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The author focuses on two parallel folk trends: the Freedom Songs arising from the civil rights battles in the South and the topical songs composed by Northern writer/singers.

The popularity of Mahler's symphonic works is unremitting. More recordings have been made during the past ten years than in the previous six decades. This work is a companion to the first volume, published in 1986; together, the two review virtually every recording commercially released (as well as some private issues). The intention of both works is to provide a comprehensive analysis of all recordings. A general overview is combined with details of particular importance. Recordings of special merit are noted. The objective critical discussions will appeal to the newcomer as well as the knowledgeable devotee and the work will serve as a valuable addition to university, music school, and public libraries, as well as any music lover's library. This guide provides a symphony-by-symphony commentary, including the unfinished Tenth Symphony, Das Lied von der Erde, and piano and chamber music reductions of the works. It includes all new recordings issued worldwide as well as compact disc reissues of previously released recordings and all performances on videocassette. Listings are arranged alphabetically by conductor, and headings for each recording contain specific information about the performers, record label, catalog number, and timing. Helpful indexes by conductor, orchestra, vocal and instrumental soloists, chorus, and record label are included.

The Triumph of Vulgarity in a thinker's guide to rock 'n' roll. Rock music mirrors the tradition of nineteenth-century Romaniticsm, Robert Patison says. Whitman's "barbaric yawp" can still be heard in the punk rock of the Ramones, and the spirit that inspired Poe's Eureka lives on in the lyrics of Talking Heads. Rock is vulgar, Pattison notes, and vulgarity is something that high culture has long despised but rarely bothered to define. This book is the first effort since John Ruskin and Aldous Huxley to describe in depth what vulgarity is, and how, with the help of ideas inherent in Romaniticism, it has slipped the constraints imposed on it by refined culture and established its own loud arts.
The book disassembles the various myths of rock: its roots in black and folk music; the primacy it accords to feeling and self; the sexual omnipotence of rock stars; the satanic predilictions of rock fans; and rock's high-voltage image of the modern Prometheus wielding an electric guitar. Pattison treats these myths as vulgar counterparts of their originals in refined Romantic art and offers a description and justification of rock's central place in the social and aesthetic structure of modern culture. At a time when rock lyrics have provoked parental outrage and senatorial hearings, The Triumph of Vulgarity is required reading for anyone interested in where rock comes from and how it works.

Concise but thorough profiles of symphony orchestras outside the US make this and its companion volume ("Symphony Orchestras of the United StateS") indispensable for music libraries and many general public libraries as well. . . . Using the widely scattered literature on the subject, orchestral archives, and his own questionnaire, Craven profides information on each organization's history, seasonal activities, administrative structure, cultural impact, recordings, music directors, books and articles written about it, address, and telephone number. . . . Highly recommended for academic and general collections. "Choice"

Robert Craven's new book together with his recent work on orchestras of the United States are the first to focus on the major symphonic groups. Designed as a resource for music lovers and collectors as well as those more directly connected with the music world, this reference guide provides profiles of 118 orchestras based in 42 countries. Entries are included on the leading symphonies of Britain and Europe and newer organizations that have achieved prominence in Latin America and Asia. Musicians, musicologists, critics, music historians, and other experts have contributed their rich and diversified musical knowledge to the individual essays, which range from 750 to 3,000 words in length.

This is the first book-length study of the composition, reception, extramusical implications, and stylistic eclecticism of Mendelssohn's Italian Symphony, a staple of the nineteenth-century musical canon. Cooper devotes extensive attention to the differences between the posthumously published familiar version of the work and the composer's revision, which remained unpublished until 2001. He presents substantial new insights into a work which many listeners and scholars have known only in the version the composer considered less successful.

By exploring the many different types and forms of contemporary musical instruments, this book contributes to a better understanding of the conditions of instrumentality in the 21st century. Providing insights from science, humanities and the arts, authors from a wide range of disciplines discuss the following questions: * What are the conditions under which an object is recognized as a musical instrument? * What are the actions and procedures typically associated with musical instruments? * What kind of (mental and physical) knowledge do we access in order to recognize or use something as a musical instrument? * How is this knowledge being shaped by cultural conventions and temporal conditions? * How do algorithmic processes 'change the game' of musical performance, and as a result, how do they affect notions of instrumentality? * How do we address the question of instrumental identity within an instrument's design process? * What properties can be used to differentiate successful and unsuccessful instruments? Do these properties also contribute to the instrumentality of an object in general? What does success mean within an artistic, commercial, technological, or scientific context?

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Learning to play an instrument can be fund and, at times, frustrating. This lively, accessible book helps young people cope with the difficulties involved in learning a new instrument and remaining dedicated to playing and practicing. Teens from renowned music programs - including the Juilliard School's Pre-College Program and Boston University's Tanglewood Institute - join pro musicians such as Wynton Marsalis, Paula Robison, and James Galway in offering practical answers to questions from what instrument to play to where the musical road may lead.
In this revised and expanded edition, Amy Nathan has updated the book to address today's more technologically-minded young musician. Expanded sections cover the various ways students can use technology to assist in mastering an instrument and in making practice time more productive, from using the Internet to download pieces to be learned and playing along with downloaded tunes to practicing with computer-based practice programs, CDs, and videos/DVDs of musical performances. She also addresses concerns of young composers and conductors, two groups not mentioned in the original edition. The book's updated Resource Guide suggests where to get additional help, both online and off.