Browse Results

Showing 951 through 975 of 12,321 results

The Baroness

by Hannah Rothschild

Beautiful, romantic and spirited, Pannonica, known as Nica, named after her father's favorite moth, was born in 1913 to extraordinary, eccentric privilege and a storied history. The Rothschild family had, in only five generations, risen from the ghetto in Frankfurt to stately homes in England. As a child, Nica took her daily walks, dressed in white, with her two sisters and governess around the parkland of the vast house at Tring, Hertfordshire, among kangaroos, giant tortoises, emus and zebras, all part of the exotic menagerie collected by her uncle Walter. As a debutante, she was taught to fly by a saxophonist and introduced to jazz by her brother Victor; she married Baron Jules de Koenigswarter, settled in a château in France and had five children. When World War II broke out, Nica and her five children narrowly escaped back to England, but soon after, she set out to find her husband who was fighting with the Free French Army in Africa, where she helped the war effort by being a decoder, a driver and organizing supplies and equipment. In the early 1950s Nica heard "'Round Midnight" by the jazz pianist and composer Thelonious Monk and, as if under a powerful spell, abandoned her marriage and moved to New York to find him. She devoted herself to helping Monk and other musicians: she bailed them out of jail, paid their bills, took them to the hospital, even drove them to their gigs, and her convertible Bentley could always be seen parked outside downtown clubs or up in Harlem. Charlie Parker would notoriously die in her apartment in the Stanhope Hotel. But it was Monk who was the love of her life and whom she cared for until his death in 1982. Hannah Rothschild has drawn on archival material and her own interviews in this quest to find out who her great-aunt really was and how she fit into a family that, although passionate about music and entomology, was reactionary in always favoring men over women. Part musical odyssey, part love story, The Baroness is a fascinating portrait of a modern figure ahead of her time who dared to live as she wanted, finally, at the very center of New York's jazz scene.

Baronial Patronage of Music in Early Modern Rome

by Valerio Morucci

This is the first dedicated study of the musical patronage of Roman baronial families in the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. Patronage – the support of a person or institution and their work by a patron – in Renaissance society was the basis of a complex network of familial and political relationships between clients and patrons, whose ideas, values, and norms of behavior were shared with the collective. Bringing to light new archival documentation, this book examines the intricate network of patronage interrelationships in Rome. Unlike other Italian cities where political control was monocentric and exercised by single rulers, sources of patronage in Rome comprised a multiplicity of courts and potential patrons, which included the pope, high prelates, nobles and foreign diplomats. Morucci uses archival records, and the correspondence of the Orsini and Colonna families in particular, to investigate the local activity and circulation of musicians and the cultivation of music within the broader civic network of Roman aristocratic families over the period. The author also shows that the familial union of the Medici and Orsini families established a bidirectional network for artistic exchange outside of the Eternal City, and that the Orsini-Colonna circle represented a musical bridge between Naples, Rome, and Florence.

Baroque Music (The\library Of Essays On Music Performance Practice Ser. #3)

by Peter Walls

Research in the 20th and 21st centuries into historical performance practice has changed not just the way performers approach music of the 17th and 18th centuries but, eventually, the way audiences listen to it. This volume, beginning with a 1915 Saint-Sa lecture on the performance of old music, sets out to capture musicological discussion that has actually changed the way Baroque music can sound. The articles deal with historical instruments, pitch, tuning, temperament, the nexus between technique and style, vibrato, the performance implications of musical scores, and some of the vexed questions relating to rhythmic alteration. It closes with a section on the musicological challenges to the ideology of the early music movement mounted (principally) in the 1990s. Leading writers on historical performance practice are represented. Recognizing that significant developments in historically-inspired performance have been led by instrument makers and performers, the volume also contains representative essays by key practitioners.

