An essential exploration of Nordic composers and musicians, and the distinctive culture that continues to shape them Once considered a musical backwater, the Nordic region is now a musical powerhouse.
A fascinating history of the piano explored through 100 pieces chosen by one of the UK's most renowned concert pianists An astonishingly versatile instrument, the piano allows just two hands to play music of great complexity and subtlety.
Ben Hecht’s critically acclaimed autobiographical memoir, first published in 1954, offers incomparably pungent evocations of Chicago in the 1910s and 1920s, Hollywood in the 1930s, and New York during the Second World War and after.
The irresistible, candid diaries of Richard Burton, published in their entirety for the first time Irresistibly magnetic on stage, mesmerizing in movies, seven times an Academy Award nominee, Richard Burton rose from humble beginnings in Wales to become Hollywood's most highly paid actor and one of England's most admired Shakespearean performers.
First performed at the midpoint of the twentieth century, John Cage's 4'33"e;, a composition conceived of without a single musical note,is among the most celebrated and ballyhooed cultural gestures in the history of modern music.
In this concise and engaging analysis of rock music, music theorist Ken Stephenson explores the features that make this internationally popular music distinct from earlier music styles.
An accessible scientific explanation for the traditional rules of voice leading, including an account of why listeners find some musical textures more pleasing than others.
An examination of how the scientific study of sound sensation became increasingly intertwined with musical aesthetics in nineteenth-century Germany and Austria.
California Gold offers a compelling cultural snapshot of a diverse California during the 1930s at the height of the New Deal, drawing on the career of folk music collector Sidney Robertson and the musical culture of often-unheard voices.
Cultural Technologies: Robots and Artificial Intelligence in the Performing Arts presents a diverse range of perspectives from leading scholars and artists on contemporary performing arts practices that engage with robotic and AI (artificial intelligence) technologies.
In 1887, during the Minneapolis State Fair, the renowned trompe l'oeil painting The Old Violin by William Michael Harnett was on display, captivating audiences with its lifelike depiction of a violin hanging on a pair of wooden shutters.
Traditionally gnawa musicians in Morocco played for all-night ceremonies where communities gathered to invite spirits to heal mental, physical, and social ills untreatable by other means.
Traditionally gnawa musicians in Morocco played for all-night ceremonies where communities gathered to invite spirits to heal mental, physical, and social ills untreatable by other means.
Taking a cognitive approach to musical meaning, Arnie Cox explores embodied experiences of hearing music as those that move us both consciously and unconsciously.
In this new history of music in Zimbabwe, Mhoze Chikowero deftly uses African sources to interrogate the copious colonial archive, reading it as a confessional voice along and against the grain to write a complex history of music, colonialism, and African self-liberation.
Performing al-Andalus explores three musical cultures that claim a connection to the music of medieval Iberia, the Islamic kingdom of al-Andalus, known for its complex mix of Arab, North African, Christian, and Jewish influences.
Departing from the traditional German school of music theorists, Michael Klein injects a unique French critical theory perspective into the framework of music and meaning.
Tarantella, a genre of Southern Italian folk music and dance, is an international phenomenon--seen and heard in popular festivals, performed across the Italian diaspora, even adapted for New Age spiritual practices.
Colonialist, nationalist, and regionalist ideologies have profoundly influenced folk music and related musical practices among the Garhwali and Kumaoni of Uttarakhand.
Steve Larson drew on his 20 years of research in music theory, cognitive linguistics, experimental psychology, and artificial intelligence-as well as his skill as a jazz pianist-to show how the experience of physical motion can shape one's musical experience.
