On Shelf at CCBC Libraries
This Is What It Sounds Like by
This Is What It Sounds Like is a journey into the science and soul of music that reveals the secrets of why your favorite songs move you. But it's also a story of a musical trailblazer who began as a humble audio tech in Los Angeles, rose to become Prince's chief engineer for Purple Rain, and then created other No. 1 hits ,including Barenaked Ladies' "One Week," as one of the most successful female record producers of all time. Now an award-winning professor of cognitive neuroscience, Susan Rogers leads readers to musical self-awareness. She explains that we each possess a unique "listener profile" based on our brain's natural response to seven key dimensions of any song. Are you someone who prefers lyrics or melody? Do you like music "above the neck" (intellectually stimulating), or "below the neck" (instinctual and rhythmic)? Whether your taste is esoteric or mainstream, Rogers guides readers to recognize their musical personality, and offers language to describe one's own unique taste. Like most of us, Rogers is not a musician, but she shows that all of us can be musical--simply by being an active, passionate listener. While exploring the science of music and the brain, Rogers also takes us behind the scenes of record-making, using her insider's ear to illuminate the music of Prince, Frank Sinatra, Kanye West, Lana Del Rey, and many others. She shares records that changed her life, contrasts them with those that appeal to her coauthor and students, and encourages you to think about the records that define your own identity. Told in a lively and inclusive style, This Is What It Sounds Like will refresh your playlists, deepen your connection to your favorite artists, and change the way you listen to music.
Call Number: ML3830 .R67 2022
Glitter up the Dark by
From the Beatles to Prince to Perfume Genius, Glitter Up the Dark takes a historical look at the voices that transcended gender and the ways music has subverted the gender binary. Why has music so often served as an accomplice to transcendent expressions of gender? Why did the query "is he musical?" become code, in the twentieth century, for "is he gay?" Why is music so inherently queer? For Sasha Geffen, the answers lie, in part, in music's intrinsic quality of subliminal expression, which, through paradox and contradiction, allows rigid gender roles to fall away in a sensual and ambiguous exchange between performer and listener. Glitter Up the Dark traces the history of this gender fluidity in pop music from the early twentieth century to the present day. Starting with early blues and the Beatles and continuing with performers such as David Bowie, Prince, Missy Elliot, and Frank Ocean, Geffen explores how artists have used music, fashion, language, and technology to break out of the confines mandated by gender essentialism and establish the voice as the primary expression of gender transgression. From glam rock and punk to disco, techno, and hip-hop, music helped set the stage for today's conversations about trans rights and recognition of nonbinary and third-gender identities. Glitter Up the Dark takes a long look back at the path that led here.
Call Number: ML3470 .G44 2020
God Save the Queens by
An NPR Best Book of the Year "Without God Save the Queens, it is possible that the contributions of dozens of important female hip-hop artists who have sold tens of millions of albums, starred in monumental films, and influenced the direction of the culture would continue to go unrecognized." --AllHipHop.com Can't Stop Won't Stop meets Girls to the Front in this essential and long overdue history of hip-hop's female pioneers and its enduring stars. Every history of hip-hop previously published, from Jeff Chang's Can't Stop Won't Stop to Shea Serrano's The Rap Yearbook, focuses primarily on men, glaringly omitting a thorough and respectful examination of the presence and contribution of the genre's female artists. For far too long, women in hip-hop have been relegated to the shadows, viewed as the designated "First Lady" thrown a contract, a pawn in some beef, or even worse. But as Kathy Iandoli makes clear, the reality is very different. Today, hip-hop is dominated by successful women such as Cardi B and Nicki Minaj, yet there are scores of female artists whose influence continues to resonate. God Save the Queens pays tribute to the women of hip-hop--from the early work of Roxanne Shante, to hitmakers like Queen Latifah and Missy Elliot, to the superstars of today. Exploring issues of gender, money, sexuality, violence, body image, feuds, objectification and more, God Save the Queens is an important and monumental work of music journalism that at last gives these influential female artists the respect they have long deserved.
