Appreciation Books - Page 6

The Norton Anthology of Western Music, Fourth Edition, Volume 1: Ancient to Baroque

Amazon Price: $47.35 List Price: $50.45 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton & Company Amazon Marketplace: 72 new & used starting at $0.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> History & Criticism
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Musical Genres -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Musical Genres -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Too Much Information, Too Little Space 2 out of 5 stars.
13 of 20 people found this review helpful.

As is typical with surveys of music written before 1800, this volume devotes way too little time and space to a period of music history spanning almost 2000 years, and yet volume two deovtes roughly the same amount of space to two hundred years of music history (ca. 1800-present). One gets the impression that a series of relatively inconsequential composers filled in the blanks until Bach and Handel, and that's grossly unfair not only to the composers of those works (and the works themselves), but also to those who wish to learn something about music written before Mozart, Beethoven, Verdi and Puccini.

If you're looking to learn something about music written before 1800, stay away from these kinds of surveys and point yourself in the direction of books focused more on particular subject areas -- for example, James Anthony's book on French Baroque music and Gary Tomlinson's book "Monteverdi and the End of the Renaissance" provide lucid breakdowns for those new to these genres, as well as those who already have some background in the subject matter.

There are a few books that are even more general than those I mentioned above but that still provide a clear outline of music from paricular eras. For example, Richard Hoppin's "Medieval Music" and the accompanying "Anthology of Medieval Music" is a fine place to begin a study of this period. Alan Atlas' "Renaissance Music: Music in Western Europe, 1400-1600", and Howard Mayer Brown's "Music in the Renaissance" (2nd Edition) are excellent surveys of the music of that period. For Baroque music, Claude Palisca's "Baroque Music" (3rd Edition) is a good primer, as is Manfred F. Bukofzer's "Music in the Baroque Era, from Monteverdi to Bach." Also advised is reading primary sources, since they often give the reader an idea of the intentions of the composers and are a great aid in understanding the motives behind historically-informed performances of this repetoire. For this, look to Oliver Strunk's "Source Readings in Music History: The Baroque Era."

(By the way, all of these books can be found on Amazon.com)

Editorial Review:

From Adam (de la Halle) to Zwilich (Ellen), The Norton Anthology of Western Music provides a comprehensive collection of scores illustrating every significant trend, genre, and national school. These authoritative readings are reproduced from reliable and easy-to-read originals, and all foreign-language texts are accompanied by English translations. Each work in the anthology is discussed in A History of Western Music. The editor's notes and comments follow the score of each work.

The new Fourth Edition includes twenty-two new selections, including works by Luca Marenzio, Benjamin Britten, Amy Beach, John Adams, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, all of whom are newly represented in The Norton Anthology of Western Music.

The Mastery of Music: Ten Pathways to True Artistry

Barry Green

Amazon Price: $10.85 List Price: $15.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Broadway Amazon Marketplace: 30 new & used starting at $7.50

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Theory, Composition & Performance -> Appreciation
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 7 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

The Inner Game of Music, the breakout hit that became a standard primer in the music world, has taught thousands of musicians—professionals and amateurs alike—how to overcome self-consciousness and stage fright and to recapture a youthful, almost effortless capacity to learn. Now, in his follow-up book, The Mastery of Music, Barry Green turns his expert hand to the artistic qualities that make an extraordinary musician. Culling advice from dozens of interviews with legends including Joshua Bell, Dave Brubeck, Jeffrey Kahane, Bobby McFerrin, Christopher Parkening, Doc Severinsen, Frederica von Stade, the Harlem Boys Choir, and the Turtle Island String Quartet, he reveals that it’s not enough to have a cerebral and emotional connection to the notes. Green hows how musical excellence, exhibited by true virtuosos, requires a mastery of ten unique qualities of the soul and the human spirit, such as confidence, passion, discipline, creativity, and relaxed concentration, and he discusses specific ways in which all musicians, composers, and conductors can take their skills to higher levels. He carefully incorporates all instruments and techniques in his rejuvenating discussions, inspiring the stifled student to have fun again and the over-rehearsed performer to rediscover the joy of passionate expression. Essential reading for every musician, The Mastery of Music strikes a beautiful new chord.

