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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Theory of music & musicology
Boom's Blues stands as both a remarkable biography of J. Frank
G.Boom (1920-1953) and a recovery of his incredible contribution to
blues scholarship originally titled The Blues: Satirical Songs of
the North American Negro. Wim Verbei tells how and when the
Netherlands was introduced to African American blues music and
describes the equally dramatic and peculiar friendship that existed
between Boom and jazz critic and musicologist Will Gilbert, who
worked for the Kultuurkamer during World War II and had been
charged with the task of formulating the Nazi's Jazzverbod, the
decree prohibiting the public performance of jazz. Boom's Blues
ends with the annotated and complete text of Boom's The Blues,
providing the international world at last with an English version
of the first book-length study of the blues. At the end of the
1960s, a series of thirteen blues paperbacks edited by Paul Oliver
for the London publisher November Books began appearing. One
manuscript landed on his desk that had been written in 1943 by a
then twenty-three-year-old Amsterdammer Frank (Frans) Boom. Its
publication, to which Oliver gave thetitle Laughing to Keep from
Crying, was announced on the back jacket of the last three Blues
Paperbacks in 1971 and 1972. Yet it never was published and the
manuscript once more disappeared. In October 1996, Dutch blues
expert and publicist Verbei went in search of the presumably lost
manuscript and the story behindits author. It only took him a
couple of months to track down the manuscript, but it took another
ten years to glean the full story behind the extraordinary Frans
Boom, who passed away in 1953 in Indonesia.
Bernhard Lang: Critical Guides to Contemporary Composers offers a
critical guide and introduction to the work of Austrian composer
Bernhard Lang (b. 1957). It identifies the phenomenon of repetition
as a central concern in Lang's thinking and making. The composer's
artistic practice is identified as one of 'loop aesthetics': a
creative poetics in which repetition serves not only as
methodology, but also as material, language, and subject matter.
The book is structured around the four central thematic nodes of
philosophy, music, theatre, and politics. After introducing Lang as
a composer whose work is thoroughly influenced by philosophical
thought, the book develops a typology of musical repetition as it
is explored and activated in Lang's oeuvre. Pointing towards the
several repetitions within the performance of Lang's works, the
book explores the heavily trans-medial nature of the repeat across
domains such as literature, dance, and theatre. Finally, the book
investigates Lang's use of textual quotation and musical borrowing.
Christine Dysers is a musicologist specialising in contemporary
music aesthetics. Her research centres around repetition, politics,
absence, the liminal, and the uncanny. This is the first
full-length study of the works of Bernhard Lang and is a new volume
in the Critical Guides to Contemporary Composers series from
Intellect.
Music and Historical Critique provides a definitive collection of
Gary Tomlinson's influential studies on critical musicology, with
the watchword throughout being history. This collection gathers his
most innovative essays and lectures, some of them published here
for the first time, along with an introduction outlining the
context of the contributions and commenting on their aims and
significance. Music and Historical Critique provides a
retrospective view of the author's achievements in bringing to the
heart of musicological discourse both deep-seated experiences of
the past and meditations on the historian's ways of understanding
them.
Think Woodstock and the mind turns to the seminal 1969 festival
that crowned a seismic decade of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll. But
the town of Woodstock, New York, the original planned venue of the
concert, is located over 60 miles from the site to which the fabled
half a million flocked. Long before the landmark music festival
usurped the name, Woodstock--the tiny Catskills town where Bob
Dylan holed up after his infamous 1966 motorcycle accident--was
already a key location in the '60s rock landscape. Drawing on
numerous first-hand interviews with the remaining key players in
the scene--and on the period when he lived there himself in the
1990s--Hoskyns has produced an East Coast companion to his
bestselling L.A. canyon classic Hotel California. This is a richly
absorbing study of a vital music scene in a revolutionary time and
place.
MUSIC IN TEXAS A SURVEY OF ONE ASPECT OF CULTURAL PROGRESS LOTA M.
