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Books > Music > Theory of music & musicology > General

Schubert's Fingerprints: Studies in the Instrumental Works (Hardcover, New Ed): Susan Wollenberg Schubert's Fingerprints: Studies in the Instrumental Works (Hardcover, New Ed)
Susan Wollenberg
R4,321 Discovery Miles 43 210 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

As Robert Schumann put it, 'Only few works are as clearly stamped with their author's imprint as his'. This book explores Schubert's stylistic traits in a series of chapters each discussing an individual 'fingerprint' with case studies drawn principally from the piano and chamber music. The notion of Schubert's compositional fingerprints has not previously formed the subject of a book-length study. The features of his personal style considered here include musical manifestations of Schubert's 'violent nature', the characteristics of his thematic material, and the signs of his 'classicizing' manner. In the process of the discussion, attention is given to matters of form, texture, harmony and gesture in a range of works, with regard to the various 'fingerprints' identified in each chapter. The repertoire discussed includes the late string quartets, the String Quintet, the E flat Piano Trio and the last three piano sonatas. Developing ideas which she first proposed in a series of journal articles and contributions to symposia on Schubert, Professor Wollenberg takes into account recent literature by other scholars and draws together her own researches to present her view of Schubert's 'compositional personality'. Schubert emerges as someone exerting intellectual control over his musical material and imbuing it with poetic resonance.

Ethnomusicological Encounters with Music and Musicians - Essays in Honor of Robert Garfias (Hardcover, Festschrift): Timothy... Ethnomusicological Encounters with Music and Musicians - Essays in Honor of Robert Garfias (Hardcover, Festschrift)
Timothy Rice
R4,323 Discovery Miles 43 230 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Designed as a tribute to Robert Garfias, who has conducted field work in more cultures than any other living ethnomusicologist, this volume explores the originating encounter in field work of ethnomusicologists with the musicians and musical traditions they study. The nineteen contributors provide case studies from nearly every corner of the world, including biographies of important musicians from the Philippines, Turkey, Lapland, and Korea; interviews with, and reports of learning from, musicians from Ireland, Bulgaria, Burma, and India; and analyses of how traditional musicians adapt to the encounter with modernity in Japan, India, China, Turkey, Afghanistan, Morocco, and the United States. The book also provides a window into the history of ethnomusicology since all the contributors have had a relationship with the University of Washington, home to one of the oldest programs in ethnomusicology in the United States. Inspired by the example of Robert Garfias, they are all indefatigable field researchers and among the leading authorities in the world on their particular musical cultures. The contributions illustrate the core similarities in their approach to the discipline of ethnomusicology and at the same time deal with a remarkably wide range of perspectives, themes, issues, and theoretical questions. Readers should find this collection of essays a fascinating, indeed surprising, glimpse into an important aspect of the history of ethnomusicology.

Beethoven: Variations on a Life (Hardcover): Mark Evan Bonds Beethoven: Variations on a Life (Hardcover)
Mark Evan Bonds
R516 R433 Discovery Miles 4 330 Save R83 (16%) Ships in 10 - 15 working days

Despite the ups and downs of his personal life and professional career-even in the face of deafness-Beethoven remained remarkably consistent in his most basic convictions about his art. This inner consistency, the music historian Mark Evan Bonds argues, provides the key to understanding the composer's life and works. Beethoven approached music as he approached life, weighing whatever occupied him from a variety of perspectives: a melodic idea, a musical genre, a word or phrase, a friend, a lover, a patron, money, politics, religion. His ability to unlock so many possibilities from each helps explain the emotional breadth and richness of his output as a whole, from the heaven-storming Ninth Symphony to the eccentric Eighth, and from the arcane Great Fugue to the crowd-pleasing Wellington's Victory. Beethoven's works, Bonds argues, are a series of variations on his life. The iconic scowl so familiar from later images of the composer is but one of many attitudes he could assume and project through his music. The supposedly characteristic furrowed brow and frown, moreover, came only after his time. Discarding tired myths about the composer, Bonds proposes a new way of listening to Beethoven by hearing his music as an expression of his entire self, not just his scowling self.

