Download or read book Life Death and Cellos written by Isabel Rogers and published by Prelude Books. This book was released on 2019-01-24 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Classical music can be a dangerous pastime... What with love affairs, their conductor dropping dead, a stolen cello and no money, Stockwell Park Orchestra is having a fraught season. After Mrs Ford-Hughes is squashed and injured by a dying guest conductor mid-concert, she and her husband withdraw their generous financial backing, leaving the orchestra broke and unsure of its future. Cellist Erin suggests a recovery plan, but since it involves their unreliable leader, Fenella, playing a priceless Stradivari cello which then goes missing, it’s not a fool-proof one. Joshua, the regular conductor, can’t decide which affair to commit to, while manager David’s nervous tic returns at every doom-laden report from the orchestra’s treasurer. There is one way to survive, but is letting a tone-deaf diva sing Strauss too high a price to pay? And will Stockwell Park Orchestra live to play another season? What people are saying about Life, Death and Cellos: “I was charmed... a very enjoyable read.” Marian Keyes “Life, Death and Cellos is a witty and irreverent musical romp, full of characters I’d love to go for a pint with. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the Stockwell Park Orchestra and can't wait for the next book in the series.” Claire King, author of The Night Rainbow “Life, Death and Cellos is that rare thing – a funny music book. Rogers knows the world intimately, and portrays it with warmth, accuracy and a poetic turn of phrase. Sharp, witty and richly entertaining.” Lev Parikian, author of Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? “With its retro humour bordering on farce, this novel offers an escape into the turbulent (and bonkers) world of the orchestra.” Isabel Costello, author of Paris Mon Amour “Dodgy post-rehearsal curries, friendly insults between musicians, sacrosanct coffee-and-biscuit breaks, tedious committee meetings: welcome to the world of the amateur orchestra. Throw in a stolen Stradivarius, an unexpected fatality and the odd illicit affair and you have Life, Death and Cellos, the first in a new series by Isabel Rogers.” Rebecca Franks, BBC Music Magazine “...a very funny tale of musical shenanigans set in the febrile atmosphere of the Stockwell Park Orchestra” Ian Critchley

Download or read book The Cambridge Companion to the Cello written by Robin Stowell and published by Cambridge University Press. This book was released on 1999-06-28 with total page 290 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This is a compact, composite and authoritative survey of the history and development of the cello and its repertory since the origins of the instrument. The volume comprises thirteen essays, written by a team of nine distinguished scholars and performers, and is intended to develop the cello's historical perspective in breadth and from every relevant angle, offering as comprehensive a coverage as possible. It focuses in particular on four principal areas: the instrument's structure, development and fundamental acoustical principles; the careers of the most distinguished cellists since the baroque era; the cello repertory (including chapters devoted to the concerto, the sonata, other solo repertory, and ensemble music); and its technique, teaching methods and relevant aspects of historical and performance practice. It is the most comprehensive book ever to be published about the instrument and provides essential information for performers, students and teachers.

Download or read book Continental Riff written by Isabel Rogers and published by Prelude Books. This book was released on 2021-01-14 with total page 239 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A continental tour of Europe doesn’t go quite as planned! When Stockwell Park Orchestra goes on tour to Europe, it proves a challenge for even the most efficient German logistical planner. A teenage stowaway, brass players falling in canals and a sabotaged timpani van are all in a day’s work for Ingrid Bauer of Note Perfect Tours, but even she can’t solve all the problems this week throws at her. Maybe a bit of surprise Bach can calm the muddy Brexit waters. She just has to fish out the musicians first. Praise for The Stockwell Park Orchestra Series: “I was charmed... a very enjoyable read.” Marian Keyes “Friendly insults between musicians, sacrosanct coffee-and-biscuit breaks, tedious committee meetings: welcome to the world of the amateur orchestra.” BBC Music Magazine “...a witty and irreverent musical romp, full of characters I’d love to go for a pint with. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the Stockwell Park Orchestra and can't wait for the next book in the series.” Claire King, author of The Night Rainbow “Sharp, witty and richly entertaining.” Lev Parikian, author of Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? “With its retro humour bordering on farce, this novel offers an escape into the turbulent (and bonkers) world of the orchestra.” Isabel Costello, author of Paris Mon Amour “...a very funny tale of musical shenanigans set in the febrile atmosphere of the Stockwell Park Orchestra” Ian Critchley

