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A History of Western Music J. Peter Burkholder et al W. W. Norton, 8th ed., 2009 $84.95pb
The Eighth Edition of A History of Western Music is a vivid, accessible, and richly contextual view of music in Western culture. Building on his monumental revision of the Seventh Edition, Peter Burkholder has refined an inspired narrative for a new generation of students, placing people at the centre of the story. The narrative of A History of Western Music naturally focuses on the musical works, styles, genres, and ideas that have proven most influential, enduring, and significant—but it also encompasses a wide range of music, from religious to secular, from serious to humorous, from art music to popular music, and from Europe to the Americas. With a six-part structure emphasizing the music’s reception and continued influence, Burkholder’s narrative establishes a social and historical context for each repertoire to reveal its legacy and its significance today. 1115 pages |
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A New Dictionary of Music Arthur Jacobs Aldine Transaction, 2009 $72.00pb
What is a fugue? What is the difference between a saxophone and a saxhorn? Who besides Puccini wrote an opera called La Boheme? In what year was the National Broadcasting Company Orchestra formed under Arturo Toscanini’s direction? These and thousands of similar questions are answered in this comprehensive dictionary that remains unrivaled as a single-volume summary. A New Dictionary of Music is a great reference work for anyone interested in music, whether performer or layman. It covers orchestral, solo, choral, and chamber music, opera, and (in its musical aspects) the ballet. There are entries for composers (with biographies and details of compositions); works well known by their titles, such as operas and symphonic poems; orchestras, performers and conductors of importance today; musical instruments (including those of the dance and brass bands); and technical terms. English names and terms are used whenever possible, but foreign terms in general use are cross-referenced. Particular importance has been attached to bringing the reader abreast of new musical developments. 416 pages |
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New Classical Music: Composing Australia Gordon Kerry UNSW Press, 2009 $34.95pb
This book offers an approachable and evocative introduction to classical music composed in Australia in recent decades. With a balance of historical background and detailed description, composer and music journalist Gordon Kerry explores a number of themes – landscape and spirituality, the influence of Europe and Asia – that bring together the exciting variety of new works and voices working in Australian music now. Includes a companion CD. 224 pages |
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Experimental Music: Audio Explorations in Australia Gail Priest UNSW Press, 2008 $34.95pb
Experimental music has been mostly unrecognised in Australia, but it is in this ‘underground’ area that the major innovations and creative developments in music occur. Through testing perceived boundaries, breaking rules and creating new forms, the artists in this field force us to question what, in fact, music is. Written by artists who have been actively engaged in the areas they are covering, Experimental Music explores the development of forms, ideas and scenes from the 1970s to the present. Includes a companion CD. 192 pages |
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Jazz: the Australian Accent John Shand UNSW Press, 2008 $34.95pb
Jazz: The Australian Accent explores the unique developments in Australian jazz over the last twenty years. Through interviews, anecdotes, analysis, and a companion CD, leading music journalist John Shand provides a fascinating insight into the innovative, cutting-edge scene that is Australian jazz. He argues that the jazz has become a defining force in our cultural landscape and that it is as lively and innovative as any overseas. 240 pages |
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From Sight to Sound: improvisational games for classical musicians Nicole M Brockman Indiana University Press, 2009 $36.95pb
From Sight to Sound provides practical and creative techniques for classical improvisation for musicians of all levels and instruments, solo or in ensembles. These exercises build aural and communicative skills, instrumental technique, and musical understanding. 168 pages |
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Music at the Limits: Three Decades of Essays and Articles on Music Edward Said Bloomsbury, 2009 $26.99pb
Addressing the work of a wide variety of composers and performers, Said analyses music's social and political contexts, and provides rich and often surprising assessments. He reflects on the censorship of Wagner in Israel; the relationship between music and feminism; and the works of Beethoven, Bruckner, Rossini, Schumann, Stravinsky and others. Always eloquent and often surprising, Music at the Limits reinforces Said's reputation as one of the most influential writers of the twentieth century. 352 pages |
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The Rest is Noise: listening to the twentieth century Alex Ross Harper Perennial, 2009 $35.00pb
Alex Ross, music critic of the New Yorker, gives us a riveting tour of the wild landscape of twentieth-century classical music: portraits of individuals, cultures, and nations reveal the predicament of the composer in a noisy, chaotic century. Taking as his starting point a production of Richard Strauss′s Salome, conducted by the composer on 16 May 1906 with Puccini, Schoenberg, Berg and Adolf Hitler seated in the stalls, Ross suggests how this evening can be considered the century′s musical watershed rather the riotous premiere of Stravinsky′s Rite of Spring seven years later. Ross goes on to explore the mythology of modernism, Sibelius and the music of small countries, Kurt Weill, the music of the Third Reich, Britten, Boulez and the post-war avant-garde, and interactions between minimalist composers and rock bands in the sixties and seventies. 624 pages |