John Adams's Nixon in China - Musical Analysis, Historical and Political Perspectives (Hardcover, New Ed): Timothy A.... John Adams's Nixon in China - Musical Analysis, Historical and Political Perspectives (Hardcover, New Ed)
Timothy A. Johnson
R4,176 Discovery Miles 41 760 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

John Adams's opera, Nixon in China, is one of the most frequently performed operas in the contemporary literature. Timothy A. Johnson illuminates the opera and enhances listeners' and scholars' appreciation for this landmark work. This music-analytical guide presents a detailed, in-depth analysis of the music tied to historical and political contexts. The opera captures an important moment in history and in international relations, and a close study of it from an interdisciplinary perspective provides fresh, compelling insights about the opera. The music analysis takes a neo-Riemannian approach to harmony and to large-scale harmonic connections. Musical metaphors drawn between harmonies and their dramatic contexts enrich this approach. Motivic analysis reveals interweaving associations between the characters, based on melodic content. Analysis of rhythm and meter focuses on Adams's frequent use of grouping and displacement dissonances to propel the music forward or to illustrate the libretto. The book shows how the historical depiction in the opera is accurate, yet enriched by this operatic adaptation. The language of the opera is true to its source, but more evocative than the words spoken in 1972-due to Alice Goodman's marvelous, poetic libretto. And the music transcends its repetitive shell to become a hierarchically-rich and musically-compelling achievement.

Edinburgh German Yearbook 13 - Music in German Politics / Politics in German Music (Hardcover): Siobhan Donovan, Maria Euchner Edinburgh German Yearbook 13 - Music in German Politics / Politics in German Music (Hardcover)
Siobhan Donovan, Maria Euchner; Contributions by Florian Gassner, David G Robb, Siobhan Donovan, …
R2,360 R2,173 Discovery Miles 21 730 Save R187 (8%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Volume 13 deals with the interaction of music and politics, considering a broad range of genres, authors, composers, and artists in Germany since the nineteenth century. A particularly iconic image of German Reunification is that of Mstislav Rostropovich playing from J. S. Bach's cello suites in front of the Berlin Wall on November 11, 1989. Thirty years on, it is timely to reconsider the cross-fertilization of music and politics within the German-speaking context. Frequently employed as a motivational force, a propaganda tool, or even a weapon, music can imbue a sense of identity and belonging, triggering both comforting and disturbing memories. Playing a key role in the formation of Heimat and "Germanness," it serves ideological, nationalistic, and propagandistic purposes conveying political messages and swaying public opinion. This volume brings together essays by historians, literary scholars, and musicologists on topics concerning the increasing politicization of music, especially since the nineteenth century. They cover a broad spectrum of genres, musicians, and thinkers, discussing the interplay of music and politics in "classical" and popular music: from the rediscovery and repurposing of Martin Luther in nineteenth-century Germany to the exploitation of music during the Third Reich, from the performative politics of German punk and pop music to the influence of the events of 1988/89 on operatic productions in the former GDR - up to the relevance of Ernst Bloch in our contemporary post-truth society.

Piano Interpretation of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries - A Study of Theory and Practice Using Original... Piano Interpretation of the Seventeenth, Eighteenth and Nineteenth Centuries - A Study of Theory and Practice Using Original Documents (Paperback)
Elena Letnanová
R976 R651 Discovery Miles 6 510 Save R325 (33%) Ships in 12 - 17 working days

How should one interpret music of another century? What standards should be applied to an eighteenth century harpsichord work, for instance, being performed on a piano? Keyboard ""methods""--systematic approaches to training, touch, and interpretation--did not evolve until the nineteenth century, and written methodologies are few. Drawing on primary sources, the author has compiled a detailed analysis of such keyboard ""methods"" as existed in Europe in the seventeenth, eighteenth, and nineteenth centuries. Most were developed by Couperin, C.P.E. Bach, Turk, J.S. Bach, Mozart, Chopin and Liszt. Also discussed, with translations from their writings and their critics', are the detailed theoretical works by Kullak and Lussy. Analysis shows which techniques had been adapted from earlier practice and which were original to the composer, demonstrating the evolution of the various methods. Techniques useful in the interpretation of period material, and which still have important applications today, are pointed out.