Download or read book Stradivari s Genius written by Toby Faber and published by Random House. This book was released on 2012-05-09 with total page 298 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “’Tis God gives skill, but not without men’s hands: He could not make Antonio Stradivari’s violins without Antonio.” –George Eliot Antonio Stradivari (1644—1737) was a perfectionist whose single-minded pursuit of excellence changed the world of music. In the course of his long career in the northern Italian city of Cremona, he created more than a thousand stringed instruments; approximately six hundred survive. In this fascinating book, Toby Faber traces the rich, multilayered stories of six of these peerless instruments–five violins and a cello–and the one towering artist who brought them into being. Blending history, biography, meticulous detective work, and an abiding passion for music, Faber embarks on an absorbing journey as he follows some of the most prized instruments of all time. Mysteries and unanswered questions proliferate from the outset–starting with the enigma of Antonio Stradivari himself. What made this apparently unsophisticated craftsman so special? Why were his techniques not maintained by his successors? How is it that even two and a half centuries after his death, no one has succeeded in matching the purity, depth, and delicacy of a Stradivarius? In Faber’s illuminating narrative, each of the six fabled instruments becomes a character in its own right–a living entity cherished by artists, bought and sold by princes and plutocrats, coveted, collected, hidden, lost, copied, and occasionally played by a musician whose skill matches its maker’s. Here is the fabulous Viotti, named for the virtuoso who enchanted all Paris in the 1780s, only to fall foul of the French Revolution. Paganini supposedly made a pact with the devil to transform the art of the violin–and by the end of his life he owned eleven Strads. Then there’s the Davidov cello, fashioned in 1712 and lovingly handed down through a succession of celebrated artists until, in the 1980s, it passed into the capable hands of Yo-Yo Ma. From the salons of Vienna to the concert halls of New York, from the breakthroughs of Beethoven’s last quartets to the first phonographic recordings, Faber unfolds a narrative magnificent in its range and brilliant in its detail. “A great violin is alive,” said Yehudi Menuhin of his own Stradivarius. In the pages of this book, Faber invites us to share the life, the passion, the intrigue, and the incomparable beauty of the world’s most marvelous stringed instruments.

Download or read book How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences written by Sue William Silverman and published by U of Nebraska Press. This book was released on 2020-03-01 with total page 221 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Many are haunted and obsessed by their own eventual deaths, but perhaps no one as much as Sue William Silverman. This thematically linked collection of essays charts Silverman’s attempt to confront her fears of that ultimate unknown. Her dread was fomented in part by a sexual assault, hidden for years, that led to an awareness that death and sex are in some ways inextricable, an everyday reality many women know too well. Through gallows humor, vivid realism, and fantastical speculation, How to Survive Death and Other Inconveniences explores this fear of death and the author’s desire to survive it. From cruising New Jersey’s industry-blighted landscape in a gold Plymouth to visiting the emergency room for maladies both real and imagined to suffering the stifling strictness of an intractable piano teacher, Silverman guards her memories for the same reason she resurrects archaic words—to use as talismans to ward off the inevitable. Ultimately, Silverman knows there is no way to survive death physically. Still, through language, commemoration, and metaphor, she searches for a sliver of transcendent immortality.

