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The Lucy Variations
by Sara ZarrLucy Beck-Moreau once had a promising future as a concert pianist. The right people knew her name, her performances were booked months in advance, and her future seemed certain.That was all before she turned fourteen.Now, at sixteen, it's over. A death, and a betrayal, led her to walk away. That leaves her talented ten-year-old brother, Gus, to shoulder the full weight of the Beck-Moreau family expectations. Then Gus gets a new piano teacher who is young, kind, and interested in helping Lucy rekindle her love of piano -- on her own terms. But when you're used to performing for sold-out audiences and world-famous critics, can you ever learn to play just for yourself?National Book Award finalist Sara Zarr takes readers inside one girl's struggle to reclaim her love of music and herself. To find joy again, even when things don't go according to plan. Because life isn't a performance, and everyone deserves the chance to make a few mistakes along the way.se life isn't a performance, and everyone deserves the chance to make a few mistakes along the way.
The Lure and Legacy of Music at Versailles
by John Hajdu HeyerLouis XIV and his court at Versailles had a profound influence on music in France and throughout Europe. In 1660 Louis visited Aix-en-Provence, a trip that resulted in political and cultural transformations throughout the region. Soon thereafter Aix became an important center of sacred music composition, eventually rivaling Paris for the quality of the composers it produced. John Hajdu Heyer documents the young king's visit and examines how he and his court deployed sacred music to enhance the royal image and secure the loyalty of the populace. Exploring the circle of composers at Aix, Heyer provides the most up-to-date and complete biographies in English of nine key figures, including Guillaume Poitevin, André Campra, Jean Gilles, François Estienne, and Antoine Blanchard. The book goes on to reveal how the history of political power in the region was reflected through church music, and how musicians were affected by contemporary events.
The Lure of Perfection: Fashion and Ballet, 1780-1830
by Judith BennahumTHE LURE OF PERFECTION: FASHION AND BALLET, 1780-1830 offers a unique look at how ballet influenced contemporary fashion and women's body image, and how street fashions in turn were reflected by the costumes worn by ballet dancers. Through years of research, the author has traced the interplay between fashion, social trends, and the development of dance. During the 18th century, women literally took up twice as much space as men; their billowing dresses ballooned out from their figures, sometimes a full 55 inches, to display costly jewelry and fine brocade work; similar costumes appeared on stage. But clothing also limited her movement; it literally disabled them, making the dances themselves little more than tableaux. Movement was further inhibited by high shoes and tight corsets; thus the image of the rigidly straight, long-lined dancer is as much a product of clothing as aesthetics. However, with changing times came new trends. An increased interest in natural movement and the common folk led to less-restrictive clothing. As viewers demanded more virtuosic dancers, women literally danced their way to freedom. THE LURE OF PERFECTION will interest students of dance and cultural history, and women's studies. It is a fascinating, well-researched look at the interplay of fashion, dance, and culture-still very much a part of our world today.
The Lyric Myth of Voice: Civilizing Song in Enlightenment Italy
by Jessica Gabriel PeritzHow did "voice" become a metaphor for selfhood in the Western imagination? The Lyric Myth of Voice situates the emergence of an ideological connection between voice and subjectivity in late eighteenth-century Italy, where long-standing political anxieties and new notions of cultural enlightenment collided in the mythical figure of the lyric poet-singer. Ultimately, music and literature together shaped the singing voice into a tool for civilizing modern Italian subjects. Drawing on a range of approaches and frameworks from historical musicology to gender studies, disability studies, anthropology, and literary theory, Jessica Gabriel Peritz shows how this ancient yet modern myth of voice attained interpretable form, flesh, and sound. The publisher gratefully acknowledges the generous support of the AMS 75 PAYS Fund of the American Musicological Society, supported in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
The Lyrical in Epic Time: Modern Chinese Intellectuals and Artists Through the 1949 Crisis
by David Der-wei WangIn this book, David Der-wei Wang uses the lyrical to rethink the dynamics of Chinese modernity. Although the form may seem unusual for representing China's social and political crises in the mid-twentieth century, Wang contends that national cataclysm and mass movements intensified Chinese lyricism in extraordinary ways. Wang calls attention to the form's vigor and variety at an unlikely juncture in Chinese history and the precarious consequences it brought about: betrayal, self-abjuration, suicide, and silence. Despite their divergent backgrounds and commitments, the writers, artists, and intellectuals discussed in this book all took lyricism as a way to explore selfhood in relation to solidarity, the role of the artist in history, and the potential for poetry to illuminate crisis. They experimented with poetry, fiction, film, intellectual treatise, political manifesto, painting, calligraphy, and music. Western critics, Wang shows, also used lyricism to critique their perilous, epic time. He reads Martin Heidegger, Theodor Adorno, Cleanth Brooks, and Paul de Man, among others, to complete his portrait.The Chinese case only further intensifies the permeable nature of lyrical discourse, forcing us to reengage with the dominant role of revolution and enlightenment in shaping Chinese—and global—modernity. Wang's remarkable survey reestablishes Chinese lyricism's deep roots in its own native traditions, along with Western influences, and realizes the relevance of such a lyrical calling of the past century to our time.