Ethnomusicology of the Flathead Indians (Paperback): Alan Merriam Ethnomusicology of the Flathead Indians (Paperback)
Alan Merriam
R1,466 Discovery Miles 14 660 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

All people, in no matter what culture, must be able to place their music firmly in the context of the totality of their beliefs, experiences, and activities, for without such ties, music cannot exist. This means that there must be a body of theory connected with any music system--not necessarily a theory of the structure of music sound, although that may be present as well, but rather a theory of what music is, what it does, and how it is coordinated with the total environment, both natural and cultural, in which human beings move. The Flathead Indians of Western Montana (just over 26,000 in number as of the 2000 census) inhabit a reservation consisting of 632,516 acres of land in the Jocko and Flathead Valleys and the Camas Prairie country, which lie roughly between Evaro and Kalispell, Montana. The reservation is bounded on the east by the Mission Range, on the west by the Cabinet National Forest, on the south by the Lolo National Forest, and on the north by an arbitrary line, approximately bisecting Flathead Lake about twenty-four miles south of Kalispell. The area is one of the richest agricultural regions in Montana, and fish and game are abundant. The Flathead are engaged in stocking, timbering, and various agricultural enterprises. For the Flathead, the most important single fact about music and its relationship to the total world is its origin in the supernatural sphere. All true and proper songs, particularly in the past, owe their origin to a variety of contacts experienced by humans with beings which, though a part of this world, are superhuman and the source of both individual and tribal powers and skills. Thus a sharp distinction is drawn by the Flathead between what they call "make-up" and all other songs. Merriam's pioneering work in the relationship of ethnography and musicology remains a primary source in this field in anthropology.

Everyday Music Listening - Absorption, Dissociation and Trancing (Hardcover, New Ed): Ruth Herbert Everyday Music Listening - Absorption, Dissociation and Trancing (Hardcover, New Ed)
Ruth Herbert
R3,887 Discovery Miles 38 870 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In what ways does listening to music shape everyday perception? Is music particularly effective in promoting shifts in consciousness? Is there any difference perceptually between contemplating one's surroundings and experiencing a work of art? Everyday Music Listening is the first book to focus in depth on the detailed nature of music listening episodes as lived mental experiences. Ruth Herbert uses new empirical data to explore the psychological processes involved in everyday music listening scenarios, charting interactions between music, perceiver and environment in a diverse range of real-world contexts. Findings are integrated with insights from a broad range of literature, including consciousness studies and research into altered states of consciousness, as well as ideas from ethology and evolutionary psychology, suggesting that a psychobiological capacity for trancing is linked to the origins of making and receiving of art. The term 'trance' is not generally associated with music listening outside ethnomusicological studies of strong experiences, yet 'hypnotic-like' involvements in daily life have long been recognized by hypnotherapy researchers. The author argues that multiply distributed attention - prevalent in much contemporary listening- does not necessarily indicate superficial engagement. Music emerges as a particularly effective mediator of experience. Absorption and dissociation, as manifestations of trancing, are self-regulatory processes, often operating at the level of unconscious awareness, that support individuals' perceptions of psychological health. This fascinating study brings together research and theory from a wide range of fields to provide a new framework for understanding the phenomenology of music listening in a way that will appeal to both specialist academic audiences and a broad general readership.

Music, Masculinity and the Claims of History - The Austro-German Tradition from Hegel to Freud (Hardcover, New Ed): Ian Biddle Music, Masculinity and the Claims of History - The Austro-German Tradition from Hegel to Freud (Hardcover, New Ed)
Ian Biddle
R4,169 Discovery Miles 41 690 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

What does it mean to think of Western Art music - and the Austro-German contribution to that repertory - as a tradition? How are men and masculinities implicated in the shaping of that tradition? And how is the writing of the history (or histories) of that tradition shaped by men and masculinities? This book seeks to answer these and other questions by drawing both on a wide range of German-language writings on music, sound and listening from the so-called long nineteenth century (circa 1800-1918), and a range of critical-theoretical texts from the post-war continental philosophical and psychoanalytic traditions, including Lacan, Zizek, Serres, Derrida and Kittler. The book is focussed in particular on bringing the object of historical writing itself into scrutiny by engaging in what Zizek has called a 'historicity' or a way of writing about the past that not merely acknowledges the ahistorical kernel of historical writing, but brings that kernel into the light of day, takes account of it and puts it into play. The book is thus committed to a kind of historical writing that is open-ended - though not ideologically naA-ve - and that does not fix or stabilize the nature of the relationship between so-called 'primary' and 'secondary' texts. The book consists of an introduction, which places the study of classical music and the Austro-German tradition within broader debates about the value of that tradition, and four extensive case studies: an analysis of the cultural-historical category of listening around 1800; a close reading of A. B. Marx's Beethoven monograph of 1859; a consideration of Heinrich Schenker's attitudes to the mob and the vernacular more broadly and an examination, through Franz Kafka, of the figure of Mahler's body.

