In this book, the work of legendary singer-songwriter Joni Mitchell is explored, emphasizing the way text and music work together to create an artistic statement in her recorded songs. Few singer-songwriters have been as influential as Joni Mitchell. Her song "Both Sides, Now" has been recorded over 640 times, while Bill and Hillary Clinton credit her "Chelsea Morning" as the inspiration for their daughter's name. The Words and Music of Joni Mitchell surveys the entire output of this legendary artist, from her 1968 debut album Song to a SeagulI to her 2007 album Shine. After a brief overview of Mitchell's career and a chapter that explains some of the important technical features of the guitar styles upon which she draws, the book offers an in-depth discussion of every song Mitchell wrote and recorded. Proceeding chronologically through Mitchell's albums, author James Bennighof clarifies the musical content of the songs and the personality behind the music. Each brief essay describes how important musical features—such as instrumentation, idiosyncratic guitar tunings, harmonic structure, form, and elements of melody and rhythm—interact with the text of the song to create the unforgettable artistic statements for which Mitchell is celebrated.

Bill Anderson is one of the most successful songwriters, performers, and personalities in country music history. Known as "Whisperin' Bill" to generations of fans, Anderson's soft vocalisations and spoken lyrics are the hallmarks of his style. A long-standing member of the weekly Grand Ole Opry radio program and stage performance in Nashville, he also discovered future Country Music Hall of Famer Connie Smith and wrote her first hits, toured with Johnny Cash, hosted his own television show, sang eighty charting singles and thirty-seven Top Ten country music hits, and wrote songs recorded by James Brown, Jerry Lee Lewis, the Louvin Brothers, Dean Martin, Aretha Franklin, and many more. Anderson's current and reinvigorated career is covered in this revision and expansion of his 1989 autobiography. Over the past twenty years, he has won two Country Music Association Song of the Year prizes, been nominated for GRAMMY awards, won the Academy of Country Music's Song of the Year distinction, and had works recorded by superstars Brad Paisley, Kenny Chesney, Alison Krauss, George Strait, Vince Gill, Elvis Costello, and many more. In 2001, he entered the Country Music Hall of Fame. Whisperin' Bill: An Unprecedented Life in Country Music presents a portrait of a long-gone Nashville and introduces readers to the famous and fascinating characters who helped build what is now known as country music. Richly illustrated with black-and-white photos of Anderson interacting with the superstars of American roots music, including such legends as Patsy Cline, Vince Gill, and Steve Wariner, this autobiography highlights Anderson's trajectory in the business and his influence on the past, present, and future of this dynamic genre.

Quyen Van Minh (b. 1954) is not only a jazz saxophonist and lecturer at the prestigious Vietnam National Academy of Music, but he is also one of the most preeminent jazz musicians in Vietnam. Considered a pioneer in the country, Minh is often publicly recognized as the "godfather of Vietnamese jazz." Playing Jazz in Socialist Vietnam tells the story of the music as it intertwined with Minh's own narrative. Stan BH Tan-Tangbau details Minh's life story, telling how Minh pioneered jazz as an original genre even while navigating the trials and tribulations of a fervent socialist revolution, of the ideological battle that was the Cold War, of Vietnam's war against the United States, and of the political changes during the Doi Moi period between the mid-1980s and the 1990s. Minh worked tirelessly and delivered two breakthrough solo recitals in 1988 and 1989, marking the first time jazz was performed in the public sphere in the socialist state. To gain jazz acceptance as a mainstream musical art form, Minh founded Minh Jazz Club. With the release of his debut album of original compositions in 2000, Minh shaped the nascent genre of Vietnamese jazz. Minh's endeavors kickstarted the momentum, from his performing jazz in public, teaching jazz both formally and informally, and contributing to the shaping of an original Vietnamese voice to stand out among the many styles in the jazz world. Most importantly, Minh generated a public space for musicians to play and for the Vietnamese to listen. His work eventually helped to gain jazz the credibility necessary at the national conservatoire to offer instruction in a professional music education program.