Baseball's Greatest Hit: The Story of "Take Me Out to the Ball Game" BK/CD

Robert Thompson, Tim Wiles, Andy Strasberg

Amazon Price: $19.77 List Price: $29.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Hal Leonard Corporation Amazon Marketplace: 38 new & used starting at $14.49

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> History & Criticism
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Reference -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Reference -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 6 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

The authorized tie-in book to the 100th anniversary of this beloved song. ""Take Me Out to the Ball Game"" is the third most frequently sung song in America, after ""Happy Birthday"" and ""The Star-Spangled Banner,"" and you'd be hard-pressed to find an American who doesn't know the words. With the release of this special edition, full-color, hardcover book, the complete story of the song is presented, taking us on a fascinating journey into how ""Ball Game"" has come to take a unique place in our cultural landscape. With images of historical newspaper clippings, baseball cards, sheet music, movie stills, ballplayers at the mic, and of course, Harry Caray leading the crowd at Wrigley, Baseball's Greatest Hit also comes packaged with a CD of rare and classic recordings, including performances by Dr. John, Arturo Sandoval, George Winston, Harry Caray and many more. Features an introduction by baseball commissioner Bud Selig and a foreword by Carly Simon. Baseball's Greatest Hit is a gorgeous celebration, not only of a song, but of baseball, music, pop culture, and the creative ways that Americans have always taken popular music and made it their own. And as the book traces the song's evolution over the last 100 years, it also traces the evolution of American culture - from the early days of Tin Pan Alley and sheet music pluggers; through the early role of women as baseball players and fans; through movie musicals, baseball's expansion west, rock and roll, and modern ballparks; right up to the present-day when in July 2007 more than 50 Hall of Famers came together to sing ""Take Me Out to the Ball Game"" in Cooperstown.

Complete Guitar By Ear: 2 CD Relative Pitch Ear Training Course

Mark John Sternal

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: MJS Music & Entertainment LLC Amazon Marketplace: 21 new & used starting at $7.48

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Instruments & Performers -> Guitar
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Instruments & Performers -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Instruments & Performers -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 9 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

2 CD Relative Pitch Ear Training Course. LEARN EVERY NOTE ON YOUR GUITAR COMPLETELY BY EAR! No written text or sheet music. Over 50 recorded lessons. A proven system that will help you develop a strong musical ear, finger strength, and an understanding of music theory for guitar. Just pop in the CDs and follow the lessons from your very first note to every note -on every fret -on every string of your guitar.
2 CDs Total running time: 1 hour 41 minutes.

COURSE LAYOUT
CD 1: Descriptive narration, beginner friendly, yet progressive. Starting with a short specified range of notes on the first string. A note is played and held while you match it on your guitar, (If you don't find it the first time, don't worry, eventually the narrator tells you what note is being played). The range of notes is progressively made larger, adding string after string, note combinations, and exercises. By the end of disc one the student has learned every note, and every note combination on every string of the guitar, plus some very essential music theory, and exercises for improving ones playing abilities.

CD 2: Less narration than disc one, and more music. Disc 2 can be used two different ways. 1. You can play along with CD 2 to improve finding the notes you hear as well as building your musical ear. 2. You can listen to CD 2 anytime, anywhere to help train your musical ear. For example: If you want to memorize the sound quality of a minor third interval, you can put track 4 on loop and listen to the exercises that are played on all strings up and down the fretboard. Do the same for any interval! In the end you will have learned to play every possible note combination on your guitar, as well as identify them when you here them played in songs.

FREE AUDIOBOOK TECHNICAL SUPPORT: With the purchase of Complete Guitar By Ear you also gain the author, Mark John Sternal, as a teacher. If you ever have any questions pertaining to the lessons on this audiobook you can contact Mark via email.