Swedish Folk Music in the Twenty-First Century - On the Nature of Tradition in a Folkless Nation (Hardcover, New): David... Swedish Folk Music in the Twenty-First Century - On the Nature of Tradition in a Folkless Nation (Hardcover, New)
David Kaminsky
R2,398 Discovery Miles 23 980 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

.cs7CED571B{text-align: left;text-indent:0pt;padding:0pt 0pt 0pt 0pt;margin:0pt 0pt 0pt 0pt}.cs5EFED22F{color: #000000;background-color: transparent;font-family: Times New Roman; font-size:12pt; font-weight: normal; font-style: normal; }.csA62DFD6A{color: #000000;background-color: transparent;font-family: Times New Roman; font-size:12pt; font-weight: normal; font-style: italic; }In applying the term folk music to the music they were collecting, early nineteenth-century Swedish folklorists saturated it with the cultural currency of romantic nationalism. These collectors promoted the music as the essence of the rural peasant folk, and thus of the nation; the tradition it represented was ancient, invested with the power of nature itself. Since that time, folk music has retained its symbolic value, while at the same time the national romantic narrative has broken down due to its being politically problematic as well as factually unsustainable. Research that has been done on rural peasant music in the intervening years reveals that it was never particularly ancient nor nationally uniform, nor truly distinguishable from popular or art musics. Swedish Folk Music in the Twenty-First Century: On the Nature of Tradition in a Folkless Nation, by David Kaminsky, examines the struggle of present-day Swedish folk musicians and dancers to maintain the cultural currency of their genre while simultaneously challenging the historical fallacies and ideological agenda upon which that currency was originally based. The notion of Swedish cultural purity once championed by nineteenth-century folklorists has been dismissed by serious scholars and now marks the discourse of the anti-immigrant extreme right, alienating it from the academic-savvy center/left-leaning folk music subculture of today. Kaminsky's study is especially relevant today, given the rise of the anti-immigrant extreme right in Sweden, and their efforts to preserve culturally pure Swedish folk music at the expense of existing multicultural government initiatives.

Interpreting Music Video - Popular Music in the Post-MTV Era (Hardcover): Brad Osborn Interpreting Music Video - Popular Music in the Post-MTV Era (Hardcover)
Brad Osborn
R3,882 Discovery Miles 38 820 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Interpreting Music Video introduces students to the musical, visual, and sociological aspects of music videos, enabling them to critically analyze a multimedia form with a central place in popular culture. With highly relevant examples drawn from recent music videos across many different genres, this concise and accessible book brings together tools from musical analysis, film and media studies, gender and sexuality studies, and critical race studies, requiring no previous knowledge. Exploring the multiple dimensions of music videos, this book is the perfect introduction to critical analysis for music, media studies, communications, and popular culture.