The Lyrics (Vol. Two-Volume Set): 1956 To The Present
by Paul McCartneyA work of unparalleled candor and splendorous beauty, The Lyrics celebrates the creative life and the musical genius of Paul McCartney through 154 of his most meaningful songs. <P><P> From his early Liverpool days, through the historic decade of The Beatles, to Wings and his long solo career, The Lyrics pairs the definitive texts of 154 Paul McCartney songs with first-person commentaries on his life and music. Spanning two alphabetically arranged volumes, these commentaries reveal how the songs came to be and the people who inspired them: his devoted parents, Mary and Jim; his songwriting partner, John Lennon; his “Golden Earth Girl,” Linda Eastman; his wife, Nancy McCartney; and even Queen Elizabeth, among many others. Here are the origins of “Let It Be,” “Lovely Rita,” “Yesterday,” and “Mull of Kintyre,” as well as McCartney’s literary influences, including Shakespeare, Lewis Carroll, and Alan Durband, his high-school English teacher. <P><P>With images from McCartney’s personal archives—handwritten texts, paintings, and photographs, hundreds previously unseen—The Lyrics, spanning sixty-four years, becomes the definitive literary and visual record of one of the greatest songwriters of all time. <P><P><b>A New York Times Best Seller</b>
The Lyrics of Tom Waits: The Early Years
by Tom WaitsKnown for his growling vocals and for the distinct poetry of his lyrics, Tom Waits has amassed over the course of three decades a devoted cult following. The Early Years collects the lyrics—formative and classic—from the first ten albums of this true bard of hard living. A celebration of both his words and of the artist himself, this lyrical biography charts the course from Wait's emotional debut album, Closing Time (1977), to the experimental stirrings in Heartattack and Vine (1991) and One from the Heart (1992). Here the words achieve a new potency, adding further dimension to this singularly gifted artist.
The Lyrics: 1956 to the Present
by Paul Muldoon Paul McCartneyA work of unparalleled candor and splendorous beauty, The Lyrics celebrates the creative life and the musical genius of Paul McCartney through his most meaningful songs. <p><p> Finally in paperback and featuring seven new song commentaries, the #1 New York Times bestseller celebrates the creative life and unparalleled musical genius of Paul McCartney. <p><p> Spanning sixty-four years—from his early days in Liverpool, through the historic decade of The Beatles, to Wings and his solo career—Paul McCartney’s The Lyrics revolutionized the way artists write about music. An unprecedented “triumph” (Times UK), this handsomely designed volume pairs the definitive texts of over 160 songs with first-person commentaries on McCartney’s life, revealing the diverse circumstances in which songs were written; how they ultimately came to be; and the remarkable, yet often delightfully ordinary, people and places that inspired them. The Lyrics also includes: <p><p> · A personal foreword by McCartney <p>· An unprecedented range of songs, from beloved standards like “Band on the Run” to new additions “Day Tripper” and “Magical Mystery Tour” <p>· Over 160 images from McCartney’s own archives <p><p> Edited and introduced by Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Paul Muldoon, The Lyrics is the definitive literary and visual record of one of the greatest songwriters of all time. <p> <b>New York Times Bestseller</b>
The Ma'luf in Contemporary Libya: An Arab Andalusian Musical Tradition (SOAS Studies in Music Series)
by Philip CiantarThe musical tradition of Ma'luf is believed to have come to North Africa with Muslim and Jewish refugees escaping the Christian reconquista of Spain between the tenth and seventeenth centuries. Although this Arab Andalusian music tradition has been studied in other parts of the region, until now, the Libyan version has not received Western scholarly attention. This book investigates the place of this orally-transmitted music tradition in contemporary Libyan life and culture. It investigates the people that make it and the institutions that nurture it as much as the tradition itself. Patronage, music making, discourse both about life and music, history, and ideology all unite in a music tradition which looks innocent from the outside but appears quite intriguing and intricate the more one explores it.
