Download or read book A Natural History of the Piano written by Stuart Isacoff and published by Vintage. This book was released on 2011-11-15 with total page 385 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A beautifully illustrated, totally engrossing celebration of the piano, and the composers and performers who have made it their own. With honed sensitivity and unquestioned expertise, Stuart Isacoff—pianist, critic, teacher, and author of Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization—unfolds the ongoing history and evolution of the piano and all its myriad wonders: how its very sound provides the basis for emotional expression and individual style, and why it has so powerfully entertained generation upon generation of listeners. He illuminates the groundbreaking music of Mozart, Beethoven, Liszt, Schumann, and Debussy. He analyzes the breathtaking techniques of Glenn Gould, Oscar Peterson, Vladimir Ashkenazy, Arthur Rubinstein, and Van Cliburn, and he gives musicians including Alfred Brendel, Murray Perahia, Menahem Pressler, and Vladimir Horowitz the opportunity to discuss their approaches. Isacoff delineates how classical music and jazz influenced each other as the uniquely American art form progressed from ragtime, novelty, stride, boogie, bebop, and beyond, through Scott Joplin, Fats Waller, Duke Ellington, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock, Cecil Taylor, and Bill Charlap. A Natural History of the Piano distills a lifetime of research and passion into one brilliant narrative. We witness Mozart unveiling his monumental concertos in Vienna’s coffeehouses, using a special piano with one keyboard for the hands and another for the feet; European virtuoso Henri Herz entertaining rowdy miners during the California gold rush; Beethoven at his piano, conjuring healing angels to console a grieving mother who had lost her child; Liszt fainting in the arms of a page turner to spark an entire hall into hysterics. Here is the instrument in all its complexity and beauty. We learn of the incredible craftsmanship of a modern Steinway, the peculiarity of specialty pianos built for the Victorian household, the continuing innovation in keyboards including electronic ones. And most of all, we hear the music of the masters, from centuries ago and in our own age, brilliantly evoked and as marvelous as its most recent performance. With this wide-ranging volume, Isacoff gives us a must-have for music lovers, pianists, and the armchair musician.
Download or read book Natural History of Vacant Lots written by Matthew F. Vessel and published by Univ of California Press. This book was released on 1987 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Vacant lots aren't really vacant: a surprising number of plants and animals live in the left-over spaces in our cities. In this fascinating guide, authors Vessel and Wong provide a broad introduction to the unique ecosystems that can survive in the urban environment.
Download or read book Music Science and Natural Magic in Seventeenth century England written by Penelope Gouk and published by . This book was released on 1999 with total page 308 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The role of natural magic in the rise of seventeenth-century experimental science has been the subject of lively controversy for several decades. Now Penelope Gouk introduces a new element into the debate: how music mediated between these two domains. Arguing that changing musical practice in sixteenth-century Europe affected seventeenth-century English thought on science and magic, she maps the various relationships among these apparently separate disciplines.Gouk explores these relationships in several ways. She adopts the methods of social geography to discuss the disciplinary, social, and intellectual overlapping of music, science, and natural magic. She gives a historical account of the emergence of acoustics in English science, the harmonically based physics of Robert Hooke, and the position of harmonics within Newton's transformation of natural philosophy. And she provides a gallery of images in which contemporary representations of instruments, practices, and concepts demonstrate the way in which,musical models informed and transformed those of natural philosophy. Gouk shows that as the "occult" features of music became subject to the new science of experimentation, and as their causes became evident, so natural magic was pushed outside the realms of scientific discourse.
Download or read book Ethnomusicology A Very Short Introduction written by Timothy Rice and published by Oxford University Press. This book was released on 2014 with total page 168 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explaining that musicality is an essential touchstone of the human experience, a concise introduction to the study of the nature of music, its community and its cultural values explains the diverse work of today's ethnomusicologists and how researchers apply anthropological and other social disciplines to studies of human and cultural behaviors. Original.
