The Music of Toru Takemitsu - P.Burt - 2001

This book is the first complete study in English of the work of the best-known Japanese composer of the twentieth century. It is also the first book in this language to offer an in-depth analysis of his music. Toru Takemitsu's works are increasingly popular with Western audiences and Peter Burt attempts for the first time to shed light on the hitherto rather secretive world of his working methods, as well as place him in context as heir to the rich tradition of Japanese composition in the twentieth century.

Stockhausen: A Biography - M.Kurtz - 1994

A biography which includes quotations from Stockhausen's published and unpublished writings, and from interviews with him and those who have been closely associated with him.

Stockhausen - Life and work - K.H.Worner - 1977

Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs - A Label-Free Approach - A.Hammel & R.Hourigan - 2011

A practical guide & reference manual, Teaching Music to Students with Special Needs addresses special needs in the broadest possible sense to equip teachers with proven, research-based curricular strategies that are grounded in both best practice and current special education law.
Chapters address the full range of topics and issues music educators face including parental involvement, student anxiety, field trips and performances, and assessment strategies. The book concludes with an up-to-date section of resources and technology information.

Arthur Schnabel. A Biography - C.Saerchinger - 1957.pdf

The Arnold Schoenberg Companion - W.B.Bailey - 1998.pdf

        With language unencumbered by technical jargon, these scholarly writings bring to life the various facets of Schoenberg's creative process and its influence. Topics include biographical essays, surveys of the music from different periods in Schoenberg's career, and essays on the development of Schoenberg's style, on Schoenberg's attitudes toward music, composition and analysis, and the effect of and interpretation of Schoenberg's music. The contributors provide different points of view based on their unique specialties. The resulting breadth of information illuminates distinct aspects of Schoenberg's musical career.

        The Arnold Schoenberg Companion aims to introduce Schoenberg and his music to a nonspecialist audience. The chronological essays place Schoenberg and his achievements in the context of the past and present. The contributing authors include scholars and composers of different generations, including two of his American students. The companion also contains an annotated bibliography and discography, and is an invaluable resource to scholars and researchers.

Schubert in the European Imagination, Volume 1: The Romantic and Victorian Eras - S.Messing - 2006

In Schubert in the European Imagination, Volume 1: The Romantic and Victorian Eras, Scott Messing examines the historical reception of Franz Schubert as conveyed through the gendered imagery and language of nineteenth- and early twentieth-century European culture. The concept of Schubert as a feminine type vaulted into prominence in 1838 when Robert Schumann described the composer's Mädchencharakter ("girlish" character), by contrast to the purportedly more masculine, more heroic Beethoven. What attracted Schumann to Schubert's music and marked it as feminine is evident in some of Schumann's own works that echo those of Schubert's in intriguing ways. Schubert's supposedly feminine quality acted upon the popular consciousness also through the writers and artists -- in German-speaking Europe but also in France and England -- whose fictional characters perform and hear Schubert's music. The figures discussed include Musset, Sand, Nerval, Maupassant, George Eliot, Henry James, Beardsley, Whistler, Storm, Fontane, and Heinrich and Thomas Mann. Over time, Schubert's stature became inextricably entwined with concepts of the distinct social roles of men and women, especially in domestic settings. For a composer whose reputation was principally founded upon musical genres that both the public and professionals construed as most suitable for private performance, the lure to locate Schubert within domestic spaces and to attach to him the attributes of its female occupants must have been irresistible. The story told is not without its complications, as this book reveals in an analysis of the response to Schubert in England, where the composer's eminence was questioned by critics whose arguments sometimes hinged on the more problematic aspects of gender in Victorian culture. Scott Messing is Charles A. Dana Professor of Music at Alma College, and author of Neoclassicism in Music (University of Rochester Press, 1996).

The Science and Psychology of Music Performance - Creative Strategies for Teaching and Learning - R.Parncutt & G.McPherson - 2002

        What type of practice makes a musician perfect? What sort of child is most likely to succeed on a musical instrument? What practice strategies yield the fastest improvement in skills such as sight-reading, memorization, and intonation? Scientific and psychological research can offer answers to these and other questions that musicians face every day. In The Science and Psychology of Music Performance, Richard Parncutt and Gary McPherson assemble relevant current research findings and make them accessible to musicians and music educators. This book describes new approaches to teaching music, learning music, and making music at all educational and skill levels.
         Each chapter represents the collaboration between a music researcher (usually a music psychologist) and a performer or music educator. This combination of expertise results in excellent practical advice. Readers will learn, for example, that they are in the majority (57%) if they experience rapid heartbeat before performances; the chapter devoted to performance anxiety will help them decide whether beta-blocker medication, hypnotherapy, or the Alexander Technique of relaxation might alleviate their stage fright. Another chapter outlines a step-by-step method for introducing children to musical notation, firmly based on research in cognitive development. Altogether, the 21 chapters cover the personal, environmental, and acoustical influences that shape the learning and performance of music.

Beethoven's Immortal Beloved: Solving the Mystery - E.Walden - 2011

      In 1812, Ludwig van Beethoven wrote three letters to an unnamed woman, whom he called "Immortal Beloved." The letters were discovered after Beethoven's death and ever since their discovery, there has been speculation regarding whom that Immortal Beloved might have been. In Beethoven's Immortal Beloved: Solving the Mystery, Edward Walden carefully and meticulously presents his case that the woman who Beethoven loved was Bettina Brentano, an artistic and talented musician in her own right.
    Setting the foundation for his argument, Walden begins the book with a general historical and sequential narrative that interweaves the lives of the three principle protagonists: Beethoven, the writer Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, and Bettina Brentano. Walden explores in detail the key elements of the factual narrative and shows how those elements support his claim that Bettina was the Immortal Beloved. In addition, Walden addresses the attacks other Beethoven scholars have made against Bettina and reveals how such attacks were mistaken or unjustified.
      Thoroughly and rigorously researched, yet presented in a clear and engaging style, Beethoven's Immortal Beloved will appeal to Beethoven scholars, music lovers, and general readers alike, who will be captivated by the solving of this fascinating mystery.

Dmitri Shostakovich Catalogue: The First Hundred Years and Beyond - D.C.Hulme - 2010

        Dmitri Shostakovich (1906-75) was one of the greatest composers of the 20th century, as well as the first major Soviet composer. In the fourth edition of Dmitri Shostakovich Catalogue: The First Hundred Years and Beyond, Derek C. Hulme names and describes all known musical compositions of the Russian composer. More than 175 major works are annotated and discussed, including such comprehensive details as titles and subtitles, dates of composition, instrumentation, and duration; information on dedications and premieres; arrangements by the composer and others; publication details; notes on bibliographical references and the location of the autograph score; and comprehensive chronological lists of vinyl, compact disc, and visual recordings.