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The Haydn Economy: Music, Aesthetics, and Commerce in the Late Eighteenth Century (New Material Histories Of Music Ser.)
by Nicholas MathewAnalyzing the final three decades of Haydn’s career, this book uses the composer as a prism through which to examine urgent questions across the humanities. In this far-reaching work of music history and criticism, Nicholas Mathew reimagines the world of Joseph Haydn and his contemporaries, with its catastrophic upheavals and thrilling sense of potential. In the process, Mathew tackles critical questions of particular moment: how we tell the history of the European Enlightenment and Romanticism; the relation of late eighteenth-century culture to incipient capitalism and European colonialism; and how the modern market and modern aesthetic values were—and remain—inextricably entwined.The Haydn Economy weaves a vibrant material history of Haydn’s career, extending from the sphere of the ancient Esterházy court to his frenetic years as an entrepreneur plying between London and Vienna to his final decade as a venerable musical celebrity, during which he witnessed the transformation of his legacy by a new generation of students and acolytes, Beethoven foremost among them. Ultimately, Mathew asserts, Haydn’s historical trajectory compels us to ask what we might retain from the cultural and political practices of European modernity—whether we can extract and preserve its moral promise from its moral failures. And it demands that we confront the deep histories of capitalism that continue to shape our beliefs about music, sound, and material culture.
Haydn's Farewell Symphony (Once Upon a Masterpiece #1)
by Anna Harwell CelenzaAnna Harwell Celenza's engaging fictionalized telling of the story behind Franz Joseph Haydn's famous symphony is a perfect introduction to classical music and its power. THE FAREWELL SYMPHONY brings to life a long summer spent at Esterháza, the summer palace of Prince Nicholas of Esterházy.The blustering, bellowing prince entertained hundreds of guests at his rural retreat and demanded music for every occasion. As the months passed, Haydn was kept very busy writing and performing music for parties, balls, dinners, and even walks in the gardens. His orchestra members became homesick and missed their families. The anger, frustration, and longing of the musicians is expressed beautifully in the symphony born of the clever mind of Joseph Haydn who used it to convince Prince Nicholas that it was time to go home.Wonderfully expressive illustrations by JoAnn E. Kitchel capture all the comedy and pathos of this unique symphony. Beautifully interpretive motifs and borders convey the setting and emotion of the story mirroring the structure of the symphony with the repetitive use of sets of four. Making classical music and history come alive with color and character, THE FAREWELL SYMPHONY ensures a place for the arts in the hearts and minds of children.
Haydn’s Sunrise, Beethoven’s Shadow: Audiovisual Culture and the Emergence of Musical Romanticism
by Deirdre LoughridgeThe years between roughly 1760 and 1810, a period stretching from the rise of Joseph Haydn’s career to the height of Ludwig van Beethoven’s, are often viewed as a golden age for musical culture, when audiences started to revel in the sounds of the concert hall. But the latter half of the eighteenth century also saw proliferating optical technologies—including magnifying instruments, magic lanterns, peepshows, and shadow-plays—that offered new performance tools, fostered musical innovation, and shaped the very idea of “pure” music. Haydn’s Sunrise, Beethoven’s Shadow is a fascinating exploration of the early romantic blending of sight and sound as encountered in popular science, street entertainments, opera, and music criticism. Deirdre Loughridge reveals that allusions in musical writings to optical technologies reflect their spread from fairgrounds and laboratories into public consciousness and a range of discourses, including that of music. She demonstrates how concrete points of intersection—composers’ treatments of telescopes and peepshows in opera, for instance, or a shadow-play performance of a ballad—could then fuel new modes of listening that aimed to extend the senses. An illuminating look at romantic musical practices and aesthetics, this book yields surprising relations between the past and present and offers insight into our own contemporary audiovisual culture.
Hayley Westenra: In Her Own Voice
by Darren Henley Hayley WestenraHayley's first performance as 'Little Star' in a Christmas play was perfectly pitched, beautifully sung and enthusiastically received. She was six years old. Now, at the tender age of twenty, she is the fastest-selling debut classical artist ever. Her string of musical accolades is astonishing and her audiences range from royalty to premiers.This is her story, from her first performance, through later roles in major productions such as Annie, La Bohème and The Sound of Music, her decision at the age of eleven to busk for her lunch money, and the subsequent record deals, money, charity work and classical superstardom.
