The Hispanic rite, a medieval non-Roman Western liturgy, was practiced across the Iberian Peninsula for over half a millennium and functioned as the most distinct marker of Christian identity in this region. As Christians typically began every liturgical day throughout the year by singing a vespertinus, this chant genre in particular provides a unique window into the cultural and religious life of medieval Iberia. The Hispanic rite has the largest corpus of extant manuscripts of all non-Roman liturgies in the West, which testifies to the importance placed on their transmission through political and cultural upheavals. Its chants, however, use a notational system that lacks clear specification of pitch and has kept them barred from in-depth study. Text, Liturgy and Music in the Hispanic Rite is the first detailed analysis of the interactions between textual, liturgical, and musical variables across the entire extant repertoire of a chant genre central to the Hispanic rite, the vespertinus. By approaching the vespertini through a holistic methodology that integrates liturgy, melody, and text, author Raquel Rojo Carrillo identifies the genre's norms and traces the different shapes it adopts across the liturgical year and on different occasions. In this way, the book offers an unprecedented insight into the liturgical edifice of the Hispanic rite and the daily experience of Christians in medieval Iberia.

Top music writer Steve Turner traces the biography of 'Amazing Grace', the world's most recorded song. Versions of this hymn have been performed by artists as diverse as Elvis Presley, Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Johnny Cash, Rod Stewart and Destiny's Child. The book begins with the dramatic story of John Newton and his participation in the African slave trade through to his writing of 'Amazing Grace' and his campaigning against slavery. The second part of the book - picking up the thread in the years following Newton's death - tells the story of the song itself as it has spread and developed over the past 280 years and its recordings by artists from a wide variety of musical backgrounds. This includes the aftermath of September 11th when the hymn became an international anthem of hope and solidarity.