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The Faber Pocket Guide to Handel Edward Blakeman Faber, 2009 $24.99pb
A
larger-than-life figure in his time, Handel's reputation has been less than
steady since his death in 1759. Was he (in the words of Berlioz) just 'a
barrel of pork and beer', or (as Handel himself claimed) truly 'the master of
us all'? Now, in this 250th anniversary year, there is more interest in
Handel than ever before, with his operas experiencing fantastic renewed
popularity. This lively new Pocket Guide goes in search of the composer who wrote Messiah, The Water Music - and much more. |
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The Faber Pocket Guide to Haydn Richard Wigmore Faber, 2009 $24.95pb
Joseph Haydn is one of the greatest and most innovative of all composers, yet in some ways he is still curiously misunderstood. This engaging new Pocket Guide assesses what Haydn's music means to us today, and challenges some of the myths that have grown up around the composer. With suggestions for further reading and recommended CD recordings, Richard Wigmore's crisp and concise guide presents you with all you need to listen to and enjoy Haydn's music. It explores each of his key works, from his symphonies to his quartets, from his choral works to his sonatas, and invites a new generation of listeners to discover the depth and dazzling ingenuity of this most humane and life-affirming of composers. 288 pages |
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Faber Pocket Guide to Musicals James Inverne Faber, 2009 $24.99pb
With hit TV shows picking the leads in productions of Oliver! and The Sound Of Music, and smash musicals like Hairspray and Wicked all the West End rage, musical theatre is as popular as it's ever been. James Inverne provides an indispensable guide to his top one hundred greatest shows of all time - and ten of the worst. Whether you know your Pal Joey from The Producers, your West Side Story from your Which Witch, the Faber Pocket Guide To Musicals is packed with entertaining behind-the-scenes stories, essential song lists and comprehensive recording guides. 352 pages |
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Perfecting Sound Forever: the story of recorded music Greg Milner Granta, 2009 $49.99hb
Spanning the whole of the 20th century, this definitive cultural history of recorded music will change your understanding of what you are listening to. 464 pages |
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The Blue Moment: Miles Davis’ Kind of Blue & the Remaking of Modern Music Richard Williams Faber, 2009 $39.99hb
'It is the most singular of sounds, yet among the most ubiquitous. It is the sound of isolation that has sold itself to millions.' Miles Davis's Kind of Blue This is the essential companion to one of the most influential albums of all time, published on the 50th Anniversary of its original release. 320 pages |
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Jazz Gary Giddins & Scott DeVeaux Norton, 2009 $59.95hb
Jazz is not an encyclopaedia or conventional musical history. Written by US music critic Gary Giddins and jazz historian Scott DeVeaux, it’s different because it places the music and its protagonists against a broader cultural, political and social background. In order to help novices understand the technique behind jazz improvisation, the book also includes chapters on basic musical elements and provides listening guides to 78 recordings, from classics to more obscure pieces. Classic 1940s portraits by legendary jazz photographer Herman Leonard introduce each chapter and complete the story. 608 pages |
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Manchester: Looking for the Light through the Pouring Rain Kevin Cummins Faber, 2009 $75.00hb
Manchester, its bands, its fashions, its attitude, has defined pop culture for the best part of four decades. Joy Division, The Fall, Buzzcocks, New Order, The Smiths, Happy Mondays, Stone Roses, Oasis. These were the bands that shaped two generations of teenagers and changed the course of pop music. This is a portrait of these individuals, the city, and their times. Whether it’s on a rain-soaked stage in Brazil, a rented room in Whalley Range, or on the dance floor of the legendary Hacienda, Kevin Cummins' exquisite photographs capture the anarchic energy of the Manchester pop moment- a definitive photographic history of Manchester pop featuring some of the most iconic music photographs of all time. 400 pages |
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Playlisted: Everything You Need to Know About Australian Music Right Now Craig Mathieson UNSW Press, 2009 $29.95pb
Featuring Powderfinger, Kylie, The Presets, The Drones, Silverchair, Jet, INXS, Sarah Blasko, Eskimo Joe, The Veronicas, The Living End, Australian Crawl, You Am I, Delta Goodrem and many more, Playlisted takes the pulse of Australian rock’n’roll with a series of short, sharp chapters from leading music journalist Craig Mathieson. Smart, opinionated, funny and often controversial, each chapter launches from a single significant track on an illuminating musical journey – into an underrated album or an overrated career. It’s neither encyclopaedic nor heavy-handed, preferring to cut to the chase while mixing together rock stars and pop princesses, artists and frauds. It will have you digging through your music collection, and searching out the new acts discovered within. 192 pages |
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Showtime: A History of the Broadway Musical Theatre Larry Stempel W. W. Norton, 2010 $52.95hb
