Listening Subjects: Music, Psychoanalysis, Culture David Schwarz Praise for Listening Subjects "Schwarz has a keen musical-analytical sense, a solid grounding in psychoanalysis, and an effervescent intellectual energy. His project is a fresh and distinctive addition to the ongoing rapprochement between musicology, critical theory, and cultural studies."--Lawrence Kramer, Fordham University In Listening Subjects, David Schwarz uses psychoanalytical techniques to probe the visceral experiences of music listeners. Using classical, popular, and avant-garde music as texts, Schwarz addresses intriguing questions: why do bodies develop goose bumps when listening to music and why does music sound so good when heard "all around"? By concentrating on music as cultural artifact, Listening Subjects shows how the historical conditions under which music is created affect the listening experience. Schwarz applies the ideas of post-Lacanian psychoanalytic theorists Slavoj Zizek, Julia Kristeva, and Kaja Silverman to an analysis of diverse works. In a discussion of John Adams's opera Nixon in China, he presents music listening as a fantasy of being enclosed in a second skin of enveloping sound. He looks at the song cycles of Franz Schubert as an examination and expression of epistemological doubts at the advent of modernism, and traverses fantasy "space" in his exploration of the white noise at the end of the Beatles' "I Want You (She's So Heavy)." Schwarz also considers the psycho-sexual undercurrent in Peter Gabriel's "Intruder" and the textual and ideological structures of German Oi Musik. Concluding with a reading of two compositions by Diamanda Galas, he reveals how some performances can simultaneously produce terror and awe, abjection and rage, pleasure and displeasure. This multilayered study transcends other interventions in the field of musicology, particularly in its groundbreaking application of literary theory to popular and classical music. David Schwarz is Valentine Professor of Music at Amherst College. 1997. 224 pages ISBN 0-8223-1922-5, paper $17.95 ISBN 0-8223-1929-2, library cloth edition, $49.95
A Theory of Musical Semiotics Eero Tarasti. Foreword by Thomas A. Sebeok "Since [Tarasti's] is unquestionably the most fully developed narrative theory in the literature, this book is an important landmark. . ."--Music & Letters Provides a model for the semiotic analysis of both musicological structure and semantics and for musical narratology. Advances in Semiotics 1994, 368pp., 4 b&w photos, 141 illus.; THEMUC cl $31.95 (reduced from $39.95) Musical Semiotics in Growth Edited by Eero Tarasti A major collection of new work in the emerging field of musical semiotics, with essays under the rubrics of "Philosophical Approaches," "Principles and Concepts of Music Analysis," "Semiotics as Social Psychology," "Electro-Acoustics and Computers," "Inter-relationships of Arts," "Vocal Music," and "Instrumental Music." Distributed for the International Semiotic Institute, Imatra, Finland 1996, 664 pp., 6 tables, 83 musical examples; MUSSEC cl $32.00 (reduced from $40.00); MUSSEP pa $20.00 (reduced from $25.00)
Analysing Musical Multimedia Nicholas Cook, University of Southampton This book is the first to put forward a general theory of the manner in which different media--music, words, moving picture, and dance--work together to create multimedia. Beginning with a study of the way in which meaning is mediated in television commercials, the book concludes with in-depth readings of Disney's "Fantasia," Madonna's video "Material Girl," and "Armide" (Godard's sequence from the collaborative film "Aria"). Analysing Musical Multimedia not only shows how approaches deriving from music theory can contribute to the understanding of multimedia, but also seeks to draw conclusions from the practice and further development of musical analysis. January 1998 320 pp.; 38 music examples 443. 816589-7 $65.00w/$52.00 ------------------ Analysis Through Composition: Principles of the Classical Style Nicholas Cook, Southampton University Cook provides an unusual and stimulating new approach to teaching analytical concepts through the study of style composition. He emphasizes throughout analysis and decision-making within a practical context, drawing on musical examples from eighteenth-century works. Students can use these examples as models to complete compositional assignments provided in a number of subject areas. 1997 260 pp.; 111 music examples + 20 worksheets 505. 879013-9 spiral bound $38.00s/$30.40 ------------------ The Sound of Medieval Song: Ornamentation and Vocal Style According to the Treatises Timothy J. McGee, University of Toronto The Sound of Medieval Song is a study of how sacred and secular music was actually sung during the Middle Ages. The source of the information is the actual notation in the early manuscripts as well as statements found in approximately 50 theoretical treatises written between the years 600-1500. The writings describe various singing practices and both desirable and undesirable vocal techniques, providing a fairly accurate picture of how singers approached the music of the period. (Oxford Monographs on Music) February 1998 240 pp.; 11 b/w plates, 1 figure, 4 tables, 3 maps, 33 music examples 377. 