Baroque Music in Post-War Cinema: Performance Practice and Musical Style (Elements in Music since 1945)

by Donald Greig

Studies of pre-existing music in narrative cinema often focus on a single film, composer or director. The approach here adopts a wider perspective, placing a specific musical repertoire - baroque music - in the context of its reception to explore its mobilisation in post-war cinema. It shows how various revivals have shaped musical fashion, and how cinema has drawn on resultant popularity and in turn contributed to it. Close analyses of various films raise issues of baroque musical style and form to question why eighteenth-century music remains an exception to dominant film-music discourses. Account is taken of changing modern performance practice and its manifestation in cinema, particularly in the biopic. This question of the reimagining of baroque repertoire leads to consideration of pastiches and parodies to which cinema has been particularly drawn, and subsequently to the role that neobaroque music has played in more recent films.

Baroque Piety: Religion, Society, and Music in Leipzig, 1650-1750

by Tanya Kevorkian

Drawing upon a rich array of sources from archives in Leipzig, Dresden and Halle, Tanya Kevorkian illuminates culture in Leipzig before and during J.S. Bach's time in the city. Working with these sources, she has been able to reconstruct the contexts of Baroque and Pietist cultures at key periods in their development much more specifically than has been done previously. Kevorkian shows that high Baroque culture emerged through a combination of traditional frameworks and practices, and an infusion of change that set in after 1680. Among other forms of change, new secular arenas appeared, influencing church music and provoking reactions from Pietists, who developed alternative meeting, networking and liturgical styles. The book focuses on the everyday practices and active roles of audiences in public religious life. It examines music performance and reception from the perspectives of both 'ordinary' people and elites. Church services are studied in detail, providing a broad sense of how people behaved and listened to the music. Kevorkian also reconstructs the world of patronage and power of city councillors and clerics as they interacted with other Leipzig inhabitants, thereby illuminating the working environment of J.S. Bach, Telemann and other musicians. In addition, Kevorkian reconstructs the social history of Pietists in Leipzig from 1688 to the 1730s.

Baroque Woodwind Instruments: A Guide to Their History, Repertoire and Basic Technique

by Paul Carroll

The late 17th century through to the end of the 18th century saw rapid progress in the development of woodwind instruments and the composition of a vast body of music for those instruments. During this period a large amount of music for domestic consumption was written for a growing amateur market, a market which has regrown in the latter part of the 20th century. The last 30 years has also seen the standard of performance by professionals on these instruments rise enormously. This book provides a guide to the history of the four main woodwind instruments of the Baroque, the flute, oboe, recorder and bassoon, and this is complemented by a repertoire list for each instrument. It also guides those interested towards a basic technique for playing these instruments - a certain level of musical literacy is assumed - and it can be used by students, professionals and amateurs. Advice is also given on buying a suitable reproduction instrument from a market where now virtually any Baroque instrument can be obtained as a faithful copy. This is the first book of its kind and has its origins in the wind tutors of the 18th century.

Barred for Life: How Black Flag's Iconic Logo Became Punk Rock's Secret Handshake

by Stewart Dean Ebersole

Cataloging the legacy of the American punk rock pioneers Black Flag, this photo documentary uses stark, contrasting portraits to share the stories of the die-hard fans who wear the iconic four-barred logo tattooed on their skin. From doctors to homeless punks, stories range from the intensely personal to the absurd as each larger-than-life soul mugs for the camera. Adding to the idea that mixed messages can come from one unifying design, each image is highlighted with a personal quotation, a name and bio, and a Black Flag favorites list. Captured during an extensive tour through the United States, Canada, and Western Europe, this collection serves as a visual testimony to the hyper-distilled mythology that the band is more prevalent now than when it was in service, and serves as a soundtrack for those living as self-imposed cultural outsiders. Interviews with former members of the band, tattoo artists, photographers, and other relevant luminaries round out this ethnography and serve to spotlight Black Flag's vicious live performances, forward-thinking work ethic, and indisputable reputation for acting as both champions and destroyers of the punk rock culture that they helped create.