The Life and Twelve-Note Music of Nikos Skalkottas (Hardcover, New edition): Eva Mantzourani The Life and Twelve-Note Music of Nikos Skalkottas (Hardcover, New edition)
Eva Mantzourani
R4,299 Discovery Miles 42 990 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Nikos Skalkottas is perhaps the last great 'undiscovered' composer of the twentieth century. In the 1920s he was a promising young violinist and composer in Berlin, and a student of Schoenberg, who included him among his most gifted pupils. It was only after his return to Greece in 1933 that Skalkottas became an anonymous and obscure figure, working in complete isolation until his death in 1949. Most of his works remained unpublished and unperformed during his lifetime, and although he is largely known for his folkloristic tonal pieces, Skalkottas in fact concentrated predominantly on developing an idiosyncratic dodecaphonic musical language. Eva Mantzourani provides here a comprehensive study of this fascinating yet under-researched composer. The book, lavishly illustrated with musical examples, is divided into three parts. Part I comprises a critical biography that, by drawing extensively on his letters and other writings, reappraises the image of Skalkottas with which we are often presented. The main focus of the book, however, is on Skalkottas's twelve-note compositional processes, since these characterize the majority of his output, and are neither well-known nor fully understood. Part II presents the structural and technical features of his twelve-note technique, particularly the different types of sets and their manipulation, and his approach to musical forms. Part III consists of analytical case studies of several works, presented chronologically, which thus provide a diachronic framework within which Skalkottas's dodecaphonic compositional development can be more effectively viewed. This book underlines Nikos Skalkottas's importance as a composer with a distinctive artistic personality, whose work contributed to the development of twelve-note compositional practice, and who deserves a more significant position within the Western art music canon than that to which he is often assigned.

Schoenberg's Models for Beginners in Composition (Paperback): Gordon Root Schoenberg's Models for Beginners in Composition (Paperback)
Gordon Root
R1,012 Discovery Miles 10 120 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Originally published in 1943, Models for Beginners in Composition represents one of Arnold Schoenberg's earliest attempts at reaching a broad American audience through his pedagogical ideas. The novelty of this book was its streamlined approach, basing all aspects of composition including motivic design, harmony, and the construction of themes on the two-measure phrase. This newly revised edition by Gordon Root incorporates many of Schoenberg's corrections to the original manuscript. It also includes a significant commentary elucidating the evolution of Schoenberg's pedagogical approach. In its function as a practical manual for the American classroom, Models for Beginners in Composition is unique among Schoenberg's texts. The current Commentary explores Schoenberg's experience as a teacher at UCLA while tracing the development of the two-measure phrase as the main component of his pedagogical method. It demonstrates the way in which Schoenberg simultaneously preserved and adapted European ideas about tonal theory and pedagogy when he came to America, a give and take that allowed for increased theoretical originality and scope. Models for Beginners in Composition established the two-measure phrase as one of the most significant of Schoenberg's contributions to American music education. This new edition, with Schoenberg's corrections and newly added commentary, allows readers to utilize and explore the text in greater depth. Students of composition, Schoenberg scholars, music theorists, and historians of music theory alike will no doubt welcome this new edition.

Systematic Musicology: Empirical and Theoretical Studies (Paperback, New edition): Albrecht Schneider, Arne von Ruschkowski Systematic Musicology: Empirical and Theoretical Studies (Paperback, New edition)
Albrecht Schneider, Arne von Ruschkowski
R1,714 Discovery Miles 17 140 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This volume contains articles most of which present empirical studies in the field of systematic musicology. Contributions in particular deal with aspects of melody including modeling and computer-assisted analysis as well as with various issues in sound and music perception, musical acoustics and psychoacoustics. Topics range from loudness perception in ‘Techno’ music to sound radiation in classical singing styles, and from timbre research to wave field synthesis and room acoustics. One focus of this volume is on pop and rock music, another is on ethno and folk music. In addition to empirical investigations, theoretical and methodological issues are addressed including some fundamental concepts in ethnomusicology and folk music scholarship.

Improvisation and the Making of American Literary Modernism (Hardcover): Rob Wallace Improvisation and the Making of American Literary Modernism (Hardcover)
Rob Wallace
R4,259 Discovery Miles 42 590 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Improvisation, despite its almost ubiquitous presence in many art forms, is notoriously misunderstood and mysterious. Although earlier strands of American philosophy and art emphasized what might be called improvisational practices, it was during the modernist period that improvisational practice and theory began to make a significant impact on art and culture, specifically via the African American musical forms of jazz and blues. This musical development held important consequences for the larger artistic, cultural, and political life of America as a whole and, eventually, the world. The historical convergence of jazz and philosophical currents like pragmatism in American culture provides the framework for Wallace's discussion of improvisation in literary modernism. Focusing on poets ranging from Gertrude Stein to Langston Hughes, Wallace's work provides a fresh perspective on the complex circuits of modernist culture. Improvisation and The Making of American Literary Modernism will be of interest to scholars of poetry, music, American and modernist studies, and race and ethnic studies.

