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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Composers & musicians
This is the incredible illustrated story of the Bee Gees, the band that Barry, Maurice and Robin, the brothers Gibb, formed in 1958. The trio were especially successful as a popular music act in the late 1960s and early 1970s, and later as prominent performers of the disco music era in the mid-to-late1970s with the soundtrack album Saturday Night Fever. The group sang recognizable three-part tight harmonies; Robin's clear vibrato lead vocals was the hallmark of their earlier hits, while Barry's R&B falsetto became their signature sound during the mid-to-late 1970s and 1980s. The Bee Gees have sold over 120 million records worldwide making them one of the world's best-selling artists of all time. The boys also wrote all of their own hits, as well as writing and producing several major hits for other artists. They were inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 1997. The Bee Gees' Hall of Fame citation says, "Only Elvis Presley, the Beatles, Michael Jackson, Garth Brooks and Paul McCartney have out sold the Bee Gees." Following Maurice's death in January 2003 at the age of 53, Barry and Robin retired the group's name after 45 years of activity.
Since about 1970 there has been a veritable renaissance in scholarship and performances concerning the works of Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy and Fanny Hensel. These essays present the findings of three generations of members of the international community of Mendelssohn/Hensel scholars, and constitute a compendium of cutting-edge research relating to these two important representatives of nineteenth-century musical culture.
This book provides in-depth analysis of the words, music, and recordings of Elvis Costello, one of the most enigmatic, eclectic, and critically acclaimed singer-songwriters of the rock era. Elvis Costello is one of the greatest pop songwriters of his generation as well as one of the most significant songwriters of the 20th century. His career's length now approaching four decades, Costello continues to be vital part of pop culture through live performances, recordings, and the iconic nature of his work. The Words and Music of Elvis Costello provides in-depth analysis of this important artist's words, music, and recordings. Arranged chronologically, the book places Costello in the cultural context of his time and place; addresses the overlaps between rock, classical, torch song, and jazz in Costello's highly eclectic range of songs from 1975 to the present; provides a look at the uniquely British aspects of his work; and uniquely spotlights his compositional techniques and approaches to musical form. The book covers everything from Costello's first album My Aim Is True as well as his other albums in the 1970s to his body of work in the '80s and '90s to his continuing eclecticism in the 21st century as he successfully integrates what would appear to be mutually exclusive genres. The concluding chapter provides analysis of the critical commentary about Elvis Costello's work as a performer and songwriter over his long career. Provides expert analysis of the words and music of Elvis Costello within a cultural context that will benefit readers interested in popular music as well as popular music scholars and serious fans of Elvis Costello Explains the uniquely British aspects of Costello's work and illuminates the role that Costello's Irish-Catholic heritage plays in his work Places Costello's work within the context of postmodernism Provides in-depth analysis of Costello's approach to musical form-an approach that is highly unusual among rock musicians
How did Wagner's experiences in Paris influence his works and social character? And how does his sometime desire for recognition by the French cultural establishment square with his German national identity and with the related idea of a universally valid art? Friedrich Nietzsche more than once claimed that Wagner's only true home was in Paris. This book is the first major study to trace Wagner's relationship with Paris from his first sojourn there (1839-1842) to the Paris Tannhauser (1861). How did Wagner's experiences in Paris influence his works and social character? How does his sometime desire for recognition by the French cultural establishment square with his German national identity and with the related idea of a universally valid art? This book presents Wagner's perennial ambition of an international operatic success in the "capital city of the nineteenth century" and the paradoxical consequences of that ambition upon its failure. Through an examination of previously neglected source materials, the book engages with ideas in the so-called "Wagner debate" as an ongoing philosophical project that tries to come to terms with the composer's Germanness. The book is in three main parts arranged broadly in chronological sequence. The first considers Wagner's earliest years in Paris, focusing on his own French-language drafts of Das Liebesverbot and Der fliegende Hollander. The second part explores his stance towards Paris "at a distance" following his return to Saxony and subsequent political exile. Arriving at Wagner's most often discussed "Paris period" (1859-61), the third part interrogates the concert performances under the composer's direction at the Theatre-Italien and revisionist aspects of their reception. JEREMY COLEMAN is Lecturer in Music in the School of Performing Arts, Universityof Malta.
