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Discovering Classical Music: Verdi (Discovering Classical Music)
by Ian Christians"I recommend this book wholeheartedly to new music lovers" Sir Charles Groves CBE Thanks to Nigel Kennedy and Pavarotti, millions of people have recently discovered that classical music is a highly enjoyable experience, perhaps contrary to their expectations. But the world of classical music can be highly intimidating and confusing. Ian Christians, for many years a passionate believer in broadening the interest in classical music, has developed a unique approach, designed to make it as easy as possible for both newcomers to classical music and those who have started down the path to explore with confidence. Discovering Classical Music concentrates on the greatest composers. The author takes you step-by-step into their most approachable music and, in some cases, boldly into some of the greatest works traditionally considered too difficult for newcomers. Rarely does a book offer such potential for continued enjoyment.This volume concentrates on the life, personality and music of Edward William Elgar.
Discovering Classical Music: Vivaldi (Discovering Classical Music)
by Ian Christians"I recommend this book wholeheartedly to new music lovers" Sir Charles Groves CBE Thanks to Nigel Kennedy and Pavarotti, millions of people have recently discovered that classical music is a highly enjoyable experience, perhaps contrary to their expectations. But the world of classical music can be highly intimidating and confusing. Ian Christians, for many years a passionate believer in broadening the interest in classical music, has developed a unique approach, designed to make it as easy as possible for both newcomers to classical music and those who have started down the path to explore with confidence. Discovering Classical Music concentrates on the greatest composers. The author takes you step-by-step into their most approachable music and, in some cases, boldly into some of the greatest works traditionally considered too difficult for newcomers. Rarely does a book offer such potential for continued enjoyment.This volume concentrates on the life, personality and music of Edward William Elgar.
Discovering Classical Music: Wagner (Discovering Classical Music)
by Ian Christians"I recommend this book wholeheartedly to new music lovers" Sir Charles Groves CBE Thanks to Nigel Kennedy and Pavarotti, millions of people have recently discovered that classical music is a highly enjoyable experience, perhaps contrary to their expectations. But the world of classical music can be highly intimidating and confusing. Ian Christians, for many years a passionate believer in broadening the interest in classical music, has developed a unique approach, designed to make it as easy as possible for both newcomers to classical music and those who have started down the path to explore with confidence. Discovering Classical Music concentrates on the greatest composers. The author takes you step-by-step into their most approachable music and, in some cases, boldly into some of the greatest works traditionally considered too difficult for newcomers. Rarely does a book offer such potential for continued enjoyment.This volume concentrates on the life, personality and music of Edward William Elgar.
Discovering Classical Music: Weber (Discovering Classical Music)
by Ian Christians"I recommend this book wholeheartedly to new music lovers" Sir Charles Groves CBE Thanks to Nigel Kennedy and Pavarotti, millions of people have recently discovered that classical music is a highly enjoyable experience, perhaps contrary to their expectations. But the world of classical music can be highly intimidating and confusing. Ian Christians, for many years a passionate believer in broadening the interest in classical music, has developed a unique approach, designed to make it as easy as possible for both newcomers to classical music and those who have started down the path to explore with confidence. Discovering Classical Music concentrates on the greatest composers. The author takes you step-by-step into their most approachable music and, in some cases, boldly into some of the greatest works traditionally considered too difficult for newcomers. Rarely does a book offer such potential for continued enjoyment.This volume concentrates on the life, personality and music of Edward William Elgar.
Discovering Medieval Song: Latin Poetry and Music in the Conductus
by Mark EveristThe Conductus repertory is the body of monophonic and polyphonic non-liturgical Latin song that dominated European culture from the middle of the twelfth century to the beginning of the fourteenth. In this book, Mark Everist demonstrates how the poetry and music interact, explores how musical structures are created, and discusses the geographical and temporal reach of the genre, including its significance for performance today. The volume studies what medieval society thought of the Conductus, its function in medieval society - whether paraliturgical or in other contexts - and how it fitted into patristic and secular Latin cultures. The Conductus emerges as a genre of great poetic and musical sophistication that brought the skills of poets and musicians into alignment. This book provides an all-encompassing view of an important but unexplored repertory of medieval music, engaging with both poetry and music even-handedly to present new and up-to-date perspectives on the genre.
