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Books > Music > Western music, periods & styles > General
Although competitions in classical music have a long history, the
number of contests has risen dramatically since the Second World
War, all of them aiming to launch young artists' careers. This is
not the symptom of marketization that it might appear to be.
Despite the establishment of an international governing body,
competitions are plagued by rumors of corruption, and even the most
mathematically sophisticated voting system cannot quell accusations
that the best talent is overlooked. Why do musicians take part? Why
do audiences care so much about who wins? Performing Civility is
the first book to address these questions. In this groundbreaking
study, Lisa McCormick draws from firsthand observations of contests
in Europe and the US, and in-depth interviews with competitors,
jurors and directors, as well as blog data from competition
observers to argue that competitions have endured because they are
not only about music, they are also about civility.
Hearing Rhythm and Meter: Analyzing Metrical Consonance and
Dissonance in Common-Practice Period Music is the first book to
present a comprehensive course text on advanced analysis of rhythm
and meter. This book brings together the insights of recent
scholarship on rhythm and meter in a clear and engaging
presentation, enabling students to understand topics including
hypermeter and metrical dissonance. From the Baroque to the
Romantic era, Hearing Rhythm and Meter emphasizes listening,
enabling students to recognize meters and metrical dissonances by
type both with and without the score. The textbook includes
exercises for each chapter and is supported by a full-score
anthology. PURCHASING OPTIONS Textbook (Print Paperback):
978-0-8153-8448-9 Textbook (Print Hardback): 978-0-8153-8447-2
Textbook (eBook): 978-1-351-20431-6 Anthology (Print Paperback):
978-0-8153-9176-0 Anthology (Print Hardback): 978-0-367-34924-0
Anthology (eBook): 978-1-351-20083-7
Covering a period from the Ancient World to the present day, the
book suggests that until very recently, falsettists and
counter-tenors have been distinct vocal genres. `The use of high
male voices in the past has long been one of the most seriously
misunderstood areas of musical scholarship and practice. In opening
up this rich subject (to readers of all sorts) with refreshingly
clear perspectives and plenty of new material, Simon Ravens'
well-researched book goes a very long way to rectifying matters.
Ravens writes damnably well, and if the story that emerges is
necessarily a complex one, his treatment of it is always engagingly
comprehensible.' ANDREW PARROTT Tracing the origins, influences and
development of falsetto singing in Western music, Simon Ravens
offers a revisionist history of high male singing from the Ancient
Greeks to Michael Jackson. This history embraces not just singers
of counter-tenor and alto parts up to and including our own time
but the castrati of the Ancient world, the male sopranists of late
Medieval and Renaissance Europe, and the dual-register tenors of
the Baroque and Classical periods. Musical aesthetics aside, to
understand the changing ways men have sung high, it is also vital
to address extra-musical factors - which are themselves in a state
of flux. Tothis end, Ravens illuminates his chronological survey by
exploring topics as diverse as human physiology, the stereotyping
of national characters, gender identity, and the changing of boys'
voices. The result is a complex and fascinating history sure to
appeal not only to music scholars but to performers and all those
with an interest particularly in early music. Simon Ravens is a
performer, writer, and director of Musica Contexta, with whom hehas
performed in Britain and Europe, regularly broadcast, and made
numerous acclaimed recordings. Ravens had previously founded and
directed Australasia's foremost early music choir, the Tudor
Consort. Between 2002 and 2007 his regular monthly column Ravens
View appeared in the Early Music Review, to which he still
regularly contributes.
The first regional history of music in England. Music in the West
Country is the first regional history of music in England. Ranging
over seven hundred years, from the minstrels, waits, and cathedral
choristers of the fourteenth century to the Bristol Sound of the
late twentieth, the book explores the region's soundscape, from its
gateway cities of Bristol and Salisbury in the east to the Isles of
Scilly in the west, and examines music-making in tiny villages as
well as conditions in important centres such as Bath, Exeter,
Plymouth, and Bournemouth. What emerges is both a study of the
typical - musical practices which would apply to any English region
- and a portrait of the unique - features born of the region's
physicalisolation and charm, among them the growth of festival
culture, the mythologising of folk music, the late survival of
parish psalmody and nonconformist carolling, and the unique
continuance, today, of a professional resort orchestra, the
Bournemouth Symphony Orchestra. Banfield's vividly written and
extremely readable history of music in the west country considers
an array of subjects, firmly centred on people's stories: musical
inventions and theidea of tradition, music as cultural capital, the
economics of musical employment and the demographics of
musicianship, musical networks, the relationship of the hinterlands
to the metropolis, the influence of topography, the importance of
institutions and events, and the question of how to measure value.
A study in prosopography, it shows how people went about their
lives with music and explores how things changed for them - or did
not. STEPHENBANFIELD is Emeritus Professor of Music at the
University of Bristol.