Download or read book The Music of Nature written by William Gardiner and published by . This book was released on 1849 with total page 546 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book The Inner Nature of Music and the Experience of Tone written by Rudolf Steiner and published by . This book was released on 1983 with total page 120 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:
Download or read book Earth s Wild Music written by Kathleen Dean Moore and published by Catapult. This book was released on 2021-02-16 with total page 272 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: At once joyous and somber, this thoughtful gathering of new and selected essays spans Kathleen Dean Moore's distinguished career as a tireless advocate for environmental activism in the face of climate change. In this meditation on the music of the natural world, Moore celebrates the call of loons, howl of wolves, bellow of whales, laughter of children, and shriek of frogs, even as she warns of the threats against them. Each group of essays moves, as Moore herself has been moved, from celebration to lamentation to bewilderment and finally to the determination to act in defense of wild songs and the creatures who sing them. Music is the shivering urgency and exuberance of life ongoing. In a time of terrible silencing, Moore asks, who will forgive us if we do not save nature's songs?
Download or read book CRANE MUSIC written by Paul A. Johnsgard and published by Smithsonian Books (DC). This book was released on 1991-10-17 with total page 152 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Graced with illustrations by the author, Crane Music introduces the two North American crane species. The sandhill, most often seen, is within easy reach of bird-watchers in the center of the continent. Less visible is the whooping crane, struggling back from near extinction. Paul Johnsgard follows these elegant birds through a year' s cycle, describing their seasonal migrations, natural habitats, breeding biology, call patterns angelic to the bird-lover' s ear and fascinating dancing.The largest and most spectacular migratory concentration of cranes happens each spring when the Platte River valley becomes the staging ground for an amazing gathering of four hundred thousand to five hundred thousand sandhills en route from the South to the Arctic tundra. Johnsgard describes this incredible event as well as memorable personal encounters with the cranes. His knowledge of them transcends natural history, covering their importance in religion and mythology.
Download or read book Outlines of the World s History written by William Swinton and published by BoD – Books on Demand. This book was released on 2023-12-31 with total page 542 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Reprint of the original, first published in 1874.
Download or read book Music and Soulmaking written by Barbara J. Crowe and published by Scarecrow Press. This book was released on 2004 with total page 460 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Explores new avenues in music therapy. The author discusses connections between music therapy and theorizes that every little nuance found in nature is part of a dynamic system in motion.
Download or read book Animal Music written by Tobias Fischer and published by National Geographic Books. This book was released on 2015-05-05 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first anthology on animal music and communication, with contributions from leading scientists, researchers and musicians. Ever since the accidental discovery of whale song in 1967, the idea of complex animal sentience has been gaining strength within the scientific community. A growing number of researchers and academics are exploring the idea that animals enjoy music on a similar level to human beings. Animal Music is the first anthology to present an overview of the current state of this vital debate. Its authors have spoken to the leading scientists, researchers and musicians in the field to uncover hidden meanings and new perspectives. They visit the world's largest library of animal sounds, hack into the mysterious sonic world of shrimps, travel back in time to the point where animal and human songs diverged, and decode the latest neuroscientific findings about animal music and communication. The book includes exclusive interviews with Chris Watson, Jana Winderen, Yannick Dauby, Slavek Kwi and Geoff Sample as well as features on Bernie Krause, David Rothenberg and Olivier Messiaen and many more. Includes specially-compiled 60 minute CD of field recordings from the Gruenrekorder label. 01 Tikal Dawn – Andreas Bick, Germany 02 hermetica – Daniel Blinkhorn, Australia 03 Amazons & Parrots – Rodolphe Alexis, France 04 Grand Canal Springs (Excerpt) – Tom Lawrence, Ireland 05 seals – Martin Clarke, United Kindom 06 BOTO (extract) -ARTIFICIAL MEMORY TRACE, Ireland 07 Adélie_penguins (Excerpt) – Craig Vear, United Kindom 08 Pilot Whales (Excerpt) – Heike Vester, Norway/Germany 09 Brame, septembre 2011 – Marc Namblard, France 10 formica aquilonia, sweden – Jez riley French, United Kindom 11 Schwebfliegen – Lasse Marc Riek, Germany 12 central mongolian high mountain range habitat – Patrick Franke, Germany 13 Otus spilocephalus – Yannik Dauby, France 14 untitled#292 – Francisco López, Spain 15 Summer Sunset 01 – Eckhard Kuchenbecker, Germany 16 Waldkauz-Balz – Walter Tilgner, Germany 17 WHAT BIRDS SING – David Rothenberg, United States of America
Download or read book Music and the Child written by Natalie Sarrazin and published by . This book was released on 2016-06-14 with total page 312 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Children are inherently musical. They respond to music and learn through music. Music expresses children's identity and heritage, teaches them to belong to a culture, and develops their cognitive well-being and inner self worth. As professional instructors, childcare workers, or students looking forward to a career working with children, we should continuously search for ways to tap into children's natural reservoir of enthusiasm for singing, moving and experimenting with instruments. But how, you might ask? What music is appropriate for the children I'm working with? How can music help inspire a well-rounded child? How do I reach and teach children musically? Most importantly perhaps, how can I incorporate music into a curriculum that marginalizes the arts?This book explores a holistic, artistic, and integrated approach to understanding the developmental connections between music and children. This book guides professionals to work through music, harnessing the processes that underlie music learning, and outlining developmentally appropriate methods to understand the role of music in children's lives through play, games, creativity, and movement. Additionally, the book explores ways of applying music-making to benefit the whole child, i.e., socially, emotionally, physically, cognitively, and linguistically.