Discovering Music
by R. Larry Todd<P>Discovering Music offers the depth, breadth, and context that students need, in a concise format that is visually appealing.<P> Written to inspire students to connect intellectually and emotionally with music from the Western canon and beyond, the text is supported by a suite of online ancillaries, including interactive listening maps, videos and animations, an instructor's manual, PowerPoint presentations, a computerized test bank, and an interactive eBook.<P> Following the established sequence for Music Appreciation texts, the book opens with an introduction to the musical elements; the instruments of the orchestra; and a discussion of how to listen to music.<P> Then, each musical era is highlighted in individual parts, with a brief introduction to the key composers and developments that occurred in music and the related arts.<P> Individual chapters focus on key figures or movements, with detailed Listening Maps offering unique guidance to students on how and why to listen to each work. In between each part, Musical Journeys allow students to make connections with non-Western musical traditions.
Disenchanting Les Bons Temps: Identity and Authenticity in Cajun Music and Dance
by Charles J. StivaleThe expression laissez les bons temps rouler--"let the good times roll"--conveys the sense of exuberance and good times associated with southern Louisiana's vibrant cultural milieu. Yet, for Cajuns, descendants of French settlers exiled from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia in the mid-eighteenth century, this sense of celebration has always been mixed with sorrow. By focusing on Cajun music and dance and the ways they convey the dual experiences of joy and pain, Disenchanting Les Bons Temps illuminates the complexities of Cajun culture. Charles J. Stivale shows how vexed issues of cultural identity and authenticity are negotiated through the rich expressions of emotion, sensation, sound, and movement in Cajun music and dance. Stivale combines his personal knowledge and love of Cajun music and dance with the theoretical insights of Gilles Deleuze and Flix Guattari to consider representations of things Cajun. He examines the themes expressed within the lyrics of the Cajun musical repertoire and reflects on the ways Cajun cultural practices are portrayed in different genres including feature films, documentaries, and instructional dance videos. He analyzes the dynamic exchanges between musicians, dancers, and spectators at such venues as bars and music festivals. He also considers a number of thorny socio-political issues underlying Cajun culture, including racial tensions and linguistic isolation. At the same time, he describes various efforts by contemporary musicians and their fans to transcend the limitations of cultural stereotypes and social exclusion. Disenchanting Les Bons Temps will appeal to those interested in Cajun culture, issues of race and ethnicity, music and dance, and the intersection of French and Francophone studies with Anglo and American cultural studies.
Disgraceland: Musicians Getting Away with Murder and Behaving Very Badly
by Jake BrennanFrom the creator of the popular rock 'n' roll true crime podcast, DISGRACELAND comes an off-kilter, hysterical, at times macabre book of stories from the highly entertaining underbelly of music history.You may know Jerry Lee Lewis married his thirteen-year-old cousin but did you know he shot his bass player in the chest with a shotgun or that a couple of his wives died under extremely mysterious circumstances? Or that Sam Cooke was shot dead in a seedy motel after barging into the manager's office naked to attack her? Maybe not. Would it change your view of him if you knew that, or would your love for his music triumph? Real rock stars do truly insane thing and invite truly insane things to happen to them; murder, drug trafficking, rape, cannibalism and the occult. We allow this behavior. We are complicit because a rock star behaving badly is what's expected. It's baked into the cake. Deep down, way down, past all of our self-righteous notions of justice and right and wrong, when it comes down to it, we want our rock stars to be bad. We know the music industry is full of demons, ones that drove Elvis Presley, Phil Spector, Sid Vicious and that consumed the Norwegian Black Metal scene. We want to believe in the myths because they're so damn entertaining.DISGRACELAND is a collection of the best of these stories about some of the music world's most beloved stars and their crimes. It will mix all-new, untold stories with expanded stories from the first two seasons of the Disgraceland podcast. Using figures we already recognize, DISGRACELAND shines a light into the dark corners of their fame revealing the fine line that separates heroes and villains as well as the danger Americans seek out in their news cycles, tabloids, reality shows and soap operas. At the center of this collection of stories is the ever-fascinating music industry--a glittery stage populated by gangsters, drug dealers, pimps, groupies with violence, scandal and pure unadulterated rock 'n' roll entertainment.