Born dirt-poor (his family had the dirt floor to prove it), Waylon Jennings took all the grit of his hometown of Littlefield, Texas, into his soul and his sound. From childhood, this son of a farm laborer considered nothing else but playing music. Stubborn enough never to lose sight of his goal, dumb enough not to realize how long and hard the road, he started as a country disc jockey in Lubbock, then signed on as a protege of fellow Texan Buddy Holly, missing the plane crash that claimed Holly's life by an accident of fate. Cut in the mode of Hank Williams and Carl Smith, yet determined to infuse conservative country music traditions with the energy of rock and roll, Waylon broke the closed society of Nashville sessions in the sixties. Under the tutelage of legends like Porter Wagoner and Ernest Tubb, he shared living quarters with Johnny Cash, took songwriting tips from Roger Miller and encouragement (often unsolicited) from Willie Nelson, and hung out after hours with Kris Kristofferson and George Jones. In the wake of country's own distinctive counterculture, when southern-fried acid freaks met - and partied with - diehard good ol' boys, Waylon helped give America something genuinely new. His 1976 anthology album, Wanted: The Outlaws, was a stunning platinum success, heralding a sound and a mood that evoked the country's pioneer spirit, a restlessness always pushing at the horizon and looking toward the next ridge. But while the artist and performer devoured life and rewrote the rules of the nation's popular music, the star binged on an endless stream of cocaine and pills and staggered through three failed marriages. Ultimately - and inspiringly - Waylon triumphed over his drughabit, proving he would fight for the right to sing his song. At the same time, he ended his long search for the right woman and married Jessi Colter, a country-singing great in her own right and now Waylon's wife for more than a quarter of a century. Today, two-time Grammy winner and sixteen-time chart-topper Waylon Jennings keeps the country fires raging, joining fellow superstars Willie Nelson, Johnny Cash, and Kris Kristofferson on their sold-out international tours as the Highwaymen.
Lateness and Brahms takes up the fascinating, yet understudied
problem of how Brahms fits into the culture of turn-of-the-century
Vienna. Brahms's conspicuous and puzzling absence in previous
scholarly accounts of the time and place raises important
questions, and as Margaret Notley demonstrates, the tendency to
view him in neutralized, ahistorical terms has made his music seem
far less interesting than it truly is.
For Bob Dylan enthusiasts and anyone with an interest in the history of music. This, the third book in the Troubadour Tales series takes us back to Minnesota and Dylan's hometown of Duluth. Bob Dylan born in Duluth in Minnesota, grew up in Hibbing, Minnesota and cut his musical teeth in the folk scene of Dinkytown, Minnesota. This guide brings together wonderful stories from each of these key locations and provides detailed information about the roots and the early life of Bob Dylan. We travel back in time to hear stories from his early teacher, tales of the mysterious wandering rabbi, eye-witness accounts from early Dinkytown musical collaborators, as well as being privy to secrets from behind the scenes of the classic Blood On The Tracks album. Fascinating insights into the history and life of one of the most important songwriters in music history and told with Minnesota voices, each with their own personal stories to tell.
Meet Christina Aguilera through a thorough and honest portrayal of her life and career and the things that have influenced both. Christina Aguilera appeared on Star Search when she was eight years old and hasn't stopped performing since. Christina Aguilera: A Biography traces the life and career of this exceptional performer, looking also at the historical, political, and philosophical influences that have affected and motivated her. Readers will learn about the little girl who used music to drown the horrors of domestic abuse, about the young television star who wowed audiences with a voice that spanned four octaves, and, of course, about the wildly successful artist of today. Offering a complete and balanced portrayal, the book begins with Aguilera's childhood and ends with her current activities. It discusses early influences on her music, her father's role in fostering her interests, her evolution from squeaky-clean singer to sexy siren, and her maturation as a performer. In addition, readers will learn about her many awards and accomplishments, her generosity, and the importance of Latin culture to her work.