The Madrigal: A Research and Information Guide (Routledge Music Bibliographies)
by Susan Lewis HammondThe Madrigal: A Research and Information Guide is the first comprehensive annotated bibliography of scholarship on virtually all aspects of madrigal composition, production, and consumption. It contains 1,237 entries for items in English, French, German, and Italian. Scholars, students, teachers, librarians, and performers now have access to this rich literature in a single volume.
The Magic Border: Poetry and Fragments from My Soft Machine
by Arlo ParksFrom Arlo Parks, Grammy Award-nominated recording artist and “voice of a generation”—a stunning debut book of poetry and a world-building companion to her sophomore album My Soft Machine.“Poetry was my place, my little clearing in the forest, where I could quietly put everything I was holding. I’m not sure what gave me the courage to open up that space to you but here I am, doing it. I am proud to show you this personal lens that life shimmers through. This book is no longer mine. It is yours.”—Arlo ParksThe Magic Border is the debut book from the Grammy-nominated, Mercury Prize winning musician and poet Arlo Parks. This remarkable collection features Arlo’s handpicked original poems alongside exclusive photographs by friend and collaborator Daniyel Lowden in addition to the complete lyrics to her critically lauded sophomore album My Soft Machine. A deeply personal literary tapestry, The Magic Border beautifully showcases the full breadth of Arlo’s singular artistry.
The Magic In Changing Your Stars
by Leah HendersonAfter bungling his audition to play the Scarecrow in The Wiz, fifth-grader Ailey is magically transported to 1930s Harlem where he meets his own grandfather and legendary tap dancer Bill.
The Magic Years: Scenes from a Rock-and-Roll Life
by Jonathan TaplinJonathan Taplin’s extraordinary journey has put him at the crest of every major cultural wave in the past half century: he was tour manager for Bob Dylan and The Band in the 60s, producer of major films in the 70s, an executive at Merrill Lynch in the 80s, creator of the Internet’s first Video-on-Demand service in the 90s, and a cultural critic and author writing about technology in the new millennium. His is a lifetime marked not only by good timing but by impeccable instincts—from the folk scene of Woodstock, to Hollywood’s rebellious film movement and beyond, Taplin is not just a witness but a lifelong producer, the right-hand man to some of the greatest talents of both pop culture and the underground. With cameos by Janis Joplin, Jimi Hendrix, Eric Clapton, Martin Scorsese, and countless other icons, The Magic Years is both a rock memoir and a work of cultural criticism from a key player who watched a nation turn from idealism to nihilism. Taplin offers a clear-eyed roadmap of how we got here and makes a convincing case for art’s power to deliver us from &“passionless detachment&” and rekindle our humanism.
The Magic of Beverly Sills
by Nancy GuyWith her superb coloratura soprano, passion for the world of opera, and down-to-earth personality, Beverly Sills made high art accessible to millions from the time of her meteoric rise to stardom in 1966 until her death in 2007. An unlikely pop culture phenomenon, Sills was equally at ease on talk shows, on the stage, and in the role of arts advocate and administrator. Merging archival research with her own love of Sills's music, Nancy Guy examines the singer-actress's artistry alongside the ineffable aspects of performance that earned Sills a passionate fandom. Guy mines the memories of colleagues, critics, and aficionados to recover something of the spell Sills wove for people on both sides of the footlights during the hot moments of onstage performance. At the same time, she analyzes essential questions raised by Sills's art and celebrity. How did Sills challenge the divide between elite and mass culture and build a fan base that crossed generations and socio-economic lines? Above all, how did Sills capture the unnameable magic that joins the members of an audience to a performer--and to one-another? Intimate and revealing, The Magic of Beverly Sills explores the alchemy of art, magnetism, community, and emotion that produced an American icon.
