Peaceful Piano Playlist: Revisited presents a chilled collection of peaceful piano solos for the intermediate pianist. Inspired by the popular Peaceful Piano playlists available on streaming services, it features pieces such as The Light She Brings by Joep Beving, I due fiumi by Ludovico Einaudi, and By The Still Waters by Amy Beach.

(Music Sales America). A compendium of the world's most loved music. True to the spirit of the great composers, this volume fills the needs of students and teachers. Over 100 works, including Schubert's "Moment Musicale," Chopin's "Minute Waltz," Beethoven's "Rondo a Cappriccio," and much more. Spiral bound.

A tale of passion and obsession from a philosophy professor who teaches himself to play Bach on the piano. Dan Moller grew up listening to heavy metal in the Boston suburbs. But something changed when he dug out his mother's record of The Art of the Fugue, inexplicably wedged between 16 ABBA Hits and Kenny Rogers. Moller became fixated on Bach and his music, but only learned to play it for himself as an adult. In The Way of Bach, Moller draws us into the strange and surprisingly funny world of the composer and his scene. Did you know The Goldberg Variations contain a song about having to eat too much cabbage? Or that Handel nearly died in a duel he fought while conducting an opera? Along the way, Moller takes up such questions as, just what is so special about Bach's music? What can Americans-steeped in pop culture-learn from European craftsmanship? And why do some people see a connection between Bach's music and God? By turns witty and thought-provoking, Moller infuses The Way of Bach with insights into music, culture, and philosophy alike.

Artists today are at a crossroads. With funding for the arts and humanities endowments perpetually under attack, and school districts all over the United States scrapping their art curricula altogether, the place of the arts in our civic future is uncertain to say the least. At the same time, faced with the problems of the modern world--from water shortages and grave health concerns to global climate change and the now constant threat of terrorism--one might question the urgency of this waning support for the arts. In the politically fraught world we live in, is the "felt" experience even something worth fighting for? In this soul-searching collection of vignettes, Patrick Summers gives us an adamant, impassioned affirmative. Art, he argues, nurtures freedom of thought, and is more necessary now than ever before. As artistic director of the Houston Grand Opera, Summers is well positioned to take stock of the limitations of the professional arts world--a world where the conversation revolves almost entirely around financial questions and whose reputation tends toward elitism--and to remind us of art's fundamental relationship to joy and meaning. Offering a vehement defense of long-form arts in a world with a short attention span, Summers argues that art is spiritual, and that music in particular has the ability to ask spiritual questions, to inspire cathartic pathos, and to express spiritual truths. Summers guides us through his personal encounters with art and music in disparate places, from Houston's Rothko Chapel to a music classroom in rural China, and reflects on musical works he has conducted all over the world. Assessing the growing canon of new operas performed in American opera houses today, he calls for musical artists to be innovative and brave as opera continues to reinvent itself. This book is a moving credo elucidating Summers's belief that the arts, especially music, help us to understand our own humanity as intellectual, aesthetic, and ultimately spiritual.

Bringing together much-loved masterpieces with exciting new works, this accessible and inspiring guide is a celebration of classical music. With pieces ranging from Vaughan Williams's 'The Lark Ascending' and Beethoven's 'Pastoral' Symphony to the scores for Avatar and Assassin's Creed, every entry puts the piece of music into context, providing fascinating insights into the inspirations behind each work and enhancing your listening experience. Organised into occasions and themes, the book features music to accompany you through your day, from getting up and getting dressed to running, reading, walking the dog, cooking, taking a bath, going to sleep and everything in between. You'll also find expert curations of the world's most romantic music and the greatest Christmas works as well as compositions that celebrate the natural world and mark births and marriages. Perfect for classical music enthusiasts as well as anyone looking for an enjoyable introduction to this genre, this is the definitive modern guide to classical music.

Gabriel Faure's melodies offer an inexhaustible variety of style and expression that have made them the foundation of the French art song repertoire. During the second half of his long career, Faure composed all but a handful of his songs within six carefully integrated cycles. Faure moved systematically through his poetic contemporaries, exhausting Baudelaire's Les fleurs du mal before immersing himself in the Parnassian poets. He would set nine poems by Armand Silvestre in swift succession (1878-84), seventeen by Paul Verlaine (1887-94), and eighteen by Charles Van Lerberghe (1906-14). As an artist deeply engaged with some of the most important cultural issues of the period, Faure reimagined his musical idiom with each new poet and school, and his song cycles show the same sensitivity to the poetic material. Far more than Debussy, Ravel, or Poulenc, he crafted his song cycles as integrated works, reordering poems freely and using narratives, key schemes, and even leitmotifs to unify the individual songs. The Faure Song Cycles explores the peculiar vision behind each synthesis of music and verse, revealing the astonishing imagination and insight of Faure's musical readings. This book offers not only close readings of Faure's musical works but an interdisciplinary study of how he responded to the changing schools and aesthetic currents of French poetry.