816619-2 $65.00w/$52.00 ------------------ The Monteverdi Vespers of 1610: Music, Context, and Performance Jeffrey Kurtzman, Washington University This is the only extensive study of the Monteverdi Vespers, vastly expanding on the author's 1978 set of essays on the subject, long since out of print. The volume studies the Vespers from the standpoint of its musical and liturgial origins and context, presents analytical essays on the music, and examines seventeenth-century performance practice as it pertains to the Vespers. Appendices include bibliographies and an analytical discography. February 1998 608 pp.; 140 music examples, 3 figures 348. 816409-2 $85.00w/$68.00 ------------------ Composers at Work: The Craft of Musical Composition 1450-1600 Jessie Ann Owens, Brandeis University "This is a stunning piece of work which will alter the landscape of Renaissance musicology in very important ways."--Lawrence Bernstein, University of Pennsylvania Drawing on sources that include contemporary theoretical treatises, documents and letters, iconographical evidence, actual fragments of composing slates, and numerous sketches, drafts, and corrected autograph maunscripts, Owens carefully reconstructs the step-by-step process by which composers between 1450 and 1600 composed their music. The manuscript evidence--autographs of more than thirty composers--shows the stages of work on a wide variety of music--instrumental and vocal, sacred and secular--from across most of Renaissance Europe. Her research demonstrates that instead of working in full score, Renaissance composers fashioned the music in parts, often working with brief segments, according to a linear conception. The importance of this discovery on editorial interpretation and on performance cannot be overstated. 1997 368 pp.; 89 halftones, 31 musical examples 172. 509557-4 $50.00w/$40.00 ------------------ Hearing the Motet: Essays on the Motet of the Middle Ages and Renaissance Edited by Dolores Pesce, Washington University In Hearing the Motet, top scholars in the field provide the fullest picture yet of the motet's "music-poetic" nature, investigating the virtuosic interplay of music and text that distinguished some of the genre's finest work and reding individual motets and motet repertories in ways that illuminate their historical and cultural backgrounds. 1996 392 pp.; 16 halftones, 85 musical examples 102. 509709-2 $70.00w/$56.00 ------------------ Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven William E. Caplin, McGill University This book introduces a new theory of form for the analysis of instrumental music of the classical style that focuses on formal function--how the music works and where it is going. Building upon ideas first advanced by Arnold Schoenberg and later developed by Erwin Ratz, the theory provides a broad set of principles and a comprehensive methodology for the analysis of classical form, ranging from the individual ideas making up various phrases of themes to the large-scale organization of complete movements. The book includes a detailed discussion of standard theme types, considers more extensive formal regions, and finally treats the basic organization of the full-movement form. The theoretical concepts are illustrated with over 250 annotated musical examples from Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. February 1998 336 pp.; 253 music examples 451. 510480-3 paper $65.00w/$52.00 ------------------ Haydn's Symphonic Forms: Essays in Compositional Logic Ethan Haimo, University of Notre Dame "This very importnat book. . .is a shining example of what can be accomplished when musical analysis is done in a historically informed manner."--Choice. Looking in detail at Haydn's symphonies, this book attempts to clarify what his fundamental principles of formal logic might have been. (Oxford Monographs on Music) 1995 320 pp.; 113 nusic examples 491. 816392-4 $55.00w/$44.00 ------------------ Music Criticism in Vienna, 1896-1897: Critically Moving Forms Sandra McColl, University of Queensland, Brisbane Music Criticism in Vienna is a close study of the work of some two dozen music critics in Vienna in the fifteen months from October 1896 to December 1897, a period which saw the deaths of Bruckner and Brahms and the rise of Mahler and Richard Strauss. It reconstructs in detail the climate of musical debate in a major center around the turn of the century. (Oxford Monographs on Music) 1996 264 pp.; 13 plates 186. 816564-1 $69.00w/$55.20 ------------------ Amy Beach Passionate Victorian: The Life and Works of the American Composer 1867-1944 Adrienne Fried Block, City University of New York This is a comprehensive biography of perhaps the first important American woman composer, Amy Marcy Beach. She enjoyed an international reputation in the early 20th century, especially for her symphonies. In recent years there has been a great revival of interest in her work, and many of her compositions have been performed and recorded. April 1998 448 pp.; 39 halftones, 76 linecuts 316. 507408-4 $45.00w*/$36.00 ------------------ The Chromatic Fourth: During Four Centuries of Music Peter Williams, University of Wales, Cardiff The "Chromatic Fourth" is a musical pattern of six notes moving by step up or down the scale. In this essential and practical study Peter Williams draws on his extensive knowledge of the music of four centuries to investigate and analyze over 200 examples taken from composers ranging from Bach to Bartok, and from Schubert to Shostakovich. (Oxford Monographs on Music) February 1998 208 pp.; 200 music examples 386. 