Barrelhouse Blues: Location Recording and the Early Traditions of the Blues

by Paul Oliver

In the 1920s, Southern record companies ventured to cities like Dallas, Atlanta, and New Orleans, where they set up primitive recording equipment in makeshift studios. They brought in street singers, medicine show performers, pianists from the juke joints and barrelhouses. The music that circulated through Southern work camps, prison farms, and vaudeville shows would be lost to us if it hadn't been captured on location by these performers and recorders.Eminent blues historian Paul Oliver uncovers these folk traditions and the circumstances under which they were recorded, rescuing the forefathers of the blues who were lost before they even had a chance to be heard. A careful excavation of the earliest recordings of the blues by one of its foremost experts, Barrelhouse Blues expands our definition of that most American style of music.

Barrelhouse Words: A Blues Dialect Dictionary

by Stephen Calt

This fascinating compendium explains the most unusual, obscure, and curious words and expressions from vintage blues music. Utilizing both documentary evidence and invaluable interviews with a number of now-deceased musicians from the 1920s and '30s, blues scholar Stephen Calt unravels the nuances of more than twelve hundred idioms and proper or place names found on oft-overlooked "race records" recorded between 1923 and 1949. From "aggravatin' papa" to "yas-yas-yas" and everything in between, this truly unique, racy, and compelling resource decodes a neglected speech for general readers and researchers alike, offering invaluable information about black language and American slang.

Barrie Kosky on the Contemporary Australian Stage: Affect, Post-Tragedy, Emergency (Routledge Advances in Theatre & Performance Studies)

by Charlotte Farrell

This is the first book-length study of Australian theatre productions by internationally-renowned director, Barrie Kosky. Now a prolific opera director in Europe, Barrie Kosky on the Contemporary Australian Stage accounts for the formative years of Kosky's career in Australia. This book provides in-depth engagements with select productions including The Dybbuk which Kosky directed with Gilgul theatre company in 1991, as well as King Lear (1998), The Lost Echo (2006), and Women of Troy (2008). Using affect theory as a prism through which these works are analysed, the book accounts for the director's particular engagement with – and radical departure from – classical tragedy in contemporary performance: what the book defines as Kosky's 'post-tragedies'. Theatre studies scholars and students, particularly those with interests in affect, contemporary performance, 'director's theatre', and tragedy, will benefit from Barrie Kosky on the Contemporary Australian Stage’s vivid engagement with Kosky's work: a director who has become a singular figure in opera and theatre of international critical acclaim.

Barron's AP Music Theory

by Nancy Scoggin

This brand-new addition to Barron's series of Advanced Placement test prep manuals presents a comprehensive review of music theory, followed by two full-length practice tests with all questions answered and explained. These practice tests include both aural and non-aural sections. The four audio CDs enclosed with the manual provide aural skill development prompts for both practice tests' aural sections, as well as material that complements exercises and examples in the subject review chapters. Topics covered in the review chapters include music fundamentals, harmonic organization, harmonic progression, melodic composition and dictation, relationship of key centers, harmonic dictation and composition, visual score analysis, contextual listening, strategies for harmonizing and sight-singing, and much more. Multiple-choice questions with strategies for test-taking success appear at the end of many chapters.

Bars, Blues, and Booze: Stories from the Drink House (American Made Music Series)

by Emily D. Edwards

Bars, Blues, and Booze collects lively bar tales from the intersection of black and white musical cultures in the South. Many of these stories do not seem dignified, decent, or filled with uplifting euphoria, but they are real narratives of people who worked hard with their hands during the week to celebrate the weekend with music and mind-altering substances. These are stories of musicians who may not be famous celebrities but are men and women deeply occupied with their craft--professional musicians stuck with a day job. The collection also includes stories from fans and bar owners, people vital to shaping a local music scene. The stories explore the "crossroads," that intoxicated intersection of spirituality, race, and music that forms a rich, southern vernacular. In personal narratives, musicians and partygoers relate tales of narrow escape (almost getting busted by the law while transporting moonshine), of desperate poverty (rat-infested kitchens and repossessed cars), of magic (hiring a root doctor to make a charm), and loss (death or incarceration). Here are stories of defiant miscegenation, of forgetting race and going out to eat together after a jam, and then not being served. Assorted boasts of improbable hijinks give the "blue collar" musician a wild, gritty glamour and emphasize the riotous freedom of their fans, who sometimes risk the strong arm of southern liquor laws in order to chase the good times.