Disinformation in Mass Media: Gluck, Piccinni and the Journal de Paris (Royal Musical Association Monographs)
by Beverly JeroldThe founding in 1777 of the Journal de Paris, France’s first daily and distinctly commercial paper, represents an early use of disinformation as a tool for political gain, profit, and societal division. To attract a large readership and bar competition for C.W. Gluck’s works at the Paris Opéra, it launched a prolonged campaign of anonymous lies, mockery, and defamation against two prominent members of the Académie Française who wished the Opéra to be open to all deserving composers but lacked a comparable daily forum with which to defend themselves. In this unique episode, music served as a smokescreen for nefarious activity. No musical knowledge is necessary to follow this purely political drama.
Disney Raya and the Last Dragon: The Graphic Novel (Graphic Novel)
by RH DisneyThis hardcover full-color graphic novel retells the whole exciting story of the hit Disney animated film Raya and the Last Dragon!Experience the magic of the fantasy-action-adventure Raya and the Last Dragon, exploring themes of community and hope, and inspired by the beautiful and diverse cultures of Southeast Asia. This hardcover graphic novel retells the whole exciting story with full-color illustrations. It is perfect for boys and girls ages 8 to 12! Walt Disney Animation Studios' Raya and the Last Dragon introduces Raya, a lone warrior from the fantasy kingdom of Kumandra who teams up with a crew of misfits in her quest to find the last dragon and bring light and unity back to their world. Awkwafina lends her voice to Sisu, the last dragon, who was left on Kumandra in case dark forces return to the world, and Kelly Marie Tran voices the lead character, Raya.
Disney Theatrical Productions: Producing Broadway Musicals the Disney Way
by Amy S. OsatinskiDisney Theatrical Productions: Producing Broadway Musicals the Disney Way is the first work of scholarship to comprehensively examine the history and production practices of Disney Theatrical Productions (DTP), the theatrical producing arm of the studio branch of the Walt Disney Corporation. This book uncovers how DTP has forged a new model for producing large-scale musicals on Broadway by functioning as an independent theatrical producer under the umbrella of a large entertainment corporation. Case studies of three productions (The Lion King, Tarzan, and Newsies) demonstrate the flexibility and ingenuity of DTP, and showcase the various production models that the company has employed over the years. Exploring topics such as the history of DTP, its impact on the revitalization of Times Square, and its ability to open up a new audience base for Broadway theatre, this volume examines the impact that DTP has had on American musicals, both domestically and internationally, and how its accomplishments have helped reshape the Broadway landscape. This book is relevant to students in Musical Theatre, History of Musical Theatre, Theatre History, and Arts Management courses, along with general Disney enthusiasts.
Disraeli the Novelist (Routledge Library Editions: The Nineteenth-Century Novel #3)
by Thom BraunFirst published in 1981, this book attempts to approach a better understanding of Disraeli the man through his life as a novelist. It is not a series of literary criticisms, rather an attempt to see how ‘fiction’ and the act of ‘fictionalising’ played an important part in Disraeli’s life. The author discusses how Disraeli’s novels in terms of how they reflected various stages of his life and development while assuming no knowledge of the, now mostly out-of-print, books on the part of the reader. This book fills the gap between the standard and comprehensive political biographies and the few literary analyses that appeared the twenty years prior to its publication.
Disruptive Divas: Feminism, Identity and Popular Music (Studies In Contemporary Music And Culture Ser.)
by Lori Burns Melisse LafranceDisruptive Divas focuses on four female musicians: Tori Amos, Courtney Love, Me'Shell Ndegéocello and P. J. Harvey who have marked contemporary popular culture in unexpected ways have impelled and disturbed the boundaries of "acceptable" female musicianship.
Dissonance
by Erica O'RourkeIn this inventive romantic thriller, Del has the power to navigate between alternate realities—and the power to save multiple worlds.<P> Delancey knows for sure that there is more than one universe. Many more. Because every time someone makes a choice, a new, parallel world is spun off the existing one. Eating breakfast or skipping it, turning left instead of right, sneaking out instead of staying in bed—all of these choices create alternate universes in which echo selves take the roads not traveled. Del knows all of this because she’s a Walker, someone who can navigate between the worlds, and whose job is to keep the dimensions in harmony.<P> But Del’s decisions have consequences too. Even though she’s forbidden from Walking after a training session goes horribly wrong, she secretly starts to investigate other dissonant worlds. She’s particularly intrigued by the echo versions of Simon Lane, a guy who won’t give her the time of day in the main world, but whose alternate selves are uniquely interested. But falling for Simon draws Del closer to a truth that the Council of Walkers is trying to hide—a secret that threatens the fate of the entire multiverse.