Call Number: ML3531 .I26 2019
Which Side Are You On? by
When he emerged from the nightclubs of Greenwich Village, Bob Dylan was often identified as a "protest" singer. As early as 1962, however, Dylan was already protesting the label: "I don't write no protest songs," he told his audience on the night he debuted "Blowin' in the Wind." "Protest" music is largely perceived as an unsubtle art form, a topical brand of songwriting that preaches to the converted. But popular music of all types has long given listeners food for thought. Fifty years before Vietnam, before the United States entered World War I, some of the most popular sheet music in the country featured anti-war tunes. The labor movement of the early decades of the century was fueled by its communal "songbook." The Civil Rights movement was soundtracked not just by the gorgeous melodies of "Strange Fruit" and "A Change Is Gonna Come," but hundreds of other gospel-tinged ballads and blues. In Which Side Are You On, author James Sullivan delivers a lively anecdotal history of the progressive movements that have shaped the growth of the United States, and the songs that have accompanied and defined them. Covering one hundred years of social conflict and progress across the twentieth century and into the early years of the twenty-first, this book reveals how protest songs have given voice to the needs and challenges of a nation and asked its citizens to take a stand--asking the question "Which side are you on?"
Call Number: ML3917.U6 S85 2019
Experiencing Chopin by
Fryderyk Chopin's career is intricately entwined with the piano. Although he made forays into orchestral and chamber work, the vast majority of Chopin's pieces feature the piano. While his relatively brief life shortened his potential contribution as a composer, the originality, richness, and quality of his work is undeniable. His harmonies were often surprising, the rhythms flexible, and the music dramatic. In Experiencing Chopin: A Listener's Companion, Christine Lee Gengaro surveys Chopin's position as a composer at a time when the piano stood at the center of musical and social life. Throughout, she shines a spotlight on Chopin and his music, which illuminated the Romantic period in which he lived, the social and artistic climate that surrounded him, and the importance of the individual artist at a time of political foment. Gengaro considers the different genres among Chopin's works, linking each to the historical, social, and biographical issues that shaped them.
Call Number: ML410.C54 G4 2018
The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians by
Now available in a deluxe paperback edition, The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians is the world's greatest music encyclopedia. This unique 20-volume set is packed with over 18,000 pages of information on the history and development of music, instruments, musical forms and terms,musical cities and institutions, and, above all, thousands of eminent composers and performers. The text is fully illustrated with photographs, drawings and musical examples, and all major articles include extensive bibliographies. Entries on composers are accompanied by detailed lists ofcompositions, which, for example, list the precise instrumentation required for many compositions. These acclaimed worklists alone are a valuable resource for today's musician.The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians includes:* Ancient, Medieval, and Renaissance music--insights on composers as well as new appraisals of theorists, philosophers, and chroniclers. It explores early musical rites, forms, styles and genres, and the social and historical forces that shaped the music of these eras* Composers--the first aim of Music and Musicians is to tell you virtually everything you will want to know about the people who have been writing music, from ancient times onwards* Ethnomusicology--discover Polynesian chants, Uzbek teahouse ensembles, Xhosa wedding songs, cowboy laments, modern protest songs, and other manifestations of non-western and folk music* Forms and genres--harmony, counterpoint, rhythm and melody--the basic materials of music. Symphony, opera, cantata, concerto, motet, oratorio and sonata--these and other genres are surveyed historically and their repertoires outlined* Performers--Music and Musicians covers influential figures from the world of popular music, jazz and opera; it explores the lives of patrons and poets, novelists and scientists, dancers and instrument makers, everyone whose work influences music* Places and institutions--travel from London to Vienna, Dresden to Osaka, Paris to Pittsburgh. Explore top musical arenas such as Carnegie Hall, Lincoln Center, and Covent Garden
Call Number: ML100.N48 1995
Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians by
Containing more than 15,000 biographies ranging from several lines to eight pages in length, Baker's provides unparalleled coverage of the world's greatest and lesser-known musicians in the uniquely insightful and always meticulous style of lexicographer extraordinaire Nicolas Slonimsky.
Call Number: ML105 .B16 1992
Musical Surveys
The Story of Music by
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 complex.In his dynamic tour through 40,000 years of music, from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop, Howard Goodall leads us through the story of music as it happened, idea by idea, so that each musical innovation--harmony, notation, sung theatre, the orchestra, dance music, recording--strikes us with its original force. 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.
Call Number: ML160 .G58 2014
Evolution of Music
Websites
- Classical.net
Includes composer biographies. works lists, timelines and thematic catalogs. - Classical 101 NPR Podcasts
Classical 101's podcasts are entertaining and informative. Listen to get the CliffsNotes of an upcoming The Met Opera Live in HD Opera, a discussion with the leader of a local orchestra or getting to know Mozart a little better. - Music Library Association
U.S. Branch of the International Association of Music Libraries, Archives, and Documentation Centers.