Understanding Post-Tonal Music (Hardcover, 2nd edition): Miguel A Roig-Francoli Understanding Post-Tonal Music (Hardcover, 2nd edition)
Miguel A Roig-Francoli
R3,992 Discovery Miles 39 920 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Understanding Post-Tonal Music is a student-centered textbook that explores the compositional and musical processes of twentieth-century post-tonal music. Intended for undergraduate or general graduate courses on the theory and analysis of twentieth-century music, this book will increase the accessibility of post-tonal music by providing students with tools for understanding pitch organization, rhythm and meter, form, texture, and aesthetics. By presenting the music first and then deriving the theory, Understanding Post-Tonal Music leads students to greater understanding and appreciation of this challenging and important repertoire. The updated second edition includes new "Explorations" features that guide students to engage with pieces through listening and a process of exploration, discovery, and discussion; a new chapter covering electronic, computer, and spectral musics; and additional coverage of music from the twenty-first century and recent trends. The text has been revised throughout to enhance clarity, both by streamlining the prose and by providing a visual format more accessible to the student.

Popular Music and Human Rights - Volume II: World Music (Hardcover): Ian Peddie Popular Music and Human Rights - Volume II: World Music (Hardcover)
Ian Peddie
R2,541 Discovery Miles 25 410 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Popular music has long understood that human rights, if attainable at all, involve a struggle without end. The right to imagine an individual will, the right to some form of self-determination and the right to self-legislation have long been at the forefront of popular music's approach to human rights. At a time of such uncertainty and confusion, with human rights currently being violated all over the world, a new and sustained examination of cultural responses to such issues is warranted. In this respect music, which is always produced in a social context, is an extremely useful medium; in its immediacy music has a potency of expression whose reach is long and wide. Contributors to this significant volume cover artists and topics such as Billy Bragg, punk, Fun-da-Mental, Willie King and the Liberators, Hedwig and the Angry Inch, the Anti-Death Penalty movement, benefit concerts, benefit albums, Gil Scott-Heron, Bruce Springsteen, Wounded Knee and Native American political resistance, Tori Amos, Joni Mitchell, as well as human rights in relation to feminism. A second volume covers World Music.

Music, Science, and the Rhythmic Brain - Cultural and Clinical Implications (Hardcover): Jonathan Berger, Gabe Turow Music, Science, and the Rhythmic Brain - Cultural and Clinical Implications (Hardcover)
Jonathan Berger, Gabe Turow
R4,168 Discovery Miles 41 680 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book studies the effects of repetitive musical rhythm on the brain and nervous system, and in doing so integrates diverse fields including ethnomusicology, psychology, neuroscience, anthropology, religious studies, music therapy, and human health. It presents aspects of musical rhythm and biological rhythms, and in particular rhythmic entrainment, in a way that considers cultural context alongside theoretical research and discussions of potential clinical and therapeutic implications. Considering the effects of drumming and other rhythmic music on mental and bodily functioning, the volume hypothesizes that rhythmic music can have a dramatic impact on mental states, sometimes catalyzing profound changes in arousal, mood, and emotional states via the stimulation of changes in physiological functions like the electrical activity in the brain. The experiments presented here make use of electroencephalography (EEG), galvanic skin response (GSR), and subjective measures to gain insight into how these mental states are evoked, what their relationship is to the music and context of the experience, and demonstrate that they are happening in a consistent and reproducible fashion, suggesting clinical applications. This comprehensive volume will appeal to scholars in cognition, ethnomusicology, and music perception who are interested in the therapeutic potential of music.