Dissonance
by Erica O'RourkeIn this inventive romantic thriller, Del has the power to navigate between alternate realities--and the power to save multiple worlds.Every time someone makes a choice, a new, parallel world is spun off the existing one. Eating breakfast or skipping it, turning left instead of right, sneaking out instead of staying in bed--all of these choices create alternate universes in which echo selves take the roads not traveled. Del knows this because she's a Walker, someone who can navigate between the worlds, and whose job is to keep the dimensions in harmony.But Del's decisions have consequences too. Even though she's forbidden from Walking after a training session goes horribly wrong, she secretly starts to investigate other dissonant worlds. She's particularly intrigued by the echo versions of Simon Lane, a guy who won't give her the time of day in the main world, but whose alternate selves are uniquely interested. But falling for Simon draws Del closer to a truth that the Council of Walkers is trying to hide--a secret that threatens the fate of the entire multiverse."O'Rourke brilliantly builds an intricate and complex alternate science-fiction universe that contains beautiful imagery and visualization. A definite page-turner." --School Library Journal
Dissonance: Auditory Aesthetics in Ancient Greece (Idiom: Inventing Writing Theory)
by Sean Alexander GurdIn the four centuries leading up to the death of Euripides, Greek singers, poets, and theorists delved deeply into auditory experience. They charted its capacity to develop topologies distinct from those of the other senses; contemplated its use as a communicator of information; calculated its power to express and cause extreme emotion. They made sound too, artfully and self-consciously creating songs and poems that reveled in sonorousness. Dissonance reveals the commonalities between ancient Greek auditory art and the concerns of contemporary sound studies, avant-garde music, and aesthetics, making the argument that “classical” Greek song and drama were, in fact, an early European avant-garde, a proto-exploration of the aesthetics of noise. The book thus develops an alternative to that romantic ideal which sees antiquity as a frozen and silent world.
Distant Cycles: Schubert and the Conceiving of Song
by Richard KramerFranz Schubert's song cycles Schone Mullerin and Winterreise are cornerstones of the genre. But as Richard Kramer argues in this book, Schubert envisioned many other songs as components of cyclical arrangements that were never published as such. By carefully studying Schubert's original manuscripts, Kramer recovers some of these "distant cycles" and accounts for idiosyncrasies in the songs which other analyses have failed to explain. Returning the songs to their original keys, Kramer reveals linkages among songs which were often obscured as Schubert readied his compositions for publication. His analysis thus conveys even familiar songs in fresh contexts that will affect performance, interpretation, and criticism. After addressing problems of multiple settings and revisions, Kramer presents a series of briefs for the reconfiguring of sets of songs to poems by Goethe, Rellstab, and Heine. He deconstructs Winterreise, using its convoluted origins to illuminate its textual contradictions. Finally, Kramer scrutinizes settings from the Abendrote cycle (on poems by Friedrich Schlegel) for signs of cyclic process. Probing the farthest reaches of Schubert's engagement with the poetics of lieder, Distant Cycles exposes tensions between Schubert the composer and Schubert the merchant-entrepreneur.
Distant Cycles: Schubert and the Conceiving of Song
by Richard KramerFranz Schubert's song cycles Schone Mullerin and Winterreise are cornerstones of the genre. But as Richard Kramer argues in this book, Schubert envisioned many other songs as components of cyclical arrangements that were never published as such. By carefully studying Schubert's original manuscripts, Kramer recovers some of these "distant cycles" and accounts for idiosyncrasies in the songs which other analyses have failed to explain. Returning the songs to their original keys, Kramer reveals linkages among songs which were often obscured as Schubert readied his compositions for publication. His analysis thus conveys even familiar songs in fresh contexts that will affect performance, interpretation, and criticism. After addressing problems of multiple settings and revisions, Kramer presents a series of briefs for the reconfiguring of sets of songs to poems by Goethe, Rellstab, and Heine. He deconstructs Winterreise, using its convoluted origins to illuminate its textual contradictions. Finally, Kramer scrutinizes settings from the Abendrote cycle (on poems by Friedrich Schlegel) for signs of cyclic process. Probing the farthest reaches of Schubert's engagement with the poetics of lieder, Distant Cycles exposes tensions between Schubert the composer and Schubert the merchant-entrepreneur.