Musical Scores
The Rock Music Collection by
Contents include: After Midnight * Basket Case * Change the World * Come to My Window * A Horse with No Name * Hotel California * Jack & Diane * Light My Fire * Longview * More Than Words * Stairway to Heaven * Streets of Philadelphia * Stupid Girl * Tears in Heaven * Til I Hear It from You * The World I Know and many more!
Call Number: M1630.18 .R636 1998 OVERSIZED
French Piano Music by Call Number: M21 .P48
Five Orchestral Pieces and Pelleas und Melisande in Full Score by
Perhaps more than any other composer of his time, Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951) influenced the course of twentieth-century music. His compositional style moved progressively from lush, late Wagnerian chromaticism to a complete break with traditional tonality, later organized theoretically as "composition with twelve tones." This systematic control of all pitches evolved into a similar serialization of all of music's elements — a revolutionary advance that dominated international composition through most of this century. This edition of two of Schoenberg's most important orchestral works invites music lovers into the first steps of the revolution he helped bring about. The symphonic poem Pelleas und Melisande (1902), based on Maurice Maeterlinck's play, reveals Schoenberg's expanding chromatic language. The Five Orchestral Pieces (1909) demonstrates the composer's daring exploration of a music that renounces motivic connections as well as tonality. Both of these groundbreaking works are presented here in authoritative editions.
Call Number: M1000 .S36 OP. 16 1994
Selected Songs for Solo Voice and Piano by
The year 1840 proved a momentous one for Robert Schumann: after an interval of twelve years, he resumed writing songs, producing some 150 vocal compositions within the year; and in September, after a long and stormy courtship, he married his beloved Clara Wieck. During this period, Schumann’s biographers represent him as being “caught in a tempest of song,” transfiguring the emotions aroused by his love for Clara into a splendid outpouring of sublime music for voice and piano. Much of that music is reproduced in this collection — comprising over 100 of Schumann’s greatest lieder. Selections include: Liederkreis (Heine), Op. 24 Liederkreis (Eichendorff), Op. 39 Myrthen, Op. 25 Zw#65533;lf Gedichte von Justinus Kerner, Op. 35 Sechs Gedichte von Reinick, Op. 36 Frauenliebe und Leben, Op. 42 Dichterliebe, Op. 48 Individual Songs (17) In his work, Schumann embodied a tradition of German musical romanticism, emphasizing self-expression, lyricism, and extra-musical (e.g., literary) association. Thus we find here songs set to the poetry of Heine, Goethe, Burns, Byron, Moore, J. von Eichendorff, Adelbert von Chamisso, Emanuel Geibel, and others. Those who would know Schumann’s work most intimately will be especially interested in Myrthen, a 26-song cycle (liederkreis) dedicated “to his beloved bride.” Of these songs Schumann remarked, “… the Myrthen certainly allow a deeper insight into my inner musical workings.” Of the songs in general, Grove’s Dictionary offers this comment: “… the songs are not only piano pieces with another dimension, an additional tone-col∨ they are explicit, whereas the piano pieces are reserved. The lyrical element is set free and its emotional content made precise.” Complementing the music, this volume contains alphabetical listings of song titles, song openings and poets, and a glossary of German musical terms. New translations of the song texts have been specially prepared for this edition. The music has been reproduced directly from the authoritative Breitkopf and H#65533;rtel edition of 1882-87, edited by Clara Schumann. As a composer of art songs, Schumann ranks among the greatest masters; this inexpensive collection makes the songs widely available to students, singers, musicians — any admirer of romanticism made manifest in exquisite matchings of words and music.
Call Number: M1620 .S39
Databases
- Academic Search Premier This link opens in a new window
Articles on any subject. This is a good place to start.
- Academic Video Online This link opens in a new window
Videos on many subjects from PBS, HBO, BBC, History Channel, and others.
- Arts & Humanities Database
Articles on arts including visual arts, architecture, design, music, literature, and theatre,
and humanities including history, philosophy, and cultural studies. - Digital Theatre +
Videos of and articles about theatrical productions, interviews, masterclasses, and analyses of plays, musicals, and opera.
- JSTOR This link opens in a new window
Journals, books, images, and primary sources about many subjects.