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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Musical instruments & instrumental ensembles
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.
(Faber Piano Adventures ). Writing Book C (the companion book for
Lesson Book C) provides 64 colorful, fun-filled pages of writing,
ear-training, and "CLAP for Sightreading" activities. A focus on
reading skips leads students to cross bridges, connect flags, meet
a mouse, and skip to deep-sea treasures, to name just a few Writing
Book C engages children in the lives and melodies of classical
composers introduced in the Lesson Book C. Take part in Haydn's Fun
Facts and Game, make after-dinner music with Mozart, tap
Beethoven's rhythms, and help Tchaikovsky tell the story of a doll
with a broken arm. The valuable educational activities and vibrant
illustrations of My First Piano Adventure are sure to delight the
young beginner and teacher.
This book recounts the story of all the electric steel guitars - or
electric 'Hawaiian' guitars, as they were called during most of
their tenure - that were built by Gibson between 1935 and 1967.
Hawaiian guitars were the most popular form of electric guitars
until the 1950s, and they contributed to some crucial developments
in pickups and amplification in addition to lending their voice to
the earliest solid body electrics. Esthetically, the early postwar
instruments are also amongst the coolest designs ever produced by
Gibson. The following are the highlights of this title: over 450
illustrations, including a wealth of color pictures, catalog
reproductions, and patent drawings; a comprehensive section on
dating instruments; as well as detailed shipping totals for the
1935-1967 period.
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.
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.
When aspiring violinist Jessica Chiccehitto Hindman lands a job
with a professional ensemble in New York City, she imagines she has
achieved her lifelong dream. But the ensemble proves to be a sham.
When the group "performs", the microphones are never on. Instead,
the music blares from a CD. The mastermind behind this scheme is a
peculiar and mysterious figure known as The Composer, who is
gaslighting his audiences with music that sounds suspiciously like
the Titanic movie soundtrack. On tour with his chaotic ensemble,
Hindman spirals into crises of identity and disillusionment as she
"plays" for audiences genuinely moved by the performance, unable to
differentiate real from fake. Sounds Like Titanic is a surreal,
often hilarious coming-of-age story. Hindman writes with precise,
candid prose and sharp insight into ambition and gender, especially
when it comes to the difficulties young women face in a world that
views them as silly, shallow and stupid. As the story swells to a
crescendo, it gives voice to the anxieties and illusions of a
generation of women, and reveals the failed promises of a nation
that takes comfort in false realities.
Written late in his life, J. S. Bach's The Art of Fugue has long
been admired-in some quarters revered-as one of his masterworks.
Its last movement, Contrapunctus 14, went unfinished, and the
enigma of its incompleteness still preoccupies scholars and musical
conductors alike. In 1881, Gustav Nottebohm discovered that the
three subjects of the movement could be supplemented by a fourth.
In 1993, Zoltan Goencz revealed that Bach had planned the passage
that would join the four subjects in an entirely unique way. This
section has not survived, but, as Goencz notes, it must have been
ready in the earliest phase of composition since Bach had created
the expositions of the first three subjects from its "disjointed"
parts. Goencz then boldly took on the task of reconstructing the
original "template" by putting together the once separate pieces.
In Bach's Testament: On the Philosophical and Theological
Background of The Art of Fugue, Goencz probes the
philosophic-theological background of The Art of Fugue, revealing
the special structures that supported the 1993 reconstruction.
Bach's Testament investigates the reconstruction's metaphysical
dimensions, focusing on the quadruple fugue. As a summary of Zoltan
Goencz's extensive research over many years, which resulted in the
completion of the fugue, this work explores the complex
combinatorial, philosophical and theological considerations that
inform its structure. Bach's Testament is ideally suited not only
to Bach scholars and musicologists but also intellectual historians
with particular interests in 18th-century religious and
philosophical ideas.
Duet for 2 pianos This arrangement has been made from a Soprano
recitative and Aria from the Birthday Cantata by Bach. The piece
has a fresh and pastoral character and the arrangement for two
pianos stays true to Bach's balance between the beautiful melody
and tone-painting in the harmonies.
Teaching Strings in Today's Classroom: A Guide for Group
Instruction assists music education students, in-service teachers,
and performers to realize their goals of becoming effective string
educators. It introduces readers to the school orchestra
environment, presents the foundational concepts needed to teach
strings, and provides opportunities for the reader to apply this
information. The author describes how becoming an effective string
teacher requires three things of equal importance: content
knowledge, performance skills, and opportunities to apply the
content knowledge and performance skills in a teaching situation.
In two parts, the text addresses the unique context that is
teaching strings, a practice with its own objectives and related
teaching strategies. Part I (Foundations of Teaching and Learning
String Instruments) first presents an overview of the string
teaching environment, encouraging the reader to consider how
context impacts teaching, followed by practical discussions of
instrument sizing and position, chapters on the development of each
hand, and instruction for best practices concerning tone
production, articulation, and bowing guidelines. Part II
(Understanding Fingerings) provides clear guidance for
understanding basic finger patterns, positions, and the creation of
logical fingerings. String fingerings are abstract and thus
difficult to negotiate without years of playing experience-these
chapters (and their corresponding interactive online tutorials)
distill the content knowledge required to understand string
fingerings in a way that non-string players can understand and use.