SPELL Austin, Texas 1936 Copyright, 1936, by Lota M. Spell All
rights reserved, including the right to reproduce this book or
parts thereof in, any Jorm. PREFACE THE purpose of this work is to
make available to teachers, club workers, and others interested in
the cultural develop ment of the State of Texas some facts by which
the progress of music may be traced, and also some songs actually
sung through the years, as illustrative material Many of these,
here reproduced from early editions in the possession of the
writer, while in no sense masterpieces of musical art, are
represent ative of the taste of the people at different eras. A
collection of dances and instrumental music will be issued
separately in larger format later The thanks of the writer for
assistance are due to too many to call each by name. Especial
thanks are due Dr. R. C. Ste phenson for the translation of the
Spanish songs and to Dr. Eduard Micek, Dr. Carlos Castaneda, Miss
Hilda Widen and Miss Julia Harris, of Austin Miss Julia Owen of
Navasota Sr. Julio Galindo of Mexico City Miss Jovita Gonzales and
Mr. Oscar Fox of San Antonio Mrs. Selma Metzenthin-Raun ick and Mr.
H. M. Dietel of New Braunfels and Dr. Charles B. Qualia of Lubbock,
for aid in locating materials. Without the interest and insistence
of the officers and members of the State Federation of Music Clubs
the work would never have been completed or issued. The courtesy of
Silver, Burdett and Company in permitting the use of Clang, Clang
Choosing a Flower, and At the Window from the Progressive Music
Series of Oscar Fox and Whitney Montgomery for Corn Silks and
Cotton Blos soms of the AdolfFuchs Memorial Association for the use
of the Fuchs songs and of Dr. H. F. Estill for his adaptation of
the text of Will you come to the Bower is gratefully acknowledged.
To my aunt, Lota Dashiell bom in Texas, 1853, who sang to me, in my
childhood, . the songs of early Texas and to the members o the
State Federation of Music Clubs, whose insistence led to its
preparation this work is dedicated TABLE OF CONTENTS BOOK L THE
PERIOD OF DISSEMINATION CHAPTER PAGE I Music among the Indians 3 II
Music in the Texas Mission 6 III Spanish - Mexican Folk Music H IV
Anglo-American Music 23 V The Early German Contribution 34 BOOK II.
ABSORPTION FROM A WIDER FIELD VI Music of the Mexican War 46 VII
Other Foreign Contributions 52 VIII Echoes of the Old South 61 IX
Some Musical Annals before 1890 69 X Music Education to 1910 80
BOOK III. THE PERIOD OF AMALGAMATION XI Effects of the World War on
Musical Progress .... 89 XII Singing Societies in Texas 92 XIII
Opera in Texas 101 XIV The Symphony Orchestra in Texas 107 XV Music
Education, 19H-1936 113 XVI Other Agencies Contributing to Musical
Progress 119 BOOK IV. THE BEGINNINGS OF CREATIVE WORK XVII Texas
Folk Music 127 XVIII Music Composed by Texans or in Texas 137
APPENDIX. Texas Concert Calendar, 1920-1921 .... 144 INDEX. 1 47
LIST OF SONGS INCLUDED Padre Nuestro 1 An old Alabado - - 1 1
Alabado as sung in Texas today 12 Lullaby of a Spanish Mother 15
Call of the Tamale Vender 16 Music of the Pastores De larga Jornada
1 8 Oh peregrina 19 La Viudita 2 1 Christmas Carol 22 Vill you come
to the Bower 25 The Banks of the Blue Moselle opposite 26 Old
Windham two forms 29, 30 German Folk Song 36 At the Window 39, 40
Song of the Texas Ranger Im Afloat 46, 47The Campbells are Coming
49 The Maid of Monterey 51 Clang Clang Clang 56 Choosing a Flower
57 Come, oh come with me - 59, 60 Lorena 64 Take me home 66 67 The
Vacant Chair 85 Lebewohl by Silcher 95 On Yonder Rock Reclining -
102, 103 Yellow Rose of Texas 128, 129 Down on de rollin Brazos
132, 133 Palomita - 13 5 Corn Silks and Cotton Blossoms 138, 139
More than twenty universities and twenty other colleges in North
America (USA and Canada) offer performance courses on West African
ethnic dance drumming. Since its inception in 1964 at both UCLA and
Columbia, West African drumming and dance has gradually developed
into a vibrant campus subculture in North America. The dances most
practiced in the American academy come from the ethnic groups Ewe,
Akan, Ga, Dagbamba, Mande, and Wolof, thereby privileging dances
mostly from Ghana, Togo, Benin, Senegal, Mali, Guinea, and Burkina
Faso. This strong presence and practice of a world music ensemble
in the diaspora has captured and engaged the interest of scholars,
musicians, dancers, and audiences.