The Work is a book of lyrics and illustrations by the late Scott Hutchison, lyricist, vocalist and songwriter of Frightened Rabbit. This paperback follows the sold-out limited hardback edition and presents the band's complete lyrics (including B-sides and rarities) with handwritten excerpts by Scott, alongside his illustrations. The book is meant both as a celebration of and tribute to Scott's unbridled creativity. It aims to fulfil his wishes by being the book that he wanted to create and had spoken of creating before his death. Readers are advised that The Work includes content about topics that some may find upsetting, including references to suicide. "Seeing this book come to life has been something of a bittersweet experience. Reading the lyrics without music really brings home the stark reality of what Scott was going through and at the same time highlights the talent of someone who I consider to be one of the best songwriters in the world. This would've been a different release had Scott been involved but we all felt it was important that his lyrics be celebrated and given the spotlight they deserve. As Scott has said, these words were always meant to be accompanied by music, but the impact of digesting them without is no less great. Pick up this book of words, hold it, share it and immerse yourself in the world Scott created by opening not only his heart but his whole soul to the world." Grant Hutchison (Scott's brother and drummer of Frightened Rabbit)

He was the "Man in Black," a country music legend, and the quintessential American troubadour. He was an icon of rugged individualism who had been to hell and back, telling the tale as never before. In his unforgettable autobiography, Johnny Cash tells the truth about the highs and lows, the struggles and hard-won triumphs, and the people who shaped him.

In his own words, Cash set the record straight -- and dispelled a few myths -- as he looked unsparingly at his remarkable life: from the joys of his boyhood in Dyess, Arkansas to superstardom in Nashville, Tennessee, the road of Cash's life has been anything but smooth. Cash writes of the thrill of playing with Elvis, the comfort of praying with Billy Graham; of his battles with addiction and of the devotion of his wife, June; of his gratitude for life, and of his thoughts on what the afterlife may bring. Here, too, are the friends of a lifetime, including Willie Nelson, Roy Orbison, Bob Dylan, and Kris Kristofferson. As powerful and memorable as one of his classic songs, Cash is filled with the candor, wit, and wisdom of a man who truly "walked the line."

Offering insight into the creative processes of a contemporary composer, "Tinman" presents 150 vignettes from author David Cope's life. Some of the notable individuals discussed in this innovative biography are John Cage, Karlheinz Stockhausen, Pierre Boulez, Aaron Copland, Warren Zevon, Carl Sagan, Frank Drake, Douglas Hofstadter, Arthur Knight, Danny Glover, Steven Spielberg, George Lucas, Dorothy Freeman, Arthur C. Clarke, Isaac Asimov, and Philip Jos Farmer. "Tinman" offers a fond music journey including two encounters with Bach, Rachmaninoff's classic "Prelude in isharp minor," Beethoven's "Fifth Symphony," Pierre Boulez, and the sadness of Igor Stravinsky's death.
The title, borrowed from L. Frank Baum's book "The Wizard of Oz," is an aphorism affectionately attached to Cope in the late 1990s. The reference reflects the many attitudes about his work with his computer music program, "Experiments in Musical Intelligence"; critics felt the results of this program lack heart.
Though "Tinman" covers many other aspects of Cope's life-from his love of the cello, to his days as a graduate student at the University of Southern California, and to his work as a composer, author, and teacher-the main theme centers on his search for self-identity.

Interest in Pink Floyd remains as intense as ever even 40 years after the release of Dark Side of the Moon, with lavish box-sets collecting demos and out-takes, and Roger Waters' world tours of The Wall playing to packed stadiums. Now, Mark Blake's superbly comprehensive and engrossing history of the group, rightly acclaimed as the definitive book on the band, has been fully revised and extended with new interviews to bring the story up to date with the recent appearances of David Gilmour and Nick Mason with Roger Waters at a London date on his The Wall tour.