Download or read book Stradivarius written by Toby Faber and published by Pan Macmillan. This book was released on 2011-07-06 with total page 324 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'An incredible story of musical instruments, how they're made and what people make of them' - Keith Richards Everyone knows of the legendary quality and unbelievable price tag of a Stradivarius violin. In this, the first popular account of the Stradivari phenomena, Toby Faber explores the life and methods of this unsurpassed craftsman. Following the life of his instruments as they pass through the hands of many of the greatest musicians that have ever lived, we learn how and why they have become objects of such veneration and desire. It is a dramatic tale of grand artistry, fantastic music, shady dealers, forgery and science. 'Fascinating, accessible and enjoyable' - Tracy Chevalier 'A captivating book . . . An extraordinary accomplishment and a compelling read' - TE Cahart, author of The Piano Shop On The Left Bank 'An inspired idea for a book' - Telegraph 'Faber has found in the Strad a delightful leitmotif for an original comedie humaine' - Financial Times 'Faber pitches the story just right, neither patronising nor baffling the reader' - Times

Download or read book The Cello Suites written by Eric Siblin and published by Open Road + Grove/Atlantic. This book was released on 2011-01-04 with total page 328 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: An award-winning journey through Johann Sebastian Bach’s six cello suites and the brilliant musician who revealed their lasting genius. One fateful evening, journalist and pop-music critic Eric Siblin attended a recital of Johann Sebastian Bach’s Cello Suites—an experience that set him on an epic quest to uncover the mysterious history of the entrancing compositions and their miraculous reemergence nearly two hundred years later. In pursuit of his musicological obsession, Siblin would unravel three centuries of intrigue, politics, and passion. Winner of the Mavis Gallant Prize for Non-fiction and the McAuslan First Book Prize, The Cello Suites weaves together three dramatic narratives: the disappearance of Bach’s manuscript in the eighteenth century, Pablo Casals’s discovery and popularization of the music in Spain in the late nineteenth century, and Siblin’s infatuation with the suites in the present day. The search led Siblin to Barcelona, where Casals, just thirteen and in possession of his first cello, roamed the backstreets with his father in search of sheet music and found Bach’s lost suites tucked in a dark corner of a store. Casals played them every day for twelve years before finally performing them in public. Siblin sheds new light on the mysteries that continue to haunt this music more than 250 years after its composer’s death: Why did Bach compose the suites for the cello, then considered a lowly instrument? What happened to the original manuscript? A seamless blend of biography and music history, The Cello Suites is a true-life journey of discovery, fueled by the power of these musical masterpieces. “The ironies of artistic genius and public taste are subtly explored in this winding, entertaining tale of a musical masterpiece.” —Publishers Weekly “Siblin’s writing is most inspired when describing the life of Casals, showing a genuine affection for the cellist, who . . . used his instrument and the suites as weapons of protest and pleas for peace.” —Booklist, starred review

Download or read book Bold as Brass written by Isabel Rogers and published by Prelude Books. This book was released on 2019-07-11 with total page 228 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Community music projects always spread harmony... don’t they? When players in Stockwell Park Orchestra fear they may be getting out of touch with the community, they invite children from two nearby schools to join them for a season. Supercilious, rich Oakdean College pupils have never mixed with the rough Sunbridge Academy kids, and when things go missing and rumours spread, the situation threatens to turn ugly. DCI Noel Osmar has to tread carefully: after all, he’s off duty. Step forward, Carl the trombonist. Can music heal social rifts? Who has been stealing and why? And will the orchestra’s newly-composed fanfare turn out to be fantastic... or farcical? Praise for The Stockwell Park Orchestra Series: “I was charmed... a very enjoyable read.” Marian Keyes “Friendly insults between musicians, sacrosanct coffee-and-biscuit breaks, tedious committee meetings: welcome to the world of the amateur orchestra.” BBC Music Magazine “...a witty and irreverent musical romp, full of characters I’d love to go for a pint with. I thoroughly enjoyed getting to know the Stockwell Park Orchestra and can't wait for the next book in the series.” Claire King, author of The Night Rainbow “Sharp, witty and richly entertaining.” Lev Parikian, author of Why Do Birds Suddenly Disappear? “With its retro humour bordering on farce, this novel offers an escape into the turbulent (and bonkers) world of the orchestra.” Isabel Costello, author of Paris Mon Amour “...a very funny tale of musical shenanigans set in the febrile atmosphere of the Stockwell Park Orchestra” Ian Critchley

