Muzyka

The early swing era of jazz, from 1930 to 1941, represents both an extension of developments of the previous decade and an introduction of new tendencies that influenced subsequent periods of jazz history. Major big bands and individual artists established important styles that brought wide popularity to the music, while small groups created innovative approaches that determined the directions jazz would take in the years to come. This was a time marked by colorful band leaders, flashy instrumental soloists, showy orchestras, and engaging singers, and Oliphant's reference guide to this...

Consisting of six studies that present hermeneutical analyses of Wagnerian dramas, this book discusses Wagner's mature single dramas from "Hollander" to "Parsifal" with reference to the concept of Romantic irony and the basic theoretical orientation of post-structuralism. Wagner is best known as a composer of mythological works, but these music-dramas contain basic problems that essentially contradict what is regarded as their mythological or legendary nature. They all self-referentially play out certain critical processes. Focusing on the very issue of interpretation, this work asks how...

Revolutionary approaches to compositional practice and musicological research have been associated with Otto Laske's work for over a quarter of a century. Laske's scientific understanding of the compositional process has made it possible to systematically formalize computer-assisted and computer synthesized music. In this book, international scholars survey new directions in compositional and musicological practices as influenced by Laske's pioneering work. These two seemingly independent areas of inquiry, composition, and musicology, are presented as a comprehensive integration. The...

The Golden Age of popular music began prior to World War I with composers and lyricists writing hit songs for Tin Pan Alley, for musical plays, for Vaudeville, and for radio. It blossomed from the 1920s through the early 1950s, defined by a mood and style filled with rhythm and romance and with memorable, melodic, literate music. Although this book focuses on hit songs by major song writers such as Berlin and Gershwin, Kern and Hammerstein, Rodgers and Porter, major collaborators are included as well. Contemporary songwriters, continuing with the style of the Golden Age include Marvin...

Carole King's early compositional work in the 1970s paved the way for many women songwriters of popular music. Among her best-known compositions are You've Got a Friend, Up on the Roof, Will You Love Me Tomorrow? and (You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman. This reference encompasses Carole King's musical career from her compositions in the early 1960s through the 1990s, including her recently composed My One True Friend for the film "One True Thing" and Anyone at All for the film "You've Got Mail." A brief biography of Carole King, which includes a critical analysis of her music, precedes...

Following the successful, The American Musical Theatre Song Encyclopedia (Greenwood, 1995), this new encyclopedia reviews in-depth individual songs written for the American musical film over the past seventy years. Over 1,800 songs from over 500 musical films are identified and described. In addition to detailing the songs' authors, original singers, and initial film appearances, the encyclopedia also explains how the songs were used in the film, lists subsequent film and stage appearances of the songs, and notes memorable recordings. From Jolson to Elvis, operetta to rock musicals,...

Billy May was a self-taught musician and arranger. In 1938, he received his first big break arranging and playing trumpet; first, for the Charlie Barnet band, and in 1940, the band of Glenn Miller. Settling in Hollywood in 1943, his first of many big breaks in radio was playing in Ozzie Nelson's band for the Red Skelton Show. Shortly thereafter, May was asked by Nelson to be musical director to his new show, The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet. He was also fortunate to play in the orchestra and write arrangements for John Scott Trotter on Bing Crosby's Kraft Music Hall. Billy...

Even after acquiring the Doctor of Laws degree from both the University of Berlin and the Sorbonne (discussed in a letter, along with the effects of living in Europe during the Nazi era), Konrad Wolff's enthusiasm for music was so overwhelming that he became a professional musician in his mid-thirties. That enthusiasm is contagious. The more one reads his work, the more one understands music, but perhaps of greater importance, the more one loves it.

This is the only collection of a substantial quantity of his prolific writings (many never published before) under one cover. With almost...

This comprehensive study treats the wind works of Anton Bruckner as a complete genre and uses them to illustrate how the composer evolved in style throughout his career. A major nineteenth-century composer, organist, and church musician, Bruckner's compositional style changed dramatically in the early 1860s, dividing his career into two distinct parts. During his early career he immersed himself in the study of traditional musical principles including form, harmony, counterpoint, and orchestration. The second phase of his career, in which he composed the symphonies upon which much of his...

