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Ferruccio Busoni's conception of the musical work derives from his multiple roles as performer, aesthetician, editor, composer, arranger, and intellectual. Drawing on unpublished scores, manuscripts, sketches and documents from the Staatsbibliothek in Berlin, concert programs from a private collection in Berkeley, acoustic recordings, information about Busoni's intellectual interests gleaned from an auction catalogue featuring the contents of his extensive library, and the published aesthetic writings, letters, and compositions, the present study offers the first comprehensive account of Busoni's work concept. By establishing connections between his ideas and his musical practice, it explores and clarifies the reasoning behind his idiosyncratic compositional style, a style characterized by a blurring of boundaries between original and borrowed material. Polystylistic mixtures of the old and new and a distinctive performance style, in which Busoni creatively altered and embellished existing texts, exemplify his practice in an age in thrall to Werktreue, when originality of idea was prized above all else.
Examines Liszt's piano arrangements of music originally created for other instruments, especially the symphony orchestra and the Hungarian Gypsy band.
Video games open portals into fantastical worlds where imaginative play prevails. The virtual medium seemingly provides us with ample opportunities to behave and act out with relative safety and impunity. Or does it? Sound Play explores the aesthetic, ethical, and sociopolitical stakes of our engagements with gaming's audio phenomena-from sonic violence to synthesized operas, from democratic music-making to vocal sexual harassment. Author William Cheng shows how the simulated environments of games empower designers, composers, players, and scholars to test and tinker with music, noise, speech, and silence in ways that might not be prudent or possible in the real world. In negotiating utopian and alarmist stereotypes of video games, Sound Play synthesizes insights from across musicology, sociology, anthropology, communications, literary theory, and philosophy. With case studies that span Final Fantasy VI, Silent Hill, Fallout 3, The Lord of the Rings Online, and Team Fortress 2, this book insists that what we do in there - in the safe, sound spaces of games - can ultimately teach us a great deal about who we are and what we value (musically, culturally, humanly) out here.
Who inspired Johannes Brahms in his art of writing music? In this book, Jacquelyn E. C. Sholes provides a fresh look at the ways in which Brahms employed musical references to works of earlier composers in his own instrumental music. By analyzing newly identified allusions alongside previously known musical references in works such as the B-Major Piano Trio, the D-Major Serenade, the First Piano Concerto, and the Fourth Symphony, among others, Sholes demonstrates how a historical reference in one movement of a work seems to resonate meaningfully, musically, and dramatically with material in other movements in ways not previously recognized. She highlights Brahms's ability to weave such refer...
Ellie Cavanaugh was only seven years old when her fifteen-year-old sister, Andrea was murdered. Ellie's testimony was vital to the conviction of Rob Westerfield, son of a wealthy, prominent family. Twenty-two years later Ellie remains convinced of Westerfield's guilt. When he is released on parole and attempts to prove himself the victim of a miscarriage of justice, Ellie begins work on a book she believes will prove Westerfield's guilt beyond doubt. As she delves deeper into her research, she uncovers horrifying facts that shed new light on her sister's murder. And with each new discovery she comes closer to a confrontation with a desperate killer. . .
The familiar old world of classical music, with its wealthy donors and ornate concert halls, is changing. The patronage of a wealthy few is being replaced by that of corporations, leading to new unions of classical music and contemporary capitalism. In Composing Capital, Marianna Ritchey lays bare the appropriation of classical music by the current neoliberal regime, arguing that artists, critics, and institutions have aligned themselves—and, by extension, classical music itself—with free-market ideology. More specifically, she demonstrates how classical music has lent its cachet to marketing schemes, tech firm-sponsored performances, and global corporate partnerships. As Ritchey shows, the neoliberalization of classical music has put music at the service of contemporary capitalism, blurring the line between creativity and entrepreneurship, and challenging us to imagine how a noncommodified musical practice might be possible in today’s world.
What we think music is shapes how we hear it. This book traces the history of the idea of pure - 'absolute' - music from Pythagoras to the present, with special emphasis on efforts to reconcile the irreducible essence of the art with its profound effects on the human spirit. The core of this study focuses on the period 1850-1935, beginning with the collision between Richard Wagner and the Viennese critic Eduard Hanslick.
Facts are and must be the coin of the realm in a democracy, for government "of the people, by the people and for the people," requires and assumes to some extent an informed citizenry. Unfortunately, for citizens in the United States and throughout the world, distinguishing between fact and fiction has always been a formidable challenge, often with real life and death consequences. But now it is more difficult and confusing than ever. The Internet Age makes comment indistinguishable from fact, and erodes authority. It is liberating but annihilating at the same time. For those wielding power, whether in the private or the public sector, the increasingly sophisticated control of information is...
A RICHARD AND JUDY BOOK CLUB PICK 'Such an addictive and likeable book...One of this year's best memoirs' The Telegraph 'Rough Magic is transporting, beguiling and terrifically entertaining' Daily Mail The Mongol Derby is the world's toughest horse race. A feat of endurance across the vast Mongolian plains once traversed by the people of Genghis Khan, competitors ride 25 horses across a distance of 1000km. Many riders don't make it to the finish line. In 2013, Lara Prior-Palmer - nineteen, underprepared but seeking the great unknown - decided to enter the race. Driven by her own restlessness, stubbornness, and a lifelong love of horses, she raced for seven days through extreme heat and terri...