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Books > Arts & Architecture > Music > Theory of music & musicology
Classic book originally published in 1760. After the memoirs there
is a Catalogue of Works and Observations on the Works of George
Frederic Handel.
Existential semiotics is a new paradigm which combines classical
semiotics with continental philosophy. It does not mean a return to
existentialism, albeit philosophers from Hegel and Kierkegaard to
Heidegger, Jaspers and Sartre are its sources of inspiration. It
introduces completely new sign categories and concepts to the
field, recasting the whole of semiotics, communication and
signification as integral to a transcendental art. The volume
contains essays on music, the voice, silence, calligraphy,
metaphysics, myth, aesthetics, entropy, cultural heritage, film,
the Bible, among other subjects.
Do You Believe in the Power of Rock & Roll? is a history of
alternative rock from John Robb, with the music still ringing in
his ears. This collection follows John's journey from the late
1970s, when he was first caught up in punk's high-octane thrill, to
the present day, via the early days of the rave scene, the birth of
electronic and techno, and myriad bands that spun off on their own
idiosyncratic paths. John was the first person to write about
Nirvana, he coined the term Britpop, and he documented the Stone
Roses' rise out of Manchester before anyone else was interested. He
was at every pivotal gig, and has interviewed every key player in
the business, including Jordan, the queen of punk, founding father
of new American rock Steve Albini, goth-rock guitarist Daniel Ash,
infamous Oasis co-founder Noel Gallagher, and music greats like
Lemmy and Poly Styrene. Few others have witnessed first-hand so
many important moments of the last forty years of rock history.
Here, they come together to form the essential history of a
personal quest to document the ever-changing soundtrack of the
modern world.
Number 10 Sound: The Musical Way 10 the Scientific Revolution is a
collection of twelve essays by writers from the fields of
musicology and the history of science. The essays show the idea of
music held by Euro th pean intellectuals who lived from the second
half of the 15 century to the th early 17: physicians (e. g.
Marsilio Ficino), scholars of musical theory (e. g. Gioseffo
Zarlino, Vincenzo Galilei), natural philosophers (e. g. Fran cis
Bacon, Isaac Beeckman, Marin Mersenne), astronomers and mathema
ticians (e. g. Johannes Kepler, Galileo Galilei ). Together with
other people of the time, whom the Reader will meet in the course
of the book, these intellectuals share an idea of music that is far
removed from the way it is commonly conceived nowadays: it is the
idea of music as a science whose object-musical sound--can be
quantified and demonstrated, or enquired into experimentally with
the methods and instruments of modem scientific enquiry. In this
conception, music to be heard is a complex, variable structure
based on few simple elements--e. g. musical intervals-, com bined
according to rules and criteria which vary along with the different
ages. However, the varieties of music created by men would not
exist if they were not based on certain musical models--e. g. the
consonances-, which exist in the mind of God or are hidden in the
womb of Nature, which man discovers and demonstrates, and finally
translates into the lan guage of sounds."
In Crossing Bar Lines: The Politics and Practices of Black Musical
Space James Gordon Williams reframes the nature and purpose of jazz
improvisation to illuminate the cultural work being done by five
creative musicians between 2005 and 2019. The political thought of
five African American improvisers-trumpeters Terence Blanchard and
Ambrose Akinmusire, drummers Billy Higgins and Terri Lyne
Carrington, and pianist Andrew Hill-is documented through
insightful, multilayered case studies that make explicit how these
musicians articulate their positionality in broader society.
Informed by Black feminist thought, these case studies unite around
the theory of Black musical space that comes from the lived
experiences of African Americans as they improvise through daily
life. The central argument builds upon the idea of space-making and
the geographic imagination in Black Geographies theory. Williams
considers how these musicians interface with contemporary social
movements like Black Lives Matter, build alternative institutional
models that challenge gender imbalance in improvisation culture,
and practice improvisation as joyful affirmation of Black value and
mobility. Both Terence Blanchard and Ambrose Akinmusire innovate
musical strategies to address systemic violence. Billy Higgins's
performance is discussed through the framework of breath to
understand his politics of inclusive space. Terri Lyne Carrington
confronts patriarchy in jazz culture through her Social Science
music project. The work of Andrew Hill is examined through the
context of his street theory, revealing his political stance on
performance and pedagogy. All readers will be elevated by this
innovative and timely book that speaks to issues that continue to
shape the lives of African Americans today.