He Is . . . I Say: How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love Neil Diamond
by David WildHe Is...I Say examines Neil Diamond's singular place in the pantheon of popular music. David Wild-who has written about Diamond for Rolling Stone, penned the liner notes to a number of Diamond's anthologies, and produced Diamond's scandal-free episode of Behind the Music. Now he dares to turn on his "Heartlight," offering a moving and hilarious salute to his own Jewish Elvis based on his past interviews with the Solitary Man himself.An illuminating snapshot of a beloved American icon, He Is...I Say endearingly speaks to the condition of being a Diamondhead in a hipper-than-thou world, while fully illustrating exactly what it is that makes the man and the artist so special.
He Is My Story: The Sanctified Soul of Arizona Dranes
by Michael CorcoranIn anticipation of 'The Record Store of the Mind', a new book by Tompkins Square record label founder Josh Rosenthal out October 20th, Tompkins Square Books offers a fresh look at their first release - 2012's 'He Is My Story : The Sanctified Soul of Arizona Dranes,' by Michael Corcoran. This book/CD package was nominated for a Grammy Award, Best Historical Album, in 2013. Corcoran, former music critic and columnist for the Austin American-Statesman, has spent years unearthing revelatory details on the life of Arizona Dranes, a mysterious woman behind the music that set the mold in 1926 for rockin' singer/ pianists with six "test records" that have stood the test of time. Until now, very little has been correctly reported about Dranes other than the facts that she was blind, from Texas, had a piercing Pentecostal voice and was the first recording artist to play piano in the secular styles of the day, while singing words of deep praise.
He Stopped Loving Her Today: George Jones, Billy Sherrill, and the Pretty-Much Totally True Story of the Making of the Greatest Country Record of All Time (American Made Music Series)
by Jack IsenhourWhen George Jones recorded “He Stopped Loving Her Today” more than thirty years ago, he was a walking disaster. Twin addictions to drugs and alcohol had him drinking Jim Beam by the case and snorting cocaine as long as he was awake. Before it was over, Jones would be bankrupt, homeless, and an unwilling patient at an Alabama mental institution. In the midst of all this chaos, legendary producer Billy Sherrill—the man who discovered Tammy Wynette and cowrote “Stand by Your Man”—would somehow coax the performance of a lifetime out of the mercurial Jones. The result was a country masterpiece. He Stopped Loving Her Today, the story behind the making of the song often voted the best country song ever by both critics and fans, offers an overview of country music's origins and a search for the music's elusive Holy Grail: authenticity. The schizoid bottom line—even though country music is undeniably a branch of the make-believe world of showbiz, to fans and scholars alike, authenticity remains the ultimate measure of the music's power.
A Head Full of Music: The soundtrack to my life
by Cliff RichardForeword by Bob StanleyOn a sunny Saturday morning in May 1956, a fifteen-year-old, then called Harry Webb, was mooching down Waltham Cross High Street. He heard some music blaring out of a parked car. It stopped him in his tracks.The song was 'Heartbreak Hotel' by Elvis Presley. It sounded like nothing he had ever heard before. In that instant, the schoolboy who was destined to take the hit parade by storm as Cliff Richard fell in love with rock and roll. It gave him the thrill, the purpose and the mission that has shaped his life ever since.Cliff lives in and for music. And with 65 years as a hitmaker, the music filling his head is a broad category. His soundtrack begins by blasting us all back into that first life-changing explosion of rock and roll, and also includes great soul stars such as Aretha Franklin, longtime colleagues like Elton John, and much-missed close friends Cilla Black and Olivia Newton-John.This book is meaningful to Cliff on many levels. The 30 or so songs here that make up the soundtrack to his life have each moved him deeply, but it's also about the legendary artists he met, and often got to know. He shares those stories and memories with you, too.A Head Full of Music is a vibrant personal journey for Cliff, and it's a joy to accompany him on it. Get wired for sound with him and read on.