For centuries, the sea and those who sail upon it have inspired the imaginations of British musicians. For centuries, the sea and those who sail upon it have inspired the imaginations of British musicians. Generations of British artists have viewed the ocean as a metaphor for the mutable human condition - by turns calm and reflective, tempestuous and destructive - and have been influenced as much by its physical presence as by its musical potential. But just as geographical perspectives and attitudes on seascapes have evolved over time, so too have culturalassumptions about their meaning and significance. Changes in how Britons have used the sea to travel, communicate, work, play, and go to war have all irresistibly shaped the way that maritime imagery has been conceived, represented, and disseminated in British music. By exploring the sea's significance within the complex world of British music, this book reveals a network of largely unexamined cultural tropes unique to this island nation. The essaysare organised around three main themes: the Sea as Landscape, the Sea as Profession, and the Sea as Metaphor, covering an array of topics drawn from the seventeenth century to the twenty-first. Featuring studies of pieces by thelikes of Purcell, Arne, Sullivan, Vaughan Williams, and Davies, as well as examinations of cultural touchstones such as the BBC, the Scottish fishing industry, and the Aldeburgh Festival, The Sea in the British Musical Imagination will be of interest to musicologists as well as scholars in history, British studies, cultural studies, and English literature. ERIC SAYLOR is Associate Professor of Musicology at Drake University. CHRISTOPHER M. SCHEER is Assistant Professor of Musicology at Utah State University. CONTRIBUTORS: Byron Adams, Jenny Doctor, Amanda Eubanks Winkler, James Brooks Kuykendall, Charles Edward McGuire, Alyson McLamore, Louis Niebur, Jennifer Oates, Eric Saylor, Christopher M. Scheer, Aidan J. Thomson, Justin Vickers, Frances Wilkins

What is a sonata? Literally translated, it simply means 'instrumental piece'. It is the epitome of instrumental music, and is certainly the oldest and most enduring form of 'pure' and independent instrumental composition, beginning around 1600 and lasting to the present day. Schmidt-Beste analyses key aspects of the genre including form, scoring and its social context - who composed, played and listened to sonatas? In giving a comprehensive overview of all forms of music which were called 'sonatas' at some point in musical history, this book is more about change than about consistency - an ensemble sonata by Gabrieli appears to share little with a Beethoven sonata, or a trio sonata by Corelli with one of Boulez's piano sonatas, apart from the generic designation. However, common features do emerge, and the look across the centuries - never before addressed in a single-volume survey - opens up new and significant perspectives.

(String Method). For unaccompanied violin.

Choral Conducting: Philosophy and Practice, Second Edition is an updated resource for conductors and singers alike, a college-level text for students of choral conducting that considers conducting and singing from a holistic perspective. This singer-friendly and voice-healthy approach examines the rehearsal environment alongside its musical performance counterpart. The author explores what is involved in leading a choral group, examining theories of learning and human behavior to understand the impact choral conductors have on the act of singing. Divided into two main parts-Philosophy and Practice-the text begins with an historical look at conducting, exploring questions of why people sing and why they sing together, and ultimately presents the application of this philosophy, showing how a conductor's gestures and patterns can influence vocal outcomes. In addressing how singers learn and respond to choral music, as well as how conductors communicate with singers in rehearsal and performance, Choral Conducting turns an eye to learning how we learn and the role successful choral conductors play in motivating singers, developing healthy singing habits, and improving individual and ensemble vocal quality-all with the aims of enhancing musical understanding. New to this edition: Updated diagrams, photos, and musical examples Revised sample choral programs Increased consideration of the orchestral conductor A renewed focus on the intersections of learning, health and well-being, and the social perspective, supported by new and recent research

(Faber Piano Adventures ). An ideal introduction to the easiest keyboard sonatinas. Contents include: Sonatina in C 1st mvt (Gurlitt) * Sonatina in C (Duncombe) * Sonatina Op. 57 No. 1 (Biehl) * Sonatina in D (Saliutrinskaya) * Sonatina in C (Biehl) * Sonatina Op. 792, No. 8 (Czerny) * Sonatina in G (Attwood).