816563-3 $75.00w/$60.00 ------------------ Analysis of Tonal Music: A Schenkerian Approach Allen Cadwallader, Oberlin College Conservatory of Music, and David Gagne, Queens College, CUNY This book provides an engaging and accessible introduction to the fundamental principles of Schenkerian analysis by focusing on the music itself. It derives structural principles from the practical analysis of specific pieces of real music rather than from stereotypical models. This instructive work aims to teach readers how to approach a piece of music and how to think about and critically examine compositions in ways that will inform their understanding and performance of great compositions of Western art music. November 1997 352 pp.; 350 linecuts 293. 510232-0 cloth $45.00s/$36.00 ------------------ Meter as Rhythm Christopher Hasty, University of Pennsylvania Christopher Hasty presents a striking new theory of musical duration. Drawing on insights from modern "process" philosophy, he advances a fully temporal perspective in which meter is released from its mechanistic connotations and recognized as a concrete, visceral agent of musical expression. Part one of the book reviews oppositions of law and freedom, structure and process, determinacy and indeterminacy in the speculations of theorists from the eighteenth century to the present. Part two reinterprets these contrasts to form a highly original account of meter that engages diverse musical repertories and aesthetic issues. 1997 328 pp.; 121 linecuts 128. 510066-2 $75.00w/$60.00 ------------------ The Dynamics of Harmony: Principles and Practice George Pratt, Huddersfield University This is an imaginative book presenting, with infectious enthusiasm, a sensible simplification of the main processes of classical harmony in the Bach-Schubert period. Pratt's explanations of concepts such as "real" and "substitute" chords, of false distinctions between "major" and "minor" and of the simple basis of seemingly complex chromatic harmony enables readers to grasp the principles of harmonic progression, and to see most progressions as a form of "dominant-powered" movement. 1997 160 pp.; numerous music examples 117. 879020-1 paper $24.95w*/$20.00 ------------------ The Aesthetics of Music Roger Scruton The book starts from the metaphysics of sound. Scruton distinguishes sound from tone, analyzes rhythm, melody, and harmony, and explores the various dimensions of musical organization and musical meaning. Taking on various fashionable theories in the philosophy and theory of music, he presents a compelling case for the moral significance of music, its place in our culture, and the need for taste and discrimination in performing and listening to it. Laying down principles for musical analysis and criticism, the book ends with a theory of culture, and a devastating demolition of modern popular music. January 1998 560 pp.; 258 music examples 334. 816638-9 $35.00w*/$28.00 ------------------ Philosophical Perspectives on Music Wayne D. Bowman, Brandon University, Manitoba This challenging introduction to the issues and problems of music philosophy explores various accounts of what counts as music, how music works, and what music is good for. Designed to introduce music students and musicians without philosophical backgrounds to the vitality of music philosophical discourse, it covers diverse perspectives on the nature and value of music, ranging from the ancient Greeks to idealism, through phenomenology, and on to contemporary socio-cultural critiques. February 1998 464 pp. 217. 511296-2 $45.00s/$36.00 ------------------ Introduction to Aesthetics: An Analytic Approach George Dickie, University of Illinois, Chicago (Emeritus) Introduction to Aesthetics: An Analytic Approach traces aesthetics from its ancient beginnings through the changes it underwent in the eighteenth, nineteenth, and the first half of the twentieth century. The first part of the book traces the history of the two organized notions of aesthetics--the theory of beauty and the imitation theory of art--and describes the transformations they went through from ancient Greek times until the 1950s. The responses of the cultural theories in the 1960s to these earlier developments are then discussed in detail. Four additional topics--intentionalistic criticism, symbolism, metaphor, and expression--are also addressed. Finally, five traditional art evaluational theories are presented, and the author constructs an evaluational theory of his own by building on ideas drawn from the work of Monroe Beardsley and Nelson Goodman. 1997 208 pp. 153. 511304-7 paper $19.95w*/$16.00 130. 511303-9 cloth $37.00w/$29.60
