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Books > Music > Musical instruments & instrumental ensembles > General
- An important and timely volume, presenting and delivering a
much-needed (and inclusive) counter-narrative in the field of
Community Music - Chimes with the International Society of Music
Education's World 2020 Conference theme on celebrating equity and
diversity in music education (including Community Music) research
and practices - Appropriate and required reading for a large range
of readers including (but not limited to) undergraduates, graduate
students, academics, scholars, university professors,
practitioners, and researchers
Archaic Bamboo Instruments explores how current residents of
Bandung, Indonesia, have (re-) adopted bamboo musical instruments
to forge meaningful bridges between their past and present-between
traditional and modern values. The book grapples with ongoing
issues of global significance, including musical environmentalism,
heavy metal music, the effects of first-world hegemonies on
developing countries, and cultural "authenticity." Bamboo music's
association with the Sundanese landscape, old agricultural
ceremonies, and participatory music making, as well as its
adaptability to modern society, make it a fertile site for an
ecomusicological study.
This study of American liberty and war songs is among the first to
examine them in a historical and literary context and to focus
almost exclusively on the lyrics. Unlike other works that are
primarily songbooks, this book provides a fresh view of an
important aspect of American culture and offers new insight into
the thoughts and feelings of Americans during periods of crisis.
Special attention is given to the songs that emerged from the early
American wartime experiences, including those written before and
during the Revolution, the War of 1812, the Mexican War, and the
Civil War, with an emphasis on the similarities and differences in
song themes, techniques and styles.
Mary Cyr addresses the needs of researchers, performers, and
informed listeners who wish to apply knowledge about historically
informed performance to specific pieces. Special emphasis is placed
upon the period 1680 to 1760, when the viol, violin, and
violoncello grew to prominence as solo instruments in France. Part
I deals with the historical background to the debate between the
French and Italian styles and the features that defined French
style. Part II summarizes the present state of research on bowed
string instruments (violin, viola, cello, contrebasse, pardessus de
viole, and viol) in France, including such topics as the size and
distribution of parts in ensembles and the role of the contrebasse.
Part III addresses issues and conventions of interpretation such as
articulation, tempo and character, inequality, ornamentation, the
basse continue, pitch, temperament, and "special effects" such as
tremolo and harmonics. Part IV introduces four composer profiles
that examine performance issues in the music of A0/00lisabeth
Jacquet de La Guerre, Marin Marais, Jean-Baptiste Barriere, and the
Forquerays (father and son). The diversity of compositional styles
among this group of composers, and the virtuosity they incorporated
in their music, generate a broad field for discussing issues of
performance practice and offer opportunities to explore
controversial themes within the context of specific pieces.
Following the earlier volumes in the Studies in Musical Genesis and
Structure series, Mahler's Fourth Symphony is a study of the
origins of the work as well as a thorough examination of Mahler's
compositional process. The source of the Fourth Symphony was the
song Das himmlische Leben, which Mahler completed in 1892 and later
wished to include in a large-scale work. Originally part of a
collection of settings from Des Knaben Wunderhorn, the song became,
for a time, part of the Third Symphony (1896). Eventually Mahler
made Das himmlische Leben the source and goal of the Fourth
Symphony, which he completed in 1901. In this book, James Zychowicz
explores how Mahler's compositional process for the Fourth, from
the early movement plans to preliminary sketches, short score,
draft score, and fair copy. At each stage of the process, Mahler
added details, decided on textures, and explored tonalities until
he arrived at the finished score. This is the first comprehensive
study of Mahler's compositional method, concerning a pivotal work
in his oeuvre. The Fourth Symphony looks back toward the earlier
Wunderhorn period and simultaneously forward to the less
programmatic style of his middle symphonies.
The work of French musicologist, ethnologist, curator, and critic
Andre Schaeffner (1895 - 1980) grew naturally out of his first
organological studies of the history of Western classical
instruments in the late 1920s and came to be encapsulated in his
monumental and wide-ranging Origine des instruments de musique, the
fruit of labour in Paris and in the field between 1931 and 1936.