Musical Cognition - A Science of Listening (Hardcover): Henkjan Honing Musical Cognition - A Science of Listening (Hardcover)
Henkjan Honing
R3,878 Discovery Miles 38 780 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Why do people attach importance to the wordless language we call music? "Musical Cognition" suggests that music is a game. In music, our cognitive functions such as perception, memory, attention, and expectation are challenged; yet, as listeners, we often do not realize that the listener plays an active role in reaching the awareness that makes music so exhilarating, soothing, and inspiring. In reality, the author contends, listening does not happen in the outer world of audible sound, but in the inner world of our minds and brains. Recent research in the areas of psychology and neuro-cognition allows Honing to be explicit in a way that many of his predecessors could not. His lucid, evocative writing style guides the reader through what is known about listening to music while avoiding jargon and technical diagrams. With clear examples, the book concentrates on underappreciated musical skills--"sense of rhythm" and "relative pitch"--skills that make us musical creatures. Research on how living creatures respond to music supports the conviction that all humans have a unique, instinctive attraction to music. "Musical Cognition "includes a selection of intriguing examples from recent literature exploring the role that an implicit or explicit knowledge of music plays when one listens to it. The scope of the topics discussed ranges from the ability of newborns to perceive a beat, to the unexpected musical expertise of ordinary listeners. The evidence shows that music is second nature to most human beings--biologically and socially. View the book trailer View the book's website - see videos, images, sample materials, and the author's blog and Twitter feed.

Music, Movies, Meanings, and Markets - Cinemajazzamatazz (Hardcover): Morris Holbrook Music, Movies, Meanings, and Markets - Cinemajazzamatazz (Hardcover)
Morris Holbrook
R4,472 Discovery Miles 44 720 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Music, Movies, Meanings, and Markets: Cinemajazzamatazz focuses on (macro)marketing-related aspects of film music in general and on the cinemusical role of jazz in particular. The book begins by reviewing other work on music in motion pictures and explains that such work has tended to deal either with nondiegetic film music (background music that comes from off-screen and that tends to further the dramatic development of plot, character, or other themes) or with diegetic music (source music that is produced on-screen and that adds to the realism of the mise-en-sc ne without contributing much to other dramatic meanings). Cinemajazzamatazz defines, describes, and illustrates another hitherto-neglected type of film music -- namely, ambi-diegetic film music, which appears on-screen (like diegetic music) but which contributes to the film's dramatic development (like nondiegetic music). Consistent with an interest in (macro)marketing, such ambi-diegetic film music (1) serves as a kind of product placement (suitable for commercialization via the cross-promotion of soundtrack albums and so forth); (2) plays a role in product design (as one key feature of the cinemusical offering); (3) provides one type of symbolic consumer behavior (that indicates choices made by film characters when playing-singing-listening-or-dancing in ways that reveal their personalities, that move the plot forward, or that convey other important cinemusical meanings); and (4) sheds light on various social issues (such as the age-old tension between art and entertainment as it applies to the contrast between creative integrity and commercialization). After a general introduction and review, Music, Movies, Meanings, and Markets offers a series of chapters that explore and illustrate the ways in which ambi-diegetic jazz contributes to the development of dramatic meanings in various films, many of which address the art-versus-commerce theme as a central concern.

Approaches to Music Research - Between Practice and Epistemology (Hardcover, New edition): Leon Stefanija, Nico Schuler Approaches to Music Research - Between Practice and Epistemology (Hardcover, New edition)
Leon Stefanija, Nico Schuler
R1,358 Discovery Miles 13 580 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

This book consists primarily of papers presented at the international symposium Approaches to Music Research: Between Practice and Epistemology, held in Ljubljana (Slovenia) in May 2008. Scholars from various music research areas offered heterogeneous views of one central issue: the relations between music-research ideals and practices. The intention was to offer a reflection concerning disciplinary intersections as ideal-typical formations in which different contemporary musicological practices meet each other, either positively or in more negative terms. The topoi of the symposium discussed elemental, difficult-to-answer questions about the position that musicology holds within the humanities and sciences. The symposium especially encouraged case studies of basic epistemological reflections with an emphasis on the practice of music research from any field.

A New Handbook for Singers and Teachers (Hardcover): Richard Alderson, Ann Alderson A New Handbook for Singers and Teachers (Hardcover)
Richard Alderson, Ann Alderson
R3,355 Discovery Miles 33 550 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The practices of singing and teaching singing are inextricable, joined to each other through the necessity of understanding the vocal art and craft. Just as singers must understand the physical functions of voice in order to become musically proficient and artistically mature, teachers too need to have a similar mastery of these ideas - and the ability to explain them to their students - in order to effectively guide their musical and artistic growth. With this singer-instructor relationship in mind, Richard and Ann Alderson's A New Handbook for Singers and Teachers presents a fresh, detailed guide about how to sing and how to teach singing. It systematically explores all aspects of the vocal technique - respiration, phonation, resonance, and articulation - with each chapter containing exercises aimed at applying and teaching these principles. Beyond basic vocal anatomy and singing fundamentals, the handbook also covers such understudied topics as the young voice, the changing voice, and the aging voice, along with helpful chapters for teachers about how to organize vocal lessons and training plans. Thoughtfully and comprehensively crafted by two authors with decades of singing and teaching experience between them, A New Handbook for Singers and Teachers will prove an invaluable resource for singers and teachers at all stages of their vocal and pedagogical careers.

