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As countries went into lockdown in 2020, people turned to music for
comfort and solidarity. Neighbours sang to each other from their
balconies; people participated in online music sessions that
created an experience of socially distanced togetherness. Nicholas
Cook argues that the value of music goes far beyond simple
enjoyment. Music can enhance well-being, interpersonal
relationships, cultural tolerance, and civil cohesion. At the same
time, music can be a tool of persuasion or ideology. Thinking about
music helps bring into focus the values that are mobilised in
today’s culture wars. Making music together builds relationships
of interdependence and trust: rather than escapism, it offers a
blueprint for a community of mutual obligation and interdependence.
Music: Why It Matters is for anyone who loves playing,
listening to, or thinking about music, as well as those pursuing it
as a career.
As countries went into lockdown in 2020, people turned to music for
comfort and solidarity. Neighbours sang to each other from their
balconies; people participated in online music sessions that
created an experience of socially distanced togetherness. Nicholas
Cook argues that the value of music goes far beyond simple
enjoyment. Music can enhance well-being, interpersonal
relationships, cultural tolerance, and civil cohesion. At the same
time, music can be a tool of persuasion or ideology. Thinking about
music helps bring into focus the values that are mobilised in
today’s culture wars. Making music together builds relationships
of interdependence and trust: rather than escapism, it offers a
blueprint for a community of mutual obligation and interdependence.
Music: Why It Matters is for anyone who loves playing,
listening to, or thinking about music, as well as those pursuing it
as a career.
This selection of sixteen of Nicholas Cook's essays covers the
period from 1987 to 2004 and brings out the development of the
author's ideas over these years. In particular the two keywords of
the title - Meaning and Performance - represent critical directions
that expand to the point that, by the end of the book, they become
coextensive: music is seen as social action and meaning as created
by that action. Within this overall direction, a wide variety of
topics is explored, ranging from Beethoven to Schenker, from
Chinese qin music to jazz and rock, from perceptual psychology to
sketch studies and analysis of record sleeves. A substantial
introduction draws out the links (and differences) between the
essays, sometimes critiquing them and always setting them into the
developing context of the author's work as a whole.
Very Short Introductions: Brilliant, Sharp, Inspiring The world
teems with different kinds of music - traditional, folk, classical,
jazz, rock, pop - and each type of music tends to come with its own
way of thinking. Drawing on a wealth of accessible examples ranging
from Beethoven to Chinese zither music, this Very Short
Introduction considers the history of music and thinking about
music, focussing on its social and cultural dimensions. Nicholas
Cook balances the Western Classical traditions within the context
of many other musical cultures in today's world, tracing the way in
which their development since the eighteenth century has
conditioned present-day thinking and practice both within and
beyond the West. He also considers the nature of music as a
real-time performance practice; the role of music in contexts of
social and political action; and the nature of musical thinking,
including the roles played in it by instruments, notations, and
creative imagination. In this new edition Cook explores the impact
of digital technology on the production and consumption of music,
including how it has transformed participatory music-making and the
music business. He also discusses music's position in a globalized
world, from the role it played in historical processes of
colonisation and decolonisation to its present-day significance as
a vehicle of cross-cultural communication. ABOUT THE SERIES: The
Very Short Introductions series from Oxford University Press
contains hundreds of titles in almost every subject area. These
pocket-sized books are the perfect way to get ahead in a new
subject quickly. Our expert authors combine facts, analysis,
perspective, new ideas, and enthusiasm to make interesting and
challenging topics highly readable.
Beethoven's Ninth Symphony is acknowledged as one of the supreme masterpieces of the Western tradition. More than any other musical work it has become an international symbol of unity and affirmation. Yet early critics rejected it as cryptic and eccentric, the product of a deaf and aging composer. Nicholas Cook's guide charts the dramatic transformation in the reception of this work. The story begins in Vienna, with the responses of listeners at the first performance, and ends in contemporary China and Japan, where the symphony has acquired diametrically opposed interpretations. The account embraces many of the major figures of nineteenth- and twentieth-century music, among them Wagner and Schenker. Including an account of the sketches, an examination of the performance tradition, and a suggested new interpretation, this book opens up new dimensions in our understanding of Beethoven's last symphony.