In the first-ever ethnographic study of West African drumming
and dance in North American universities, the author documents and
acknowledges ethnomusicologists, ensemble directors, students,
administrators, and academic institutions for their key roles in
the histories of their respective ensembles. Dor collates and
shares perspectives including debates on pedagogical approaches
that may be instructive as models for both current and future
ensemble directors and reveals the multiple impacts that
participation in an ensemble or class offers students. He also
examines the interplay among historically situated structures and
systems, discourse, and practice, and explores the multiple
meanings that individuals and various groups of people construct
from this campus activity. The study will be of value to students,
directors, and scholars as an ethnographic study and as a text for
teaching relevant courses in African music, African studies,
ethnomusicology/world music, African diaspora studies, and other
related disciplines.
With the rise of nationalism in the Republic of Korea, music has
come to play a central role in the discourse of identity. This
volume asks what Koreans consider makes music Korean, and how
meaning is ascribed to musical creation. Keith Howard explores
specific aspects of creativity that are designed to appeal to a new
audience that is increasingly westernized yet proud of its
indigenous heritage - updates of tradition, compositions, and
collaborative fusions. He charts the development of the Korean
music scene over the last 25 years and interprets the debates,
claims and statistics by incorporating the voices of musicians,
composers, scholars and critics. Koreanness is a brand identity
with a discourse founded on heritage, hence Howard focuses on music
that is claimed to link to tradition, and on music compositions
where indigenous identity is consciously incorporated. The volume
opens with SamulNori, a percussion quartet known throughout the
world that was formed in 1978 but is rooted in local and itinerant
bands stretching back many centuries. Parallel developments in
vocal genres, folksongs and p'ansori ('epic storytelling through
song') are considered, then three chapters explore compositions
written both for western instruments and for Korean instruments,
and designed both for Korean and international audiences. Over
time, Howard shows how the two musical worlds - kugak, traditional
music, and yangak, western music - have collided, and how fusions
have emerged. This volume documents how identity has been
negotiated by musicians, composers and audiences. Until recently,
references to tradition were common and, by critics and
musicologists, required. Western music increasingly encroached on
the market for Korean music and doubts were raised about the future
of any music identifiably Korean. Today, Korean musical production
exudes a resurgent confidence as it amalgamates Korean and western
elements, as it arranges and incorporates the old in the new, and
as it creates a music suitable for the contemporary world.
Proceedings of international conference at NUI Maynooth on Goethe's
contribution to music. Goethe was interested in, and acutely aware
of, the place of music in human experience generally - and of its
particular role in modern culture. Moreover, his own literary work
- especially the poetry and Faust - inspired some of the major
composers of the European tradition to produce some of their finest
works.' (Martin Swales) [Subject: Music Studies, Goethe]
A performance culture of illness and wellness In southern Uganda,
ritual healing traditions called kusamira and nswezi rely on music
to treat sickness and maintain well-being. Peter J. Hoesing blends
ethnomusicological fieldwork with analysis to examine how kusamira
and nswezi performance socializes dynamic processes of illness,
wellness, and health. People participate in these traditions for
reasons that range from preserving ideas to generating strategies
that allow them to navigate changing circumstances. Indeed, the
performance of kusamira and nswezi reproduces ideas that remain
relevant for succeeding generations. Hoesing shows the potential of
this social reproduction of well-being to shape development in a
region where over 80 percent of the population relies on
traditional healers for primary health care.Comprehensive and vivid
with eyewitness detail, Kusamira Music in Uganda offers insight
into important healing traditions and the overlaps between
expressive culture and healing practices, the human and
other-than-human, and Uganda's past and future.
Music Theory Essentials offers an antidote to music theory
textbooks that are overly long and dense. Focusing on the
essentials, this text provides a clear-cut guide to the key
concepts of music theory. Beginning with no assumptions about music
theory knowledge, the book covers the core elements of music
fundamentals, diatonic and chromatic harmony, post-tonal theory,
and popular music in a single concise volume. Emphasizing critical
thinking skills, this book guides students through conceptualizing
musical concepts and mastering analytic techniques. Each chapter
concludes with a selection of applications designed to enhance
engagement: Exercises allow students to apply and practice the
skills and techniques addressed in the chapter. Brain Teasers
challenge students to expand their musical understanding by
thinking outside the box. Exploring Music offers strategies for
students to apply learned concepts to the music they are currently
learning or listening to. Thinking Critically encourages students
to think more deeply about music by solving problems and
identifying and challenging assumptions. A companion website
provides answers to book exercises, additional downloadable
exercises, and audio examples. Straightforward and streamlined,
Music Theory Essentials is a truly concise yet comprehensive
introduction to music theory that is accessible to students of all
backgrounds.