Healing at the Speed of Sound
by Campbell Don Doman AlexAt this very moment, you are surrounded by sound. Pause for a minute and try to listen to it all: the chatter of a passing conversation, the gentle whoosh of air vents, noise from a nearby street, someone turning the pages of a book, birds chirping in the trees. We rarely pay attention to everything we hear, but every noise in our environment has the ability to change our mood, decrease our productivity, even affect our health. While sound can heal, both emotionally and physically, it can also hurt us. In this engaging book, bestselling author and music expert Don Campbell (The Mozart Effect®) teams up with Alex Doman, a specialist in the practical application of sound, to show how we can use music and silence throughout our day to not only change how we feel but alter how we physically function. The authors delve into more than a decades' worth of research, from studies on aging to groundbreaking brain science, in order to illustrate how noise affects us for better and for worse. Walking readers through every aspect of their daily lives -- from the morning commute to getting a restful night's sleep -- Don and Alex provide practical advice and exercises so you can create perfect soundtracks for every task, combining music you already love with new favorites. In addition, the authors share nearly one hundred active links to music, video, and downloads in the book that help support their advice and show how others use the inspiring force of music to improve their lives. Combining the joy of music with the strength of science, Healing at the Speed of Sound(tm) will set you on the path to a full, rich, and truly harmonious life.
The Healing Power of the Human Voice: Mantras, Chants, and Seed Sounds for Health and Harmony
by James D'AngeloA complete introduction to using the sounds of the voice to promote healing• Explains the emotional meanings and healing attributes of human vocal expression, from vowels and consonants to natural sounds such as laughter or sighs• Includes easy-to-follow vocal and breathing exercises• Contains chants and mantras from cultures around the worldAs infants and children we use our vocalizations to express our needs and emotions. As we grow older these vocalizations become confined to language. The suppression of emotional sounds because they may be considered childish or undignified is quite commonplace in Western cultures. Yet when done with vigor, the sounds made by laughing, groaning, humming, keening, and sighing hold within them great power for healing.In The Healing Power of the Human Voice James D'Angelo introduces the concepts behind sound healing and provides simple, practical exercises for beginners. He explains in detail the meanings and healing attributes of the whole range of human vocal expression, from vowels and consonants to the natural sounds of laughter or sighs. He praises the power of singing and reveals the ways in which group singing can contribute to physical and mental health. He also presents authentic classical chants and mantras from cultures around the world and shows how we can combine various vocal sounds to form our own mantra to help clear chakra blockages. All of the sounds discussed, as well as the techniques for producing overtones, are placed in a ritualized context and are accompanied by simple movements to enhance tuning the body toward inner harmony, health, and peace.
Healing Rhythms: The World of South Korea's East Coast Hereditary Shamans (SOAS Studies in Music)
by Simon MillsStill today, in South Korea, many people pay for the services of mudang - the intermediaries of Korea's syncretic folk religion. The majority of mudang are called to the profession by gods; their clients are individuals or small groups and they focus on the use of spirit-power ('possession') for diagnosis and problem-solving. There is, however, a tiny minority of mudang who are born or adopted into the ritual life and who have no spirit-power. These ritualists perform in large family groups, conducting rituals for whole communities. They focus far more on the use of music, dance, and song to provide healing experiences. In this book, Simon Mills provides an in-depth analysis of the East Coast hereditary mudang institution and its rhythm-oriented music, focusing particularly on the Kim family of mudang - the government-appointed 'cultural assets' for the genre. It is the first English language book to study this tradition in any depth, using materials from fieldwork (1999-2000) alongside interviews with two key family members, Kim Junghee and Jo Jonghun. Throughout, Mills includes numerous quotes from the ritualists themselves to help reveal their characters, opinions and beliefs. He documents the family's history, the decline of the hereditary mudang institution and its kinship customs, and the family's changing relations towards 'outsiders'. Mills also details ritual procedures, musical structures, playing techniques, instruments, and learning methods both of the past and present; as non-ritual musicians become increasingly aware of the powerful ritual rhythms, the music is finding new life in non-ritual settings. A 5-track CD featuring Kim, Jo, and Mills accompanies the book, each track corresponding to the equivalent chapter in the text.