Distant Melodies: Music in Search of Home
by Edward DusinberreAn engaging blend of memoir and music history, Distant Melodies explores the changing ideas of home, displacement, and return through the lives and chamber music of four composers. How does music played and heard over many years inform one’s sense of home? Writing during the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel is forbidden and distance felt anew, Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the world-renowned Takács Quartet, searches for answers in the music of composers whose relationships to home shaped the pursuit of their craft—Antonín Dvořák, Edward Elgar, Béla Bartók, and Benjamin Britten. Dusinberre has lived abroad for three decades. At the age of 21, he left his native England to pursue music studies at the Juilliard School in New York. Three years later he moved to Boulder, Colorado. Drawn to the stories of Dvořák’s, Bartók’s, and Britten’s American sojourns as they tried to reconcile their new surroundings with nostalgia for their homelands, Dusinberre reflects on his own evolving relationship to England and the idea of home. As he visits and imagines some of the places crucial to these composers’ creative inspiration, Dusinberre also reflects on Elgar’s unusual Piano Quintet and the landscapes that inspired it. Combining travel writing with revealing insights into the working lives of string quartet musicians, Distant Melodies is a moving and humorous meditation on the relationship between music and home.
Distant Melodies: Music in Search of Home
by Edward DusinberreAn engaging blend of memoir and music history, Distant Melodies explores the changing ideas of home, displacement, and return through the lives and chamber music of four composers. How does music played and heard over many years inform one’s sense of home? Writing during the COVID-19 pandemic, when travel is forbidden and distance felt anew, Edward Dusinberre, first violinist of the world-renowned Takács Quartet, searches for answers in the music of composers whose relationships to home shaped the pursuit of their craft—Antonín Dvořák, Edward Elgar, Béla Bartók, and Benjamin Britten. Dusinberre has lived abroad for three decades. At the age of 21, he left his native England to pursue music studies at the Juilliard School in New York. Three years later he moved to Boulder, Colorado. Drawn to the stories of Dvořák’s, Bartók’s, and Britten’s American sojourns as they tried to reconcile their new surroundings with nostalgia for their homelands, Dusinberre reflects on his own evolving relationship to England and the idea of home. As he visits and imagines some of the places crucial to these composers’ creative inspiration, Dusinberre also reflects on Elgar’s unusual Piano Quintet and the landscapes that inspired it. Combining travel writing with revealing insights into the working lives of string quartet musicians, Distant Melodies is a moving and humorous meditation on the relationship between music and home.
Distortion in Music Production: The Soul of Sonics (Perspectives on Music Production)
by Gary Bromham Austin MooreDistortion in Music Production offers a range of valuable perspectives on how engineers and producers use distortion and colouration as production tools. Readers are provided with detailed and informed considerations on the use of non-linear signal processing, by authors working in a wide array of academic, creative, and professional contexts. Including comprehensive coverage of the process, as well as historical perspectives and future innovations, this book features interviews and contributions from academics and industry practitioners. Distortion in Music Production also explores ways in which music producers can implement the process in their work and how the effect can be used and abused through examination from technical, practical, and musicological perspectives. This text is one of the first to offer an extensive investigation of distortion in music production and constitutes essential reading for students and practitioners working in music production.
Distraction Pieces
by Scroobius PipThe Times Bestseller (Non-Fiction)Join Scroobius Pip as he gets to the bottom of what matters most in life: whether getting Russell Brand to expound on capitalism, Jon Ronson on the perils of social media, Simon Pegg on the power of satire, Killer Mike on race relations in the United States or Howard Marks on drugs and cancer, Pip elicits thought-provoking material by rummaging through the minds of some of the most interesting creatives of our time. Distraction Pieces features both curated highlights from the iTunes-chart-topping podcast - from Akala to Howard Marks via the likes of Adam Buxton, Romesh Ranganathan and Amanda Palmer - and exclusive new content, with chapters on politics, social media, music, comedy and more. Featuring illustrations by tattoo artist mr heggie, this is a must-have for fans of the Distraction Pieces podcast, and a must-read for anyone interested in the creative mind.