This extremely practical introduction to musical analysis explores
the factors that give unity and coherence to musical masterpieces.
Having first identified and explained the most important analytical
methods, Nicholas Cook examines given compositions from the last
two hundred years to show how different analytical procedures suit
different types of music. This book is intended for teachers,
students of music at university level.
The impact of digital technologies on music has been overwhelming:
since the commercialisation of these technologies in the early
1980s, both the practice of music and thinking about it have
changed almost beyond all recognition. From the rise of digital
music making to digital dissemination, these changes have attracted
considerable academic attention across disciplines,within, but also
beyond, established areas of academic musical research. Through
chapters by scholars at the forefront of research and shorter
'personal takes' from knowledgeable practitioners in the field,
this Companion brings the relationship between digital technology
and musical culture alive by considering both theory and practice.
It provides a comprehensive and balanced introduction to the place
of music within digital culture as a whole, with recurring themes
and topics that include music and the Internet, social networking
and participatory culture, music recommendation systems,
virtuality, posthumanism, surveillance, copyright, and new business
models for music production.
Extracted From Proceedings Of The American Antiquarian Society V36,
No. 2.
From the cylinder to the download, the practice of music has been
radically transformed by the development of recording and playback
technologies. This Companion provides a detailed overview of the
transformation, encompassing both classical and popular music.
Topics covered include the history of recording technology and the
businesses built on it; the impact of recording on performance
styles; studio practices, viewed from the perspectives of
performer, producer and engineer; and approaches to the study of
recordings. The main chapters are interspersed by 'short takes' -
short contributions by different practitioners, ranging from
classical or pop producers and performers to record collectors.
Combining basic information with a variety of perspectives on
records and recordings, this book will appeal not only to students
in a range of subjects from music to the media, but also to general
readers interested in a fundamental yet insufficiently understood
dimension of musical culture.
The impact of digital technologies on music has been overwhelming:
since the commercialisation of these technologies in the early
1980s, both the practice of music and thinking about it have
changed almost beyond all recognition. From the rise of digital
music making to digital dissemination, these changes have attracted
considerable academic attention across disciplines,within, but also
beyond, established areas of academic musical research. Through
chapters by scholars at the forefront of research and shorter
'personal takes' from knowledgeable practitioners in the field,
this Companion brings the relationship between digital technology
and musical culture alive by considering both theory and practice.
It provides a comprehensive and balanced introduction to the place
of music within digital culture as a whole, with recurring themes
and topics that include music and the Internet, social networking
and participatory culture, music recommendation systems,
virtuality, posthumanism, surveillance, copyright, and new business
models for music production.
Analysing Musical Multimedia is the first study to produce a general theory of how different media - music, words, moving picture, and dance - work together to create multimedia. Beginning with a study of how meaning is mediated in television commercials, Nicholas Cook concludes with in-depth readings of Fantasia, Madonna's video Material Girl, and Armide (Godard's sequence from the collaborative film Aria).
Today we think of Heinrich Schenker, who lived in Vienna from 1884
until his death in 1935, as the most influential music theorist of
the twentieth century. But he saw his theoretical writings as part
of a comprehensive project for the reform of musical composition,
performance, criticism, and education-and beyond that, as
addressing fundamental cultural, social, and political problems of
the deeply troubled age in which he lived. This book aims at an
understanding of Schenker's project through reading his key works
within a series of period contexts. These include music criticism,
the field in which Schenker first made his name; Viennese
modernism, particularly the debate over architectural
ornamentation; German cultural conservatism, which is the source of
many of Schenker's most deeply entrenched values; and Schenker's
own position as a Galician Jew who came to Vienna just as
traditional anti-semitism was becoming fully racialized. As well as
presenting an unfamiliar perspective on the cultural and political
ferment of fin-de-siecle Vienna, this approach reveals how deeply
the social and political were thought into Schenker's theory. It
also raises issues concerning the meaning and value of music
theory, and the extent to which today's music-theoretical agenda
unwittingly reflects the values and concerns of a very different
world.
