After decades of stagnation during the reign of his father, the 'Barracks King', the performing arts began to flourish in Berlin under Frederick the Great. Even before his coronation in 1740, the crown prince commenced recruitment of a group of musician-composers who were to form the basis of a brilliant court ensemble. Several composers, including C.P.E. Bach and the Graun brothers, wrote music for the viola da gamba, an instrument which was already becoming obsolete elsewhere. They were encouraged in this endeavour by the presence in the orchestra from 1741 of Ludwig Christian Hesse, one of the last gamba virtuosi, who was described in 1766 as 'unquestionably the finest gambist in Europe'. This study shows how the unique situation in Berlin produced the last major corpus of music written for the viola da gamba, and how the more virtuosic works were probably the result of close collaboration between Hesse and the Berlin School composers. The reader is also introduced to the more approachable pieces which were written and arranged for amateur viol players, including the king's nephew and ultimate successor, Frederick William II. O'Loghlin argues that the aesthetic circumstances which prevailed in Berlin brought forth a specific style that is reflected not only in the music for viola da gamba. Characteristics of this Berlin style are identified with reference to a broad selection of original written sources, many of which are hardly accessible to English-speaking readers. There is also a discussion of the rather contradictory reception history of the Berlin School and some of its composers. The book concludes with a complete thematic catalogue of the Berlin gamba music, with a listing of original manuscript sources and modern publications. The book will appeal to professional and amateur viola da gamba players as well as to scholars of eighteenth-century German music.

Since the publication of Solomon Volkov's disputed memoirs of Dmitri Shostakovich, the composer and his music has been subject to heated debate concerning how the musical meaning of his works can be understood in relationship to the composer's life within the Soviet State. While much ink has been spilled, very little work has attempted to define how Shostakovich's music has remained so arresting not only to those within the Soviet culture, but also to Western audiences - even though such audiences are often largely ignorant of the compositional context or even the biography of the composer. This book offers a useful corrective: setting aside biographically grounded and traditional analytical modes of explication, Reichardt uncovers and explores the musical ambiguities of four of the composer's middle string quartets, especially those ambiguities located in moments of rupture within the musical structure. The music is constantly collapsing, reversing, inverting and denying its own structural imperatives. Reichardt argues that such confrontation of the musical language with itself, though perhaps interpretable as Shostakovich's own unique version of double-speak, also poignantly articulates the fractured state of a more general form of modern subjectivity. Reichardt employs the framework of Lacanian psychoanalysis to offer a cogent explanation of this connection between disruptive musical process and modern subjectivity. The ruptures of Shostakovich's music become symptoms of the pathologies at the core of modern subjectivity. These symptoms, in turn, relate to the Lacanian concept of the real, which is the empty kernel around which the modern subject constructs reality. This framework proves invaluable in developing a powerful, original hermeneutic understanding of the music. Read through the lens of the real, the riddles written into the quartets reveal the arbitrary and contingent state of the musical subject's constructed reality, reflecting pathologies ende

Born in 1885 in Porto, Portugal, to a middle-class musical family, Guilhermina Suggia began playing cello at the age of five. A child prodigy, she was already a seasoned performer when she won a scholarship to study with Julius Klengel in Leipzig at the age of sixteen. Suggia lived in Paris with fellow cellist Pablo Casals for several years before World War I, in a professional and personal partnership that was as stormy as it was unconventional. When they separated Suggia moved to London, where she built a spectacularly successful solo career. Suggia's virtuosity and musicianship, along with the magnificent style and stage presence famously captured in Augustus John's portrait, made her one of the most sought-after concert artists of her day. In 1927 she married Dr Jose Casimiro Carteado Mena and settled down to a comfortable life divided between Portugal and England. Throughout the 1930s, Suggia remained one of the most respected musicians in Europe. She partnered on stage with many famous instrumentalists and conductors and completed numerous BBC broadcasts. The war years kept her at home in Portugal, where she focused on teaching, but she returned to England directly after the war and resumed performing. When Suggia died in 1950, her will provided for the establishment of several scholarship funds for young cellists, including England's prestigious Suggia Gift. Mercier's study of Suggia's letters and other writings reveal an intelligent, warm and generous character; an artist who was enormously dedicated, knowledgeable and self-disciplined. Suggia was one of the first women to make a career of playing the cello at a time when prejudice against women playing this traditionally 'masculine' instrument was still strong. A role model for many other musicians, she was herself a fearless pioneer.