Franco Corelli: Prince of Tenors

SEGHERS RENE

Amazon Price: $23.07 List Price: $34.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: HAL LEONARD CORPORATION Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $21.79

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Performing Arts -> Theater -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Performing Arts -> Theater -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Composers & Musicians -> Classical -> Vocalists

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 4.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

His exceptional good looks made him a matinee idol, and Franco Corelli - the Prince of Tenors - was dubbed ""Mr. Soldout"" for 20 consecutive years. In 1958, just seven years after beginning his career, he was already the highest-paid tenor in Italy. Following his Met debut in 1961, he was celebrated as the greatest tenor in the world, a position that he retained until his departure from the Met in 1975. His charismatic performances in such operas as La Vestale and Fedora (both in collaboration with Maria Callas), coupled with a formidable mystique, as well as a number of notorious and colorful incidents, including his real-life sword fight with Boris Christoff in Rome, the Callas walkout there, the beating up of a spectator in Naples, and the alleged biting of Birgit Nilsson on a Boston tour of Turandot, created a mania for Corelli. Nearly a decade in the making, this definitive biography is based on the author's extensive research of theater archives and interviews with the opera star's numerous friends, family members, colleagues (Nilsson, Pavarotti, and many others), as well as the management of some of the world's leading opera houses.

The Mahler Symphonies: An Owner's Manual (includes 1 CD)

David Hurwitz

Amazon Price: $15.61 List Price: $22.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Amadeus Press Amazon Marketplace: 33 new & used starting at $12.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Performing Arts -> Theater -> General
Subjects -> Arts & Photography -> Performing Arts -> Theater -> General AAS
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> Arts & Literature -> Composers & Musicians -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 5 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

Editorial Review:

Since Gustav Mahler was rediscovered in the early 1960s, his symphonies have become arguably the most popular works in the modern orchestral repertoire. Orchestras worldwide ask to be judged by their expertise in playing these lengthy and colorful scores, while few composers since the mid-20th century have escaped Mahler’s influence.

Mahler was a commanding figure in his own time and renowned as the greatest living conductor.

His works summarize the great German symphonic tradition. Mahler’s Symphonies: An Owner’s Manual is the first discussion of the ten completed symphonies (No. 1–9 plus The Song of the Earth) to offer music lovers and record collectors a comprehensive overview of the music itself, what it sounds like, how it is organized, its form, content, and meaning, as it strikes today’s listeners.

The book caters to the novice as David Hurwitz describes what the listener will hear, section by section, using simple cues such as important instrumental solos, recognizable tunes, climaxes, and other easily audible musical facts. He explains how each work is arranged, how the various parts relate to each other, and how one work leads to the next. The emphasis throughout is on the experience of listening, and how each symphony embodies Mahler’s dictum that the symphony "must embrace the world. It must contain everything."

In considering each of these epic "sound worlds" in turn, Mahler’s Symphonies: An Owner’s Manual describes the emotional extravagance that lies at the root of Mahler’s popularity, the consistency of his symphonic thinking, the relationship of each work to its companions, and his dazzling and revolutionary use of orchestral instruments to create an expressive musical language that is varied in content and immediate in impact.

Celine Dion's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste (33 1/3)

Carl Wilson

Amazon Price: $8.76 List Price: $10.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Continuum Amazon Marketplace: 41 new & used starting at $5.89

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Biographies & Memoirs -> People, A-Z -> ( D ) -> Dion, Céline
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> History & Criticism
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Musical Genres -> Rock

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 3 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Let's talk about a little book that packs a powerful punch... 5 out of 5 stars.
16 of 18 people found this review helpful.

When I took Introduction to Aesthetics in college, I wish we had a text as smart, accessible, funny, and just plain awesome as this little book on Celine Dion to introduce us to the material. What Wilson has done here with his approach to the subject of taste and tackiness is nothing less than stunning. It is a must read for people who write about music and those that love to read about it.

Nota bene: You need not be a fan of Celine Dion to love this book.

Editorial Review:

Non-fans regard Céline Dion as ersatz and plastic, yet to those who love her, no one could be more real, with her impoverished childhood, her (creepy) manager-husband's struggle with cancer, her knack for howling out raw emotion. There's nothing cool about Céline Dion, and nothing clever. That's part of her appeal as an object of love or hatred -- with most critics and committed music fans taking pleasure (or at least geeky solace) in their lofty contempt. This book documents Carl Wilson's brave and unprecedented year-long quest to find his inner Céline Dion fan, and explores how we define ourselves in the light of what we call good and bad, what we love and what we hate.

Teach Yourself to Play Piano

Willard A. Palmer

Amazon Price: $17.95 List Price: $19.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Alfred Publishing Company Amazon Marketplace: 27 new & used starting at $5.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Instruments & Performers -> Piano
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Songbooks
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Theory, Composition & Performance -> Appreciation

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 1 Average rating: 5.0 of 5

excellent book for beginners! 5 out of 5 stars.
14 of 15 people found this review helpful.