Nevermind, Achtung Baby, Use Your Illusion 1&2 - the 90s saw
some classic albums produced by artists such as Nirvana, U2, Gun n'
Roses and Red Hot Chili Peppers, as well as a resurgence in country
music popularized by Shania Twain and Garth Brooks. Combining
information from both the US and UK charts provided by the
Recording Industry Association of America (RIAA) and British
Phonographic Industry (BPI), 100 Best Selling Albums of the 90s
features chart-topping work from Michael Jackson, Puff Daddy and
Green Day. Each album entry is accompanied by the original sleeve
artwork - front and back - and is packed full of facts and
recording information, including a complete track listing, musician
and production credits, and an authoritative commentary on the
record and its place in cultural history. Soundtracks featured
include the 60s and 70s hits on Forrest Gump, the Elton John/Tim
Rice songs in The Lion King, and the orchestral score for Titanic
(and Celine Dion's Oscar-winning My Heart Will Go On). Other
stand-out albums include the Eagles' reforming to make Hell Freezes
Over and Eric Clapton's Unplugged, a career revival for him in the
popular 90s back-to-basics semi-acoustic series. With vinyl sales
now at their highest in 25 years, 100 Best Selling Albums of the
90s is an expert celebration of popular music from Sheryl Crow to
Shania Twain, from the Spice Girls to the Backstreet Boys, from
Gloria Estefan to Michael Jackson to Lauryn Hill.
'I'm going to camp out on the land ... try and get my soul free'.
So sang Joni Mitchell in 1970 on 'Woodstock'. But Woodstock is only
the tip of the iceberg. Popular music festivals are one of the
strikingly successful and enduring features of seasonal popular
cultural consumption for young people and older generations of
enthusiasts. From pop and rock to folk, jazz and techno, under
stars and canvas, dancing in the streets and in the mud, the
pleasures and politics of the carnival since the 1950s are
discussed in this innovative and richly-illustrated collection. The
Pop Festival brings scholarship in cultural studies, media studies,
musicology, sociology, and history together in one volume to
explore the music festival as a key event in the cultural landscape
- and one of major interest to young people as festival-goers
themselves and as students.
This book provides an in-depth introduction and overview of current
research in computational music analysis. Its seventeen chapters,
written by leading researchers, collectively represent the
diversity as well as the technical and philosophical sophistication
of the work being done today in this intensely interdisciplinary
field. A broad range of approaches are presented, employing
techniques originating in disciplines such as linguistics,
information theory, information retrieval, pattern recognition,
machine learning, topology, algebra and signal processing. Many of
the methods described draw on well-established theories in music
theory and analysis, such as Forte's pitch-class set theory,
Schenkerian analysis, the methods of semiotic analysis developed by
Ruwet and Nattiez, and Lerdahl and Jackendoff's Generative Theory
of Tonal Music. The book is divided into six parts, covering
methodological issues, harmonic and pitch-class set analysis, form
and voice-separation, grammars and hierarchical reduction, motivic
analysis and pattern discovery and, finally, classification and the
discovery of distinctive patterns. As a detailed and up-to-date
picture of current research in computational music analysis, the
book provides an invaluable resource for researchers, teachers and
students in music theory and analysis, computer science, music
information retrieval and related disciplines. It also provides a
state-of-the-art reference for practitioners in the music
technology industry.
How far can the relationship between music and politics be used to
promote a more peaceful world? That is the central question which
motivates this challenging new work. Combining theory from renowned
academics such as Johan Galtung, Cindy Cohen and Karen Abi-Ezzi
with compelling stories from musicians like Yair Dalal, the book
also includes an exclusive interview with folk legend Pete Seeger.
In each instance, practical and theoretical perspectives have been
combined in order to explore music's role in conflict
transformation.The book is divided into five sections. The first,
'Frameworks', reflects indepth on the connections between music and
peace, while the second, 'Music and Politics', discusses the actual
impact of music on society. The third section, 'Healing and
Education' offers specific examples of the transformative power of
music in prisons and other settings of conflict-resolution, while
the fourth, 'Stories from the Field', tells true stories about
music's impact in the Middle East and elsewhere. Finally,
'Reflections' encourages the reader to consider a personal
evaluation of the work with a view to further explorations of the
capacity of music to promote peace-building.
