Umberto Menotti Maria Giordano (1867-1948) was an Italian composer, mainly of operas, best known for his opera based on the life of the French poet, Andre Chenier. Luigi Illica (1857-1919) was an Italian librettist who also wrote for Giacomo Puccini and is best known for the libretti of La boheme, Tosca, and Madama Butterfly.

Vincenzo Salvatore Carmelo Francesco Bellini (1801-1835) was an Italian opera composer, best know for his bel canto operas La sonnambula, I puritani, and Norma, about a Druid Priestess and her Roman proconsul lover.

Contents are: Chorus from Judas Maccabaeus (G.F. Handel) * Musette, Gavotte II or the Musette from English Suite II in G Minor for Klavier, BWV 808 (J.S. Bach) * Hunters' Chorus from 3rd Act of the opera Der Freischutz (C.M. von Weber) * Long, Long Ago (with variation) (T.H. Bayly) * Waltz, Op. 39, No. 15 (J. Brahms) * BourrA(c)e, Sonata in F Major for Oboe, HHA IV/18, No. 8 (G.F. Handel) * The Two Grenadiers, Die Beiden Grenadier, Op. 49, No. 1 for Voice and Piano (R. Schumann) * Theme from Witches' Dance (N. Paganini) * Gavotte from Mignon (A. Thomas) * Gavotte (J.B. Lully) * Minuet in G, Wo0 10, No. 2 (L. van Beethoven) * Minuet from Sei Quintetti per Archi No. 11, Op. 11, No. 5 in E Major (L. Boccherini) * Practice Suggestions (Doris Preucil).

Contents are: Berceuse, Wiegenlied or Lullaby, Op. 98, No. 2 (F. Schubert) * Tonalization: The Moon over the Ruined Castle (R. Taki) * Gavotte (J.B. Lully) * Minuet from Sei Quintetti for Archi No. 11, Op. 11, No. 5 in E Major (L. Boccherini) * Tonalization: The Moon over the Ruined Castle (R. Taki) * Scherzo (C. Webster) * Minuet in G, Wo0 10, No. 7 for Piano (L. van Beethoven) * Gavotte in C Minor, Gavotte en Rondeau from Suite in G Minor for Klavier, BWV 822 (J.S. Bach) * Minuet No. 3, BWV Anh. II 114/Anh. III 183/Anh. II, 115 (J.S. Bach) * Humoresque, Op. 101, No. 7 for Piano (A. DvorAk) * La Cinquantaine (Gabriel-Marie) * Allegro Moderato from Sonata I in G, BWV 1027 for Viola da Gamba (J.S. Bach).

Wilhelm Richard Wagner (1813-1883) was a German composer, conductor, theatre director, philosopher, music theorist, poet, essayist and writer primarily known for his operas, for which he wrote both the music and libretto. "Tristan und Isolde" is based largely on the romance by Gottfried von Strassburg, and inspired by the philosophy of Arthur Schopenhauer.

Poetic Song Verse: Blues-Based Popular Music and Poetry invokes and critiques the relationship between blues-based popular music and poetry in the twentieth and twenty-first centuries. The volume is anchored in music from the 1960s, when a concentration of artists transformed modes of popular music from entertainment to art-that-entertains. Musician Mike Mattison and literary historian Ernest Suarez synthesize a wide range of writing about blues and rock-biographies, histories, articles in popular magazines, personal reminiscences, and a selective smattering of academic studies-to examine the development of a relatively new literary genre dubbed by the authors as "poetic song verse." They argue that poetic song verse was nurtured in the fifties and early sixties by the blues and in Beat coffee houses, and matured in the mid-to-late sixties in the art of Bob Dylan, the Beatles, the Rolling Stones, the Doors, Jimi Hendrix, Joni Mitchell, Leonard Cohen, Gil Scott-Heron, Van Morrison, and others who used voice, instrumentation, arrangement, and production to foreground semantically textured, often allusive, and evocative lyrics that resembled and engaged poetry. Among the questions asked in Poetic Song Verse are: What, exactly, is this new genre? What were its origins? And how has it developed? How do we study and assess it? To answer these questions, Mattison and Suarez engage in an extended discussion of the roots of the relationship between blues-based music and poetry and address how it developed into a distinct literary genre. Unlocking the combination of richly textured lyrics wedded to recorded music reveals a dynamism at the core of poetic song verse that can often go unrealized in what often has been considered merely popular entertainment. This volume balances historical details and analysis of particular songs with accessibility to create a lively, intelligent, and cohesive narrative that provides scholars, teachers, students, music influencers, and devoted fans with an overarching perspective on the poetic power and blues roots of this new literary genre.

Complementing Shearer and Shearer's useful one-volume source of information--"State Names, Seals, Flags, and Symbols-- this book provides the music and lyrics for the official songs adopted by the state governments. Arranged alphabetically by state, each song has a single vocal line over a piano accompaniment, with one verse only under the vocal line and remaining verses appearing separately. Each entry includes the date the song was adopted, the name of the composer, and in some instances, a brief history of the song. The book will be a useful reference for those wanting to perform a state song or to find the official songs of other states.

Designed as a practical reference guide for professional pianists and piano teachers, "A Guide to Piano Music by Women Composers, Volume I," is an annotated catalogue of the available piano music in print composed by 144 women born before the 20th century. The work also features biographies and extensive bibliographical information for each composer. Arranged alphabetically by composer into categories including single works, collections, and anthologies, the music is also described in terms of grade level, genre, mood, style characteristics, and technical requirements, and ranges in difficulty from late elementary to virtuoso concert repertoire.

Far too many teachers, students, professional musicians, and audiences are unaware of the contributions made by women in music, and of the beauty and merit of their specific compositions. This reference work provides an invaluable addition to the current literature.