What does it mean to say that music is deeply moving? Or that
music's aesthetic value derives from its deep structure? This study
traces the widely employed trope of musical depth to its origins in
German-language music criticism and analysis. From the Romantic
aesthetics of E. T. A. Hoffmann to the modernist theories of Arnold
Schoenberg, metaphors of depth attest to the cross-pollination of
music with discourses ranging from theology, geology and poetics to
psychology, philosophy and economics. The book demonstrates that
the persistence of depth metaphors in musicology and music theory
today is an outgrowth of their essential role in articulating and
transmitting Germanic cultural values. While musical depth
metaphors have historically served to communicate German
nationalist sentiments, Watkins shows that an appreciation for the
broad connotations of those metaphors opens up exciting new avenues
for interpretation.
Recording Orchestra and Other Classical Music Ensembles explores
techniques and methodologies specific to recording classical music.
Whether a newcomer or a seasoned engineer looking to refine their
skills, this book speaks to all levels of expertise and covers
every aspect of recording symphonic and concerto repertoire, opera,
chamber music, and solo piano. With a focus on the orchestra as an
instrument and sound source, this book features sections on how to
listen, understanding microphones, concert halls, orchestra seating
arrangements, how to set up the monitoring environment, and how to
approach recording each section of the orchestra. Recording
Orchestra provides concise information on preparing for a recording
session, the role of the producer, mixing techniques, and includes
a "quick-start" reference guide with suggested setups aimed at
helping introduce the reader to the recording process. A companion
website, featuring audio examples of various techniques, reinforces
concepts discussed throughout the book. The content of the book
includes: Clear, practical advice in plain language from an expert
in classical music recording, multiple Grammy award winning
recording engineer, and university professor The "secret of
recording": a collection of practical recording techniques that
have been proven to be highly successful in the field, on many
occasions Never before published information written by an industry
veteran with over twenty five-years of experience in classical
music recording Specific techniques and strategies for recording
orchestra, opera, wind symphony, chorus, string quartet, and other
common classical music ensembles.
A group of resourceful kids start "solution-seekers.com," a website
where "cybervisitors" can get answers to questions that trouble
them. But when one questioner asks the true meaning of Christmas,
the kids seek to unravel the mystery by journeying back through the
prophecies of the Old Testament. What they find is a series of "S"
words that reveal a "spectacular story!" With creative characters,
humorous dialogue and great music, The "S" Files is a children's
Christmas musical your kids will love performing.
Redefining Music Studies in an Age of Change: Creativity,
Diversity, Integration takes prevailing discourse about change in
music studies to new vistas, as higher education institutions are
at a critical moment of determining just what professional
musicians and teachers need to survive and thrive in public life.
The authors examine how music studies might be redefined through
the lenses of creativity, diversity, and integration. which are the
three pillars of the recent report of The College Music Society
taskforce calling for reform. Focus is on new conceptions for
existent areas-such as studio lessons and ensembles, academic
history and theory, theory and culture courses, and music education
coursework-but also on an exploration of music and human learning,
and an understanding of how organizational change happens.
Examination of progressive programs will celebrate strides in the
direction of the task force vision, as well as extend a critical
eye distinguishing between premature proclamations of "mission
accomplished" and genuine transformation. The overarching theme is
that a foundational, systemic overhaul has the capacity to entirely
revitalize the European classical tradition. Practical steps
applicable to wide-ranging institutions are considered-from small
liberal arts colleges, to conservatory programs, large research
universities, and regional state universities.
Redefining Music Studies in an Age of Change: Creativity,
Diversity, Integration takes prevailing discourse about change in
music studies to new vistas, as higher education institutions are
at a critical moment of determining just what professional
musicians and teachers need to survive and thrive in public life.
The authors examine how music studies might be redefined through
the lenses of creativity, diversity, and integration. which are the
three pillars of the recent report of The College Music Society
taskforce calling for reform. Focus is on new conceptions for
existent areas-such as studio lessons and ensembles, academic
history and theory, theory and culture courses, and music education
coursework-but also on an exploration of music and human learning,
and an understanding of how organizational change happens.
Examination of progressive programs will celebrate strides in the
direction of the task force vision, as well as extend a critical
eye distinguishing between premature proclamations of "mission
accomplished" and genuine transformation. The overarching theme is
that a foundational, systemic overhaul has the capacity to entirely
revitalize the European classical tradition. Practical steps
applicable to wide-ranging institutions are considered-from small
liberal arts colleges, to conservatory programs, large research
universities, and regional state universities.
The International Who's Who in Classical Music 2020 is a vast
source of biographical and contact information for singers,
instrumentalists, composers, conductors, managers and more. Each
entrant has been given the opportunity to update his or her
information for the new improved 2020 edition. Each biographical
entry comprises personal information, principal career details,
repertoire, recordings and compositions, and full contact details
where available. Appendices provide contact details for national
orchestras, opera companies, music festivals, music organizations
and major competitions and awards. International Who's Who in
Classical Music includes individuals involved in all aspects of the
world of classical music: composers, instrumentalists, singers,
arrangers, writers, musicologists, conductors, directors and
managers. Key Features: - over 8,000 detailed biographical entries
- covers the classical and light classical fields - includes both
up-and-coming musicians and well-established names. This book will
prove valuable for anyone in need of reliable, up-to-date
information on the individuals and organizations involved in
classical music.
inch....this work is likely to become a standart work very quickly
and is to be recommended to all schools where recorder studies are
undertaken inch. (Oliver James, Contact Magazine) A novel and
comprehensive approach to transferring from the C to F instrument.