Healing Songs
by Ted GioiaWhile the first healers were musicians who relied on rhythm and song to help cure the sick, over time Western thinkers and doctors lost touch with these traditions. In the West, for almost two millennia, the roles of the healer and the musician have been strictly separated. Until recently, that is. Over the past few decades there has been a resurgence of interest in healing music. In the midst of this nascent revival, Ted Gioia, a musician, composer, and widely praised author, offers the first detailed exploration of the uses of music for curative purposes from ancient times to the present. Gioia's inquiry into the restorative powers of sound moves effortlessly from the history of shamanism to the role of Orpheus as a mythical figure linking Eastern and Western ideas about therapeutic music, and from Native American healing ceremonies to what clinical studies can reveal about the efficacy of contemporary methods of sonic healing. Gioia considers a broad range of therapies, providing a thoughtful, impartial guide to their histories and claims, their successes and failures. He examines a host of New Age practices, including toning, Cymatics, drumming circles, and the Tomatis method. And he explores how the medical establishment has begun to recognize and incorporate the therapeutic power of song. Acknowledging that the drumming circle will not--and should not--replace the emergency room, nor the shaman the cardiologist, Gioia suggests that the most promising path is one in which both the latest medical science and music--with its capacity to transform attitudes and bring people together--are brought to bear on the multifaceted healing process. In Healing Songs, as in its companion volume Work Songs, Gioia moves beyond studies of music centered on specific performers, time periods, or genres to illuminate how music enters into and transforms the experiences of everyday life.
Healing Sounds: The Power of Harmonics
by Jonathan GoldmanThe first book to explain from both scientific and spiritual perspectives the healing and transformative powers of harmonics. • Includes practical exercises demonstrating how to use sound in healing and meditation, including "Vowels as Mantras" and "Overtoning". • Describes how harmonics can be used as "sonic yoga" for meditation and deep relaxation to enhance energy. • Over 25,000 copies of first editions sold in 6 languages. • Author won 1999 Visionary Awards for Best Healing-Meditation Album. The Mystery Schools of Egypt, Greece, and Rome understood that vibration is the fundamental active force in the universe and developed specific chants and tones for healing the mind, body, and spirit and achieving altered states of consciousness. Overtone chanting--also called vocal harmonics--is the ability of the human voice to create two or more notes at the same time. Healing Sounds explains how to perform vocal harmonics and experience their transformative and curative powers. An internationally recognized master teacher, the author provides diverse examples of sound healing systems incorporating both mystical and medical traditions--from Tibetan monks' use of tantric harmonics to Dr. Alfred Tomatis' use of Gregorian chanting--and their capacity to affect us on all levels. With many easy-to-follow exercises, Healing Sounds is the first book to show from both the scientific and spiritual viewpoints how to use the transformative power of sound for healing on physical, emotional, mental, and spiritual levels.
Healing Sounds: The Power of Harmonics
by Jonathan Goldman• Presents a step-by-step process of vibrational activation using sacred and healing sounds and explains in detail how to perform vocal harmonics to transform and heal• Shares many easy-to-follow sound healing exercises, such as &“Vowels as Mantras&” for chakra chanting and &“Overtoning,&” a powerful sound healing technique• Offers more than 100 minutes of exclusive audio downloads featuring recordings of sound healing exercises, guided meditations, and sonic excerpts to help you experience and embody the power of harmonicsIn this 30th anniversary edition of the classic guidebook on sound healing, internationally recognized master teacher Jonathan Goldman presents a step-by-step process of vibrational activation using sacred and healing sounds. Sharing many easy-to-follow sound healing exercises, such as &“Vowels as Mantras&” and &“Overtoning,&” Goldman explains in detail how to perform vocal harmonics--a form of overtone chanting--and experience their transformative and healing powers. He shows how harmonics can be used as sonic yoga for meditation and deep relaxation as well as to enhance energy and resonate the chakras, the energy centers of the body. Exploring the vibrational principles that underlie the framework of the universe, including frequency and resonance, Goldman explains how harmonics represent the colors of sound and affect us on all levels, bridging body, mind, and spirit. He explores mantra and chakra chanting, sacred vowels, vocal toning, conscious listening, cymatics, sonic shamanism, magical incantations, and many other vibrational and sound healing techniques. Providing the basis for how and why sound can heal and transform, this new 30th anniversary edition of Healing Sounds also offers more than 100 minutes of exclusive audio downloads featuring recordings of sound healing exercises, guided meditations, and sonic excerpts to help you experience and embody the power of harmonics.
