The music industry is on trial as well as it should be. The cloning of America starts with it's youth, and when Bill Graham closed the Fillmore East in 1971 it was due to the capitalism of the recording industry. Image formula's, profit puppets, and total escape became the norm. What is interesting here is that Attali looks at serious contemporary composition as the only hope to create new forms and provides us with social parallels. That is exactly what John Cage was thinking. The only real freedom is internal, but through exposed sound structures multiperspectives on reality - our current situation will eventually collapse. As Varese said, "The modern day composer refuses to die."

Mozart's comic operas are among the masterworks of Western civilization, and yet the musical environment in which Mozart and his librettist Lorenzo da Ponte wrote these now-popular operas has received little critical attention. In this richly detailed book, Mary Hunter offers a sweeping, synthetic view of opera buffa in the lively theatrical world of late-eighteenth-century Vienna. Opera buffa (Italian-language comic opera) persistently entertained audiences at a time when Joseph was striving for a German national theater. Hunter attributes opera buffa's success to its ability to provide "sheer" pleasure and hence explores how the genre functioned as entertainment. She argues that opera buffa, like mainstream film today, projects a social world both recognizable and distinct from reality. It raises important issues while containing them in the "merely entertaining" frame of the occasion, as well as presenting them as a series of easily identifiable dramatic and musical conventions.

Designed to provide the student with a thorough knowledge of the rudiments of music, this text covers notation, scales, intervals, time, ornaments, transposition, chords, terms and signs and abbreviations. Complete with various exercises and tests.

The most celebrated book on counterpoint is Fux's great theoretical work Gradus ad Parnassum. Since its appearance in 1725, it has been used by and has directly influenced the work of many of the greatest composers. J. S. Bach held it in high esteem, Leopold Mozart trained his famous son from its pages, Haydn worked out every lesson with meticulous care, and Beethoven condensed it into an abstract for ready reference.

Classic study comprises two parts. The first is a comprehensive historical survey of writings on the fugue from the beginning of fugal teaching (c. 1350) to the present. Part Two explores in depth four 18th-century studies which are its classical presentations: Steps to Parnassus, J. J. Fux (1725), A Treatise on Fugue, W. F. Marpurg (1753-54), Fundamental and Practical Essay on Fugal Counterpoint, Padre Martini (1775), A Manual of the Fundamental Principles of Composition, J. A. Albrechtsberger (1790). Translations of texts, introductions and critical commentary, and many musical examples. Index. Bibliography.

David Lewin's Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations is recognized as the seminal work paving the way for current studies in mathematical and systematic approaches to music analysis. Lewin, one of the 20th century's most prominent figures in music theory, pushes the boundaries of the study of pitch-structure beyond its conception as a static system for classifying and inter-relating chords and sets. Known by most music theorists as "GMIT", the book is by far the most significant contribution to the field of systematic music theory in the last half-century, generating the framework for the "transformational theory" movement. Appearing almost twenty years after GMIT's initial publication, this Oxford University Press edition features a previously unpublished preface by David Lewin, as well as a foreword by Edward Gollin contextualizing the work's significance for the current field of music theory.

Why do people sing hymns? Are hymns poetry? What makes a good hymn? The author discusses the nature of hymns and their particular appeal, examines the English hymn as a literary form, and systematically describes its development through four centuries, from the Reformation to the mid-twentieth century.

An Inspirational Memoir of Faith, Family, and Music from the Songwriter and Lead Singer of the Biggest Country Group of All Time—Alabama

Known principally as the father of Wolfgang Amadeus, Leopold Mozart was a distinguished musician in his own right. An excellent violinist and composer, his greatest contribution to music was his Treatise on Fundamental Principles of Violin Playing. Published at Ausburg in 1756 it was the major work of its time on the violin and it contains much that is of considerable interest and value to musicians today: notes on performance, practice, a glossary of technical terms and specific chapters on the playing of written and improvised embellishments, the trill, and special rhythmic figures. Copious exercises illustrate each point made in the text. A Preface--revised for this edition--offers an illuminating biographical study of Leopold both as a man and as a musician.

A comprehensive and meticulously researched piece of scholarship that is all the more impressive for its vast scope. . . . An admirable accomplishment that is sure to engage scholars interested in the history of the British Empire, British perceptions of music and race, and the role of the social sciences in articulating both. . . . Compellingly demonstrates how the practices of the previous century made (the work of Myers and other pioneering scholars of non-Western music) possible.

Developed by a children's librarian when he discovered the lack of a "subject reference index on children's recorded music" to answer queries for music on specific themes, this source will be most useful from day care through third grade. Reid selected approximately 300 recordings based on availability at the national level, the number of songs compatible with the 35 chosen subject headings, and a subjective "kid-testing" at his library. Excluded were Disney and Sesame Street/Muppet soundtracks and anthologies, as well as "all-movement or all-exercise recordings, holiday recordings, and lullaby recordings." Of the 2,400 songs listed, 400^-500 receive annotations that include a song summary, suggested age and grade levels, and tested tips on using the song in programs, storytelling, or classrooms.

"A lot of excellent and timely advice that you might take years to amass if you had to find it out for yourself... overall this is a good book with useful (some might say essential) information on running a band and keeping going." -- Performing Musician

When Mos Def, platinum-selling New York-based rapper, decided to make a foray into rock 'n' roll, he called the band Jack Johnson. The name choice was a telling one: Johnson was the first black world heavyweight boxing champion, a man who has been described as 'fighting not only for his own dignity but also to knock white America off its haughty perch.' The band Jack Johnson continues the tradition of setting the story straight by challenging the notion that rock is an exclusively white domain. Collecting the stories of Jimi Hendrix, Arthur Lee and Love, Prince, the punk band Bad Brains, and more obscure black members of 'white' bands, along with original interviews with Slash from Guns n' Roses, Little Richard, Lenny Kravitz, and others, author Kandia Crazy Horse makes it bracingly clear that the true story of black rock has remained largely untold for far too long. This is essential reading for any rock fan, presenting the history of rock from an angle unseen until now.

The book aims to be a guide through the little universe which is the working place of the man who writes music. As such it talks predominantly to the layman,although the expert composer may also find some stimulation in it... From the center of basic theory the discussion will spread out into all the realms of experience which border the technical aspects of composing, such as aesthetics, sociology, philosophy, and so on.

"As an overworked composer/programmer/engineer/producer, I have trouble keeping up with new product releases. Mike Collins' excellent new book is a well informed reference source for all those that need to know quickly what plug-ins are available for what platform, what they do and how to use them. It also demystifies some of the more esoteric areas of software development. Where keeping up with developments in software takes time, and time is money, this book is worth every penny. Keep it by your bed!"
Steve Parr, vice-chairman of the Music Producers Guild and co-owner of Hear No Evil Studios