Bartók and His World (The Bard Music Festival #50)

by Peter Laki

Béla Bartók, who died in New York fifty years ago this September, is one of the most frequently performed twentieth-century composers. He is also the subject of a rapidly growing critical and analytical literature. Bartók was born in Hungary and made his home there for all but his last five years, when he resided in the United States. As a result, many aspects of his life and work have been accessible only to readers of Hungarian. The main goal of this volume is to provide English-speaking audiences with new insights into the life and reception of this musician, especially in Hungary. Part I begins with an essay by Leon Botstein that places Bartók in a large historical and cultural context. László Somfai reports on the catalog of Bartók's works that is currently in progress. Peter Laki shows the extremes of the composer's reception in Hungary, while Tibor Tallián surveys the often mixed reviews from the American years. The essays of Carl Leafstedt and Vera Lampert deal with his librettists Béla Balázs and Melchior Lengyel respectively. David Schneider addresses the artistic relationship between Bartók and Stravinsky. Most of the letters and interviews in Part II concern Bartók's travels and emigration as they reflected on his personal life and artistic evolution. Part III presents early critical assessments of Bartók's work as well as literary and poetic responses to his music and personality.

Bartók and the Grotesque: Studies in Modernity, the Body and Contradiction in Music

by Julie Brown

The grotesque is one of art's most puzzling figures - transgressive, comprising an unresolveable hybrid, generally focussing on the human body, full of hyperbole, and ultimately semantically deeply puzzling. In Bluebeard's Castle (1911), The Wooden Prince (1916/17), The Miraculous Mandarin (1919/24, rev. 1931) and Cantata Profana (1930), Bart ngaged scenarios featuring either overtly grotesque bodies or closely related transformations and violations of the body. In a number of instrumental works he also overtly engaged grotesque satirical strategies, sometimes - as in Two Portraits: 'Ideal' and 'Grotesque' - indicating this in the title. In this book, Julie Brown argues that Bart concerns with stylistic hybridity (high-low, East-West, tonal-atonal-modal), the body, and the grotesque are inter-connected. While Bart eveloped each interest in highly individual ways, and did so separately to a considerable extent, the three concerns remained conceptually interlinked. All three were thoroughly implicated in cultural constructions of the Modern during the period in which Bart as composing.

Bartók for Piano: A Survey of His Solo Literature

by David Yeomans

" . . . detailed and thorough . . . a wealth of information . . . David Yeomans deserves our thanks for a job exceedingly well done." —American Music Teacher" . . . a must for pianists . . . " —American Reference Book Annual"David Yeomans's study is certainly to be recommended for all good music libraries, pianists and students of Bartók." —The Music Review"Although there are currently more than 15 books in print about composer Béla Bartók, this short volume is unique in its focus on his complete oeuvre for solo piano. . . . Recommended for pianists, piano teachers, and students from lower-division undergraduate level and above." —Choice" . . . the entire book is indispensable for any of us before we play another Bartók piece." —Clavier"This work collects in one place an enormous number of 'facts' about the piano music of Bartók . . . for planning concerts and student repertoire, and as a survey of an important body of 20th-century music, this listing is valuable." —Library JournalThis chronological listing of more than 400 pieces and movements presents in convenient form essential information about each of Bartók's solo piano works, including its various editions, timing, level of difficulty, pertinent remarks by the composer, and bibliographical references to it.

Bartolomeo Cristofori and the Invention of the Piano

by Stewart Pollens

This is the first comprehensive study of the life and work of Bartolomeo Cristofori, the Paduan-born harpsichord maker and contemporary of Antonio Stradivari, who is credited with having invented the pianoforte around the year 1700 while working in the Medici court in Florence. Through thorough analysis of documents preserved in the State Archive of Florence, Pollens has reconstructed, in unprecedented technical detail, Cristofori's working life between his arrival in Florence in 1688 and his death in 1732. This book will be of interest to pianists, historians of the piano, musicologists, museum curators and conservators, as well as keyboard instrument makers, restorers, and tuners.