Teaching Strings in Today's Classroom contains pedagogical
information, performance activities, and an online virtual teaching
environment with twelve interactive tutorials, three for each of
the four string instruments. ACCOMPANYING VIDEOS CAN BE ACCESSED
VIA THE AUTHOR'S WEBSITE: www.teachingstrings.online
This definitive encyclopaedic work explores the origins of
percussion through the development of the early drums and
xylophones right up to the wide range of modern instruments and the
sounds they make. James Blades covers these early developments
globally from China and the Far East, India and Tibet, the early
civilisations in Mesopotamia, Egypt, Greece, Rome and Persia
through to mediaeval and renaissance Europe. He continues to
examine the role of percussion in the classical and romantic
orchestras and finally looks at the ways composers have pushed the
boundaries in modern music. Each chapter has its own photographs,
illustrations and bibliography and there are comprehensive indices
referencing all the composers and works discussed. This extended
edition includes two important new chapters. The first covers the
rise of the solo percussionist and is written by the world's
leading practitioner and one of Blades' former pupils, Dame Evelyn
Glennie, who also contributes a new Foreword, while recent
developments in orchestral percussion are covered by Neil Percy,
Head of Timpani and Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music and
Principal Percussionist of the London Symphony Orchestra.
In From Bach's Goldberg to Beethoven's Diabelli: Influence and
Independence, music scholar and noted pianist Alfred Kanwischer
gives readers an extended exploration in which each of Beethoven's
33 pieces that comprise the Diabelli Variations (Op. 120) is
caringly examined and assessed for its ingredients, actions,
personality, and influence on the whole. Counterpoint abounds, not
only in the fugal variations, which are closely parsed, but
throughout the Diabelli, revealing the noticeably Baroque character
of the technical compositional devices Beethoven employs.
Throughout his study, Kanwischer integrates comparisons with Bach's
immortal Goldberg Variations. Both sets stand alone as among the
greatest keyboard variations in the Western canon. During their
creation, both composers were nearly the same age, at the zenith of
their art, and in similarly felicitous frames of mind.Kanwischer
underscores twenty essential similarities, from the use of melody
and melodic outline and the comparability among variations in size,
parallel design, ebullient outlook, increasing contrasts, daring
virtuosic flights, Shakespearean blend of comic and tragic, and
their respective cumulative rises to spiritual transcendence. From
Bach's Goldberg to Beethoven's Diabelli takes readers on a journey
of discovery that is lively and stimulating. It considers not only
questions of influence but those of insight and understanding,
offering a work useful not only as a reference but as a guide to
performers, music instructors and devotees. This work also includes
70 visually annotated interpretive musical examples as aids to
understanding.
Sebastien Erard's (1752-1831) inventions have had an enormous
impact on instruments and musical life and are still at the
foundation of piano building today. Drawing on an unusually rich
set of archives from both the Erard firm and the Erard family,
author Robert Adelson shows how the Erard piano played an important
and often leading role in the history of the instrument, beginning
in the late eighteenth century and continuing into the final
decades of the nineteenth. The Erards were the first piano builders
in France to prioritise the more sonorous grand piano, sending
gifts of their new model to both Haydn and Beethoven. Erard's
famous double-escapement action, which improved the instrument's
response while at the same time producing a more powerful tone,
revolutionised both piano construction and repertoire. Thanks to
these inventions, the Erard firm developed close relationships with
the greatest pianist composers of the nineteenth century, including
Hummel, Liszt, Moscheles and Mendelssohn. The book also presents
new evidence concerning Pierre Erard's homosexuality, which helps
us to understand his reluctance to found a family to carry on the
Erard tradition, a reluctance that would spell the end of the
golden era of the firm and lead to its eventual demise. The book
closes with the story of Pierre's widow Camille, who directed the
firm from 1855 until 1889. Her influential position in the
male-dominated world of instrument building was unique for a woman
of her time.
This book presents figured harmony as a form of aural training. It
seeks to make the student more keenly aware of chord-relationships
as actual sound. It will increase the student's power to form an
inward realization of what a page of music is going to sound like
without having actually heard it.
Sometimes pianists would love to play popular songs they enjoy but
finding quality arrangements that work for piano can be a real
challenge. In The Essential Film Collection, pianist Richard Harris
takes 28 classic film songs from across the decades and makes
well-crafted and satisfying arrangements for intermediate pianists
to enjoy. Hits included the theme song from Rocky, James Bond,
Chariots of Fire, and many more!