Almost 80 years after its first publication, the scientific
relevance and influence of Schaeffner's primary hypothesis - that
the origins of music can be traced to the human body through
gesture, dance, and the movements involved in the use of musical
instruments and their ancestor tools - remains pertinent in fields
which have returned to informed speculative and empirical research
on the origins of music. This first English edition is accompanied
by editorial footnotes and introductory texts, and the influence of
Schaeffner's thought on several generations of musicologists makes
his work an essential piece of reading for ethnomusicologists,
music psychologists, organologists and musicologists interested in
the history of their field. Schaeffner's text is an intellectual
link between the studies of Hornbostel and Sachs and the
contrasting research of later generations, notably figures with
which he had direct contact, such as John Blacking and Simha Arom.
More than a simple field guide and system of classification, the
Origin of Musical Instruments is also a profound reflection on the
nature and origins of music and musical activity, as well as the
place of that activity in human society.
Musical Instruments presents the first comprehensive survey to explain how Western musical instruments work, how they developed historically, how they are manufactured, and how they are used to make music. After introducing the nature of sounds and production mechanisms, the authors survey each family in turn, covering acoustical features, historical development of instrument forms, sizes and shapes in current use, the manufacturing processes, and commonly-used playing techniques. The full index and glossary also contain definitions of technical terms and notes on instruments not included in the text, making this the essential reference for everyone researching and working with musical instruments and performance.
The transition from the valveless natural horn to the modern valved
horn in 19th-century Paris was different from similar transitions
in other countries. While valve technology was received happily by
players of other members of the brass family, strong support for
the natural horn, with its varied color palette and virtuoso
performance traditions, slowed the reception and application of the
valve to the horn. Using primary sources including Conservatoire
method books, accounts of performances and technological advances,
and other evidence, this book tells the story of the transition
from natural horn to valved horn at the Conservatoire, from 1792 to
1903, including close examination of horn teaching before the
arrival of valved brass in Paris, the initial reception and
application of this technology to the horn, the persistence of the
natural horn, and the progression of acceptance, use,
controversies, and eventual adoption of the valved instrument in
the Parisian community and at the Conservatoire. Active scholars,
performers, and students interested in the horn, 19th-century brass
instruments, teaching methods associated with the Conservatoire,
and the intersection of technology and performing practice will
find this book useful in its details and conclusions, including
ramifications on historically-informed performance today.
A practical but scholarly guide to Japanese instruments by one of
the country's leading composers. The unique sounds of the biwa,
shamisen, and other traditional instruments from Japan are heard
more and more often in works for the concert hall and opera house.
Composing for Japanese Instruments is a practical orchestration and
instrumentation manual with contextual and relevant historical
information for composers who wish to learn how to compose for
traditional Japanese instruments. Widely regarded as the
authoritative text on the subject in Japan and China, it contains
hundreds of musical examples, diagrams, photographs, and fingering
charts. Many of the musical examples can be heard on a companion
website. The book also contains valuable appendices, one of works
author Minoru Miki composed using Japanese traditional instruments,
and one of works by other composers -- including Toru Takemitsu and
Henry Cowell -- using these instruments. Minoru Miki was a composer
of international renown, recognized in Japan as a pioneer in
writing for Japanese traditional instruments. Marty Regan is
associate professor of music at Texas A&M University. Philip
Flavin is associate professor at the Osaka University of
Economicsand Law and adjunct senior research associate of Monash
University in Melbourne, Australia.
Following on the heels of his Conducting and Rehearsing the
Instrumental Music Ensemble, John F. Colson takes students to the
next level in conducting practice with Rehearsing: Critical
Connections for the Instrumental Music Conductor. Colson draws
together the critical connections for those seeking to become fully
capable and self-assured instrumental music conductors. As he
argues, too often conductor training programs treat the problems
and challenges of the rehearsal-perhaps the single most critical
element in any effort to achieve competency as a conductor-as
secondary. Colson supplies the missing link for conductors looking
for advice that allows them to complete their training for reaching
complete competency as a conductor. He demonstrates throughout the
specific connections that the advanced conductor must know and
regularly employ-connections that few, if any, other works on the
art of conducting address or bring together. One connection, for
example, illustrates the joining of music imagery, inner singing,
and conducting technique to score study. Throughout, these
connections describe the nitty-gritty of what it really takes to
stand up in front of an instrumental music ensemble and
successfully rehearse in order to achieve its highest performance
level. Also, Colson argues and demonstrates the pitfalls of the
commonly mistaken assumption among instrumental music conductors
that score study alone is sufficient to prepare them for the
rehearsal process. This grave error is regularly belied by the fact
that a number of other steps precede the actual rehearsal process,
from the use of instrumental pedagogy during the rehearsal process
to teaching through performance concepts. Colson's work addresses
the entire rehearsing process thoroughly and authoritatively.
