The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music History

The Complete Idiot's Guide to Music History PDF Author: Michael Miller
Publisher: Penguin
ISBN: 1440636370
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 340

Book Description
A beautifully composed journey through music history! Music history is a required course for all music students. Unfortunately, the typical music history book is dry and academic, focusing on rote memorization of important composers and works. This leads many to think that the topic is boring, but bestselling author Michael Miller proves that isn’t so. This guide makes music history interesting and fun, for both music students and older music lovers. • Covers more than Western “classical” music—also includes non-Western music and uniquely American forms such as jazz • More than just names and dates—puts musical developments in context with key historical events

The Anatomy of Melody

The Anatomy of Melody PDF Author: Alice Parker
Publisher: GIA Publications
ISBN: 9781622773442
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
Drawn from the world's most beloved songs, the more than 70 examples in this book explore the history and crucial elements of melody, which is the very basis of song. This unique guide allows readers a new insight into the composition of songs and focuses solely on how simple musical lines combined with the right texts can make a catchy melodic phrase that lasts throughout the ages without consideration of harmony, counterpoint or other constructs.

The Minstrel's Melody

The Minstrel's Melody PDF Author: Eleanora E. Tate
Publisher: Open Road Media
ISBN: 1497646618
Category : Juvenile Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 101

Book Description
A twelve-year-old aspiring performer follows her dream in a novel that culminates at the 1904 St. Louis World’s Fair Orphelia Bruce lives in rural Missouri, the corner where Illinois, Iowa, and her home state come together. She can sing and play the piano better than anyone in Lewis County. So when Orphelia’s mother forbids her from taking part in a traveling minstrel show looking for new talent and starring her idol, Madame Meritta, she runs away to join their troupe. But life on the road isn’t what she expected. She misses her family, even her annoying older sister, Pearl—Momma’s favorite. And it’s not nearly as glamorous as Orphelia imagined. The group performs in a different town every night, which means long hours of travel. Despite her fame, Madame Meritta still has to work hard to keep her band fed and clothed. But performing at the St. Louis World’s Fair could be Orphelia’s big chance. When a long-buried secret changes everything she thought she knew about her family, will she still get to live her dream? This ebook includes a historical afterword.

The Musical Human

The Musical Human PDF Author: Michael Spitzer
Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing
ISBN: 1526602741
Category : History
Languages : en
Pages : 481

Book Description
A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Full of delightful nuggets' Guardian online 'Entertaining, informative and philosphical ... An essential read' All About History 'Extraordinary range ... All the world and more is here' Evening Standard 165 million years ago saw the birth of rhythm. 66 million years ago came the first melody. 40 thousand years ago Homo sapiens created the first musical instrument. Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet it is an overlooked part of our origin story. The Musical Human takes us on an exhilarating journey across the ages – from Bach to BTS and back – to explore the vibrant relationship between music and the human species. With insights from a wealth of disciplines, world-leading musicologist Michael Spitzer renders a global history of music on the widest possible canvas, from global history to our everyday lives, from insects to apes, humans to artificial intelligence. 'Michael Spitzer has pulled off the impossible: a Guns, Germs and Steel for music' Daniel Levitin 'A thrilling exploration of what music has meant and means to humankind' Ian Bostridge

Vaudeville Melodies

Vaudeville Melodies PDF Author: Nicholas Gebhardt
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
ISBN: 022644872X
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 192

Book Description
If you enjoy popular music and culture today, you have vaudeville to thank. From the 1870s until the 1920s, vaudeville was the dominant context for popular entertainment in the United States, laying the groundwork for the music industry we know today. In Vaudeville Melodies, Nicholas Gebhardt introduces us to the performers, managers, and audiences who turned disjointed variety show acts into a phenomenally successful business. First introduced in the late nineteenth century, by 1915 vaudeville was being performed across the globe, incorporating thousands of performers from every branch of show business. Its astronomical success relied on a huge network of theatres, each part of a circuit and administered from centralized booking offices. Gebhardt shows us how vaudeville transformed relationships among performers, managers, and audiences, and argues that these changes affected popular music culture in ways we are still seeing today. Drawing on firsthand accounts, Gebhardt explores the practices by which vaudeville performers came to understand what it meant to entertain an audience, the conditions in which they worked, the institutions they relied upon, and the values they imagined were essential to their success.

Melody Maker History of 20th Century Popular Music

Melody Maker History of 20th Century Popular Music PDF Author: Nick Johnstone
Publisher: Bloomsbury Pub Limited
ISBN: 9780747541905
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 404

Book Description
This book tells the history of 20th century music, the real history of music, filled with injustices, mistakes and tragic events but also moments of life-affirming brilliance and excitement.

A History of Baroque Music

A History of Baroque Music PDF Author: George J. Buelow
Publisher: Indiana University Press
ISBN: 9780253343659
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 732

Book Description
"A History of Baroque Music is a detailed treatment of the music of the Baroque era, with particular focus on the seventeenth century. The author's approach is a history of musical style with an emphasis on musical scores. The book is divided initially by time period into early and later Baroque (1600-1700 and 1700-1750 respectively), and secondarily by country and composer. An introductory chapter discusses stylistic continuity with the late Renaissance and examines the etymology of the term "Baroque." The concluding chapter on the composer Telemann addresses the stylistic shift that led to the end of the Baroque and the transition into the Classical period."--Jacket.

The Story of Music

The Story of Music PDF Author: Howard Goodall
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
ISBN: 1639361219
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 471

Book Description
Why did prehistoric people start making music? What does every postwar pop song have in common? A “masterful” tour of music through the ages (Booklist, starred review). Music is an intrinsic part of everyday life, and yet the history of its development from single notes to multi-layered orchestration can seem bewilderingly specialized and complex. In his dynamic tour through 40,000 years of music, from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop, Howard Goodall does away with stuffy biographies, unhelpful labels, and tired terminology. Instead, he leads us through the story of music as it happened, idea by idea, so that each musical innovation—harmony, notation, sung theater, the orchestra, dance music, recording, broadcasting—strikes us with its original force. He focuses on what changed when and why, picking out the discoveries that revolutionized man-made sound and bringing to life musical visionaries from the little-known Pérotin to the colossus of Wagner. Along the way, he also gives refreshingly clear descriptions of what music is and how it works: what scales are all about, why some chords sound discordant, and what all post-war pop songs have in common. The story of music is the story of our urge to invent, connect, rebel—and entertain. Howard Goodall's beautifully clear and compelling account is both a hymn to human endeavor and a groundbreaking map of our musical journey.

No Ordinary Sound

No Ordinary Sound PDF Author: Denise Lewis Patrick
Publisher: American Girl Publishing Incorporated
ISBN: 9781609587512
Category : African American children
Languages : en
Pages : 0

Book Description
In 1964 Detroit, nine-year-old Melody pursues her singing dreams unti a tragic event in Birmingham, Alabama, shakes her confidence.

The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, East and West

The Rise of Music in the Ancient World, East and West PDF Author: Curt Sachs
Publisher: Courier Corporation
ISBN: 0486466612
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 338

Book Description
An eminent scholar explores the evolution of music, from the ecstatic singing of early civilizations to the development of more structured styles in Egypt, East Asia, Rome, and other regions.