Meter as Rhythm (Hardcover, New): Christopher F. Hasty Meter as Rhythm (Hardcover, New)
Christopher F. Hasty
R2,990 Discovery Miles 29 900 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

In the past, theorists have separated metre from rhythm, seeing metre as a static grid and rhythm as a fluid grouping of notes and figures. Meter as Rhythm offers a new theory of metre in which metre and rhythm are no longer oppposed. Arguing against the mathematical and structuralist approaches to musical analysis, Hasty provides an alternative view which affirms the spontaneity and openness of musical experience as something fully temporal and processive, rather than as a mere container of rhythm. Combining speculative, psychological, and music-analytic perspectives and drawing on philosophers of process, Hasty integrates technical analytical details -- using examples from the early seventeenth century to mid-twentieth century - with larger aesthetic issues.

Towards a Twenty-First-Century Feminist Politics of Music (Hardcover, New Ed): Sally Macarthur Towards a Twenty-First-Century Feminist Politics of Music (Hardcover, New Ed)
Sally Macarthur
R4,304 Discovery Miles 43 040 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

Towards a Twenty-First-Century Feminist Politics of Music opens up a new way of thinking about the absence of women's music. It does not aim to find 'a solution' in a liberal feminist sense, but to discover new potentialities, new possibilities for thought and action. Sally Macarthur encourages us, with the assistance of Deleuze, and feminist-Deleuzian work, to begin the important work of imagining what else might be possible, not in order to provide answers but to open up the as yet unknown. The power of thought - or what Deleuze calls the 'virtual' - opens up new possibilities. Macarthur suggests that the future for women's 'new' music is not tied to the predictable and known but to futures beyond the already-known. Previous research concludes that women's music is virtually absent from the concert hall, and yet fails to find a way of changing this situation. Macarthur finds that the flaw in the recommendations flowing from past research is that it envisages the future from the standpoint of the present, and it relies on a set of pre-determined goals. It thus replicates the present reality, so reinforcing rather than changing the status quo. Macarthur challenges this thinking, and argues that this repetitive way of thinking is stuck in the present, unable to move forward. Macarthur situates her argument in the context of current dominant neoliberal thought and practice. She argues that women have generally not thrived in the neoliberal model of the composer, which envisages the composer as an individual, autonomous creator and entrepreneur. Successful female composers must work with this dominant, modernist aesthetic and exploit the image of the neo-romantic, entrepreneurial creator. This book sets out in contrast to develop a new conception of subjectivity that sows the seeds of a twenty-first-century feminist politics of music.

The New Bruckner - Compositional Development and the Dynamics of Revision (Hardcover, New Ed): Dermot Gault The New Bruckner - Compositional Development and the Dynamics of Revision (Hardcover, New Ed)
Dermot Gault
R4,176 Discovery Miles 41 760 Ships in 12 - 17 working days

The New Bruckner provides a valuable study of Bruckner's music, focusing on the interaction of biography, textual scholarship, reception history and analysis. Dr Dermot Gault conveys a broad chronological narrative of Bruckner's compositional development, interpolating analytical commentaries on the works and critical accounts of the notoriously complex and editorial issues. Gault corrects longstanding misconceptions about the composer's revision process, and its relationship with the early editions and widely-held critical opinions. Bruckner's constantly evolving engagement with symphonic form is traced by taking each revision in due order, rather than by taking each symphony on its own, and by relating the symphonies to other mature works such as the Te Deum, the three great Masses, and the Quintet, and argues that Bruckner's music became more organic and less schematic as the result of his revisions. The book will be essential reading for those studying Bruckner's compositions, the complex history of their reception, and late Romantic music in general.

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