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For many years, James Blades's famous book has been referred to as the percussionist's bible. It is established as the definitive reference work on the subject. Last updated by the author in 2005 and now back in print, this extended edition includes two additional chapters. The first covers the rise of the solo percussionist by the world's leading practitioner, Dame Evelyn Glennie who also contributes a new Foreword, while recent developments in orchestral percussion are covered by Neil Percy, Head of Timpani and Percussion at the Royal Academy of Music and Principal Percussionist of the London Symphony Orchestra.
Benjamin Britten was a most reluctant public speaker. Yet his contributions were without doubt a major factor in the transformation during his lifetime of the structure of the art-music industry. This book, by bringing together all his published articles, unpublished speeches, drafts, and transcriptions of numerous radio interviews, explores the paradox of a reluctant yet influential cultural commentator, artist, and humanist. Whether talking about his own music, about the role of the artist in society, about music criticism, or wading into a debate on Soviet ideology at the height of the cold war, Britten always gave a performance which reinforced the notion of a private man who nonetheless saw the importance of public disclosure.
A case study of a pioneering musician and an interdisciplinary appraisal of the larger social role of the artist. Dame Evelyn Glennie (b.1965) is the world's first full-time solo multi-percussionist, a sound creator and expert listener whose work continues to expand and diversify the remit of the contemporary performer in the twenty-first century. This book presents the first comprehensive study of Glennie's contribution to the evolution of an eclectic, experimental and fascinating instrumental discipline which wilfully eludes standardization. Glennie's sound journey also resonates in contexts extending beyond the discipline of music. She is a prominent female role model, an entrepreneur, a business and brand, a philanthropist and a profoundly deaf performer who has reframed discourse on what it means to truly listen. This book is both a case study of one pioneering musician and an interdisciplinary appraisal of the larger social role of the artist. An important reference source for percussionists, it is also intended to serve as a means of allowing the interested reader to engage with a medium that has become the heartbeat of contemporary culture.