Hear Dat New Orleans: A Guide to the Rich Musical Heritage & Lively Current Scene
by Michael Murphy Marc PaganiBy the author of Eat Dat and Fear Dat, a charmingly irreverent guide to the thriving, world-famous music scene in New Orleans One of the first questions visitors to New Orleans often ask is, "Where can I go to hear music?" A better question might be, "Where can I go and not hear music?" Music is everywhere in this city, but to experience the best of it, you need the right guide. In Hear Dat New Orleans, local expert Michael Murphy brings his signature offbeat sensibility to the Big Easy's largest tourist draw. With in-depth recommendations for the greatest venues, the best musicians, and the must-see festivals, Hear Dat New Orleans is an indispensable companion for anyone who wants to really experience the sounds of New Orleans?live and uncensored.
Hear Me Out
by Sarah HardingSunday Times Bestseller'I can't rewrite history; all I can do is be honest and wear my heart on my sleeve. It's really the only way I know. I want to show people the real me. Or perhaps remind them. Because, somewhere - amongst the nightclubs, the frocks and hairdos, the big chart hits, and the glamour of being a popstar - the other Sarah Harding got utterly lost. She's the one who's been forgotten. And all I want is for you to hear her out.'Sarah Harding is best known as the wild member of Girls Aloud, whose reputation for partying, drinking and dating made her a tabloid favourite. But where does the celebrity Sarah Harding end and the real Sarah begin? Faced with a devastating cancer diagnosis that turned her life upside down, Sarah has decided that now is the time to write her story. Her truth.This is Sarah Harding in her own words.
Hear Me Out
by Armando IannucciA celebration of music from the creator of Alan Partridge, The Thick of It, Veep and The Death of Stalin.All my days, I've felt pressurized by the anonymous Keepers of the Cool who tell us what we should be wearing this year, what digital boxsets we should bunker ourselves in to enjoy, what amazing app is the only one we should be shrieking emotions at our recently acquired friends with. Thankfully, I have the one consolation that if I don't quite fit into all of this, everyone else probably feels the same way. So, I say defiantly, I get more moved and excited by classical music than by any other musical genre. I believe that it is there for us all, inviting us to reach out and touch it.In Hear Me Out Armando Iannucci brilliantly conveys the joy of his musical exploration, each discovery suggesting a fresh direction of travel, another piece, another composer, another time.
Hear Me Out
by Armando IannucciA celebration of music from the creator of Alan Partridge, The Thick of It, Veep and The Death of Stalin.All my days, I've felt pressurized by the anonymous Keepers of the Cool who tell us what we should be wearing this year, what digital boxsets we should bunker ourselves in to enjoy, what amazing app is the only one we should be shrieking emotions at our recently acquired friends with. Thankfully, I have the one consolation that if I don't quite fit into all of this, everyone else probably feels the same way. So, I say defiantly, I get more moved and excited by classical music than by any other musical genre. I believe that it is there for us all, inviting us to reach out and touch it.In Hear Me Out Armando Iannucci brilliantly conveys the joy of his musical exploration, each discovery suggesting a fresh direction of travel, another piece, another composer, another time.
Hear Me Talkin' to Ya
by Nat Hentoff Nat Shapiro"Music is your own experience, your thoughts, your wisdom. If you don't live it, it won't come out of your horn." -- Charlie Parker"What is jazz? The rhythm -- the feeling." -- Coleman Hawkins"The best sound usually comes the first time you do something. If it's spontaneous, it's going to be rough, not clean, but it's going to have the spirit which is the essence of jazz." -- Dave BrubeckHere, in their own words, such famous jazz musicians as Louis Armstrong, King Oliver, Fletcher Henderson, Bunk Johnson, Duke Ellington, Fats Waller, Clarence Williams, Jo Jones, Jelly Roll Morton, Mezz Mezzrow, Billie Holiday, and many others recall the birth, growth, and changes in jazz over the years. From its beginnings at the turn of the twentieth century in the red-light district in New Orleans (or Storyville, as it came to be known), to Chicago's Downtown section and the Original Dixieland Jazz Band and Chicago's South Side to jam sessions in Kansas City to Harlem during the Depression years, the West Coast and modern developments, the story of jazz is vividly and colorfully documented in hundreds of personal interviews, letters, tape recorded and telephone conversations, and excerpts from previously printed articles that appeared in books and magazines.There is no more fascinating and lively history of jazz than this firsthand telling by the men who made it. It should be read and re-read by all jazz enthusiasts, musicians, students of music and culture, students of American history, and other readers. "A lively book bearing the stamp of honesty and naturalness." -- Library Journal. "A work of considerable substance." -- The New Yorker. "Some of the quotations are a bit racy but they give the book a wonderful flavor." -- San Francisco Chronicle.