The Magnificent Elmer
by Gerald Gardner Pearl Bernstein GardnerBorn in New York City in 1922, Elmer Bernstein was one of America's most celebrated composers--best known for the award-winning musical scores he developed for film, theatre, and television over a fifty-year career. His best-known work includes the scores he wrote for The Great Escape, The Magnificent Seven, To Kill a Mockingbird, Ghostbusters, and The Ten Commandments, among many others. He was nominated for fourteen Oscars, winning one for the score to Thoroughly Modern Millie in 1967. He was also nominated for two Grammy Awards and won two Golden Globe awards.This debut memoir by Pearl Bernstein Gardner, his wife of twenty years, Galatea to his Pygmalion, provides a sweeping account of the great composer's life--from their time together as newlyweds living in a fifth-floor New York City walk-up to the glamour of the red carpet and the intrigues of Hollywood during the turbulent McCarthy period. The Bernsteins were also close friends with many prominent musicians, actors, directors, and writers of the day, including Frank Sinatra, Clifford Odets, Danny Kaye, Otto Preminger, and Cecil B. DeMille--and the portraits of their intimate conversations are both poignant and memorable.
The Main Stream of Music and Other Essays
by Donald Francis ToveyDonald Francis Tovey was born in Eton, England, on August 17, 1875. He was educated at Balliol College, Oxford, and in 1914 became Reid Professor of Music at Edinburgh University, a post he held for the rest of his life. Sir Donald (he was knighted in 1935) was an accomplished pianist and a conductor of the first rank, as well as a composer of operas and orchestral and chamber music. But his lasting fame rests on his numerous articles and books on music, among them the six-volume ESSAYS IN MUSICAL ANALYSIS; his collected contributions to the ENCYCLOPAEDIA BRITANNICA, THE FORMS OF MUSIC; and the present volume. Tovey died in Edinburgh on August 10, 1940.
The Makers of the Sacred Harp (Music in American Life #31)
by David Warren SteelThis authoritative reference work investigates the roots of the Sacred Harp, the central collection of the deeply influential and long-lived southern tradition of shape-note singing. Where other studies of the Sacred Harp have focused on the sociology of present-day singers and their activities, David Warren Steel and Richard H. Hulan concentrate on the regional culture that produced the Sacred Harp in the nineteenth century and delve deeply into history of its authors and composers. They trace the sources of every tune and text in the Sacred Harp, from the work of B. F. White, E. J. King, and their west Georgia contemporaries who helped compile the original collection in 1844 to the contributions by various composers to the 1936 to 1991 editions. The Makers of the Sacred Harp also includes analyses of the textual influences on the music--including metrical psalmody, English evangelical poets, American frontier preachers, camp meeting hymnody, and revival choruses--and essays placing the Sacred Harp as a product of the antebellum period with roots in religious revivalism. Drawing on census reports, local histories, family Bibles and other records, rich oral interviews with descendants, and Sacred Harp Publishing Company records, this volume reveals new details and insights about the history of this enduring American musical tradition.
The Making of John Lennon: The Untold Story Of The Rise And Fall Of The Beatles
by Francis KennyDespite the nearly universal fame of the Beatles, many people only know the fairytale version of the iconic group’s rise to fame. Drawing on his extensive knowledge of Liverpool, Francis Kenny reveals the real John Lennon who preceded the legend, showing how his childhood shaped his personality, creative process, and path to success, and how it also destroyed his mental health, leading to the downfall of one of the most confident and brilliant musicians of the past century. The Making of John Lennon is a must-read for any Beatles fan. It explains how Lennon’s turbulent family background affected his relationships, why the true inspiration for “Strawberry Fields” could not be revealed, how Pete Best's college connection led to his removal from the group, and why class backgrounds were the real reason for the breakup of the legendary band. Offering a complex portrait of Lennon’s early life, The Making of John Lennon tells the true story behind the rise of the legendary icon.