The ultimate go-to book for information about vintage Gretsch guitars of the 1950s, illustrated with over 120 exquisite images, this is an authoritative, extremely detailed review of both Gretsch guitar production and the individual guitar models that the company introduced during the decade. It will give the reader a comprehensive explanation of the various Gretsch serial numbering systems, an overview of classic Gretsch features from the 1950s, and complete specifications for 28 models produced within the decade. Also included are the evolution of features for each model in every model year of the 1950s, the total production estimates for most models, and the adjusted serial number to model year chronology. This highly detailed information is supported by compelling photography, and an extensive, batch-by-batch recreation of the Gretsch Brooklyn factory's lost production history. A user-friendly technical guide, this book offers a wealth of new data and is a must-have resource for vintage instrument dealers, guitar collectors, Gretsch enthusiasts, and fans of vintage guitars.

The Justinguitar Pop Songbook is the latest addition to Justin Sandercoes series of guitar songbooks, following on from his hugely successful Justinguitar Beginners Songbook and Justinguitar Beginners Guitar Course. The Justinguitar Pop Songbook is for beginner-intermediate guitar players who are looking to improve their playing and increase their pop repertoire. Songs are arranged by difficulty, with introductory notes, scales and chord shapes provided for each difficulty level. Much more than just a songbook, this book contains valuable tips and tutorials that will help you with every aspect of your playing.

Jazz Guitar Styles is an instruction book designed for the guitarist who already knows the fundamentals but wishes to explore the "classic" style of swing-era guitar. It offers a clear, concise introduction to the basics of jazz guitar, built on the student's basic knowledge of forming chords and basic picking patterns. Jazz Guitar Styles opens this world to any guitarist who has a basic knowledge of guitar technique and willingness to learn.

This full size book, CD & DVD pack is an easy and informative introduction to playing the Electric Bass. The emphasis is on making music right from the start. Includes all the essential techniques and music fundamentals as they apply to Bass Playing. Both theCD & DVD match the lessons and exercises in the book.

Acoustic Blues Guitar Styles is an introduction to fingerstyle acoustic blues guitar, the style made popular by Robert Johnson, Bill Broonzy, and Mance Lipscomb. Following the success of the popular Acoustic Guitar Styles, Larry Sandberg's Acoustic Blues Guitar Styles is an instructional book geared towards the intermediate guitar player, not only to teach fingerstyle blues technique, but also to approach the music creatively and with feeling and rhythm. Part One teaches you the preliminaries, such as reading a chord chart and working out a 12-bar blues in different keys. Part Two teaches you touch, timing, and basic fingerpicking technique. Part Three teaches you how to play stylistically, with lessons on how to incorporate bends, vibrato, alternating bassnotes, and rhythmic variations into your playing. All musical exercises are presented in both standard notation and tablature, and are supported by audio tracks. Customers purchasing the eBook version of this title will be able to download the supporting audio tracks. Instructions on downloading the files can be found on the contents page.

(Faber Piano Adventures ). Book 2 offers carefully sequenced instruction in notereading, music theory and piano technique for the adult student. Students explore pieces arranged in the keys of D and F Major, as well as D and E Minor. Keyboard harmony is taught using "lead sheets" with chord accompaniment patterns. Contents include: Cathedral Chimes * 'O Sole Mio * Sloop John B * Brahms' Lullaby * The Lion Sleeps Tonight * Hava Nagila * Give My Regards to Broadway * Scarborough Fair * Malaguena * Pachelbel's Canon * and more.

Pick and roll your way through bluegrass banjo basics The banjo nearly defines the bluegrass sound, and you'll be playing your own favorite tunes--or maybe writing some new ones--with the help of this book. Bluegrass Banjo For Dummies is the place to start if you're ready to start learning banjo or upgrade your skills to play in the bluegrass style. Written by an expert musician and educator, this book makes it easy to start plucking your 5-string banjo using common bluegrass techniques. You'll also have access to over 100 online audio files, and 35 video lessons, so you can see and hear the techniques in practice. This book serves as your first step to becoming a bluegrass banjo player, even if you're completely new to playing musical instruments. Choose the right banjo, pick up the basics, learn classic banjo licks, and more--the easy way. Learn how to read banjo tablature and perform on a five-string banjo Get insight on playing as part of a bluegrass combo band Practice with classic bluegrass tunes and banjo licks Create banjo solos that will wow your audiences This friendly For Dummies guide is great for fledgling banjo players interested in the bluegrass style. Whether or not you already play another instrument, you'll pick up the banjo basics you can show off at your next local bluegrass festival.