The definitive history of the Broadway musical: the shows, the stars, the movers, and the shakers. Showtime brings the history of Broadway musicals to life in a narrative as engaging as the subject itself. Beginning with the scandalous Astor Place Opera House riot of 1849, Larry Stempel traces the growth of musicals from minstrel shows and burlesques, through the golden age of Show Boat and Oklahoma!, to such groundbreaking works as Company and Rent. Showtime is the culmination of decades of painstaking research on a genre whose forms have changed over the course of two centuries. In covering the expansive subject before him, Stempel combines original research—including a kaleidoscope of primary sources and archival holdings—with deft and insightful analysis. The result is nothing short of the most comprehensive, authoritative history of the Broadway musical yet published. 826 pages |
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Songwriting: a complete guide to the craft Stephen Citron Hal Leonard, 2009 $35.95pb
This book is both a comprehensive course for beginning and experienced songwriters and a rich source of new ideas, inspiration, and tricks of the trade for those who have already achieved professional standing. This fresh new edition not only contains all of the original volume's cogent advice on how to write the always-popular genres - the country song, the ballad, and the love song - but has been revised to include: * Examples of hard rock, acid, heavy metal, bubblegum, hip-hop, salsa, rap, gangsta, reggae, ska, soul, and many other of today's most recorded styles * Finding a song concept, distilling the hook, choosing a form, adding harmony, and selecting rhythm * An appendix telling how to copyright, computerize, notate, record, and sell your song * Full glossary of musical and songwriting terms, an explanation of rap-speak with a useful section on rhyme for rap songs, many musical examples of well-known songs, and a complete index. Unlike other books, Songwriting emphasizes the art - without being arty - and technique of creating a song. 356 pages |
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Turn the Beat Around: the Rise and Fall of Disco Peter Shapiro Faber, 2009 $29.99pb
Disco emerged from the fall-out of the Black Power Movement and an almost exclusively gay scene in a blaze of poppers, strobe lights, tight trousers, hysterical diva vocals and synthesized beats in the late 1960s. As a genre, disco radically re-defined the sensibility of the seventies to the extent where reactionary rockers felt the need to launch a paranoid 'Disco Sucks' campaign at the end of the decade. 320 pages |
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Understanding Music: Philosophy and Interpretation Roger Scruton Continuum, 2010 $53.00hb
Following his celebrated book The Aesthetics of Music, Scruton explores the fundamental elements that constitute a great piece of music.Roger Scruton is one of the most notable British philosophers of the post-war years. Like many, Bernard Williams and Brian Magee among them, he is passionately interested in music, indeed he has written two operas. This new book applies the theory to the practice and examines a number of composers and musical forms - from Scruton's fascination with Wagner to Boulez and Hoagy Carmichael. The book ends with a devastating chapter on pop music that will be greatly relished by many, while enraging others. The consistent and passionate argument underlying the book is one for tonality and rhythm. 256 pages |
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Vanda and Young: Inside Australia’s Hit Factory John Tait University of NSW Press, 2010 $34.95pb
Harry Vanda and George Young put Friday on our minds, triggered Easyfever with the Easybeats, and harnessed the raw energy and power of Aussie pub rock to make superstars of AC/DC, Rose Tattoo, and the Angels. The day Vanda and Young met at Sydney’s Villawood Migrant Hostel has been called the most significant moment in Australian music history. What followed, as members of the Easybeats, producers and mentors for George’s brothers’ band AC/DC, and songwriters of a diverse range of hits from ‘Friday on My Mind’, ‘She’s So Fine’, ‘Yesterday’s Hero’ and ‘Love is in the Air’ to ‘Am I Ever Gonna See Your Face Again’, has provided the soundtrack to the last 50 years. Featuring revelatory interviews with Vanda and Young and members AC/DC and the other chart-topping acts they worked with, this is the inspirational story of Australia’s top songwriters, producers and starmakers. 272 pages |
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The Violin an illustrated history Yehudi Menuhin Flammarion, 2009 $95.00hb
A lavishly illustrated history of the world’s most popular stringed instrument, fittingly narrated by one of the finest virtuoso violinists the world has ever known. The Violin charts the journey of the violin from its origins in the bow and arrow through to the legendary Stradivarius. Yehudi Menuhin introduces us to the astounding richness of the voice of the violin, whose appearance in ethnic music from East and West, popular and folk music, classical and jazz, has established its repertoire upon an interdependence of many musical genres. Menuhin weaves the history of the violin with his own incredible career, sharing memories of composers such as Stravinski, Bartók, and Elgar, and of fellow performers Fritz Kreisler, Bruno Walter, Stéphane Grappelli, and Ravi Shankar. 304 pages plus CD |
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YouTube in Music Education Thomas Rudolph & James Frankel Hal Leonard, 2010 $32.95pb
YouTube in Music Education teaches instructors how to tap into the excitement of YouTube with students by creating, posting, and promoting videos on the most popular media service in the world. Explaining how to record and edit videos, add effects, and upload content, Rudolph and Frankel describe everything from the basics of video production to advanced applications for use in the classroom. The authors explain how teachers can use YouTube privately with their students and integrate it with websites and blogs. Educators can use YouTube for applications that include creating instrument and software tutorials, evaluating group and individual performances, sharing content with students, and other uses. * More than 50 strategies for integrating YouTube into the music curriculum * Tutorials on video and audio production and preparing and uploading content. 200 pages |