How does creativity thrive in the face of fascism? How can a highly artistic individual function professionally in so threatening a climate? The final book in a critically acclaimed trilogy that includes Different Drummers (OUP 1992) and The Twisted Muse (OUP 1997), this is a detailed study of the often interrelated careers of eight outstanding German composers who lived and worked amid the dictatorship of the Third Reich: Werner Egk, Paul Hindemith, Kurt Weill, Karl Amadeus Hartmann, Carl Orff, Hans Pfitzner, Arnold Schoenberg, and Richard Strauss. Noted historian Michael H. Kater weighs issues of accommodation and resistance to ask whether these artists corrupted themselves in the service of a criminal regime--and if so, whether this is evident in their music. He also considers the degrees to which the Nazis politically, socially, economically, and aesthetically succeeded in their treatment of these individuals, whose lives and compositions represent diverse responses to totalitarianism.
This guide introduces concertgoers, serious listeners, and music students to Gustav Mahler's Second Symphony, one of the composer's most popular and most powerful works. It examines the symphony from several perspectives: Mahler's struggle to create what he called the New Symphony; his innovative approaches to traditional musical form; how he addressed the daunting challenges of writing music on a monumental scale; and how he dealt with the ineluctable force of Beethoven's symphonic precedent, especially that of the Ninth Symphony. The central focus of Inside Mahler's Second Symphony is on the music itself: how it works, how it works its magic on the listener, how it translates the earnest existential concerns that motivate the symphony into powerful and highly expressive music. Beyond this, the book ushers the Listener's Guide into the digital age with 185 dedicated audio examples. They are brief, accessible, and arranged to flow from one to another to simulate how the symphony might be presented in a classroom discussion. Each movement is also presented uninterrupted, accompanied by light annotations to remind the reader of what they learned about the movement. Each musical event in the uninterrupted presentation is keyed to its location in the orchestral score to accommodate readers who may wish to refer to one. An innovative combination of in-depth analysis and multimedia exploration, Inside Mahler's Second Symphony is a remarkable introduction to a masterpiece of the symphonic repertoire.
Robert Plant is one of the few genuine living rock legends. Frontman of Led Zeppelin, musical innovator and seller of millions of records, Plant has had a profound influence on music for over four decades. But the full account of his life has barely been told ... until now. Robert Plant: A Life is the first complete and comprehensive telling of Plant's story. From his earliest performances in folk clubs in the early 1960s, to the world's biggest stages as Led Zeppelin's self-styled 'Golden God', and on to his emergence as an emboldened solo star. The sheer scale of Zeppelin's success is extraordinary: in the US alone they sold 70 million records, a figure surpassed only by the Beatles. But their success was marred by tragedy. These pages contain first-hand accounts of Plant's greatest highs and deepest lows: the tragic deaths of his son Karac and his friend, Zeppelin drummer John Bonham. Told in vivid detail, this is the definitive story of a man of great talent, remarkable fortitude and extraordinary conviction.
The first full length study of Sir George Thomas Smart (1776-1867), musical animateur and early champion of the music of Beethoven Sir George Thomas Smart (1776-1867) was a significant musical animateur of the early nineteenth century, who earned his living primarily as a conductor but was also significant as an organist, composer and recorder of events. Smart established successful and pioneering London concert series, was a prime mover in the setting up of the Philharmonic Society and the Royal Academy of Music, and taught many of the leading singers of the day, being well versed in the Handelian concert tradition. He also conducted the opera at the Covent Garden Theatre and introduced significant new works to the public - he was most notably an early champion of the music of Beethoven. His journeys to Europe, and his contacts with the leading European musical figures of the day (including Weber, Meyerbeer, Spohr, and Mendelssohn), were crucial to the direction music was to take in nineteenth-century Britain. This detailed account of Smart's life and career presents him within the context of the vibrant concert life of London and wider European musical culture. It is the first full length, critical study of this influential musical figure. JOHN CARNELLEY is Deputy Director of Music and Head of Academic Music, Dulwich College, London. He holds a PhD in Historical Musicology from the University of London (Goldsmiths College) and has previously published research on the eighteenth-century organ manuscripts of John Reading, held in the Dulwich College Archive.