A BBC RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK Bessie Smith: singer, icon, pioneer.
Scotland's National Poet Jackie Kay brings to life the tempestuous
story of the greatest blues singer who ever lived. 'A gem of a book
. . . beautiful.' BERNARDINE EVARISTO 'A wonderful writer on a
magnificent singer.' ROBERT WYATT 'Kay's book is the amplifier that
Smith's voice deserves.' SUNDAY TIMES 'The most vivid evocation of
Bessie Smith I have ever read.' IAN CARR, BBC MUSIC BESSIE SMITH
was born in Tennessee in 1894. Orphaned by the age of nine, she
sang on street corners before becoming a big name in travelling
shows. In 1923 she made her first recording for a new start-up
called Columbia Records. It sold 780,000 copies and made her a
star. Smith's life was notoriously difficult: she drank pints of
'bathtub gin', got into violent fist fights, spent huge sums of
money and had passionate love affairs with men and women. She once
single-handedly fought off a cohort of the Ku Klux Klan. As a young
black girl growing up in Glasgow, Jackie Kay found in Bessie
someone with whom she could identify and who she could idolise. In
this remarkable book Kay mixes biography, fiction, poetry and prose
to create an enthralling account of an extraordinary life.
'Biographies don't usually bring the subject to life again. This
one did. I finished the book then started it again immediately.'
PEGGY SEEGER 'What a life! What gulpable storytelling! Exactly the
kind of writing about music we need: personal, ardent, playfully
confrontational, questioning, undogmatic. A love song to a
complicated idol.' KATE MOLLESON 'Pure joy: one trailblazing woman
pays tribute to another. Jackie Kay finds the music in the short,
dazzling, capricious life of Bessie Smith.' HELEN LEWIS
This book offers a series of essays that show the integrated role
that musical structure (including harmony, melody, rhythm, meter,
form, and musical association) plays in making sense of what
transpires onstage in musicals. Written by a group of music
analysts who care deeply about musical theater, this collection
provides new understanding of how musicals are put together, how
composers and lyricists structure words and music to complement one
another, and how music helps us understand the human relationships
and historical and social contexts. Using a wide range of musical
examples, representing the history of musical theater from the
1920s to the present day, the book explores how music interacts
with dramatic elements within individual shows and other pieces
within and outside of the genre. These essays invite readers to
consider issues that are fundamental both to our understanding of
musical theater and to the multiple ways we engage with music.
"The Craft of Modal Counterpoint" is the companion book to
Benjamin's "The Craft of Tonal Counterpoint," recently republished
in a second edition by Routledge. Modal counterpoint is the style
of composition that was employed until the "tonal" revolution
pioneered by Bach; it is the basis for most Early Music.
Benjamin, a composer and pedagogue, offers a complete analysis of
this important musical style. He begins by covering general aspects
of the style, then covers in detail two, three, and four-part
counterpoint. The Motet, an important form of vocal composition in
this period, is studied separately. The book concludes with a brief
anthology of key scores, 15 in all, for the student to study
further. Also includes 132 musical examples.
This lively and lucid introduction to the philosophy of music
concentrates on the issues that illuminate musical listening and
practice. It examines the conceptual debates relevant to the
understanding and performing of music and grounds the philosophy to
practical matters throughout. Ideal for a beginning readership with
little philosophical background, the author provides an overview of
the central debates enlivened by a real sense of enthusiasm for the
subject and why it matters. The book begins by filling in the
historical background and offers readers a succinct summary of
philosophical thinking on music from the Ancient Greeks to Eduard
Hanslick and Edmund Gurney. Chapter 2 explores two central
questions: what is it that makes music, or, to be precise, some
pieces of music, works of art? And, what is the work of music per
se? Is it just what we hear, the performance, or is it something
over and above that, something we invent or discover? Chapter 3
discusses a problem pecullar to music and one at the heart of
philosophical discussion of it, can music have a meaning? And if
so, what can it be? Chapter 4 considers whether music can have
value. Are there features about music that make it good, features
which can be specified in criteria? Is a work good if and only if
it meets with the approval of an ideally qualified listener? How do
we explain differences of opinion? Indeed, why do we need to make
judgements of the relative value of pieces of music at all? This
engaging and stimulating book will be of interest to students of
aesthetics, musical practitioners and the general reader looking
for a non-technical treatment of the subject.