Hear My Sad Story: The True Tales That Inspired "Stagolee," "John Henry," and Other Traditional American Folk Songs
by Richard PolenbergIn 2015, Bob Dylan said, "I learned lyrics and how to write them from listening to folk songs. And I played them, and I met other people that played them, back when nobody was doing it. Sang nothing but these folk songs, and they gave me the code for everything that's fair game, that everything belongs to everyone." In Hear My Sad Story, Richard Polenberg describes the historical events that led to the writing of many famous American folk songs that served as touchstones for generations of American musicians, lyricists, and folklorists.Those events, which took place from the early nineteenth to the mid-twentieth centuries, often involved tragic occurrences: murders, sometimes resulting from love affairs gone wrong; desperate acts borne out of poverty and unbearable working conditions; and calamities such as railroad crashes, shipwrecks, and natural disasters. All of Polenberg's account of the songs in the book are grounded in historical fact and illuminate the social history of the times. Reading these tales of sorrow, misfortune, and regret puts us in touch with the dark but terribly familiar side of American history.On Christmas 1895 in St. Louis, an African American man named Lee Shelton, whose nickname was "Stack Lee," shot and killed William Lyons in a dispute over seventy-five cents and a hat. Shelton was sent to prison until 1911, committed another murder upon his release, and died in a prison hospital in 1912. Even during his lifetime, songs were being written about Shelton, and eventually 450 versions of his story would be recorded. As the song--you may know Shelton as Stagolee or Stagger Lee--was shared and adapted, the emotions of the time were preserved, but the fact that the songs described real people, real lives, often fell by the wayside. Polenberg returns us to the men and women who, in song, became legends. The lyrics serve as valuable historical sources, providing important information about what had happened, why, and what it all meant. More important, they reflect the character of American life and the pathos elicited by the musical memory of these common and troubled lives.
Hearing and Knowing Music: The Unpublished Essays of Edward T. Cone
by Edward T. ConeEdward T. Cone was one of the most important and influential music critics of the twentieth century. He was also a master lecturer skilled at conveying his ideas to broad audiences. Hearing and Knowing Music collects fourteen essays that Cone gave as talks in his later years and that were left unpublished at his death. Edited and introduced by Robert Morgan, these essays cover a broad range of topics, including music's position in culture, musical aesthetics, the significance of opera as an art, setting text to music, the nature of twentieth-century harmony and form, and the practice of musical analysis. Fully matching the quality and style of Cone's published writings, these essays mark a critical addition to his work, developing new ideas, such as the composer as critic; clarifying and modifying older positions, especially regarding opera and the nature of sung utterance; and adding new and often unexpected insights on composers and ideas previously discussed by Cone. In addition, there are essays, such as one on Debussy, that lead Cone into areas he had not previously examined. Hearing and Knowing Music represents the final testament of one of our most important writers on music.
Hearing Beethoven: A Story of Musical Loss and Discovery
by Robin WallaceWe’re all familiar with the image of a fierce and scowling Beethoven, struggling doggedly to overcome his rapidly progressing deafness. That Beethoven continued to play and compose for more than a decade after he lost his hearing is often seen as an act of superhuman heroism. But the truth is that Beethoven’s response to his deafness was entirely human. And by demystifying what he did, we can learn a great deal about Beethoven’s music. Perhaps no one is better positioned to help us do so than Robin Wallace, who not only has dedicated his life to the music of Beethoven but also has close personal experience with deafness. One day, at the age of forty-four, Wallace’s late wife, Barbara, found she couldn’t hear out of her right ear—the result of radiation administered to treat a brain tumor early in life. Three years later, she lost hearing in her left ear as well. Over the eight and a half years that remained of her life, despite receiving a cochlear implant, Barbara didn’t overcome her deafness or ever function again like a hearing person. Wallace shows here that Beethoven didn’t do those things, either. Rather than heroically overcoming his deafness, as we’re commonly led to believe, Beethoven accomplished something even more difficult and challenging: he adapted to his hearing loss and changed the way he interacted with music, revealing important aspects of its very nature in the process. Creating music became for Beethoven a visual and physical process, emanating from visual cues and from instruments that moved and vibrated. His deafness may have slowed him down, but it also led to works of unsurpassed profundity. Wallace tells the story of Beethoven’s creative life from the inside out, interweaving it with his and Barbara’s experience to reveal aspects that only living with deafness could open up. The resulting insights make Beethoven and his music more accessible, and help us see how a disability can enhance human wholeness and flourishing.
