Relying on extensive archival research and on sixty interviews with
fiddlers and their families and friends, Cauthen tells the rich, full story
of old-time fiddling in Alabama.

Writing of life in the Alabama Territory in the late 1700s,
A. J. Pickett, the state's first historian, noted that the country abounded
in fiddlers, of high and low degree. After the defeat of the Creek Indians
at the Battle of Horseshoe Bend in 1813, the number of fiddlers swelled
as settlers from the southern states surrounding Alabama claimed the land.
The music they played was based on tunes brought from Ireland, Scotland,
and England, but in Alabama they developed their own southern accent as
their songs became the music of celebration and relaxation for the state's
pioneers. Early in the 20th century such music began to be called "old-time
fiddling," to distinguish it from the popular music of the day, and the
term is still used to distinguish that style from more modern bluegrass
and country fiddle styles.

In "With Fiddle and Well-Rosined Bow," Cauthen focuses
on old-time fiddling in Alabama from the settlement of the state through
World War II. Cauthen shows the effects of events, inventions, ethnic groups,
and individuals upon fiddlers' styles and what they played. Cauthen gives
due weight to the "modest masters of fiddle and bow" who were stars only
to their families and communities. The fiddlers themselves tell why they
play, how they learned without formal instruction and written music, and
how they acquired their instruments and repertoires. Cauthen also tells
the stories of "brag" fiddlers such as D.Dix Hollis, Y. Z. Hamilton, Charlie
Stripling, "Fiddling" Tom Freeman,"Monkey" Brown, and the Johnson Brothers
whose reputations spread beyond their communities through commercial recordings
and fiddling contests. Described in vivid detail are the old-style square
dances, Fourth of July barbeques and other celebrations, and fiddlers'
conventions that fiddler shave reigned over throughout the state's history.

Vaughan Williams fist encountered the old English folk song Dives and Lazarus when he was 21, and here presents five variants that are, in his own words, 'not exact replicas of traditional tunes but rather reminiscences of various versions in my own collection and those of others'. The work was premiered in Carnegie Hall as part of the 1939 New York World's Fair, and is a wonderful example of the sumptuous string textures and modal tonalities that have become the composer's trademarks.

Beethoven's middle-period quartets, Opp. 59, 74 and 95, are pieces that engage deeply with the aesthetic ideas of their time. In the first full contextual study of these works, Nancy November celebrates their uniqueness, exploring their reception history and early performance. In detailed analyses, she explores ways in which the quartets have both reflected and shaped the very idea of chamber music and offers a new historical understanding of the works' physical, visual, social and ideological aspects. In the process, November provides a fresh critique of three key paradigms in current Beethoven studies: the focus on his late period; the emphasis on 'heroic' style in discussions of the middle period; and the idea of string quartets as 'pure', 'autonomous' artworks, cut off from social moorings. Importantly, this study shows that the quartets encompass a new lyric and theatrical impetus, which is an essential part of their unique, explorative character.

(Ukulele). 20 great Disney classics arranged for all uke players, including: Beauty and the Beast * Bibbidi-Bobbidi-Boo (The Magic Song) * Breaking Free * Can You Feel the Love Tonight * Chim Chim Cher-ee * Heigh-Ho * It's a Small World * Some Day My Prince Will Come * Supercalifragilisticexpialidocious * We're All in This Together * When You Wish upon a Star * and more.

`In all areas of human endeavour, time and again an individual appears who, due to a multitude of personal attributes, elevates his or her field to a hitherto unknown height. Such an individual was William Primrose. His name and the viola are synonymous.' Janos Starker This unique book is the result of a series of conversations with Primrose in the last years before his death in 1982. David Dalton describes how he came to the great artist armed with every question he could think of pertaining to performing on and teaching the viola. The lively dialogue contains a wealth of illuminating advice for the student on the technicalities of playing the viola. It is, however, far more than a technical guide. The two violists discuss the unique position of their instrument - `an instrument without tradition' is Primrose's bald description. They cover the topic of repertoire with fascinating insights into the performance of the great concertos by Bartok and Walton, with which Primrose was so closely associated. Still more invaluable advice emerges from the discussion of Primrose's own experience, on the art of performance, on demeanour on stage, on competitions, on recordings, and on preparing for a career. The book is a tribute to one of the greatest artists of this century.

Known principally as the father of Wolfgang Amadeus, Leopold Mozart was a distinguished musician in his own right. An excellent violinist and composer, his greatest contribution to music was his Treatise on Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing. Published at Ausburg in 1756 it was the major work of its time on the violin and it contains much that is of considerable interest and value to musicians today: notes on performance, practice, a glossary of technical terms and specific chapters on the playing of written and improvised embellishments, the trill, and special rhythmic figures. Copious exercises illustrate each point made in the text. A Preface--revised for this edition--offers an illuminating biographical study of Leopold both as a man and as a musician.