The Making of Kind of Blue: Miles Davis and His Masterpiece
by Eric Nisenson“A masterpiece in its own right, this work comprehensively covers Miles Davis’s 1959 landmark album, Kind of Blue. . . . valuable and discerning.” —Publishers WeeklyFrom the moment it was recorded more than forty years ago, Miles Davis’s Kind of Blue was hailed as a jazz classic. To this day it remains the bestselling jazz album of all time, embraced by fans of all musical genres. The album represented a true watershed moment in jazz history, and helped to usher in the first great jazz revolution since bebop.The Making of Kind of Blue is an exhaustively researched examination of how this masterpiece was born. Recorded with pianist Bill Evans, tenor saxophonist John Coltrane, composer/theorist George Russell and Miles himself, the album represented a fortuitous conflation of some of the real giants of the jazz world, at a time when they were at the top of their musical game. The end result was a recording that would forever change the face of American music.Through extensive interviews and access to rare recordings Nisenson pieced together the whole story of this miraculous session, laying bare the genius of Miles Davis, other musicians, and the heart of jazz itself.“Astute and entertaining” —Booklist“Worth reading just for the stories of how one of the greatest albums of all time came into being, but it offers so much more—a low-key but superb education in the way jazz is made and how it comes to mean the things it does.” —Dave Marsh, Playboy pop critic and editor of Rock and Rap Confidential
The Making of Liturgy in the Ottonian Church
by Henry ParkesThis highly original study examines the history and religious life of the Ottonian Church through its ritual books. With forensic attention to the writing and design of four important manuscripts from the city of Mainz - a musician's troper, a priest's ritual handbook, a bishop's pontifical and a copy of the enigmatic compilation now known as the 'Romano-German Pontifical' - Henry Parkes transforms liturgical sources into eloquent witnesses to the ecclesiastical history of early medieval Germany. He also presents the first comprehensive revision of Michel Andrieu's influential 'Romano-German Pontifical' theory, from the dual perspective of Mainz's cathedral of St Martin and its Benedictine monastery of St Alban. Challenging long-held assumptions about the geographies of Ottonian power, in particular the central role of Mainz and its archbishops, the book opens up important new ways of understanding how religious ritual was organised, transmitted and perceived.
The Making of a Musical Canon in Chinese Central Asia: The Uyghur Twelve Muqam (SOAS Studies in Music)
by Rachel HarrisThroughout the course of the twentieth century, as newly formed nations sought ways to develop and formalise their national identity and acquire a range of identifiable national assets, we find new musical canons springing up across the world. But these canons are not arbitrary collections of works imposed on the public by the authorities. Rather they acquire deep resonance and meaning, both as national symbols and as musical repertoires imbued with aesthetic value. This book traces the formation of one such musical canon: the Twelve Muqam, a set of musical suites linked to the Uyghurs, who are one of China's minority nationalities, and culturally Central Asian Muslims. The book draws on Uyghur and Chinese language publications; interviews with musicians and musicologists; field, archive and commercial recordings, and aims towards an understanding of the Twelve Muqam as musical repertoire, juxtaposed with an understanding of the Twelve Muqam as a field of discourse. The book brings together several years' work in this field, but its core arises from a research project under the auspices of the AHRC Centre for Music Performance and Dance.
The Making of a Reform Jewish Cantor: Musical Authority, Cultural Investment
by Judah M. CohenThe Making of a Reform Jewish Cantor provides an unprecedented look into the meaning of attaining musical authority among American Reform Jews at the turn of the twenty-first century. How do aspiring cantors adapt traditional musical forms to the practices of contemporary American congregations? What is the cantor's role in American Jewish religious life today? Judah M. Cohen follows cantorial students at the School of Sacred Music, Hebrew Union College, over the course of their training, as they prepare to become modern Jewish musical leaders. Opening a window on the practical, social, and cultural aspects of aspiring to musical authority, this book provides unusual insights into issues of musical tradition, identity, gender, community, and high and low musical culture.
The Making of a Reform Jewish Cantor: Musical Authority, Cultural Investment (A\helen B. Schwartz Book In Jewish Studies)
by Judah M. Cohen“Of interest not only to cantors and their teachers but also to rabbis, congregations and everyone concerned about the future of the Jewish community.” —Florida Jewish JournalThe Making of a Reform Jewish Cantor provides an unprecedented look into the meaning of attaining musical authority among American Reform Jews at the turn of the twenty-first century. How do aspiring cantors adapt traditional musical forms to the practices of contemporary American congregations? What is the cantor’s role in American Jewish religious life today?Judah M. Cohen follows cantorial students at the School of Sacred Music, Hebrew Union College, over the course of their training, as they prepare to become modern Jewish musical leaders. Opening a window on the practical, social, and cultural aspects of aspiring to musical authority, this book provides unusual insights into issues of musical tradition, identity, gender, community, and high and low musical culture.
The Male Dancer: Bodies, Spectacle, Sexualities
by Ramsay BurtIn this challenging and lively book, Burt examines the representation of masculinity in twentieth century dance. The Male Dancer has proven to be essential reading for anyone interested in dance and the cultural construction of gender.