Download or read book Natural History of Silence written by Jérôme Sueur and published by John Wiley & Sons. This book was released on 2024-11-05 with total page 128 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In our busy, noisy world, we may find ourselves longing for silence. But what is silence exactly? Is it the total absence of sound? Or is it the absence of the sound created by humans – the kind of deep stillness you might experience in a remote mountain landscape covered in snow, far away from the bustle of human life? When we listen closely, silence reveals a neglected reality. Neither empty nor singular, silence is instead plentiful and multiple. In this book, eco-acoustic historian Jérôme Sueur allows us to discover a vast landscape of silences which trigger the full gamut of our emotions: anxiety, awe and peace. He takes us from vistas resplendent with full and rich natural silences to the everyday silence of predators as they stalk their prey. To explore silences in animal behaviour and ecology is to discover a counterpoint to the acoustic diversity of the natural world, throwing into sharp relief the grating reverberations of the human activity which threatens it. It is to attune ourselves to a world that our human insensitivities have closed off to us, to take a moment simply to breathe and listen to the place of silence in nature.
Download or read book Sudden Music written by David Rothenberg and published by University of Georgia Press. This book was released on 2002 with total page 229 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "The accompanying audio disc features eleven original compositions by Rothenberg, none previously released on CD. Included are a duet with clarinet and white-crested laughing bird and a duet with clarinet and Samchillian TipTipTip Cheeepeeeee, and electronic computer instrument played by its inventor, Leon Gruenbaum. Also featured are multicultural works blending South Indian veena and Turkish G-clarinet with spoken text from the Upanishads; a piece commissioned by the Tanglewood Contemporary Music Festival with readings of texts by E.O. Wilson accompanied by clarinet and electronics; and improvisations based on Tibetan Buddhist music, Japanese shakuhachi music, and the image of a black crow on white snow."--BOOK JACKET.
Download or read book Learning Strategies for Musical Success written by Michael Damien Griffin and published by Createspace Independent Publishing Platform. This book was released on 2013 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: "Learning strategies for musical success presents an overview of concepts that will enhance the lifelong enjoyment of learning music. It is geared towards classroom and studio music teachers, music students and parents" -- Introd.
Download or read book Sung Birds written by Elizabeth Eva Leach and published by Cornell University Press. This book was released on 2018-07-05 with total page 362 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Is birdsong music? The most frequent answer to this question in the Middle Ages was resoundingly "no." In Sung Birds, Elizabeth Eva Leach traces postmedieval uses of birdsong within Western musical culture. She first explains why such melodious sound was not music for medieval thinkers and then goes on to consider the ontology of music, the significance of comparisons between singers and birds, and the relationship between art and nature as enacted by the musical performance of late-medieval poetry. If birdsong was not music, how should we interpret the musical depiction of birdsong in human music-making? What does it tell us about the singers, their listeners, and the moral status of secular polyphony? Why was it the fourteenth century that saw the beginnings of this practice, continued to this day in the music of Messiaen and others?Leach explores medieval arguments about song, language, and rationality whose basic terms survive undiminished into the present. She considers not only lyrics that have their singers voice the songs or speech of birds but also those that represent other natural, nonmusical, sounds such as human cries or the barks of dogs. The dangerous sweetness of birdsong was invoked in discussions of musical ethics, which, because of the potential slippage between irrational beast and less rational woman in comparisons with rational human masculinity, depict women's singing as less than fully human. Leach's argument comes full circle with the advent of sound recording. This technological revolution-like its medieval equivalent, the invention of the music book-once again made the relationship between music and nature an acute preoccupation of Western culture.