430 music examples include folk and national songs (some in two
parts), country dance tunes and excerpts from the standard treble
repertoire ofBach, Barsanti, Corelli, Handel, Telemann, etc. An
outstanding feature of the book has proved to be Brian Bonsor's
brilliantly simple but highly effective practice circles and
recognition squares designed to give, in only a few minutes,
concentrated practice on the more usual leaps to and from each new
note and instant recognition of random notes. Quickly emulating the
outstanding success of the descant tutors, these books are very
popular even with those who normally use tutors other than the
Enjoy the Recorder series.
What makes a classical song a song? In a wide-ranging 2004
discussion, covering such contrasting composers as Brahms and
Berberian, Schubert and Kurtag, Jonathan Dunsby considers the
nature of vocality in songs of the nineteenth and twentieth
centuries. The essence and scope of poetic and literary meaning in
the Lied tradition is subjected to close scrutiny against the
backdrop of 'new musicological' thinking and music-theoretical
orthodoxies. The reader is thus offered the best insights available
within an evidence-based approach to musical discourse. Schoenberg
figures conspicuously as both songsmith and theorist, and some
easily comprehensible Schenkerian approaches are used to convey
ideas of musical time and expressive focus. In this work of
scholarship and theoretical depth, Professor Dunsby's highly
original approach and engaging style will ensure its appeal to all
practising musicians and students of Romantic and modern music.
Voices Found: Free Jazz and Singing contributes to a wave of voice
studies scholarship with the first book-length study of free jazz
voice. It pieces together a history of free jazz voice that spans
from sound poetry and scat in the 1950s to the more recent wave of
free jazz choirs. The author traces the developments and offers a
theory, derived from interviews with many of the most important
singers in the history of free jazz voice, of how listeners have
experienced and evaluated the often unconventional vocal sounds
these vocalists employed. This theory explains that even audiences
willing to enjoy harsh sounds from saxophones or guitars often
resist when voices make sounds that audiences understand as
not-human. Experimental poetry and scat were combined and
transformed in free jazz spaces in the 1960s and 1970s by vocalists
like Yoko Ono (in solo work and her work with Ornette Coleman and
John Stevens), Jeanne Lee (in her solo work and her work with
Archie Shepp and Gunter Hampel), Leon Thomas (in his solo work as
well as his work with Pharoah Sanders and Carlos Santana), and Phil
Minton and Maggie Nicols (who devoted much of their energy to
creating unaccompanied free jazz vocal music). By studying free
jazz voice we can learn important lessons about what we expect from
the voice and what happens when those expectations are violated.
This book doesn't only trace histories of free jazz voice, it makes
an attempt to understand why this story hasn't been told before,
with an impressive breadth of scope in terms of the artists
covered, drawing on research from the US, Canada, Wales, Scotland,
France, The Netherlands, and Japan.
Using an approach to music informed by T. W. Adorno, this book
examines the real-world, political significance of seemingly
abstracted things like musical and literary forms. Re-assessing
music in James Joyce, Ezra Pound and Sylvia Townsend Warner, this
book re-shapes temporal, aesthetic and political understandings of
modernism, by arguing that music plays a crucial role in ongoing
attempts to investigate language, rational thought and ideology
using aesthetic forms.
Following the successful volumes of Song on Record, this 1991 book
surveys all the recordings of major choral works from the
Monteverdi Vespers to Britten's War Requiem. Discussion of the
various interpretations on record is preceded, in each chapter, by
informed criticism of the work concerned, including - where
appropriate - a clarification of editions, revisions, etc. (all the
many changes in Messiah are, for instance, described in detail).
The coverage of recordings is exhaustive and its value is enhanced
by detailed discographies, with numbers of each recording. Each
contributor is an authority within his or her specialist area and,
collectively, their insights and observations make the book
invaluable to record collectors, music lovers and all with an
interest in changing tastes and styles of musical performance.
The music of Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven forms a cornerstone of the
modern repertoire, but very little is known about the context in
which these composers worked. This volume of twelve essays by
leading international scholars considers some of the musical
traditions and practices of this little-understood period of music
history. Beginning with the early decades of the eighteenth
century, the volume documents selected aspects of musical life and
style from the late Baroque period through to the early years of
the nineteenth century. The four main areas covered in this
exploration of music history are orchestral music, sacred music,
opera and keyboard music. Georg Reutter (Haydn's teacher), Antonio
Salieri (Mozart's colleague) and Woelffl (a rival of Beethoven) are
just three of the period's prominent musicians who are discussed at
length.
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