Robert M. Garcia, a professional drummer from the age of 17,
attended Florida A&M University (FAMU), in Tallahassee, and
later studied at the Berklee College of Music, in Boston,
Massachusetts. During his freshman and sophomore years at FAMU
(1968-1970), he was on the drum line of the world famous band, the
FAMU Marching 100. Through the years, Garcia became widely known as
a master drummer. However, later in his life, for reasons revealed
in this book, he switched his focus from drums to the grand harp.
Robert Garcia became a skilled and versatile harpist. His music was
a joy to the many people who saw and heard him perform. . . . The
fact that Robert was able to move over to the harp is a sign that
he always had a pitched-instrument player nestled within his
musical gift. It is a great blessing that he was able to express
this part of his musical personality later in his career. The fact
that he enjoyed such success at this is clearly a testament to the
versatility and depth of his musical talent. -Vern C. Falby, Ph.D.
Faculty, Music Theory Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins
University
A new compact format from best-selling music author Jake Jackson.
20 scales per key, organised with notation and TAB, this is a
simple, direct solution for anyone learning the guitar or needing a
quick reminder. Great for beginners and intermediate players, and
for those needing a straightforward reference.
The garamut is a log idiophone that is found in many of the coastal
and island areas of Papua New Guinea. The instrument's primary use
is as a speech surrogate and in some regions the garamut is also
used in large ensembles to play complex music for dancing. In
Baluan Island, within the Manus Province, this style of garamut
playing is comparatively highly developed. This book follows the
author's processes and methods in learning to play the music of the
garamut, to the level at which he became accepted as a garamut
player by the people of Baluan. Lewis argues that analysis is
essential in learning to play the rapid tempi and complex rhythms
of Baluan garamut music, in a cultural context where there is no
formal teaching process for the music. The transcription and
analysis of the Baluan garamut repertoire is the centrepiece of
this study, reflecting the cognitive structures of the learning
process, and revealing the inner workings of the music's complexity
as well as a striking beauty of form and structure. The book
concludes with reflections on the process of a 'cultural outsider'
becoming a garamut player in Baluan and on the role of musical
analysis in that process, on the ethnomusicologist's role in
transmission of the music, and on the nature of continuity and
change in a musical society such as Baluan.
The violinist Jascha Heifetz (1901-1987) is considered among the
most influential performers in history and still maintains a strong
following among violinists around the world. Dario Sarlo
contributes significantly to the growing field of analytical
research into recordings and the history of performance style.
Focussing on Heifetz and his under-acknowledged but extensive
performing relationship with the Bach solo violin works (BWV
1001-1006), Sarlo examines one of the most successful performing
musicians of the twentieth century along with some of the most
frequently performed works of the violin literature. The book
proposes a comprehensive method for analysing and interpreting the
legacies of prominent historical performers in the wider context of
their particular performance traditions. The study outlines this
research framework and addresses how it can be transferred to
related studies of other performers. By building up a comprehensive
understanding of multiple individual performance styles, it will
become possible to gain deeper insight into how performance style
develops over time. The investigation is based upon eighteen months
of archival research in the Library of Congress's extensive Jascha
Heifetz Collection. It draws on numerous methods to examine what
and how Heifetz played, why he played that way, and how that way of
playing compares to other performers. The book offers much insight
into the 'music industry' between 1915 and 1975, including touring,
programming, audiences, popular and professional reception and
recording. The study concludes with a discussion of Heifetz's
unique performer profile in the context of violin performance
history.
Classical Concert Studies: A Companion to Contemporary Research and
Performance is a landmark publication that maps out a new
interdisciplinary field of Concert Studies, offering fresh ways of
understanding the classical music concert in the twenty-first
century. It brings together essays, research articles, and case
studies from scholars and music professionals including musicians,
music managers, and concert designers. Gathering both historical
and contemporary cases, the contributors draw on approaches from
sociology, ethnology, musicology, cultural studies, and other
disciplines to create a rich portrait of the classical concert's
past, present, and future. Based on two earlier volumes published
in German under the title Das Konzert (The Concert), and with a
selection of new chapters written for the English edition, this
companion enables students, researchers, and practitioners in the
classical and contemporary music fields to understand this emerging
field of research, go beyond traditional disciplinary boundaries
and methodologies, and spark a renaissance for the classical
concert.