Divas and Scholars: Performing Italian Opera
by Philip GossettWinner of the 2007 Otto Kinkeldey Award from the American Musicological Society and the 2007 Deems Taylor Award from the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers.Divas and Scholars is a dazzling and beguiling account of how opera comes to the stage, filled with Philip Gossett’s personal experiences of triumphant—and even failed—performances and suffused with his towering and tonic passion for music. Writing as a fan, a musician, and a scholar, Gossett, the world's leading authority on the performance of Italian opera, brings colorfully to life the problems, and occasionally the scandals, that attend the production of some of our most favorite operas. Gossett begins by tracing the social history of nineteenth-century Italian theaters in order to explain the nature of the musical scores from which performers have long worked. He then illuminates the often hidden but crucial negotiations opera scholars and opera conductors and performers: What does it mean to talk about performing from a critical edition? How does one determine what music to perform when multiple versions of an opera exist? What are the implications of omitting passages from an opera in a performance? In addition to vexing questions such as these, Gossett also tackles issues of ornamentation and transposition in vocal style, the matters of translation and adaptation, and even aspects of stage direction and set design. Throughout this extensive and passionate work, Gossett enlivens his history with reports from his own experiences with major opera companies at venues ranging from the Metropolitan and Santa Fe operas to the Rossini Opera Festival at Pesaro. The result is a book that will enthrall both aficionados of Italian opera and newcomers seeking a reliable introduction to it—in all its incomparable grandeur and timeless allure.
Divas in the Convent: Nuns, Music, and Defiance in Seventeenth-Century Italy
by Craig A. MonsonWhen eight-year-old Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana (1590OCo1662) entered one of the preeminent convents in Bologna in 1598, she had no idea what cloistered life had in store for her. Thanks to clandestine instruction from a local "maestro di cappella"OCoand despite the church hierarchyOCOs vehement opposition to all convent musicOCoVizzana became the star of the convent, composing works so thoroughly modern and expressive that a recent critic described them as OC historical treasures. OCO But at the very moment when VizzanaOCOs works appeared in 1623OCoshe would be the only Bolognese nun ever to publish her musicOCoextraordinary troubles beset her and her fellow nuns, as episcopal authorities arrived to investigate anonymous allegations of sisterly improprieties with male members of their order. aaaaaaaaaaa Craig A. Monson retells the story of Vizzana and the nuns of Santa Cristina to elucidate the role that music played in the lives of these cloistered women. Gifted singers, instrumentalists, and composers, these nuns used music not only to forge links with the community beyond convent walls, but also to challenge and circumvent ecclesiastical authority. Monson explains how the sisters of Santa CristinaOCorefusing to accept what the church hierarchy called GodOCOs will and what the nuns perceived as a besmirching of their honorOCofought back with words and music, and when these proved futile, with bricks, roof tiles, and stones. These women defied one Bolognese archbishop after another, cardinals in Rome, and even the pope himself, until threats of excommunication and abandonment by their families brought them to their knees twenty-five years later. By then, Santa CristinaOCOs imaginative but frail composer literally had been driven mad by the conflict. aaaaaaaaaaa MonsonOCOs fascinating narrative relies heavily on the words of its various protagonists, on both sides of the cloister wall, who emerge vividly as imaginative, independent-minded, and not always sympathetic figures. In restoring the musically gifted Lucrezia Orsina Vizzana to history, Monson introduces readers to the full range of captivating characters who played their parts in seventeenth-century convent life. a
Dixie Dewdrop: The Uncle Dave Macon Story (Music in American Life)
by Michael D. DoublerOne of the earliest performers on WSM in Nashville, Uncle Dave Macon became the Grand Ole Opry's first superstar. His old-time music and energetic stage shows made him a national sensation and fueled a thirty-year run as one of America's most beloved entertainers. Michael D. Doubler tells the amazing story of the Dixie Dewdrop, a country music icon. Born in 1870, David Harrison Macon learned the banjo from musicians passing through his parents' Nashville hotel. After playing local shows in Middle Tennessee for decades, a big break led Macon to Vaudeville, the earliest of his two hundred-plus recordings and eventually to national stardom. Uncle Dave--clad in his trademark plug hat and gates-ajar collar--soon became the face of the Opry itself with his spirited singing, humor, and array of banjo picking styles. For the rest of his life, he defied age to tour and record prolifically, manage his business affairs, mentor up-and-comers like David "Stringbean" Akeman, and play with the Delmore Brothers, Roy Acuff, and Bill Monroe.