This book brings together an extensive and varied collection of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's written and spoken-word items for the first time. Spanning the composer's entire career, this compendium offers a balanced selection of Davies's articles and essays, speeches and lectures, interviews, radio broadcasts, programme notes, tributes and letters to newspapers. A number of items are published for the first time, including a new article from Davies himself (commissioned specially for this book), and several BBC radio broadcast interviews and talks from the 1960s. The structure of the book is chronological and divided into three parts, allowing readers to trace the development of Davies's thought and work over time, and to place each item in its biographical and historical context. The introduction and notes by Nicholas Jones place the writings in context, making this volume invaluable for those interested in the music and wider culture of post-war Britain.

The story of the National Youth Orchestra of Iraq is here told by its musical director from its inception to its eventual end. The NYOI came through the most difficult and dangerous of times to produce fine music not only in Iraq but also in Britain, Germany, France and the United States. A beacon of hope and achievement the young musicians and their tutors made bridges across their own ethnic divisions, made great music in the most trying and tragic of circumstances, and became their country's best ambassadors in 5000 years.

This book brings together an extensive and varied collection of Sir Peter Maxwell Davies's written and spoken-word items for the first time. Spanning the composer's entire career, this compendium offers a balanced selection of Davies's articles and essays, speeches and lectures, interviews, radio broadcasts, programme notes, tributes and letters to newspapers. A number of items are published for the first time, including a new article from Davies himself (commissioned specially for this book), and several BBC radio broadcast interviews and talks from the 1960s. The structure of the book is chronological and divided into three parts, allowing readers to trace the development of Davies's thought and work over time, and to place each item in its biographical and historical context. The introduction and notes by Nicholas Jones place the writings in context, making this volume invaluable for those interested in the music and wider culture of post-war Britain.

Becoming an Orchestral Musician takes you on a journey into the musical profession. It is the first comprehensive guide for professional musicians on how to succeed in joining an orchestra or ensemble, and how to survive as an orchestral musician. Such crucial topics as how to obtain the right tuition, music college versus university, auditioning, nerves, the secrets of ensemble playing and intonation, conductors, the mechanics of the orchestra, performing philosophies and strategies for survival are covered in separate sections. The matter of how to explore and adapt one's musical psyche, the pitfalls of a career in music and the highs and lows of performing are also discussed. The history, mythology and science of music-making and numerous anecdotes provide a vivid background. It is essential reading for all orchestral musicians, including players of every instrument, whether at college or university or during their career, whether full-time or part-time, and whether professional or amateur, and also for the parents of budding instrumentalists. There are probably more orchestras and ensembles in the length and the breadth of Britain today than ever before.With the renewed recognition in schools of the importance of music, the competition among younger musicians has become intense. Schools and colleges need to be well informed about career guidance for their students. Richard Davis's book will give the answers to many of the questions those students will be asking. It has been warmly welcomed by his colleagues in the BBC Philharmonic, and by other musicians, too. Twenty of them have been interviewed by him specially for it on their experiences and on advice they would like to give to younger musicians on many different themes. They include principals and rank and file players, soloists, academics, music critics, fixers, chamber musicians and people involved in management.

Everybody has problems using technology, from heating controls through to video recorders. Move to computers and the problems are even worse; even the simplest computer programs seem to behave in strange ways. This book considers the problems of usability of technology and examines the factors that play a role in the design of such systems. Its goal is to introduce students and those working in related areas to the issues and to support them in analyzing problems and coming up with their own designs. It covers the issues surrounding the design of everyday technology before bringing computers into the picture and looking at how those issues change with the design of the user interface to computer systems. There are plenty of good seminar style exercises with accompanying guidelines. The text uses numerous real-world examples to get its message across and it does so in an 'amusing and authoritative' style. It steers clear of technical issues which means that it is very general in nature, that it retains its relevance as technologies change and that the text does not get bogged down in technical jargon. As well as the exercises, each chapter has an imaginary dialogue between Hemelsworth; a frustrated lord, and his dim-witted butler Barker, who is prone to behaving like your average computer system. First printed and reprinted by Addison Wesley, this timeless title is now available from Bosko Books. It is still relevant and useful, and continues to be used to teach interaction design courses and computing courses relating to the user interface. More information and extracts at www.idhub.com/concepts

Sir Peter Maxwell Davies began work on his parodic opera Resurrection whilst studying at Princeton in the early 1960s but it wasn't until the 1980s that he resumed composition. It was finally staged in 1987. Its violent diversity though any stylistic jolts are deliberate takes aim at a series of targets (state, church, and media) and is expressed in a dazzling but masque-like succession of scenes, and through the blackly comic pastiche of hymn tunes, marching bands, saccharine waltzes, and banal TV advertisements.