The ground-breaking biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams reveals more than any other the man behind the music. In this new paperback edition, the author examines the considerable range of Vaughan Williams's work, from the English pastoral tradition to Modernism, and shows how Vaughan Williams was influenced by the Boer War, the economic depression after the First World War, the deprivations of the Blitz, and the austerity of the Cold War. He also reveals how the greatest influence on Vaughan Williams's music and creative development was his personal life, involving his seemingly secure marriage and an equally enduring love affair. The author shows how these reflected both the stability and cutting-edge aspects of his music.Like a great symphony, this book ranges from doubt to inspiration. It is the most complete biography of one of Britain's greatest composers.

Choice Magazine (a major library review magazine): "After an introductory section on the history of the piano, particularly as reflected in and influenced by works of the major composers for the instrument, this interesting and informative book describes various compositional "schools," from Austro-German, French, and Italian through English, American, Russian, Spanish, Japanese, and others. This section constitutes a brief course in music history beginning with the Renaissance. ... The body of the work consists of historical and stylistic sketches of 17 composers, with brief remarks about several works of each, and lists of selected works, ending with a complete work or movement. These sketches are exceptionally well written, assuming an intelligent reader, and convey a great deal of information concisely.... this book contains much well-organized and useful material. For libraries serving serious amateur pianists, high school upward. ****************** Booklist (The book review magazine of the American Library Association): This authoritative volume will make a solid addition to the public library music collection. After offering a brief opening chapter on the evolution of the piano as instrument and the changing styles of technique, author Pat Hammond provides opinionated but well-reasoned analyses of the works of the major piano composers, with focus on the Baroque era (Bach and Handel), the Classical age (Haydn, Mozart Beethoven), Romanticism (Schubert, Chopin Liszt, and others), Impressionism (Debussy) and Modernism (Bartok). This book's unique feature is its inclusion of musical examples of each composer's work, which are meant to be played as one reads along. Pertinent biographical material is also featured for the great masters. Appendixes include a suggested twentieth-century piano repertoire and a bibliography. Piano music - Bibliography ******************* Clavier Magazine "Compiled and annotated by Patricia Fallows-Hammond. Suitable as a reference source, this handbook supplies concise biographical and stylistic sketches of composers and annotation of selected compositions. ... Fallows-Hammond has a knack for setting and maintaining an appropriate level of sophistication. Writing in a crisp, direct style, she steers the student toward complicated subjects and gives them a palpable hold on them. To explain the concept of the concerto grosso, for example, she explains that, "In Handel's time, Concerto Crosso meant a small group of instruments playing in contrast to a larger body of strings." Her synopsis of the development of sonata form is equally apt....Commentary on the composers is well-researched and written at a uniform level of detail that will make it useful to a wide audience....Fallows-Hammond does a good job of compiling accurate information on the composers she has chosen. If the contents of the book serve your purposes, you will find this handbook a handy reference source. " **************** The American Organist "The author has created a self-instruction course which gives information about the evolution of the piano and changing styles in piano technique, and then discusses topics with emphasis on special composers: ..... Piano students seeking background information will profit from this book. Recommended for public libraries." ******************** Keyboard Magazine "Patricia Fallow-Hammond's 302 page study embraces the proposition that historical context is an important, and frequently neglected, element in building an understanding of classical repertoire. .... she has assembled a fairly basic catalogue of keyboard works, arranged chronologically by composer, and preceded each list with a short biography relating milestones from each composer's life. ....... Her decision to further enlighten the reader with short samples of their handiwork is a happy extra addition. Her efficiency at summarizing and packaging that line is what makes her debut in print a success."

Examining, for the first time, the compositions of Johann Joseph Fux in relation to his contemporaries Bach and Handel, The Musical Discourse of Servitude presents a new theory of the late baroque musical imagination. Author Harry White contrasts musical "servility" and "freedom" in his analysis, with Fux tied to the prevailing servitude of the day's musical imagination, particularly the hegemonic flowering of North Italian partimento method across Europe. In contrast, both Bach and Handel represented an autonomy of musical discourse, with Bach exhausting generic models in the mass and Handel inventing a new genre in the oratorio. A potent critique of Lydia Goehr's seminal The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works, The Musical Discourse of Servitude draws on Goehr's formulation of the "work-concept" as an imaginary construct which, according to Goehr, is an invention of nineteenth-century reception history. White locates this concept as a defining agent of automony in Bach's late works, and contextualized the "work-concept" itself by exploring rival concepts of political, religious, and musical authority which define the European musical imagination in the first half of the eighteenth century. A major revisionist statement about the musical imagination in Western art music, The Musical Discourse of Servitude will be of interest to scholars of the Baroque, particularly of Bach and Handel.