Lionel Tertis (1876-1975) stands in the company of YsaYe, Kreisler, Casals, Thibaud and Rubinstein as one of the greatest instrumentalists - and arguably the greatest viola player - of all time. Many composers, including Bax, Holst and Vaughan Williams, wrote significant works for him; he was a member of a number of prominent string quartets; and he was later to design and promote his own 'Tertis model' viola. Tertis is virtually synonymous with the increasing importance of the viola as a solo and recital instrument alongside the violin and the cello. This updated paperback edition tells how he rose from humble beginnings to become 'the father of the modern viola'. It explores in detail his long and distinguished career, persuading composers to write works for the viola, arranging existing works for the instrument, editing and performing, and teaching and coaching, notably at the Royal Academy of Music. JOHN WHITE is a prominent viola teacher and performer. He was a founder member of the Alberni String Quartet and later played with the London Philharmonic Orchestra and the Stadler Trio and collaborated with composers Alan Bush, Lennox Berkeley and Alan Richardson in performances of their works. White was Professor of Viola at the Royal Academy of Music for over thirty years and has chaired four international viola congresses in the UK since 1978. In recognition of his outstanding contributions to the viola, he was awarded the Silver Alto Clef for 2010 by the International Viola Society.

Giovanni Battista Buonamente was among the most original and inventive Italian composers of the seventeenth century. Peter Allsop reveals his importance as part of a tradition that stands in direct antithesis to that of the Corellian sonata today regarded as the 'norm'. This development is traced in a series of likely teacher-pupil relationships from Salamone Rossi to Marco Uccellini, the most prolific Italian composers of instrumental ensemble music in the first half of the seventeenth century. The first half of the book sets out what is known of Buonamente's turbulent career as he moved from the courtly environments of the Gonzaga household and Habsburg court to several less auspicious posts at various religious institutions, ending his life as maestro di cappella at the mother house of his order, S. Francesco in Assisi. A fascinating picture emerges of the nature of musical patronage against a background of war and plague in this time of great political instability. The later chapters comprise detailed discussions, supported with over 100 music examples, of the unusually wide range of genres for which Buonamente wrote: sinfonias, free sonatas, sets of variations, canzonas, dances; and he was the first Italian to cultivate the ensemble suite to any extent. The book concludes with an examination of his influence on his probable pupil Marco Uccellini and the interest Buonamente instigated in canonic writing, which was passed via Uccellini to a succession of Modenese composers.

First published in 1999, this biography from David Tunley draws on newly researched documentary evidence to chart Campoli's early success and his later struggle for recognition as a serious artist. Campoli's early success and his later struggle for recognition as a serious artist. Campoli's career emerges as one particularly shaped and directed by the great economic and social forces of the first half of the century, and the story here is as much that of his times, as of his life. Described by Szigeti as 'one of the last great individualists among violinists', Alfredo Campoli was a household name in the field of British light music prior to the Second World War. Having made his debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1923 Campoli toured with Melba and Butt, then turned to light music during the Depression. He became one of Decca's early recording artists and broadcast frequently for the BBC with his light music ensembles and pursued a long, successful career as a distinguished international performer.

(Play It Like It Is). Matching folio to the double album. Nine smashing metal songs, including: Eye of the Beholder * One * The Shortest Straw * and more. Also includes an introduction by Wolf Marshall.

Learning About the Violin: A Practical Supplemental Handbook is designed to enrich the learning experience of students who are using a traditional violin method lesson book. Method books only teach one how to play an instrument. This Supplemental Handbook teaches everything else about the instrument, including: 1. the parts of the violin and how they work 2. how to care for a violin outfit 3. how to plan a practice session 4. what items (accessories) are needed to help one play the violin. 5. how violins are made 6. the history of the violin 7. how violin bows are made 8. the history of violin bows The book also contains a dictionary for violin terms and a comprehensive index to facilitate topic location. With this book included in a curriculum, a student will also have greater insight into the violin's relationship to the viola, cello, and double bass with which they will be working. Being exposed to this expanded enrichment will result in a well-rounded musician in place of one who can just play an instrument.