Samuel Wesley (1766-1837), the son of the hymn-writer Charles Wesley and the nephew of John Wesley, was one of the leading composers and organists of his day, a rebel, and a misfit. He converted from Methodism to Roman Catholicism, and his controversial views on marriage led to the desertion of his wife and a long-term relationship with a woman 28 years his junior. His music has become increasingly well known in recent years, and these letters to his friends and fellow musicians are the most extensive of any musician of the period, offering an unparalleled view of life as a professional musician in London in the early nineteenth century.
Commemorating the centenary of Tchaikovsky's death, these essays reassess the life and work of the composer from a variety of perspectives, ranging from the musicological and biographical to broader ones addressing his place in the development of the arts in Europe and America. As they make clear, there is much about Tchaikovsky's achievement that has been taken for granted, and the essays included in this collection represent as much acts of reevaluation as of celebration. After a broad synthesis of Tchaikovsky's relation to the literature, music, and theater of the 18th and 19th centuries, there are sections devoted to Tchaikovsky and his musical contemporaries; Tchaikovsky's lost opera, "The Oprichnik"; Tchaikovsky's mature operatic work; his place in Russian Orthodoxy and nationalism; and contemporary perspectives on his life and works. The volume concludes with discussions on Tchaikovsky scholarship, the place of the composer in American and Russian musical education, and the interpretation and performance of his ballets. It is an important collection for scholars and other researchers involved in Russian music and ballet.
Aaron Horne provides the most comprehensive guide to brass music written by black composers. He covers composers from around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries. Included in the book is biographical information; commission, duration, instrumentation, date of publication, premiere, publisher, discography for each piece; bibliographical sources; and an index which groups the music by numbers, medium, and ensemble. This is the fourth volume in Aaron Horne's monumental effort to provide the most comprehensive guide to music composed by black composers. In this volume he covers composers from around the world in the 19th and 20th centuries, including William Grant Still, Ulysses Kay, Anthony Davis, John Coltrane, and other major figures from the world of classical, jazz, and popular music. The main body of the book is divided into sections devoted to African, African American, Afro-European, and Afro-Latino composers. Within each section composers are arranged alphabetically; each entry provides biographical information as well as commission, duration, instrumentation, date of publication, premiere, publisher, discography for each composition. Backmatter includes a Brass Music Index which groups the music by numbers, medium, and ensembles; a title index; discography; and bibliography. As with the earlier volumes, this is an essential reference tool for anyone with an interest in researching and/or performing the music of black composers.
The BBC's Jazz Book of the Year for 2008. Few jazz musicians have had the lasting influence or attracted as much scholarly study as John Coltrane. Yet, despite dozens of books, hundreds of articles, and his own recorded legacy, the "facts" about Coltrane's life and work have never been definitely established. Well-known Coltrane biographer and jazz educator Lewis Porter has assembled an international team of scholars to write The John Coltrane Reference, an indispensable guide to the life and music of John Coltrane. The John Coltrane Reference features a a day-by-day chronology, which extends from 1926-1967, detailing Coltrane's early years and every live performance given by Coltrane as either a sideman or leader, and a discography offering full session information from the first year of recordings, 1946, to the last, 1967. The appendices list every film and television appearance, as well as every recorded interview. Richly illustrated with over 250 album covers and photos from the collection of Yasuhiro Fujioka, The John Coltrane Reference will find a place in every major library supporting a jazz studies program, as well as John Coltrane enthusiasts.