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The New (Ethno)musicologies (Paperback)
Henry Stobart; Contributions by John Baily, Michelle Bigenho, Caroline Bithell, Philip V. Bohlman, …
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R2,319
Discovery Miles 23 190
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Ships in 10 - 15 working days
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Over the past twenty years, a range of radical developments has
revolutionized musicology, leading certain practitioners to
describe their discipline as 'New.' What has happened to
ethnomusicology during this period? Have its theories,
methodologies, and values remain rooted in the 1970s and 1980s or
have they also transformed? What directions might or should it take
in the new millennium? The New (Ethno)musicologies seeks to answer
these questions by addressing and critically examining key issues
in contemporary ethnomusicology. Set in two parts, the volume
explores ethnomusicology's shifting relationship to other
disciplines and to its own 'mythic' histories and plots a range of
potential developments for its future. It attempts to address how
ethnomusicology might be viewed by those working both inside and
outside the discipline and what its broader contribution and
relevance might be within and beyond the academy. Henry Stobart has
collected essays from key figures in ethnomusicology and
musicology, including Caroline Bithell, Martin Clayton, Fabian
Holt, Jim Samson, and Abigail Wood, as well as Europea series
editors, Martin Stokes and Philip V. Bohlman. The engaging result
presents a range of perspectives, reflecting on disciplinary
change, methodological developments, and the broader sphere of
music scholarship in a fresh and unique way, and will be a key
source for students and scholars.
The study of music is always, to some extent, "empirical," in that
it involves testing ideas and interpretations against some kind of
external reality. But in musicology, the kinds of empirical
approaches familiar in the social sciences have played a relatively
marginal role, being generally restricted to inter-disciplinary
areas such as psychology and sociology of music. Rather than
advocating a new kind of musicology, Empirical Musicology provides
a guide to empirical approaches that are ready for incorporation
into the contemporary musicologist's toolkit. Its nine chapters
cover perspectives from music theory, computational musicology,
ethnomusicology, and the psychology and sociology of music, as well
as an introduction to musical data analysis and statistics. This
book shows that such approaches could play an important role in the
further development of the discipline as a whole, not only through
the application of statistical and modeling methods to musical
scores but also--and perhaps more importantly--in terms of
understanding music as a complex social practice.
The study of music is always, to some extent, "empirical," in that
it involves testing ideas and interpretations against some kind of
external reality. But in musicology, the kind of empirical
approaches familiar in the social sciences have played a relatively
marginal role, being generally restricted to inter-disciplinary
areas such as psychology and sociology of music. Rather than
advocating a new kind of musicology, Empirical Musicology provides
a guide to empirical approaches that are ready for incorporation
into the contemporary musicologist's toolkit. Its nine chapters
cover perspectives from music theory, computational musicology,
ethnomusicology, and the psychology and sociology of music, as well
as an introduction to musical data analysis and statistics. This
book shows that such approaches could play an important role in the
further development of the discipline as a whole, not only through
the application of statistical and modeling methods to musical
scores but also--and perhaps more importantly--in terms of
understanding music as a complex social practice.
The text is divided into two parts: part One deals with the most
important analytical methods current in the English-speaking world,
treating each in turn. They are presented method by method because
each one involves a characteristic set of beliefs and it is
important to identify those beliefs i order to avoid applying
inappropriate techniques that produce irrelevant data. The question
of how you decide what method to adopt is addressed in the second
part of the book, in which given compositions rather than given
analytical methods form the starting point. The analyses in this
section are each designed to highlight a different aspect of
analytical procedure.
Until recently, ideas of creativity in music revolved around
composers in garrets and the lone genius. But the last decade has
witnessed a sea change: musical creativity is now overwhelmingly
thought of in terms of collaboration and real-time performance.