Building an Award-Winning Guitar Program is a practical guide to assist secondary and post-secondary music educators with the tasks involved in establishing a successful music program. With the rising interest in guitar, Mariachi, rock band, handbells, bluegrass, music technology, and so on, more and more music educators are being asked to teach innovative music classes. Author Bill Swick has crafted this book to help these educators build such innovative music programs from the ground floor, based on his years of experience as a music educator specialized in guitar. The book will assist music educators with classroom management, scheduling, structure, organization, fund raising, festivals, travel, and other subjects related to teaching guitar in the classroom, but its principles are broadly relevant to any and all music educators hoping to create a unique program that stands out within their school district and state, attracting students, parents, educators and administrators alike.

Tatjana Goldberg reveals the extent to which gender and socially constructed identity influenced female violinists' 'separate but unequal' status in a great male-dominated virtuoso lineage by focussing on the few that stood out: the American Maud Powell (1867-1920), Australian-born Alma Moodie (1898-1943), and the British Marie Hall (1884-1956). Despite breaking down traditional gender-based patriarchal social and cultural norms, becoming celebrated soloists, and greatly contributing towards violin works and the early recording industry (Powell and Hall), they received little historical recognition. Goldberg provides a more complete picture of their artistic achievements and the impact they had on audiences.

Improve your guitar-playing rhythm, feel, and timing If you want to improve your timing, sharpen your technique, or get inspired by new ideas, Guitar Rhythm & Technique For Dummies breaks down the basics of reading, counting, strumming, and picking rhythms on guitar to make you an ace on the axe in no time. With the help of this friendly guide, you'll learn to play examples of eighth and sixteenth note rhythms including common strum patterns heard in popular music to improve your guitar rhythm, feel, and timing. Plus, access to audio downloads and online video lessons complement the coverage presented in the book, giving you the option of supplementing your reading with additional visual and audio learning. There's no denying that guitar is one of the coolest musical instruments on the planet. Okay, perhaps undeniably the coolest. Whether you bow at the feet of Chuck Berry, Keith Richards, the Edge, or Eddie Van Halen, they all have one thing in common: they make it look incredibly, naturally easy! However, anyone who's actually picked up a guitar knows that mastering rhythm and technique is something that takes a lot of practice not to mention good coaching. Luckily, Guitar Rhythm & Technique For Dummies makes your aspirations to play guitar like the pros attainable with loads of helpful step-by-step instruction on everything from mastering hammer-ons, pull-offs, and slides to perfecting your picking and beyond. * Covers strum patterns, articulations, picking techniques, and more * Showcases musical styles such as pop, rock, blues, folk, and funk * Includes techniques for playing with both your right and left hand * Provides access to online audio tracks and video instruction so you can master the concepts and techniques presented in the book Whether you're new to guitar or an advanced player looking to improve your musical timing and skills, Guitar Rhythm & Technique For Dummies quickly gets you in the groove before the rhythm gets you.

First published in 1999, this biography from David Tunley draws on newly researched documentary evidence to chart Campoli's early success and his later struggle for recognition as a serious artist. Campoli's early success and his later struggle for recognition as a serious artist. Campoli's career emerges as one particularly shaped and directed by the great economic and social forces of the first half of the century, and the story here is as much that of his times, as of his life. Described by Szigeti as 'one of the last great individualists among violinists', Alfredo Campoli was a household name in the field of British light music prior to the Second World War. Having made his debut at the Wigmore Hall in 1923 Campoli toured with Melba and Butt, then turned to light music during the Depression. He became one of Decca's early recording artists and broadcast frequently for the BBC with his light music ensembles and pursued a long, successful career as a distinguished international performer.

This step-by-step approach to learning to play the autoharp will help beginners and teachers understand the many ways in which this versatile instrument can be used. You will learn a variety of strumming techniques, how to work the chord bars, how to use the different areas of the strings effectively, how to play songs and simple melodies, and even a brief history of how the Autoharp began and developed.