Gioachino Rossini's The Barber of Seville surveys the opera's fascinating performance history, mapping out the myriad changes that have affected the work since its premiere, exploring many of the personalities responsible for those alterations, and taking into account the range of reactions that these changes have prompted in spectators and critics from the nineteenth century to the present. Opening with a wide-ranging overview of the types of alterations that have been imposed on Rossini's score for the past two centuries, the first chapter addresses the mechanics behind these changes as well as the cultural forces that both fostered and encouraged them. The book next looks at some of the opera's earliest revivals, drawing attention to alterations that were made to the score and to individual singers who were responsible for the changes, especially those who appeared in the roles of Almaviva and Bartolo. An entire chapter is devoted to Rosina, examining the wide array of creative liberties that prima donnas have unremittingly and unrepentantly taken with their interpretations of Rossini's character. The final sections turn to the opera's recent history, observing how the Rossini Renaissance brought with it a new dedication to the "work concept" and to shedding the types of alterations that had long characterized performances of this work. The book closes with a consideration of operatic consumerism from the nineteenth century to the present, exploring the myriad ways that one can now experience The Barber of Seville in all its recorded, digitized, and commodified glory.
Kate Bush is widely respected as one of the most unique solo female performers to have ever emerged in the field of popular music. She has achieved that rare combination of great commercial success and critical acclaim, with "Hounds of Love" considered widely to be her masterpiece. The album regularly features in 'best album' lists, and in the 2004 Observer poll was the highest placed work by a solo female artist. The album allows the author, Ron Moy, the critical opportunity to explore a wide range of issues relating to technology, production, authorship, grain of the voice, iconography, critical and commercial impact, collaboration, gender, sexuality, narrative, and social and cultural context.
"The photographs of William Claxton define the essence of cool." - Jason Ankeny (AllMusic) "Claxton's innovative choices and airy style, which he called 'jazz for your eyes', worked sublimely to document and promote the rise of trumpeter and singer Chet Baker, especially." - Howard Mandel Born in Pasadena, California, photographer William Claxton (1927-2008) is best known for his dozens of splendid portraits of jazz stars (especially those of Chet Baker, of whom he made the first professional photos) and Hollywood stars (such as his friend Steve McQueen). In 1952, while shooting Gerry Mulligan and Chet Baker at the Haig Club, he met Richard Bock, founder of Pacific Jazz, who quickly hired him as art director and house photographer. During his time at the label, Claxton snapped and designed album covers at a rate of roughly one per week, in the process establishing the visual identity of the West Coast jazz movement. Where previous jazz photographers captured their subjects in the dark, smoky environs of nightclubs, Claxton capitalised on the sun and surf of southern California, posing artists in unorthodox outdoor settings to represent a new era in the music's continued evolution. Claxton's images graced the covers of numerous music albums, and his work regularly appeared in such magazines as Life, Paris Match and Vogue. Claxton wrote 13 books, held dozens of exhibitions of his photographs around the world, and won numerous photography awards. This book presents a selection of more than 150 superb images by the great photographer. Among the multiple artists portrayed are Louis Armstrong, Chet Baker, Art Blakey, Clifford Brown, Dave Brubeck, Ray Charles, Ornette Coleman, John Coltrane, Miles Davis, Bill Evans, Stan Getz, Billie Holiday, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Charles Mingus, Thelonious Monk, Wes Montgomery, Lee Morgan, Art Pepper, Sonny Rollins, Dinah Washington, and Muddy Waters. Text in English, with an introduction in English, French and Spanish.
First full monograph to focus entirely on the English-language songs set to music by Byrd. As he grappled with the challenges of composing for various instrumental and vocal ensembles, William Byrd (c. 1540-1623), England's premier Renaissance composer, devoted considerable attention to the poetry and prose of his native language, producing such treasured masterpieces as the hauntingly beautiful "Lulla lullaby"; the infectiously comedic "Though Amarillis dance in green"; and two extraordinarily dramatic Easter anthems. This book, the first full-length study specifically devoted to Byrd's English-texted music, provides a close reading of all of the works he published in the late 1580s, constituting nearly half of his total song output. It delves into the musical, political, literary, and, specifically, the sequential qualities of Byrd's 1588 and 1589 published collections as a whole, revealing, explaining, and interpreting an overall grand narrative, while remaining fully attentive to the particularities of each individual piece. Often deemed "unliterary" and generally considered political only in his approach to Latin texts, which were often of special interest to his fellow Catholics, Byrd was not only an inspiredcomposer who had mastered the challenges of his nation's burgeoning verse, but also one who used his voice in song to foster a more inclusive polity in a time of religious strife. Jeremy L. Smith is Associate Professorof Musicology at the University of Colorado Boulder.