The double bass - the preferred bass instrument in popular music
during the 1960s - was challenged and subsequently superseded by
the advent of a new electric bass instrument. From the mid-1960s
and throughout the 1970s, a melismatic and inconsistent approach
towards the bass role ensued, which contributed to a major change
in how the electric bass was used in performance and perceived in
the sonic landscape of mainstream popular music. Investigating the
performance practice of the new, melodic role of the electric bass
as it appeared (and disappeared) in the 1960s and 1970s, the book
turns to the number one songs of the American Billboard Hot 100
charts between 1951 and 1982 as a prime source. Through interviews
with players from this era, numerous transcriptions - elaborations
of twenty bass related features - are presented. These are
juxtaposed with a critical study of four key players, who provide
the case-studies for examining the performance practice of the
melodic electric bass. This highly original book will be of
interest not only to bass players, but also to popular
musicologists looking for a way to instigate methodological and
theoretical discussions on how to develop popular music analysis.
Music has long been a way in which visually impaired people could
gain financial independence, excel at a highly-valued skill, or
simply enjoy musical participation. Existing literature on visual
impairment and music includes perspectives from the social history
of music, ethnomusicology, child development and areas of music
psychology, music therapy, special educational needs, and music
education, as well as more popular biographical texts on famous
musicians. But there has been relatively little sociological
research bringing together the views and experiences of visually
impaired musicians themselves across the life course. Insights in
Sound: Visually Impaired Musicians' Lives and Learning aims to
increase knowledge and understanding both within and beyond this
multifaceted group. Through an international survey combined with
life-history interviews, a vivid picture is drawn of how visually
impaired musicians approach and conceive their musical activities,
with detailed illustrations of the particular opportunities and
challenges faced by a variety of individuals. Baker and Green look
beyond affiliation with particular musical styles, genres,
instruments or practices. All 'levels' are included: from adult
beginners to those who have returned to music-making after a gap;
and from 'regular' amateur and professional musicians, to some who
are extraordinarily 'elite' or 'successful'. Themes surrounding
education, training, and informal learning; notation and ear
playing; digital technologies; and issues around disability,
identity, opportunity, marginality, discrimination, despair,
fulfilment, and joy surfaced, as the authors set out to discover,
analyse, and share insights into the worlds of these musicians.
The history of Gdansk carillons begins in 1561. It was that year
that fourteen automatic bells were installed in the Main Town Hall.
Later, a "striking mechanism" appeared in St Catherine's Church.
This magnificent instrument, consisting of thirty-five bells, has
been in use since 1738. The third carillon was built in 1939 in the
youth hostel at Biskupia Gorka. The play of Gdansk carillons was
interrupted by the Second World War. The book discusses the history
and music of Gdansk carillons. It contains valuable information on
bells, carillon mechanisms, bell founders, carillonists, and bell
setters, inviting the reader to study the Protestant repertoire,
the unique notation of preserved manuscripts, and the remarkable
soundscape of Gdansk, which for centuries has been marked by the
sound of carillons.
Winner of the Nicholas Bessaraboff Prize Musical repertory of great
importance and quality was performed on viols in sixteenth- and
early seventeenth-century England. This is reported by Thomas Mace
(1676) who says that 'Your Best Provision' for playing such music
is a chest of old English viols, and he names five early English
viol makers than which 'there are no Better in the World'.
Enlightened scholars and performers (both professional and amateur)
who aim to understand and play this music require reliable
historical information and need suitable viols, but so little is
known about the instruments and their makers that we cannot specify
appropriate instruments with much precision. Our ignorance cannot
be remedied exclusively by the scrutiny or use of surviving antique
viols because they are extremely rare, they are not accessible to
performers and the information they embody is crucially compromised
by degradation and alteration. Drawing on a wide variety of
evidence including the surviving instruments, music composed for
those instruments, and the documentary evidence surrounding the
trade of instrument making, Fleming and Bryan draw significant
conclusions about the changing nature and varieties of viol in
early modern England.
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