Music reviews and criticism

When Bela Bartok died in September of 1945, he left a partially completed viola concerto commissioned by the virtuoso violist William Primrose.

Renowned music historians Floyd and Margaret Grave present a fresh perspective on a comprehensive survey of the works.

In The Composer as Intellectual, musicologist Jane Fulcher reveals the extent to which leading French composers between the World Wars were not only aware of but also engaged intellectually and creatively with the central political and ideological issues of the period.

World Musics in Context is a wide-ranging survey of musics of the world, in their historical and social contexts, from ancient times to the present day.

This is the second volume of a two-volume translation of Heinrich Schenker's Der Tonwille (1921-24).

In this book, a follow-up to his 1996 monograph Celestial Sirens, Robert Kendrick examines the cultural contexts of music in early-modern Milan.

One of the most fascinating figures of seventeenth-century music, composer and singer Antonia Padoani Bembo (c.

Enrique Granados (1867-1916) is one of the most compelling figures of the late-Romantic period in music.

A freewheeling blend of continental European folk music and the songs, tunes, and dances of Anglo and Celtic immigrants, polkabilly has enthralled American musicians and dancers since the mid-19th century.

This volume discusses the commerce of music and its connection to the printing and publishing industry in mid-sixteenth century Venice.

The innovative work in design, typography, and content of music printer and publisher Ottaviano Petrucci (1446-1539) became the standard by which all following printers measured themselves.

How important was music to Martin Luther?

This is the first book to consider all aspects of the life of Agostino Steffani (1654-1728), a composer, diplomat, and bishop.

Georges Barrere (1876-1944) holds a preeminent place in the history of American flute playing.

In this penetrating study, Russell Stinson explores how four of the greatest composers of the nineteenth century--Felix Mendelssohn, Robert Schumann, Franz Liszt, and Johannes Brahms--responded to the model of Bach's organ music.

Burt Korall is widely recognized as the most authoritative writer on jazz drumming.

This study of the French early music revival gives us a vivid sense of how music's cultural meanings were contested in the nineteenth century.

This book is an examination of the uneasy alliance of two confessions, Lutheran and Catholic, at the prominent seventeenth-century court of Dresden, and the implications of this alliance for the repertoire of sacred art music cultivated there, an influential repertoire that has received only scant attention from scholars.

A tale of forbidden love and inevitable death, the medieval legend of Tristan and Isolde recounts the story of two lovers unknowingly drinking a magic potion and ultimately dying in one another's arms.

The past ten years have seen a rapidly growing interest in performing and recording Classical and Romantic music with period instruments; yet the relationship of composers' notation to performing practices during that period has received only sporadic attention from scholars, and many aspects of composers' intentions have remained uncertain.

Today, the saxophone is an emblem of "e;cool"e; and the instrument most closely associated with jazz.

Bach's cantatas are among the highest achievements of Western musical art, yet studies of the individual cantatas that are both illuminating and detailed are few.

Across the United States, Jews come together every week to sing and pray in a wide variety of worship communities.

From the Jim Crow world of 1920s Greenville, South Carolina, to Greenwich Village's Cafe Society in the '40s, to their 1974 Grammy-winning collaboration on "e;Loves Me Like a Rock,"e; the Dixie Hummingbirds have been one of gospel's most durable and inspiring groups.

In mid seventeenth-century Venice, opera first emerged from courts and private drawing rooms to become a form of public entertainment.

Lateness and Brahms takes up the fascinating, yet understudied problem of how Brahms fits into the culture of turn-of-the-century Vienna.

In 1919, the world stood at the threshold of the Jazz Age.

Bach's St.

From the Erotic to the Demonic demonstrates how different musical styles construct ideas of class, sexuality, and ethnic identity.

The attempt to play music with the styles and instruments of its era--commonly referred to as the early music movement--has become immensely popular in recent years.

Servanthood of Song is a history of American church music from the colonial era to the present.

Using a replica of Beethoven's Erard piano, scholar and performer Tom Beghin launches a striking reinterpretation of a key period of Beethoven's work.

Walter Aaron Clark's detailed and accurate account (the first in English) of one of the most intriguing figures of the Romantic period is now available in paperback.

The story of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart's precocity is so familiar as to be taken for granted.

Publishing is one of the oldest and most influential businesses in the world.

Publishing is one of the oldest and most influential businesses in the world.

A concise edition of the highly acclaimed Oxford Companion to the Book, this book features the 51 articles from the Companion plus 3 brand new chapters in one affordable volume.

A concise edition of the highly acclaimed Oxford Companion to the Book, this book features the 51 articles from the Companion plus 3 brand new chapters in one affordable volume.

Nowadays we listen to music whenever and wherever we like.

Nowadays we listen to music whenever and wherever we like.

What does it mean to have an emotional response to poetry and music?

The connections between a great artist's life and work are subtle, complex, and often highly revealing.

Feminism has always been a complex and controversial topic, as female rock musicians know especially well.

This book traces the emergence of the orchestra from 16th-century string bands to the 'classical' orchestra of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and their contemporaries.

"e;Essential reading, plain and simple.

The rediscovery in the fifteenth century of Lucretius' De rerum natura was a challenge to received ideas.

This rich collection of essays by an international group of scholars explores commentaries in many different languages on ancient Latin and Greek texts.

In a stretch of just seven years, the Beatles recorded hundreds of songs which tower above those of their worthy peers as both the product of cultural leadership and an artistic reflection of their turbulent age, the1960s.

In medieval Occitania (southern France), troubadours and monastic creators fostered a vibrant musical culture.

In medieval Occitania (southern France), troubadours and monastic creators fostered a vibrant musical culture.