Examines the remarkable career of leading soprano castrato Venanzio Rauzzini (1746-1810), the first castrato to make Britain his home. Venanzio Rauzzini (1746-1810), the celebrated Italian castrato, is best known for his performance in Mozart's Lucio Silla in 1772, with which Mozart was so pleased that he composed for the singer the famous motet Exsultate Jubilate. In 1774, Rauzzini moved to London where he performed three seasons of serious operas at the King's Theatre. From 1777 until his death in 1810, he was the director of the concert series in Bath, a series that matched the prestige of any that were given in London. In addition, he composed prolifically, writing music for eleven operas. This book is a study of Rauzzini's remarkable yet often overlooked career in Britain. Paul Rice chronicles Rauzzini's performances at the King's Theatre and examines his leadership of the Bath subscription concerts from 1780-1810, recovering much of the repertory. Rice shows in detail how Rauzzini responded musically to the social and political conditions of his adopted country, and analyzes the castrato's reception, as well as compositional choices, shedding new light on changing musical tastes in late eighteenth-century Britain. Paul F. Rice is Professor of Musicology at the School of Music, Memorial University of Newfoundland.
The first thorough study of Liszt's use of the musical style associated with the Hungarian Roma ["Gypsies"] in his renowned Hungarian Rhapsodies and less overtly Hungarian works. Some of Franz Liszt's most renowned pieces -- most famously his Hungarian Rhapsodies -- are written in a nineteenth-century Hungarian style known as verbunkos. Closely associated with the virtuosic playing tradition of theHungarian-Gypsy band, the meaning and uses of this style in Liszt's music have been widely taken for granted and presented as straightforward. Taking a novel transcultural approach to nineteenth-century modernism, Shay Loya presents a series of critiques and sensitive music analyses that demonstrate how the verbunkos idiom, rich and artful in itself, interacted in myriad ways with Liszt's multiple cultural identities, compositional techniques, and modernist aesthetics. Even supposedly familiar works such as the Rhapsodies emerge in a new light, and more startlingly, we find out how the idiom inhabits and shapes works that bear no outward marks of nationality or ethnicity. Particularly surprising is its role in the famously enigmatic compositions of Liszt's old age, such as Nuages gris and Bagatelle sans tonalite. We are pleased to announce that Liszt's Transcultural Modernism and the Hungarian-Gypsy Tradition is one of two winners of the 2014 Alan Walker Book Award, given by the American Liszt Society. Shay Loya is a Lecturer at City University London and is a board member of the Societyfor Music Analysis (UK).
William Billings (1746-1800) was the most important native-born composer of the American colonial and Federal eras. He wrote hundreds of choral compositions, which were set to sacred or devotional texts for use by church choirs, singing schools, and musical societies. Extremely popular in his own time, Billings's music was denigrated during the nineteenth century when European styles governed American musical tastes. In the twentieth century his genius was recognized, and his music is widely sung and studied. Originally published in six tunebooks, the 338 extant pieces were issued in a scholarly edition by the American Musicological Society and The Colonial Society of Massachusetts as The Complete Works of William Billings (4 vols., 1977-1990). The present catalog complements the Complete Works by serving as a guide to its contents and providing a wealth of additional data. Included for each composition are exact title; text source; first line; technical information on length, meter, key, and melody; manuscript sources and contemporaneous reprints; bibliography and modern recordings. An extensive list of works cited is followed by five indexes providing access to the material in the catalog by first line of text, Billings's anthem titles, text sources, musical form (tune types), and musical incipits. The catalog provides for Billings's music information similar to that found in Schmeider's listings for Bach and Koechel's listings for Mozart. |
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