This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone

Author Mark Beaumont met and interviewed Jay Z in 2009 and many quotes from that interview feature in this biography. Includes interviews with Kanye West, Chris Martin, Busta Rhymes, LL Cool J, Damon Dash, Dr Dre, Rick Rubin and many others. Details his early life, his Father abandoning him, his accidental shooting of his brother and his delving into cocaine dealing. The launch of his Roc-A-Fella record label and his subsequent album releases including the platinum selling In My Life and Hard Knock Life. His alleged involvement in the stabbing of record executive Lance Riviera, the trial and his three year probation sentence. How he became the CEO of Def Jam Recordings (one of his first signings was Rihanna) His relationship and marriage to Beyonce Knowles. His entrepreneurial skills from launching his own Rocawear clothing and accessories line, his New York club 40/40 and his rumoured investments in real estate and football clubs. Brings the story right up to date to include his performance at Glastonbury in 2008, the Haiti aid single Stranded, his concerts with Eminem, his Watch The Throne EP release with Kanye West and his supporting U2 on their World Tour.

Chopin's Second Ballade, Op. 38 is frequently performed, and takes only seven or so minutes to play. Yet the work remains very poorly understood--disagreement prevails on issues from its tonic and two-key structure to its posited relationship with the poems of Adam Mickiewicz. Chopin's PolishBallade is a reexamination and close analysis of this famous work, revealing the Ballade as a piece with a powerful political story to tell.
Through the general musical styles and specific references in the Ballade, which use both operatic strategies and approaches developed in programmatic piano pieces for amateurs, author Jonathan Bellman traces a clear narrative thread to contemporary French operas. His careful historical exegesis of previously ignored musical and cultural contexts brings to light a host of new insights about this remarkable piece, which, as Bellman shows, reflects the cultural preoccupations of the Polish emigres in mid-1830s Paris, pining with bitter nostalgia for a homeland now under Russian domination. This vital connection to the extramusical culture of its day forms the basis for a plausible relationship with the nationalistic poetry of Mickiewicz. Chopin's Polish Ballade also solves the long-standing conundrum of the two extant versions of the Ballade, making an important point about the flexible notion of "work" that Chopin embraced."

Through an examination of her music, videos, philanthropic work, and biographical details, this book gives insight into Alanis Morissette's musical career and day-to-day life, from her early pop beginnings in Canada to her work today. As a whole, Alanis Morissette's work has never been critically analyzed. The Words and Music of Alanis Morissette addresses this oversight through its examination of Morissette's work in the context of biographical facts, its relationship to other cultural trends, and its reflection of the female perspective. This book merges biographical information with a critical examination of the music that she produced and performed during all periods of her life, thereby providing a needed overview of Morissette's body of work. All Morissette fans will appreciate learning about the details of her life, but the author's melding of the star's personal life story with an informed analysis of popular music will also appeal to a wider audience-readers interested in music, culture, women's studies, or female musicians, for example. The book provides entertaining and engrossing reading for any Alanis Morissette fan and serves as a resource that documents her broad contributions to the music industry. Provides a study of subject matter far beyond Morissette's blockbuster album, Jagged Little Pill, with coverage extending to 2012's Havoc and Bright Lights Situates Morissette alongside noteworthy female singer-songwriters with roots extending back to the 1960s Traces the origins of Morissette's music in pop, grunge, and electronic dance music Explains how Morissette's enormous appeal among fans lies largely in their identification with details that she shared about her life and experiences