In this groundbreaking book, acclaimed film music author Kevin
Donnelly offers the first sustained theorization of synchronization
in sound film. Donnelly addresses the manner in which the lock of
the audio and the visual exerts a perceptible synergy, an aesthetic
he dubs occult: a secret and esoteric effect that can dissipate in
the face of an awareness of its existence. Drawing upon theories of
sound from Sergei Eisenstein to Pierre Schaeffer to Michel Chion,
the book investigates points of synchronization as something like
repose, providing moments of comfort in a potentially threatening
environment that can be fraught with sound and image stimuli.
Correspondingly, lack of synchrony between sound and images is
characterized as potentially disturbing for the viewer, a
discomfort that signals moments of danger. From this perspective,
the interplay between the two becomes the central dynamic of
audio-visual culture more generally, which, as Donnelly argues,
provides a starting point for a new understanding of audio/visual
interactions. This fresh approach to the topic is discussed in
theoretical and historical terms as well as elaborated through
analysis of and reference to a broad selection of films and their
soundtracks including, among others, Singin' in the Rain, Saw,
Shanghai Express, and Assault on Precinct 13.
Critiques and calls for reform have existed for decades within
music education, but few publications have offered concrete
suggestions as to how things might be done differently. Motivated
by a desire to do just that, College Music Curricula for a New
Century considers what a more inclusive, dynamic, and socially
engaged curriculum of musical study might look like in
universities. Editor Robin Moore creates a dialogue among faculty,
administrators, and students about what the future of college music
instruction should be and how teachers, institutions, and
organizations can transition to new paradigms. Including
contributions from leading figures in ethnomusicology, music
education, theory/composition, professional performance, and
administration, College Music Curricula for a New Century addresses
college-level curriculum reform, focusing primarily on performance
and music education degrees, and offer ideas and examples for a
more inclusive, dynamic, and socially engaged curriculum of applied
musical study. This book will appeal to thoughtful faculty looking
for direction on how to enact reform, to graduate students with
investment in shaping future music curricula, and to administrators
who know change is on the horizon and seek wisdom and practical
advice for implementing change. College Music Curricula for a New
Century reaches far beyond any musical subdiscipline and addresses
issues pertinent to all areas of music study.
The vast majority of films produced by Mumbai's commercial Hindi
language film industry - known world-wide as Bollywood - feature
songs as a central component of the cinematic narrative. While many
critics have addressed the visual characteristics of these song
sequences, very few have engaged with their aurality and with the
meanings that they generate within the film narrative and within
Indian society at large. Because the film songs operate as powerful
sonic ambassadors to individual and cultural memories in India and
abroad, however, they are significant and carefully-constructed
works of art. Bollywood Sounds focuses on the songs of Indian films
in their historical, social, and commercial contexts. Author Jayson
Beaster-Jones walks the reader through the highly collaborative
songs, detailing the contributions of film directors, music
directors and composers, lyricists, musicians, and singers. A vital
component of film promotion on broadcast media, Bollywood songs are
distributed on soundtracks by music companies, and have long been
the most popular music genre in India - even among listeners who
rarely see the movies. Through close musical and multimedia
analysis of more than twenty landmark compositions, Bollywood
Sounds illustrates how the producers of Indian film songs mediate a
variety of influences, musical styles, instruments, and performance
practices to create this distinctive genre. Beaster-Jones argues
that, even from the moment of its inception, the film song genre
has always been in the unique position of demonstrating
cosmopolitan orientations while maintaining discrete sound and
production practices over its long history. As a survey of the
music of seventy years of Hindi films, Bollywood Sounds is the
first monograph to provide a long-term historical insights into
Hindi film songs, and their musical and cinematic conventions, in
ways that will appeal both to scholars and newcomers to Indian
cinema.
Migration studies is an area of increasing significance in
musicology as in other disciplines. How do migrants express and
imagine themselves through musical practice? How does music help
them to construct social imaginaries and to cope with longings and
belongings? In this study of migration music in postsocialist
Albania, Eckehard Pistrick identifies links between sound, space,
emotionality and mobility in performance, provides new insights
into the controversial relationship between sound and migration,
and sheds light on the cultural effects of migration processes.