Download or read book The Cellist s Notebook written by Kittie Lambton and published by Clink Street Publishing. This book was released on 2020-01-30 with total page 68 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The Cellist's Notebook is a charming, life-affirming tale of discovery surrounding an old family mystery. A young girl's curiosity, her love of a little melody and the beauty of a cello evokes memories long forgotten. Set in the present day, ten-year-old Emily Peters is spending the summer with her Nana Rose, a retired piano teacher, in rural Cumbria whilst Emily's sister Lizzie travels to Paris for a French exchange. When Emily notices an old photograph of a cellist dating back to the Second World War and discovers cellos and an old music manuscript in the attic, her Nana tells of the touching and compelling story of her brother Leni, a linguist, cellist and music composer, whose disappearance was marked 'ultimate fate unknown' following World War II. Emily's love of the unfinished cello melody, found in her Great Uncle Leni's music notebook, evokes memories for her Nana Rose and Emily returns to Norfolk with a passion to play the cello and a determination to learn the long-lost melody. A series of events unfold that change the life of Emily and her family forever.

Download or read book House of Music written by Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2020-09-03 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: WINNER OF THE ROYAL PHILHARMONIC SOCIETY STORYTELLING AWARD 2021 ‘Riveting, taking in prejudice as well as sacrifice. There are 4.30am starts, lost instruments, fractured wrists, all captured with vivid flourishes. A paean to camaraderie.’ Observer Seven brothers and sisters. All of them classically trained musicians. One was Young Musician of the Year and performed for the royal family. The eldest has released her first album, showcasing the works of Clara Schumann. These siblings don’t come from the rarefied environment of elite music schools, but from a state comprehensive in Nottingham. How did they do it? Their mother, Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason, opens up about what it takes to raise a musical family in a Britain divided by class and race. What comes out is a beautiful and heartrending memoir of the power of determination, camaraderie and a lot of hard work. The Kanneh-Masons are a remarkable family. But what truly sparkles in this eloquent memoir is the joyous affirmation that children are a gift and we must do all we can to nurture them.

Download or read book Cello written by Kate Kennedy and published by Bloomsbury Publishing. This book was released on 2024-08-15 with total page 304 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: 'Just as a cello's voice is divided across four strings, each with its own colour and character, this is a journey in four parts, in search of four players and their instruments...' In Cello, Kate Kennedy weaves together the lives of four remarkable cellists who suffered various forms of persecution, injury and misfortune. The Hungarian Jewish cellist and composer Pál Hermann managed to keep one step ahead of the Gestapo for much of the Second World War but was eventually captured and murdered. Lise Cristiani, the first female professional cello soloist, undertook an epic – and ultimately fatal – concert tour of Siberia in the 1850s, taking with her one of the world's greatest Stradivari cellos. Anita Lasker-Wallfisch was incarcerated in both Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen camps, only surviving because she was the cellist in the Auschwitz-Birkenau women's orchestra. Amedeo Baldovino of the Trieste Piano Trio was forced to jump from a burning ship with his 'Mara' Stradivari, losing the cello, and nearly losing his own life when the boat was shipwrecked near Buenos Aires. Counterpointing the themes raised by these extraordinary stories are a sequence of interludes that draw together the author's reflections on the nature and history of the cello, and her many interviews and encounters with contemporary cellists. Kate Kennedy's own relationship with the cello is a complicated one. As a teenager, she suffered an injury to her arm that imposed severe limitations on her career as a performer on the instrument that was her first love. She realised that, in order to start to understand what the cello meant to her, she needed to find out what the cello – and, crucially, the absence of the cello – had meant to some other cellists, past and present. Kate Kennedy has written an eloquent and multitextured homage to this warmest of stringed instruments – part quest narrative, part detective story, part philosophical meditation.