This book is great for people just learning to play piano. I have a keyboard at home that I practice on. It takes you step-by-step through each phase/step, and one lesson builds on the next. I m learning a lot with this book- highly recommended.

Editorial Review:

This easy-to-use CD-ROM uses the same great step-by-step approach as the best-selling book in a fun, interactive audio/visual format. Beginners of all ages will learn the notes on the entire keyboard, how to form the most important scales and chords, all the basic rhythms, and how to play expressively with feeling. Exercises and finger aerobics reinforce technique as you follow along with music right on your screen. The interactive song player lets you see how the music should be played, change tempos, adjust audio levels, and record your performance! Works with Windows and Macintosh systems.

The Life and Death of Classical Music: Featuring the 100 Best and 20 Worst Recordings Ever Made

Norman Lebrecht

Amazon Price: $10.17 List Price: $14.95 Usually ships in 24 hours By: Anchor Amazon Marketplace: 52 new & used starting at $6.00

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Business
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> History & Criticism
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Musical Genres -> Classical -> General

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 14 Average rating: 4.5 of 5

Editorial Review:

In this compulsively readable, fascinating, and provocative guide to classical music, Norman Lebrecht, one of the world’s most widely read cultural commentators tells the story of the rise of the classical recording industry from Caruso’s first notes to the heyday of Bernstein, Glenn Gould, Callas, and von Karajan.

Lebrecht compellingly demonstrates that classical recording has reached its end point–but this is not simply an expos? of decline and fall. It is, for the first time, the full story of a minor art form, analyzing the cultural revolution wrought by Schnabel, Toscanini, Callas, Rattle, the Three Tenors, and Charlotte Church. It is the story of how stars were made and broken by the record business; how a war criminal conspired with a concentration-camp victim to create a record empire; and how advancing technology, boardroom wars, public credulity and unscrupulous exploitation shaped the musical backdrop to our modern lives. The book ends with a suitable shrine to classical recording: the author’s critical selection of the 100 most important recordings–and the 20 most appalling.

Filled with memorable incidents and unforgettable personalities–from Goddard Lieberson, legendary head of CBS Masterworks who signed his letters as God; to Georg Solti, who turned the Chicago Symphony into “ the loudest symphony on earth”–this is at once the captivating story of the life and death of classical recording and an opinioned, insider’s guide to appreciating the genre, now and for years to come.

The Enjoyment of Music, Tenth Edition (with DVD)

Kristine Forney, Joseph Machlis

Amazon Price: $73.40 List Price: $82.50 Usually ships in 24 hours By: W. W. Norton Amazon Marketplace: 59 new & used starting at $44.99

Buy at Amazon.com

Browse similar items by category:
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> Theory, Composition & Performance -> Appreciation
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> General
Subjects -> Entertainment -> Music -> General AAS

Customer Reviews:
Total reviews: 2 Average rating: 3.0 of 5

Cavat Emptor!!! 2 out of 5 stars.
27 of 35 people found this review helpful.

Beware!! This book might come with the DVD, but it doesn't come with the accompanying CD. This is very inconvient and frustrating!!!

Where are the CD's? 4 out of 5 stars.
0 of 0 people found this review helpful.

My daughter needed this book for class and the price was cheaper online than it was in the bookstore. The problem is that the book did not come with the required CDs. In order to pass the class, you need the CDs because the CDs correspond with the instructions in this book. No, Amazon did not state that the books are included and you can buy the required CDs but it would have been nice to know that the CDs were not included and if they are required they must be purchased separately. By the time we found out the CDs were not included, it was at the last minute and the professor gave my daughter extra time to listen to the CDs in class. There is a CD that comes with the book but it is not the CDs with the music on it to correlate with the instructions in the book.

Editorial Review:

With three million copies sold over nine editions, The Enjoyment of Music is the best-selling music appreciation text of all time. Spanning the Middle Ages through the twenty-first century, the text offers a thorough introduction to the elements of music, a broad overview of the history of musical styles, and fascinating cultural contexts and perspectives. The Tenth Edition of this classic text features a stunning new design, exciting new repertory, and an unmatched emedia and ancillary package.