and themes.

The music of the Polish composer Karol Szymanowski (1882-1937) has enjoyed a resurgence of interest in recent years. Despite wide recognition in his own lifetime, Szymanowski's works were somewhat overlooked in the decades following his death. Outside Poland, changing fashions militated against acceptance of his achievement, and subsequent generations of Polish composers regarded his music as too reactionary to provide a basis on which to found a national musical identity. In this full-scale study of Karol Szymanowski's life and music, Alistair Wightman explores the composer's position as a constant outsider in his own country, yet a 'good European' in the ways in which he responded positively to a diverse range of musical talents, in particular as Stravinsky, Strauss, Berg, Hindemith, Prokofiev and Ravel. The book throws light on Szymanowski's relationship to the Polish musical establishment, the reception of his works at home and abroad, his work as an educationalist, and the essentially European dimension of his art, drawing on letters, polemical writings, verse, theatrical sketches and the memoirs of family, friends and contemporaries. All of Szymanowski's significant works are discussed, illustrated with nearly 140 music examples. Evaluation is made of the close links existing between the composer's musical and literary works from the earliest stages of his career, as well as the various ideological strands that went together to form the unique, humanistic synthesis, characteristic of his mature work.

First Published in 1997. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Stephen Sondheim is arguably the most important writer for the American musical stage today, the equivalent in his field of Miller, Albee, O'Neill, and Williams. Yet he has rarely been treated seriously within the academy.Reading Stephen Sondheim: A Collection of Critical Essays is an attempt to remedy that situation. Bringing together scholars and critics from a wide variety of literary and theoretical perspectives, this book undertakes to examine all of Sondheim's major productions and themes.

First Published in 2000. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.