Hearing Brazil: Music and Histories in Minas Gerais
by Jonathon GrasseMinas Gerais is a state in southeastern Brazil deeply connected to the nation’s slave past and home to many traditions related to the African diaspora. Addressing a wide range of traditions helping to define the region, ethnomusicologist Jonathon Grasse examines the complexity of Minas Gerais by exploring the intersections of its history, music, and culture.Instruments, genres, social functions, and historical accounts are woven together to form a tapestry revealing a cultural territory’s development. The deep pool of Brazilian scholarship referenced in the book, with original translations by the author, cites over two hundred Portuguese-language publications focusing on Minas Gerais. This research was augmented by fieldwork, observations, and interviews completed over a twenty-five-year period and includes original photographs, many taken by the author.Hearing Brazil: Music and Histories in Minas Gerais surveys the colonial past, the vast hinterland countryside, and the modern, twenty-first-century state capital of Belo Horizonte, the metropolitan region of which is today home to over six million. Diverse legacies are examined, including an Afro-Brazilian heritage, eighteenth- and nineteenth-century liturgical music of the region’s “Minas Baroque,” the instrument known as the viola, a musical profile of Belo Horizonte, and a study of the regionalist themes developed by the popular music collective the Clube da Esquina (Corner Club) led by Milton Nascimento with roots in the 1960s. Hearing Brazil champions the notion that Brazil’s unique role in the world is further illustrated by regionalist studies presenting details of musical culture.
Hearing Death at the Movies: Film Music and the Long History of the Dies Irae
by Alex LudwigThe Dies Irae is a melody that composers of film music have employed in hundreds of films, ranging from Metropolis to The Shining, and Star Wars. It is a product of more than 800 years of musical transformation, finding purchase in a variety of musical environments, including the church, the concert hall, and the cinema. Based on a corpus of nearly 300 films, Hearing Death At the Movies models two new ways of thinking about the Dies Irae. First, it identifies three different versions of the melody, each of which signifies a different function of film music. Second, it traces the semantic shift of the Dies Irae from its religious roots to its secular perception as a symbol of death. This study of the most widely-used theme in film music history will change how you listen to movies.
Hearing Eyes, Seeing Ears: Collected Writings on Music in Audiovisual Culture (Palgrave Studies in Audio-Visual Culture)
by K.J. DonnellyThis book approaches music in audiovisual culture as a complex merged signal rather than as a simple ‘addition’ to the images of film. The audiovisual is central to modern culture, with screens and speakers (including headphones) dominating communication, leisure and drama. While this book mostly addresses film, it also deals with sister media such as television and video games, registering that there is a ‘common core’ of synchronized image and sound at the heart of these different but related media. The traditions of sound and what Michel Chion calls ‘audiovision’ (1994), including principles of accompaniment and industrial processes from film, have been retained and developed in other media. This book engages with the rich history, and varied genres, different traditions and variant strategies of audiovisual culture. However, it also points to and emphasizes the ‘common core’ of flat moving images and synchronized sound and music which marks a dominant in electronic media culture (what might be called ‘screen and speaker/diaphragm culture’). Addressing music as both diegetic and non-diegetic, as both songs and score, the analyses presented in this book aim to attend the precise interaction between music and other elements of audiovisual culture as defining overall configurations. While many writings about music in audiovisual culture focus on ‘what it communicates’, its processes are more complicated and can form a crucial semi-conscious (or perhaps unconscious) background. While music’s effect might be far from simple and unified, part of screen music’s startling effect comes from its unity with the image. Cross-modal ‘crosstalk’ between sound and image forms a whole new signal of its own. Each chapter marks a case study making for a varied collection that embraces rich history and different traditions, as well as the distinct aesthetic boldness of different genres and formats.