Music as Creative Practice is a first attempt to synthesize both
perspectives. It begins by developing the idea that creativity
arises out of social interaction-of which making music together is
perhaps the clearest possible illustration-and then shows how the
same thinking can be applied to the ostensively solitary practices
of composition. The book also emphasizes the contextual dimensions
of musical creativity, ranging from the prodigy phenomenon,
long-term collaborative relationships within and beyond the family,
and creative learning to the copyright system that is supposed to
incentivize creativity but is widely seen as inhibiting it. Music
as Creative Practice encompasses the classical tradition, jazz and
popular music, and music emerges as an arena in which changing
concepts of creativity-from the old myths about genius to
present-day sociocultural theory-can be traced with particular
clarity. The perspective of creativity tells us much about music,
but the reverse is also true, and this fifth and last instalment of
the Studies in Musical Performance as Creative Practice series
offers an approach to musical creativity that is attuned to the
practices of both music and everyday life.
The Cambridge History of Twentieth-Century Music, first published
in 2004, is an appraisal of the development of music in the
twentieth century from the vantage-point of the twenty-first. This
wide-ranging and eclectic book traces the progressive fragmentation
of the European 'art' tradition, and its relocation as one
tradition among many at the century's end. While the focus is on
Western traditions, both 'art' and popular, these are situated
within the context of world music, including a case study of the
interaction of 'art' and traditional musics in post-colonial
Africa. An international authorship brings a wide variety of
approaches to music history, but the aim throughout is to set
musical developments in the context of social, ideological, and
technological change, and to understand reception and consumption
as integral to the history of music.
The overriding aim of this groundbreaking volume--whether the
subject is vocal ornamentation in 19th-century opera or the
collective improvisation of the Grateful Dead--is to give new
recognition to performance as the core of musical culture. The
collection brings together renowned scholars from performance
studies and musicology (including Philip Auslander, David Borgo,
Daphne Brooks, Nicholas Cook, Maria Delgado, Susan Fast, Dana
Gooley, Philip Gossett, Jason King, Elisabeth Le Guin, Aida Mbowa,
Ingrid Monson, Roger Moseley, Richard Pettengill, Joseph Roach, and
Margaret Savilonis), with the intent of sparking a productive new
dialogue on music as performance. "Taking It to the Bridge" is on
the one hand a series of in-depth studies of a broad range of
performance artists and genres, and on the other a contribution to
ongoing methodological developments within the study of music, with
the goal of bridging the approaches of musicology and performance
studies, to enable a close, interpretive listening that combines
the best of each. At the same time, by juxtaposing musical genres
that range from pop and soul to the classics, and from world music
to games and web-mediated performances, "Taking It to the Bridge"
provides an inventory of contrasted approaches to the study of
performance and contributes to its developing centrality within
music studies.
From the cylinder to the download, the practice of music has been
radically transformed by the development of recording and playback
technologies. This 2009 Companion provides a detailed overview of
the transformation, encompassing both classical and popular music.
Topics covered include the history of recording technology and the
businesses built on it; the impact of recording on performance
styles; studio practices, viewed from the perspectives of
performer, producer and engineer; and approaches to the study of
recordings. The main chapters are interspersed by 'short takes' -
short contributions by different practitioners, ranging from
classical or pop producers and performers to record collectors.
Combining basic information with a variety of perspectives on
records and recordings, this book will appeal not only to students
in a range of subjects from music to the media, but also to general
readers interested in a fundamental yet insufficiently understood
dimension of musical culture.
Today we think of Heinrich Schenker, who lived in Vienna from 1884
until his death in 1935, as the most influential music theorist of
the twentieth century. But he saw his theoretical writings as part
of a comprehensive project for the reform of musical composition,
performance, criticism, and
education-and beyond that, as addressing fundamental cultural,
social, and political problems of the deeply troubled age in which
he lived. This book aims to explain Schenker's project through
reading his key works within a series of period contexts. These
include music criticism, the field in which
Schenker first made his name; Viennese modernism, particularly the
debate over architectural ornamentation; German cultural
conservatism, which is the source of many of Schenker's most deeply
entrenched values; and Schenker's own position as a Galician Jew
who came to Vienna just as fully racialized
anti-semitism was developing there. As well as presenting an
unfamiliar perspective on the cultural and political ferment of
fin-de-siecle Vienna, this book reveals how deeply Schenker's
theory is permeated by the social and political. It also raises
issues concerning the meaning and value of music
theory, and the extent to which today's music-theoretical agenda
unwittingly reflects the values and concerns of a very different
world.
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