A piece a week Piano Grade 4 is ideal to be used alongside the
Improve your sight-reading! graded piano books to support and
improve the reading skills so fundamental to successful
sight-reading. These fun, short pieces are specifically written to
be learnt one per week. By continually reading accessible new
repertoire, the crucial processing of information and hand-eye
coordination are established and improved, developing confident
sight-reading. The ability to sight-read fluently is a vital skill,
enabling students to learn new pieces more quickly and play with
other musicians. The best-selling Improve your sight-reading!
series, by renowned educationalist Paul Harris, is designed to
develop sight-reading skills, especially in the context of graded
exams.
Gretsch electric guitars have a style all their own a a glitzy
wacky retro charm that over the years has drawn players from all
kinds of popular music from timeless stars to unknown teens. The
Beatles Chet Atkins Duane Eddy and Brian Setzer all made their mark
with Gretsch and new bands continually discover and fall in love
with the Falcons Gents 6120s Jets and the rest.THEThe Gretsch
Electric Guitar BookE comes right up to the present including
Gretsch's alliance to the powerful Fender company a move that has
done wonders for the reliability and playability of the modern
Gretsch axe. Every great model is here but the book also tells the
story of the lesser-known guitars and the projects that almost
never happened. There are archival and fresh interviews with
Gretsch personnel over the years and with many leading Gretsch
players including Chet Atkins Billy Duffy Duane Eddy and Brian
Setzer.THIn the tradition of Tony Bacon's best-selling series of
guitar books his updated and revised story of Gretsch is three
great volumes in one: a compendium of luscious pictures of the
coolest guitars; a gripping story from early exploits to the most
recent developments; and a detailed collector's guide to every
production electric Gretsch model ever made.
The book is an outline of the Armenian duduk, a cylindrical
double-reed aerophone made of apricot-wood, and its relation to the
Armenian identity. It attempts to deepen our understanding of
musical instruments not only through an examination of musical and
constructional features, but also through the application of a
sociocultural framework which allows a theorization of the idea of
the instrument as social being. The discussion is centered on the
different contexts in which the duduk is played. These are divided
into two categories: solo and ensemble. Solo duduk performance
includes the remarkable phenomenon of Armenian funeral music
activity. Other contexts include special celebrations of national
culture, duduk competitions, the recording studio and the film
music studio. The main ensemble contexts of duduk performance are
the Armenian folk orchestras. These are essentially Soviet
creations designed to "advance" folk music. Their impact on folk
music and folk musical life on Armenia is discussed with special
attention to the "adjustments" which were necessary for the success
of this institution. Folk ensembles have long been emblems of
Armenian national culture which might explain how they have
survived the collapse of the Soviet Union and its Marxist-Leninist
policies which were these orchestras' very raison d'etre. The book
will appeal to anyone with an interest in organological theory,
Armenian culture, or world music.
This book contains nine pieces selected from ABRSM's Grade 3 Flute
syllabus from 2022. Key features: Nine pieces in a range of styles,
chosen from Lists A, B and C - ideal for both Practical and
Performance Grade exams. -Classic repertoire and newly commissioned
pieces and arrangements.- Audio performances of the nine pieces by
expert musicians, plus accompaniment-only tracks for use when
practising (download code included in the book) Contents: Prelude
from Te Deum, H. 146 [Marc-Antoine Charpentier] Study in F (No. 7
from 30 Etudes faciles et progressives pour la flute) [Giuseppe
Gariboldi] Tiptoe and Tango [Sarah Watts] Mazurka Op. 138
[Aleksandr Tikhonovich Grechaninov] Distant Shores: No. 6 from 42
More Modern Studies for Solo Flute [James Rae] Pokarekare Ana
[Trad. Maori / P. H. Tomoana] Blanche-Neige au bois Dormant (from
Fantaisies, No. 5) [Octave Juste] The St Louis Rag [Tom Turpin]
He's a Pirate (from 'Pirates of the Caribbean: The Curse of The
Black Pearl') [Hans Zimmer / Klaus Badelt / Geoff Zanelli]
In Sonata Fragments, Andrew Davis argues that the Romantic sonata
is firmly rooted, both formally and expressively, in its Classical
forebears, using Classical conventions in order to convey a broad
constellation of Romantic aesthetic values. This claim runs
contrary to conventional theories of the Romantic sonata that place
this nineteenth-century musical form squarely outside inherited
Classical sonata procedures. Building on Sonata Theory, Davis
examines moments of fracture and fragmentation that disrupt the
cohesive and linear temporality in piano sonatas by Chopin, Brahms,
and Schumann. These disruptions in the sonata form are a narrative
technique that signify temporal shifts during which we move from
the outer action to the inner thoughts of a musical agent, or we
move from the story as it unfolds to a flashback or flash-forward.
Through an interpretation of Romantic sonatas as temporally
multi-dimensional works in which portions of the music in any given
piece can lie inside or outside of what Sonata Theory would define
as the sonata-space proper, Davis reads into these ruptures a
narrative of expressive features that mark these sonatas as
uniquely Romantic.
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