When we think of composers, we usually envision an isolated artist separate from the orchestra-someone alone in a study, surround by staff paper-and in Europe and America this image generally has been accurate.
Drawing on hundreds of operas, singspiels, ballets, and plays with supernatural themes, Magic Flutes and Enchanted Forests argues that the tension between fantasy and Enlightenment-era rationality shaped some of the most important works of eighteenth-century musical theater and profoundly influenced how audiences and critics responded to them.
Performed throughout Europe during the 1700s, Italian heroic opera, or opera seria, was the century's most significant musical art form, profoundly engaging such figures as Handel, Haydn, and Mozart.
The eighteenth century saw the creation of a number of remarkable mechanical androids: at least ten prominent automata were built between 1735 and 1810 by clockmakers, court mechanics, and other artisans from France, Switzerland, Austria, and the German lands.
Between present and past, visible and invisible, and sensation and idea, there is resonance-so philosopher Maurice Merleau-Ponty argued and so Jessica Wiskus explores in The Rhythm of Thought.
Recorded by his quartet in a single session in 1964, A Love Supreme is widely considered John Coltrane's magnum opus and one of the greatest jazz albums of all time.
Recorded by his quartet in a single session in 1964, A Love Supreme is widely considered John Coltrane's magnum opus and one of the greatest jazz albums of all time.
Few Mexican musicians in the twentieth century achieved as much notoriety or had such an international impact as the popular singer and songwriter Agustin Lara (1897-1970).
Richard Rodgers and Lorenz Hart are one of the defining duos of musical theater, contributing dozens of classic songs to the Great American Songbook and working together on over 40 shows before Hart's death.
In the wake of the Asia-Pacific War, Korean survivors of the "e;comfort women"e; system-those bound into sexual slavery for the Japanese military during the war-lived under great pressure not to speak about what had happened to them.
Some of the most popular works of nineteenth-century music were labeled either "e;Hungarian"e; or "e;Gypsy"e; in style, including many of the best-known and least-respected of Liszt's compositions.
The Romantic pianist - the solo pianist who plays nineteenth-century piano music - has become an attractive figure in the popular imagination, considering the innumerable artworks, literary works, and films representing this performer's seductive allure.
Few Mexican musicians in the twentieth century achieved as much notoriety or had such an international impact as the popular singer and songwriter Agustin Lara (1897-1970).
In the wake of the Asia-Pacific War, Korean survivors of the "e;comfort women"e; system-those bound into sexual slavery for the Japanese military during the war-lived under great pressure not to speak about what had happened to them.
Have records, compact discs, and other sound reproduction equipment merely provided American listeners with pleasant diversions, or have more important historical and cultural influences flowed through them?
The birth of rock 'n roll ignited a firestorm of controversy--one critic called it "e;musical riots put to a switchblade beat"e;--but if it generated much sound and fury, what, if anything, did it signify?
The universally acclaimed and award-winning Oxford History of Western Music is the eminent musicologist Richard Taruskin's provocative, erudite telling of the story of Western music from its earliest days to the present.
The universally acclaimed and award-winning Oxford History of Western Music is the eminent musicologist Richard Taruskin's provocative, erudite telling of the story of Western music from its earliest days to the present.
The universally acclaimed and award-winning Oxford History of Western Music is the eminent musicologist Richard Taruskin's provocative, erudite telling of the story of Western music from its earliest days to the present.
Arnold Schoenberg was a polarizing figure in twentieth century music, and his works and ideas have had considerable and lasting impact on Western musical life.
This book is an invaluable chronicle of an exuberant time of artistic exploration and experimentation populated by now legendary figures such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, Cornelius Cardew, Terry Riley, Julius Eastman, David Tudor, and many others who were part of this under-known chapter of late 20th century music history.
This book is an invaluable chronicle of an exuberant time of artistic exploration and experimentation populated by now legendary figures such as John Cage, Morton Feldman, Cornelius Cardew, Terry Riley, Julius Eastman, David Tudor, and many others who were part of this under-known chapter of late 20th century music history.
Over the last two centuries, Beethoven's music has been synonymous with the idea of freedom, in particular a freedom embodied in the heroic figure of Prometheus.
Venetian music print culture of the mid-sixteenth century is presented here through a study of the Scotto press, one of the foremost dynastic music publishers of the Renaissance.
"e;There are no definitive histories,"e; writes Elijah Wald, in this provocative reassessment of American popular music, "e;because the past keeps looking different as the present changes.
A History of Western Choral Music explores the various genres, key composers, and influential works essential to the development of the western choral tradition.
A comprehensive introduction to the inner workings of rock music, The Foundations of Rock goes back to the heart of the music itself from the time of its birth through the end of classic rock.
"e;There are no definitive histories,"e; writes Elijah Wald, in this provocative reassessment of American popular music, "e;because the past keeps looking different as the present changes.
Improvisation informs a vast array of human activity, from creative practices in art, dance, music, and literature to everyday conversation and the relationships to natural and built environments that surround and sustain us.
Arnold Schoenberg was a polarizing figure in twentieth century music, and his works and ideas have had considerable and lasting impact on Western musical life.
Ian Bradley's Complete Annotated Gilbert and Sullivan has established itself across the world as the authorized and definitive 'Bible' for all those interested in the Savoy operas.
The Politics of Appropriation uncovers a largely forgotten chapter in music history by considering the intersection of music and Hellenism in nineteenth-century Germany.
The riot that erupted during the 1913 debut of Igor Stravinsky's The Rite of Spring at the Theatre des Champs-Elysees in Paris has long been one of the most infamous and intriguing events of modern musical history.
Beating Time & Measuring Music in the Early Modern Era chronicles the shifting relationships between ideas about time in music and science from the sixteenth through the early nineteenth centuries.