As a result of both his political reputation--destroyed by false charges of Nazism after World War II--and his rejection of avant-garde techniques, the recordings and compositions of Ernst von Dohnanyi went largely ignored for most of the 20th century. In recent years, however, musicians have begun to revise their interpretations of 20th century music to include compositional and performance styles that, like Dohnanyi's, adhered more closely to 19th century aesthetics. Although performers and audiences worldwide have started to rediscover his musical legacy, scholarship has not kept pace...

This annotated survey identifies and evaluates the published literature of chamber and concertante music originally conceived for wind instruments. Entries, arranged by instrument, are organized chronologically by genre to highlight the historical development of the works. Genres include single melody instrument with accompaniment, homogeneous groups, larger groupings with and without accompaniment, with and without other non-wind instruments, concertante works, and vocal music with wind instruments. Titles contain catalogue detail and current publisher's edition number.

Musicians,...

Dual natures comprised Chopin's personality. On one hand, he was a highly creative romantic idealist and on the other, a realist trying to cope with the world at large. Documentary evidence illustrates the disparities in his personality as a reflection of these two diverse aspects of his psyche. Of special interest are five previously unpublished letters in English and the unfolding of Chopin's controversial relationships with Tytus Woyciechowski, Julian Fontana, George Sand, and Solange Sand. This critical portrayal of Chopin's personality traces his journeys and experiences from Warsaw...

This volume in the Greenwood Press series Bio-Bibliographies in Music provides an overview of Phil Ochs' life and career, an annotated guide to the literature by and about Phil Ochs, and an extensive discography of his recordings. Biographical information traces his career up until his untimely suicide in 1976 and highlights the influences on his music and the numerous ways in which his music and political views influenced others. The guide to the literature includes not only articles and books but also album reviews, concert reviews and interviews.

The extensive information...

Focusing on Sinatra's presence in the recording studio, this discography catalogues Frank Sinatra's commercial records, V-Discs, and soundtrack film recordings. The first chapter covers Sinatra's early years as a vocalist with the big bands of Harry James and Tommy Dorsey. Entries then proceed chronologically with separate chapters for each decade. Data was collected from session reports in the files of record companies and from some union contracts. Commercial record and film soundtrack entries include band personnel and composer credits.

Frank Sinatra fans, music historians, and...

This work presents 12 of the most volatile ethical issues facing the music industry. Real-life examples depict both sides of each controversy, and the list of resources provides tools for readers who wish to pursue the controversies further. Primary sources including court cases and excerpts from speeches help students build critical thinking skills in current issues, persuasive writing, and debate classes.

Among the controversies noted is the growing oligopoly of a few multinational music companies and the independent labels that are attempting to survive this market...

This discography documents all recordings made by this pioneering and influential record label which was active in many areas - popular, jazz, blues, country, and ethnic music during a formative and dynamic period in America's cultural history just before and during the 1920s on into the early 1930s. All known 78rpm record releases in the United States, Britain, Canada, Australia, and Japan are detailed. Also included is an essay on the history of the various corporate entities that produced the OKeh label during its initial period of operation with special emphasis on the activities of...

In the late 1960s and early 1970s, Steve Reich was considered a fringe experimentalist. His work consisted largely of repeating, slowly changing patterns unlike either the serialism or the aleatory that predominated at that time. Today, however, Reich is one of the most prominent and celebrated contemporary composers, one about whom the scholarly and popular literature offers an assortment of critical, historical, and analytical perspectives. Author D.J. Hoek's bio-bibliography serves as an essential guide to this literature, comprehensively surveying Reich's life and work.

Included are...

Max Steiner's contribution to the formulation of early Hollywood scoring techniques is significant, particularly through his music for "King Kong" (1933) and "The Informer" (1935). The Academy Award winning score for "Now, Voyager "reflects the maturation of the composer's understanding of the dramatic function of music in film. The primary resources incorporated in the analysis include, from the Max Steiner collection at Brigham Young University, Steiner's letters and scrapbooks and his unpublished autobiography "Notes to You." In addition to contributing to the composer's own perspective...

Is there such a thing as women's music? Do women write and listen to music differently than men do? While recognizing that the differences among women are as distinct as the differences between genders, this bold new study examines gender's influence on music. The author's unique analytical strategy shows, in its application to actual musical compositions, that there is a fluid relationship between the music and the analyst, between the text and the context, and that 20th-century music is inextricably bound to notions of gender that transcend aesthetics.

Much of the work on women's...