Publication Date: December 8, 1997 (domestic); January 5, 1998 (foreign) Contact: Robert Irwin, tel. (510) 643-0682; fax (510) 643-7127 Cultivating Music in America Women Patrons and Activists since 1860 Edited by Ralph P. Locke and Cyrilla Barr "We all know we are indebted to royal patronage for the music of Mozart. But who launched American talent? The answer is women, this book teaches us. Music lovers will be grateful for these ten essays, sound in scholarship, that make a strong case for the women philanthropists who ought to join Carnegie and Rockefeller as household words as sponsors of music." --Karen J. Blair, author of The Torchbearers: Women and Their Amateur Arts Associations in America "Together with the fine-grained and energetic research, I like the spirit of this book, which is ambitious, bold, and generous minded. Cultivating Music in America corrects long-standing prejudices, omissions, and misunderstandings about the role of women in setting up the structures of America's musical life, and, even more far-reaching, it sheds light on the character of American musical life itself. To read this book is to be brought to a fresh understanding of what is at stake when we discuss notions such as 'elitism,' 'democratic taste,' and the political and economic implications of art." --Richard Crawford, author of The American Musical Landscape This wide-ranging collection brings together leading authorities on the social history of American art music to reveal the indispensable contribution that women have made to American musical life. Some chapters discuss collective endeavors, such as music clubs, Wagnerites, supporters of "modern music" in the 1920s, and activists in African American communities, while others focus on the work of a single, strikingly individual patron such as Isabella Stewart Gardner or Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. Primary sources such as private letters and autobiographies are utilized, and documentary vignettes scattered throughout the book bring to life important events and reminiscences. Among these are an interview with Betty Freeman, noted patron of avant-garde music, and advice from Mildred Bliss to Nadia Boulanger. Extensive opening and closing chapters provide conceptual and factual background on music in America and draw out the larger implications of women's patronage in the past, present, and future. With contributions by Joseph Horowitz, Ruth A. Solie, and many more. Ralph P. Locke is Professor of Musicology at the Eastman School of Music. His publications include Music, Musicians, and the Saint-Simonians (1986). Cyrilla Barr is Professor of Musicology at The Catholic University of America. Her work appears in numerous collections, and she is presently at work on a biography of Elizabeth Sprague Coolidge. 0-520-08395-4; $45.00 cloth; World rights 385 pages, 6 x 9", 34 b/w illustrations, 4 tables ------------------ After the Lovedeath Sexual Violence and the Making of Culture by Lawrence Kramer "In this brilliant extended essay, Lawrence Kramer once again brings his formidable skills as a literary critic and musicologist to bear on nineteenth-century culture. ...As always, Kramer surprises his readers with bold new insights; he compels us to return to poems, stories, and sonatas we thought we knew." --Susan McClary, author of Feminine Endings "This book makes its readers understand the stakes of a crucial debate while itself raising that debate to a higher stage. Its powerful, original vision of gender informs remarkable readings of individual texts. The style, uniquely personal and invariably effective, often reaches a level of eloquence rare in academic prose. Kramer has a distinctive voice and uses it to dramatic effect." --Sandy Petrey, author of Speech Acts and Literary Theory "Enormously important...[This book] takes a crucial next step from previous cultural-critical work. Its determination to speak directly to the problem of sexual violence by way of certain cultural products--rather than the other way around, as countless previous authors have done--is a weird and wonderful gesture. I wouldn't have thought it could be done, but I find quite persuasive Kramer's demonstration that readings like these can authorize such a diagnosis." --Ruth A. Solie, editor of Musicology and Difference This elegantly written book is a bold attempt to reinterpret the nature of sexual violence and to imagine the possibility of overcoming it. Lawrence Kramer traces today's sexual identities to their nineteenth-century sources, drawing on the music, literature, and thought of the period to show how normal identity both promotes and rationalizes violence against women. To make his case, Kramer uses operatic lovedeaths, Beethoven's "Kreutzer Sonata" and the Tolstoy novella named after it; the writings of Walt Whitman and Alfred Lord Tennyson, psychoanalysis, and the logic of dreams. In formal and informal reflections, he explores the self-contradictions of masculinity, the shifting alignments of femininity, authority, and desire, and the interdependency of hetero- and homosexuality. At the same time, he imagines alternatives that could allow gender to be freed from the existing system of polarities that inevitably promote sexual violence. Kramer's writing avoids the conventional dress of intellectual authority and moves between music and literature in a style that is both intimate and effective. He combines informed scholarship with candid personal utterance and makes clear what is at stake in this crucial debate. After the Lovedeath will have a profound impact on anyone interested in new ways to think about gender. Lawrence Kramer is Professor of English and Music at Fordham University. He has published three previous books with California: Music and Poetry: The Nineteenth Century and After (1984), Music as Cultural Practice, 1800-1900 (1990), and Classical Music and Postmodern Knowledge (1995). All are available in paperback. Pub Date: December 12, 1997 0-520-21012-3 $30.00 cloth 184 pages, 6 x 9", 1 b/w illustration, 2 music examples Gender Studies/Literature/Music World rights
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