(Hardback)

Designed for those unversed in composition or music theory, this book places Beethovens compositions within the context of his personal and professional life and social and cultural milieu. This volume offers readers an enhanced experience of key works by exploring Beethoven's lyricism, heroic style, and unwaveringly idealistic musical vision.

(Hardback)

Experiencing Berlioz offers an accessible pathway into the underlying allure of Berlioz's music. His views on rehearsing and conducting, bumpy career ride and failures, the journey of a work through revisions and editions, and historical performance practices provide a backdrop to discussions of his most significant works.

(Hardback)

An icon of musical talent and independence, Bessie Smiths contributions to the blues and the music industry earned her the title of Empress of the Blues.Learning how to listen to Smith's work in turn develops a greater understanding of how her successors extended and reinterpreted her music to honor her enduring legacy.

(Hardback)

Jeff Sultanof takes a fresh look at big band jazz, examining why the big band era started when it did, how pop music and big bands evolved in response to one another, and the key roles played by well-known band leaders and the bands they led.

(Hardback)

This work analyzes each of Joels albums, laying out their appeal to musicians and non-musicians alike while exploring the production styles that have characterized Joels development in the recording studio. MacFarlane outlines how Billy Joels recorded works as a whole serve as the foundation for a complex and enduring musical legacy.

(Hardback)

Stolz explores Black Sabbaths nineteen studio albums, several live albums, and additional studio tracks, urging readers to reassess the work of this seminal act in American rock music history. The book uncovers how Black Sabbaths song catalog explored and defined the musical genre they founded, mastered, and disseminated.

(Hardback)

Sherrell explores American musical theater, beginning with the early-twentieth-century shift from European-influenced operettas and bawdy variety shows to sophisticated works and thus provides listeners with the tools and background necessary to gain an understanding of the highly variegated structure and character of Broadway music.

(Hardback)

Carl Maria von Weber is recognized as the father of the German Romantic and Nationalist music. Morgan walks readers through Webers masterpieces, providing key insights by integrating critical points in the composer's life and the burgeoning Romantic and Nationalist movements in Germany that Weber's music came to champion.

(Hardback)

Gengaro surveys Chopin's position as a composer of Romantic piano music at a time when the piano stood at the center of musical and social life. It sheds a spotlight on Chopin and his music that illuminates the Romantic period in which he lived, the social and artistic climate, and the importance of this most individual artist.

(Hardback)

In Experiencing David Bowie: A Listener's Companion, musicologist, writer, and musician Ian Chapman unravels the extraordinary marriage of sound and visual effect that lies at the heart of the work of one of the most complex and enduring performers in popular music.

(Hardback)

LaFave opens the ears of film-goers to the nuance behind movie music, laying out in layman's language how composers map what we hear to what we see. As part of the Listener's Companion series, this volume provides an enhanced experience of music by exploring how the works were written and first performed as well as how they are enjoyed today.

(Hardback)

Eric Wendell looks beyond the successes and failures of jazz pianist and composer Herbie Hancock to explore his musical design within the jazz community and mainstream pop culture. Wendell explores how Hancocks efforts have established new jazz standards while fostering a cross-genre continuity among modern jazz practitioners.

(Hardback)

Experiencing Jewish Music in America offers an accessible exploration of the remarkably diverse landscape that comprises Jewish music in the U.S. This survey on the art of listening to this dynamic and diverse musical culture invites listeners from all walks of life to enjoy the many types of Jewish music available in their communities.

(Hardback)

In Experiencing Led Zeppelin: A Listeners Companion, musician and writer Gregg Akkerman looks behind the curtain of rock gods sensationalism at this performing acts musical legacy. Putting readers right where the band was performing its iconic numbers, Akkerman is the guide for anyone intent on understanding how Led Zeppelin's music works.

(Hardback)

In this book, Kenneth LaFave guides readers past Bernsteins famously tortured personal problems and into the clarity and balance of his Serenade after Platos Symposium for Violin and Orchestra, the intense drama of his music for On the Waterfront, the existential cosmography of his three symphonies, and his vibrant works for the musical stage.

(Hardback)

Bowman discusses the sounds and stories of the versatile English singer-songwriter and musician Peter Gabriels songs. From his albums as a solo artist with the band Genesis to his film and media scores and movie songs, Gabriels music ranges from mainstream celebrations of pop styles to experimental arrangements filled with personal emotions.

(Hardback)

In Experiencing Rush: A Listeners Companion, music scholar Durrell Bowman guides readers through Rushs long career, explaining through the artful combination of biography, history, and musical exegesis how to listen to this unique act.

(Hardback)

Sanders chronicles Schumann's life and work, analyzing the most significant and widely performed compositions from each of the genres in which Schumann composed. This volume gives readers an enhanced experience of key works by exploring the environments in which they were writ...

(Hardback)

In Experiencing Tchaikovsky: A Listeners Companion, historian and scholar David Schroeder looks beyond traditional views of Tchaikovsky to explore the dramatic impact of his music by walking readers through the remarkable range of works by this great Russian composer.

(Hardback)

Brooke Halpin takes the reader on a magical adventure through the Beatles entire catalog of remarkable, timeless songs to discover the circumstances that inspired the songs and brought four Liverpudlian musicians eternal fame. The volume includes personal vignettes to take the reader back in time to experience Beatlemania for themselves.

(Hardback)

Experiencing the Rolling Stones draws together a broad swath of postwar history as it covers the bands origins in Swinging London through to their recording sessions outside of England. Malvinni takes an especially close look at Keith Richards guitar work and its effect on the bands music, as well as the multiple changes in the bands members.

(Hardback)

(Paperback)

In Experiencing Mozart: A Listeners Companion, music historian David Schroeder illustrates through the great composers music how the issues he cared about so deeply in his time remain as pressing to modern listeners.

(Hardback)

Saxophonist, violinist, trumpeter, and composer Ornette Coleman has earned enduring praise as an American jazz icon. Stephans weaves together analysis of Colemans recordings and exploration of the free jazz movement with interviews of those who knew Coleman best to tell an inspiring story of artistic genius and resilience.