Provides new perspectives on the violin's beloved concert repertoire, its diverse roles in indigenous musical traditions on four continents, and its metaphorical presence in visual arts and literature. With a colorful history that spans 450 years, the violin has proven to be one of the world's most important and versatile instruments. Addressed to performing musicians, serious concertgoers, and collectors of recordings, The Violin offers insightful, up-to-date essays on a wide range of topics. Essays discuss beloved masterpieces from the violin's solo repertoire, with individual chapters on the Italian Baroque, Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and the violin concerto in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, as well as the evolution of performance styles and interpretation as documented in recordings. The volume also illustrates the broad cultural and geographic reach of the instrument, offering readers a taste of the traditional music of Argentina, Mexico, Norway, and India, in which the violin's participation is an essential and characteristic element. Other chapters are devoted to American fiddling andto the violin and violinists as metaphors in literature and the visual arts. CONTRIBUTORS: Chris Goertzen, Eitan Ornoy, Robert Riggs, Peter Walls, Peter Wollny. Musicologist and violinist Robert Riggs (PhD,Harvard University) chairs the Department of Music at the University of Mississippi and is the author of articles on Mozart as well as the monograph Leon Kirchner: Composer, Performer, and Teacher (URP 2010).

This study is an analysis of the first three of Beethoven's late quartets, Opp. 127, 132, and 130, commissioned by Prince Nikolai Galitzin. The five late quartets, usually considered as a group, were written in the same period as the "Missa solemnis" and the Ninth Symphony, and are among the composer's most profound musical statements. Daniel K. L. Chua believes that of the five quartets the three that he studies trace a process of disintegration, whereas the last two, Opp. 131 and 135, reintegrate the language that Beethoven himself had destabilized.

Through analyses that unearth peculiar features characteristic of the surface and of the deeper structures of the music, Chua interprets the "Galitzin" quartets as radical critiques of both music and society, a view first proposed by Theodore Adorno. From this perspective, the quartets necessarily undo the act of analysis as well, forcing the analytical traditions associated with Schenker and Schoenberg to break up into an eclectic mixture of techniques. Analysis itself thus becomes problematic and has to move in a dialectical and paradoxical fashion in order to trace Beethoven's logic of disintegration. The result is a new way of reading these works that not only reflects the preoccupations of the German Romantics of that time and the poststructuralists of today, but also opens a discussion of cultural, political, and philosophical issues.

Originally published in 1995.

The Princeton Legacy Library uses the latest print-on-demand technology to again make available previously out-of-print books from the distinguished backlist of Princeton University Press. These paperback editions preserve the original texts of these important books while presenting them in durable paperback editions. The goal of the Princeton Legacy Library is to vastly increase access to the rich scholarly heritage found in the thousands of books published by Princeton University Press since its founding in 1905.

(Music Sales America). Superb book and recording by the world-renowned Shetland fiddler, with full accompaniment by Phil Cunningham. Fifty solos representing the best of Scottish fiddle music. Contents: The Newly-wed's Reel * Cameron Men's Polka No. 1 * Forbes Leith * Waiting for teh Federals * Cataroni * Maple Sugar * The Galway Hornpipe * The Hawk * The Liverpool Hornpipe * Princess Beatrice * The Balkan Hills * If I Get a Bonnie Lass * Underhill * Herr Roloff's Farewell * Fram Apon Him * Da Aald Hill Grind * Jeannie Shoked the Bairn * Da Lerwick Lasses * Louis Waltz * The Scholar * The Laird of Drumblair * Da New Rigged Ship * Oo't Be East the Vong * Faery Reel * Da Bonnie Lass O Bekkahill * Mrs. Jameson's Favourite * Deil Among the Tailors * The Flowers of Edinburgh * Crossing the Minch * Fairy Dance * Dean Brig of Edinburgh * Da Mirrie Boys O Greenland * La Grande Chaine * Lay Dee at Dee * The Trumpet Hornpipe * Maid Behind the Bar * The High Level Hornpipe * Da Full Rigged Ship * Cameron Men's Polka No. 2 * The Pirate * Da Galley Witch * Rosewood * Music of Spey * Maid in a Box * Miss Spence's Reel * Da Back Reel * Munster Grass * Annie Laurie * Heave and Go * Da Scallowa Lasses.

This survey of the string quartet by ten chamber music specialists focuses on four main areas: social and musical background to the genre's development; celebrated ensembles and their significance; and string quartet playing. It reviews aspects of contemporary and historical practice, including "mixed ensembles." Informative appendixes and a full chronology of the mainstream repertory complete this compact guide.