Philosophy of Music is for anyone who has ever wondered whether or
not music means anything or why some music is thought to be more
significant than other music. It is a lively and lucid introduction
to the aesthetics of music and to the issues that illuminate
musical listening, understanding and practice. The book assumes no
philosophical training on the part of its readers, only an interest
in music and our reactions to it. It provides an authoritative
analysis of the central issues, enlivened with a real sense of
enthusiasm for the subject and its importance. At the heart of the
book lie three key questions: What is the work of music? Can it
have meaning? Can music have value? R. A. Sharpe guides the reader
through the philosophical arguments and conceptual debates
surrounding these questions while anchoring the discussion
throughout to instances and examples from Western classical music
and jazz. Unlike some other accounts of the philosophy of music,
which view music as a branch of metaphysics, raising questions
about sounds, tones and musical movement, Sharpe's approach is
problem-orientated and the questions he raises are predominantly
questions about the value of music, about the individuality of our
assessments and about the way in which we prize music for its power
to move us. He argues persuasively, and controversially for a
philosopher, that when it comes to music philosophical analysis has
its limitations and that one should not be surprised that the
aesthetics of music can harbour contradictions and that our
judgement of the value of music may be impossible to make
internally consistent. This engaging and stimulating book will be
of wide interest to music-lovers, critics, practitioners alike as
well as students of aesthetics looking for a non-technical
treatment of the subject.
Why are some popular musical forms and performers universally
reviled by critics and ignored by scholars-despite enjoying
large-scale popularity? How has the notion of what makes "good" or
"bad" music changed over the years-and what does this tell us about
the writers who have assigned these tags to different musical
genres? Many composers that are today part of the classical "canon"
were greeted initially by bad reviews. Similarly, jazz, country,
and pop musics were all once rejected as "bad" by the academy that
now has courses on these and many other types of music. This book
addresses why this is so through a series of essays on different
musical forms and performers. It looks at alternate ways of judging
musical performance beyond the critical/academic nexus, and
suggests new paths to follow in understanding what makes some music
"popular" even if it is judged to be "bad." For anyone who has ever
secretly enjoyed ABBA, Kenny G, or disco, "Bad Music" will be a
guilty pleasure!
This monograph offers a comprehensive study of the topos of the
malmariee or the unhappily married woman within the
thirteenth-century motet repertory, a vocal genre characterized by
several different texts sounding simultaneously over a foundational
Latin chant. Part I examines the malmariee motets from three
vantage points: (1) in light of contemporaneous canonist views on
marriage; (2) to what degree the French malmariee texts in the
upper voices treat the messages inherent in the underlying Latin
chant through parody and/or allegory; and (3) interactions among
upper-voice texts that invite additional interpretations focused on
gender issues. Part II investigates the transmission profile of the
motets, as well as of their refrains, revealing not only
intertextual refrain usage between the motets and other genres, but
also a significant number of shared refrains between malmariee
motets and other motets. Part II furthermore offers insights on the
chronology of composition within a given intertextual refrain
nexus, and examines how a refrain's meaning can change in a new
context. Finally, based on the transmission profile, Part II argues
for a lively interest in the topos in the 1270s and 1280s, both
through composition of new motets and compilation of earlier ones,
with Paris and Arras playing a prominent role.
Reform, Notation and Ottoman Music in Early 19th Century Istanbul:
EUTERPE presents the first complete set of transcription and
edition of Euterpe (1830) from Byzantine neumatic notation into the
modified staff notation used by classical Turkish music and is
accompanied by a substantial examination of the related historical,
theoretical and musical topics. Through a series of Ottoman/Turkish
classical vocal music compositions that can be dated to the 18th
and 19th centuries, Euterpe and related sources reinforce a much
broader picture of musical practice and transmission in which we
clearly see that the Greek and Turkish traditions are linked.
Reform, Notation and Ottoman Music in Early 19th Century Istanbul
is presented in two parts: historical discussion and musical
analysis, and complete transcription and edition of Euterpe. This
book will appeal to music scholars and university students
interested in minorities, cosmopolitanism in the Middle East and
Balkans, the relationship between music and national identity,
musical notation, classical Ottoman/Turkish music, Byzantine music,
and, most significantly, ethnomusicology.
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