Central to Pistrick's approach is the essential role of
emotionality for musical creativity which is highlighted throughout
the volume: pain and longing are discussed not as a traumatising
end point, but as a driving force for human action and as a source
for cultural creativity. In addition, the study provides a
fascinating overview about the current state of a rarely documented
vocal tradition in Europe that is a part of the mosaic of
Mediterranean singing traditions. It refers to the challenges
imposed onto this practice by heritage politics, the dynamics of
retraditionalisation and musical globalisation. In this sense the
book constitutes an important study to the dynamics of
postsocialism as seen from a musicological perspective. Winner of
the 2017 Stavro Skendi Book Prize for Achievement in Albanian
Studies, Society for Albanian Studies Dr. Pistrick's book, in the
committee's judgment, impressively connects ethnomusicology,
anthropology and migration studies. Linking sound with space and
emotionality, it offers a new understanding of the role of the oral
tradition within Albanian communities, in particular its ability to
deal creatively with painful experiences and the realities of
migration. Association for Slavic, East European & Eurasian
Studies
Discovering Music Theory is a suite of workbooks and corresponding
answer books that offers all-round preparation for the updated
ABRSM Music Theory exams from 2020, including the new online
papers. This full-colour workbook will equip students of all ages
with the skills, knowledge and understanding required for the ABRSM
Grade 4 Music Theory exam. Written to make theory engaging and
relevant to developing musicians of all ages, it offers: -
straightforward explanations of all new concepts - progressive
exercises to build skills and understanding, step by step -
challenge questions to extend learning and develop music-writing
skills - helpful tips for how to approach specific exercises -
ideas for linking theory to music listening, performing and
instrumental/singing lessons - clear signposting and progress
reviews throughout - a sample practice exam paper showing you what
to expect in the new style of exams from 2020 As well as fully
supporting the ABRSM theory syllabus, Discovering Music Theory
provides an excellent resource for anyone wishing to develop their
music literacy skills, including GCSE and A-Level candidates, and
adult learners.
...revisit the people and places and deepen your enjoyment of the
sublime BBC tv series "Wayfaring Stranger" ...in these pages
revisit people and places you loved in the BBC tv series "Wayfaring
Stranger" ... by the authors as featured in the acclaimed BBC tv
series "Wayfaring Stranger" Throughout the eighteenth and
nineteenth centuries, a steady stream of Scots migrated to Ulster
and eventually onward across the Atlantic to resettle in the United
States. Many of these Scots-Irish immigrants made their way into
the mountains of the southern Appalachian region. They brought with
them a wealth of traditional ballads and tunes from the British
Isles and Ireland, a carrying stream that merged with sounds and
songs of English, German, Welsh, African American, French, and
Cherokee origin. Their enduring legacy of music flows today from
Appalachia back to Ireland and Scotland and around the globe. In
Wayfaring Strangers, Fiona Ritchie and Doug Orr guide readers on a
musical voyage across oceans, linking people and songs through
centuries of adaptation and change. From ancient ballads at the
heart of the tradition to instruments that express this dynamic
music, Ritchie and Orr chronicle the details of an epic journey.
This book celebrates Madvillainy as a representation of two genius
musical minds melding to form one revered supervillain. A product
of circumstance, the album came together soon after MF DOOM's
resurgence and Madlib's reluctant return from avant-garde jazz to
hip-hop. Written from the alternating perspectives of three fake
music journalist superheroes-featuring interviews with Wildchild,
M.E.D., Walasia, Daedalus, Stones Throw execs, and many other real
individuals involved with the album's creation-this book blends
fiction and non-fiction to celebrate Madvillainy not just as an
album, but as a folkloric artifact. It is one specific retelling of
a story which, like Madvillain's music, continues to spawn infinite
legends.
Sound Relations delves into histories of Inuit musical life in
Alaska to register the significance of sound as integral to
self-determination and sovereignty. Offering radical and relational
ways of listening to Inuit performances across a range of
genres-from hip hop to Christian hymnody and traditional drumsongs
to funk and R&B -author Jessica Bissett Perea registers how a
density (not difference) of Indigenous ways of musicking from a
vast archive of presence sounds out entanglements between
structures of Indigeneity and colonialism. This work dismantles
stereotypical understandings of "Eskimos," "Indians," and "Natives"
by addressing the following questions: What exactly is "Native"
about Native music? What does it mean to sound (or not sound)
Native? Who decides? And how can in-depth analyses of Native music
that center Indigeneity reframe larger debates of race, power, and
representation in twenty-first century American music
historiography? Instead of proposing singular truths or facts, this
book invites readers to consider the existence of multiple
simultaneous truths, a density of truths, all of which are
culturally constructed, performed, and in some cases politicized
and policed. Native ways of doing music history engage processes of
sound worlding that envision otherwise, beyond nation-state notions
of containment and glorifications of Alaska as solely an extraction
site for U.S. settler capitalism, and instead amplifies
possibilities for more just and equitable futures.
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