Basic Conducting Techniques

by Joseph A. Labuta

Basic Conducting Techniques is a practical and innovative textbook that provides sound, time tested procedures and material for the beginning conducting class. Students and professors have responded enthusiastically to the hands-on, conductor competency approach of this student-oriented textbook with its clearly stated objectives and performance tests. NOTE: This is the standalone book. If you want the accompanying Media DVD, order the ISBN 9780136011941.

Basic Conducting Techniques

by Joseph A. Labuta Wendy K. Matthews

Now in its eighth edition, Basic Conducting Techniques provides a clear and intelligible introduction to the art of conducting an ensemble. It has been updated with a greater diversity of repertoire, including contemporary examples and more music by underrepresented composers. Over the course of 14 chapters, the authors explicate the elements of conducting, supplementing their teachings with an extensive selection of musical examples from the classical repertoire. Practical and innovative, clear and approachable, the book illuminates the essential skills that a beginning conductor should develop in order to lead and rehearse a performing group. The companion website provides scores and transposed parts for all musical excerpts, as well as guitar and piano parts, audio recordings of the excerpts, and updated demonstration videos modeling specific conducting techniques. With the beginning conductor in mind, this hands-on, competency-centered approach is appropriate for mixed classes of choral and instrumental music majors, providing indispensable versatility for students and practicing conductors alike. Utilizing decades of teaching and conducting experience, the eighth edition of Basic Conducting Techniques is the essential guide to the principles of conducting.

Basic Conducting Techniques (Seventh Edition)

by Joseph A. Labuta Wendy K. Matthews

<p>Basic Conducting Techniques, Seventh Edition, provides a clear and intelligible introduction to the art of conducting an ensemble. Over the course of fourteen chapters, the authors explicate the elements of conducting, supplementing their teachings with an extensive selection of musical examples from the classical repertoire. Practical and innovative, clear and approachable, this text illuminates the essential skills a beginning conductor should develop to lead and rehearse a performing group. <p>This new edition features: <p> <li>chapters rewritten to highlight important information and show connections between different sections <li>a new chapter on expressive conducting, consisting of expanded and updated content <li>select full scores in the "Musical Excerpts" section <li>excerpts with transpositions for each chapter, allowing easy access for class performance <li>a new companion website, which includes the scores and transpositions for all musical excerpts, audio recordings of the excerpts, and demonstration videos modeling specific techniques for each chapter.</li> <p> <p>With the beginning conductor in mind, this hands-on, competency-centered approach is appropriate for mixed classes of choral and instrumental music majors, providing indispensable versatility for students and practicing conductors alike. Rooted in decades of teaching and conducting experience, Basic Conducting Techniques is the essential guide to the principles of conducting.</p>

Basic Principles in Pianoforte Playing (Dover Books on Music)

by Josef Lhevinne

This little book, written at the height of his career by Josef Lhevinne, the "inward poet of the piano," is a clear statement of principles based on his lifelong experience in performance and teaching. Lhevinne was, with Rachmaninoff, Schnabel, and Hoffman, one of the great modern masters, and was the first artist invited to teach at the newly formed Julliard Graduate School of Music.Technique, through essential, must be subordinate to musical understanding. Complete knowledge of scales, apprehended not mechanically but musically; understanding of the uses of rests and silence, which Mozart considered the greatest effect in music; a feeling for rhythm and training of the ear; these are the basic elements of a thorough grounding in musicianship and are accordingly emphasized in the opening chapters.The heart of the book is devoted to the attainment of a beautiful tone. Anyone who has heard Lhevinne play or has listened to one of his recordings will know how great were his achievements in that area. The secret lay, at least in part, in the technique he called "the arm floating in air," and in the use of the wrists as natural shock absorbers. The achievement of varieties of tone, of the singing, ringing tone, of brilliancy, of delicacy, and of power are all explained in terms of a careful analysis of the ways in which the fingers, hand, wrist, arm, and indeed the whole body function in striking the keys. There are further remarks about how to get a clear staccato and an unblurred legato, about the dangers of undue emphasis on memorization and the need for variety in practicing, and special comments on the use of the pedal, which should be employed with as much precision as the keys.Throughout, specific musical examples are presented as illustrations. The author draws not only upon his own experiences and methods, but upon the examples of Anton Rubenstein and of his teacher, Safonoff, for this remarkably lucid and concise formulation of basic principles.

