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The Complete Idiot's Guide to Songwriting
Aimed at all inspiring songwriters, this guide shows how much musical training is needed, how to put together basics of a song for popular genres and how to tailor songs to different industries.
Contemporary Music: Theoretical and Philosophical Perspectives
This collection of essays and interviews addresses important theoretical, philosophical and creative issues in Western art music at the end of the twentieth- and the beginning of the twenty-first centuries. Edited by Max Paddison and Ir¿ Deli¿, the book offers a wide range of international perspectives from prominent musicologists, philosophers and composers, including C¿stin Deli¿, Pascal Decroupet, Richard Toop, Rudolf Frisius, Alastair Williams, Herman Sabbe, François Nicolas, Marc Jimenez, Anne Boissi¿, Max Paddison, Hugues Dufourt, Jonathan Harvey, and new interviews with Pierre Boulez, Brian Ferneyhough, Helmut Lachenmann, and Wolfgang Rihm. Part I is mainly theoretical in emphasis. Issues addressed include the historical rationalization of music and technology, new approaches to the theorization of atonal harmony in the wake of Spectralism, debates on the 'new complexity', the heterogeneity, pluralism and stylistic omnivorousness that characterizes music in our time, and the characterization of twentieth-century and contemporary music as a 'search for lost harmony'. The orientation of Part II is mainly philosophical, examining concepts of totality and inclusivity in new music, raising questions as to what might be expected from an autonomous contemporary musical logic, and considering the problem of the survival of the avant-garde in the context of postmodernist relativism. As well as analytic philosophy and cognitive psychology, critical theory features prominently, with theories of social mediation in music, new perspectives on the concept of musical material in Adorno's late aesthetic theory, and a call for 'an aesthetics of risk' in contemporary art as a means 'to reassert the essential role of criticism, of judgment, and of evaluation as necessary conditions to bring about a real public debate on the art of today'. Part III offers creative perspectives, with new essays and interviews from important contemporary composers who have mad
The Digital Musician
The Digital Musicianexamines cultural awareness, artistic identity and musical skill through the prism of recent technological innovations. New technologies, and especially the new digital technologies, mean that anyone can create music without any musical training. How do we know what is good? This involves developing a personal aesthetic, an awareness of the context for one's work, specific musical and technical abilities and an individual identity.
Generalized Musical Intervals and Transformations
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 ofthe 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 theframework 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 thecurrent field of music theory.
Gigging: A Practical Guide for Musicians
Amateurs, semi-pros, part-timers, and even seasoned professionals will learn to make a decent living playing music with the help of this insider guide! In Gigging, a 35-year veteran of the music business reveals the tried-and-true steps to success, with no-holds-barred advice for landing paid gigs. Covering the gamut of musical genres, this realistic resource provides dozens of surefire strategies for establishing contacts; charging appropriate fees; finding bandmates; booking gigs through managers vs. doing it yourself; working with attorneys, road crews, and publicists; marketing and promoting yourself; and much, much more. The definitive resource for anyone with aspirations to play music professionally! * Offers practical, realistic advice for helping musicians make the jump from playing music as a hobby to playing professionally * Also offers advice on legal and financial matters such as setting payment rates, working with unions, handling contracts, and more
Good Vibrations: The Physics of Music
Why does a harpsichord sound different from a piano? For that matter, why does middle C on a piano differ from middle C on a tuning fork, a trombone, or a flute? Good Vibrations explains in clear, friendly language the out-of-sight physics responsible not only for these differences but also for the whole range of noises we call music. The physical properties and history of sound are fascinating to study. Barry Parker's tour of the physics of music details the science of how instruments, the acoustics of rooms, electronics, and humans create and alter the varied sounds we hear. Using physics as a base, Parker discusses the history of music, how sounds are made and perceived, and the various effects of acting on sounds. In the process, he demonstrates what acoustics can teach us about quantum theory and explains the relationship between harmonics and the theory of waves. Peppered throughout with anecdotes and examples illustrating key concepts, this invitingly written book provides a firm grounding in the actual and theoretical physics of music.
The Harvard Biographical Dictionary of Music
A guide to the thousands of characters, who people the history of music, this volume brings together all the biographical information about composers, performers, music theorists and instrument makers from the days of praise chants to the bop and pop of today. A companion to The New Harvard Dictionary of Music, this biographical dictionary emphasizes classical and art music, but also gives attention to jazz and blues, rock and pop, and hymns and showtunes across the ages - with care devoted to coverage of the 20th century.