Beethoven's String Quartet in C-sharp minor Op. 131 (1826) is not only firmly a part of the scholarly canon, the performing canon, and the pedagogical canon, but also makes its presence felt in popular culture. Yet in recent times, the terms in which the C-sharp minor quartet is discussed and presented tend to undermine the multivalent nature of the work. Although it is held up as a masterpiece, Op. 131 has often been understood in monochrome terms as a work portraying tragedy, struggle, and loss. In Beethoven's String Quartet in C-sharp Minor, Op. 13, author Nancy November takes the modern-day listener well beyond these categories of adversity or deficit. The book goes back to early reception documents, including Beethoven's own writings about the work, to help the listener reinterpret and re-hear it. This book reveals the diverse musical ideas present in Op. 131 and places the work in the context of an emerging ideology of silent or 'serious' listening in Beethoven's Europe. It considers how this particular 'late' quartet could speak with special eloquence to a highly select but passionately enthusiastic audience and examines how and why the reception of Op. 131 has changed so profoundly from Beethoven's time to our own.

Music to Your Ears introduces the lay reader or beginning music student to the history and evolution of classical music in the western hemisphere. Every attempt has been made to relate the events and significant musical trends in plain English, without excessive musical terminology. Aimed primarily for non-music majors, the book nevertheless provides a clear, concise overview of the history of western music from the beginning of the Medieval period to the present day. Music to Your Ears: provides a brief outline of the development of jazz and rock musical styles is provided. discusses and defines basic musical terms within the book, which are helpful for any person who wishes to discuss music intelligently. offers musical descriptions presented in general terms so that people who do not read music can still benefit from the descriptions and analyses.

Carl Orff devoted much of his life to music for children. His pioneering work continues under the guidance of teachers and educators in many countries. The five basic German volumes of "Music for Children" by Carl Orff and Gunild Keetman were published between 1950 and 1954. The considerable growth of Orff-Schulwerk in the United States led to the publication of the American Edition (1977) to satisfy the requirements of a different educational system and national heritage. Music for Children is a stimulating source of material for music teaching. Contents of this first volume: speech and rhythmic exercises, nursery rhymes, songs, instrumental pieces and melodic exercises using only the five note scale, with instructions and notes. Illustrated. Includes: Cuckoo * Pat-a-cake * Little Tommy Tucker * Wee Willie Winkie * Bye, baby bunting * Ring-a-ring o'roses * Grey goose and gander Walk down the path * Two little dicky birds * Tommy's fallen in the pond * Unk, unk, unk * Tom, Tom the piper's son * My little pony * Cross-patch * Warm hands warm * Shoe the little horse * Polly put the kettle on * Cuckoo, where are you? * Early to bed * The baker * The day is now over * Little Boy Blue * There was an old woman * One to make ready * The north wind doth blow * O Lady Mary Ann * I love sixpence * Ding, dong, the bells do ring * The Campbells are coming * The grand old Duke of York * Oliver Crombwell * Allelujy * Where are you going to, my pretty maid? * Farewell to the Old Year * Pippa's song * The cuckoo is a clever bird * Old Angus McTavish * Boomfallera

Performers include: * Early music ensembles, such as Chapelle Royale, Lionheart, Sequentia, and the Tallis Scholars * Singers Dietrich Fischer-Dieskau, Renee Fleming, and Joan Sutherland * Cellist Yo-Yo Ma * Pianists Pierre-Laurent Aimard, Malcolm Bilson, and Artur Rubenstein * The Berlin Philharmonic, the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, and the London Symphony Orchestra * Conductors Pierre Boulez, John Eliot Gardiner, James Levine, and Michael Tilson Thomas * String quartets, such as the Concord String Quartet and the Tokyo String Quartet * Jazz artists Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, and Dizzy Gillespie

Hans Keller (1919-1985) was one of the most brilliant and stimulating writers on music of his day, and this is the first large selection of his essays. His work draws on his rich and diverse experience as a string-player, composer, teacher, analyst and critic, and also reflects a deep interest in psychoanalysis. The first part of the book addresses psychological issues relating to critics, listeners, players and composers; the second analyses music by a wide range of composers from Haydn to the present day; and the third propounds his new theory of music, with essays on unity and contrast, motifs, themes, keys, timbre and rhythm. There is also a 'wordless functional analysis' of a Mozart piano sonata published here for the first time. The volume concludes with a magisterial account of what Keller deemed to be 'the principles of composition'.