Basic Principles In Pianoforte Playing

by Josef Lhevinne

A 60-page booklet on Mr. Lhevinne's advice to piano students on the best methods of playing the piano. A classic for every serious piano student

Basic Techniques of Conducting

by Kenneth H. Phillips

Systematic, practical, and thorough, this book offers a clear instructional strategy and a basic methodology for teaching the physical gestures and concepts essential for the development of a convincing conducting technique. Taking a competency-based approach, this text provides a clear, step-by-step system for mastering the physical gestures required for good conducting. Paying special attention to the psychomotor skills needed for clear and expressive conducting establishes a solid foundation on which to build an advanced and personal conducting style. <p><p>Based on ten years of teaching and class-testing, the text is carefully organized to establish essential conducting skills over a one-semester period. Each of the thirty lessons introduces basic conducting techniques in a developmental sequence and includes a review of previous techniques," guided practice" segments for group practice of new techniques, and "assignment" sections for independent study and practice. <p><p>The text is fully illustrated with many conducting diagrams, photographs of hand and body movements, and numerous musical examples for directed conducting practice. Emphasizing complete musical examples rather than short excerpts, it features both choral and instrumental exercises for drill and practice. Engaging and accessible, Basic Techniques of Conducting offers all of the content necessary to build a solid foundation of conducting skills for all vocal and instrumental music education majors.

Basic Verbal Skills for Music Therapists

by Elizabeth K. Schwartz

Basic verbal skills are necessary for effective and competent practice at every level of music therapy. This innovative new text provides a clear and practical foundation for understanding how words and verbalization can be used in a variety of ways in music therapy to meet the individual needs of each client across a range of settings. The focus is on giving music therapy students and young professionals a roadmap for deciding why, when, and how to use basic verbal skills in their work. <p><p> Music therapy educators will find it particularly useful with its clear framework, clinical scenarios, and samples of word use that are directly tied to music therapy scope and level of practice. The book takes an inventive approach to understanding how to make informed clinical decisions on using words and gives examples and exercises within four different categories of verbalization - Verbal Framing, Verbal Exchanges, Verbal Interactions, and Verbal Interventions. Chapters also look concisely at defining communication, reviewing current music therapy literature on verbal skills, and understanding how verbalization fits into scope of practice, ethical standards, and music therapy regulations. The final chapters examine the influence of music on words, and words on music. Each chapter also includes exercises to help readers reflect, increase word repertoire, and rehearse verbal skills.

Bass Culture: When Reggae Was King

by Lloyd Bradley

The first major account of the history of reggae, black music journalist Lloyd Bradley describes its origins and development in Jamaica, from ska to rock-steady to dub and then to reggae itself, a local music which conquered the world. <p><p>There are many extraordinary stories about characters like Prince Buster, King Tubby and Bob Marley. But this is more than a book of music history: it relates the story of reggae to the whole history of Jamaica, from colonial island to troubled independence, and Jamaicans, from Kingston to London.

Bass Guitar Exercises For Dummies

by Patrick Pfeiffer

Refine your technique with 300 bass guitar exercises Practice tempo, time signature, phrasing, and dynamics Apply bass fundamentals to playing a groove The fun and easy way to lay down a groove The bass guitar serves as the foundation for almost every popular style of music — from rock to country, jazz to funk. Regardless of your preferred musical style, this hands-on guide provides tips and drills designed to help improve your playing ability. These exercises get you started with bass guitar fundamentals, like playing scales, chords, and arpeggios. Move on to sharpen your skills as you play grooves and melodies in different styles. Whether you're just getting started or an experienced bassist looking to stretch your playing skills, this is the book for you! Inside… Tips for correct hand and body posture Methods for getting comfortable with scales Hints for developing a complete practice session Ways to apply the exercises to making great music Workouts for stronger playing

Refine Search

Showing 951 through 975 of 12,321 results