The Harvard Dictionary of Music
This classic reference work, the best one-volume music dictionary available, has been brought completely up to date in this new edition. Combining authoritative scholarship and lucid, lively prose, the Fourth Edition of The Harvard Dictionary of Music is the essential guide for musicians, students, and everyone who appreciates music. The Harvard Dictionary of Music has long been admired for its wide range as well as its reliability. This treasure trove includes entries on all the styles and forms in Western music; comprehensive articles on the music of Africa, Asia, Latin America, and the Near East; descriptions of instruments enriched by historical background; and articles that reflect today's beat, including popular music, jazz, and rock. Throughout this Fourth Edition, existing articles have been fine-tuned and new entries added so that the dictionary fully reflects current music scholarship and recent developments in musical culture. Encyclopedia-length articles by notable experts alternate with short entries for quick reference, including definitions and identifications of works and instruments. More than 220 drawings and 250 musical examples enhance the text. This is an invaluable book that no music lover can afford to be without.
Music, Language, and the Brain
In the first comprehensive study of the relationship between music and language from the standpoint of cognitive neuroscience, Aniruddh D. Patel challenges the widespread belief that music and language are processed independently. Since Plato's time, the relationship between music and languagehas attracted interest and debate from a wide range of thinkers. Recently, scientific research on this topic has been growing rapidly, as scholars from diverse disciplines, including linguistics, cognitive science, music cognition, and neuroscience are drawn to the music-language interface as oneway to explore the extent to which different mental abilities are processed by separate brain mechanisms. Accordingly, the relevant data and theories have been spread across a range of disciplines. This volume provides the first synthesis, arguing that music and language share deep and criticalconnections, and that comparative research provides a powerful way to study the cognitive and neural mechanisms underlying these uniquely human abilities.
Musical Terms, Symbols and Theory: An Illustrated Dictionary
Noted lexicographer Thomsett here dissects more than 1,400 terms, a buttula to zither, with clarity and precision; 383 high quality original illustrations render concepts that make verbal explanation difficult. Fully cross referenced, this dictionary is an authoritative source for researchers, musicologists, professional musicians, teachers and students of music, and educated members of the public. The richly detailed and comprehensive dictionary proper is followed by a five-language glossary of instruments. An illustrated notation guide provides identification of symbols used in musical scores. The final section comprehensively covers scales, keys and chords.
A Musician's Dictionary
Since 1983, A Musician's Dictionary has delighted a growing legion of readers with its witty, wacky and satirical definitions of musicians and musical terminology. The brand-new edition, revised and expanded, includes dozens of new definitions.
New Penguin Dictionary of Music
The New Penguin Dictionary of Musicis the essential A - Z of some 1,000 years of Western music. It explores in detail the lives and achievements of a huge range of composers, and examines such key topics as music history (from medieval plainchant to contemporary minimalism), performers, theory and jargon. Written by an award-winning music critic, and blending scholarship with personal insight and opinion, this dictionary is both a pleasurable read and an invaluable and authoritative reference book for all lovers of music, whether amateur or professional.
The Origins of Music
The book can be viewed as representing the birth of evolutionary biomusicology. What biological and cognitive forces have shaped humankind's musical behavior and the rich global repertoire of musical structures? What is music for, and why does every human culture have it? What are the universal features of music and musical behavior across cultures? In this groundbreaking book, musicologists, biologists, anthropologists, archaeologists, psychologists, neuroscientists, ethologists, and linguists come together for the first time to examine these and related issues. The book can be viewed as representing the birth of evolutionary biomusicology--the study of which will contribute greatly to our understanding of the evolutionary precursors of human music, the evolution of the hominid vocal tract, localization of brain function, the structure of acoustic-communication signals, symbolic gesture, emotional manipulation through sound, self-expression, creativity, the human affinity for the spiritual, and the human attachment to music itself. Contributors Simha Arom, Derek Bickerton, Steven Brown, Ellen Dissanayake, Dean Falk, David W. Frayer, Walter Freeman, Thomas Geissmann, Marc D. Hauser, Michel Imberty, Harry Jerison, Drago Kunej, François-Bernard Mâche, Peter Marler, Björn Merker, Geoffrey Miller, Jean Molino, Bruno Nettl, Chris Nicolay, Katharine Payne, Bruce Richman, Peter J.B. Slater, Peter Todd, Sandra Trehub, Ivan Turk, Maria Ujhelyi, Nils L. Wallin, Carol Whaling