Download or read book The Death of Bunny Munro written by Nick Cave and published by Random House India. This book was released on 2011-12-02 with total page 215 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: ‘I am damned,’ thinks Bunny Munro in a sudden moment of self-awareness reserved for those who are soon to die. He feels that somewhere down the line he has made a grave mistake, but this realisation passes in a dreadful heartbeat and is gone—leaving him in a room at the Grenville Hotel, in his underwear, with nothing but himself and his appetites. Bunny Munro drinks too much, smokes too much and thinks of sex all the time. Following his wife’s suicide, he takes his nine-years-old son on a trip to recover from the tragedy. But he is about to discover that his days are numbered. Dark, funny and raunchy, The Death of Bunny Munro is the story of a man full of emotional atyachar. Written in the high octane, charged prose that has made Nick Cave one of the world’s most acclaimed lyricists, it is an unforgettable book.

Download or read book Composer G Tautenhahn written by Marvin Sosna and published by Dorrance Publishing. This book was released on 2011 with total page 108 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Cellist of Sarajevo written by Steven Galloway and published by Vintage Canada. This book was released on 2009-02-24 with total page 274 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: This brilliant novel with universal resonance tells the story of three people trying to survive in a city rife with the extreme fear of desperate times, and of the sorrowing cellist who plays undaunted in their midst. One day a shell lands in a bread line and kills twenty-two people as the cellist watches from a window in his flat. He vows to sit in the hollow where the mortar fell and play Albinoni’s Adagio once a day for each of the twenty-two victims. The Adagio had been re-created from a fragment after the only extant score was firebombed in the Dresden Music Library, but the fact that it had been rebuilt by a different composer into something new and worthwhile gives the cellist hope. Meanwhile, Kenan steels himself for his weekly walk through the dangerous streets to collect water for his family on the other side of town, and Dragan, a man Kenan doesn’t know, tries to make his way towards the source of the free meal he knows is waiting. Both men are almost paralyzed with fear, uncertain when the next shot will land on the bridges or streets they must cross, unwilling to talk to their old friends of what life was once like before divisions were unleashed on their city. Then there is “Arrow,” the pseudonymous name of a gifted female sniper, who is asked to protect the cellist from a hidden shooter who is out to kill him as he plays his memorial to the victims. In this beautiful and unforgettable novel, Steven Galloway has taken an extraordinary, imaginative leap to create a story that speaks powerfully to the dignity and generosity of the human spirit under extraordinary duress.

Download or read book Puccini written by Julian Budden and published by . This book was released on 2002 with total page 538 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Julian Budden, one of the world's foremost scholars of Italian opera, here offers music lovers a major biography of Giacomo Puccini--a volume in the esteemed Master Musicians series. Blending astute musical analysis with a colorful account of Puccini's life, Budden providess an illuminating look at some of the most popular operas in the repertoire, including Manon Lescaut, La Boheme, Tosca, Madama Butterfly, and Turandot. Budden also paints an intriguing portrait of Puccini the man--talented but modest, a man who had friends from every walk of life: shopkeepers, priests, wealthy landowners, fellow artists.

Download or read book The Bach Cello Suites written by Steven Isserlis and published by Faber & Faber. This book was released on 2021-10-05 with total page 163 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A unique Companion to J S Bach's iconic Cello Suites from internationally-renowned cellist Steven Isserlis. 'Isserlis is the master of the material, yet always able to make it accessible . . . It is an absolute treat to be led to this sublime music by such an ethusiastic expert.' MICHAEL PALIN 'The book I've always wanted: an accessible, eloquent guide to the world's greatest - and maybe most elusive - pieces of music. And written by the man I'd want to tell me about it. This is such a delight.' DERREN BROWN 'Illuminating.' OBSERVER 'Striking.' THE SPECTATOR Bach's six Cello Suites are among the most cherished of all the works in the classical music literature. Shrouded in mystery - they were largely unknown for some two hundred years after their composition - they have acquired a magical aura which continues to attract and fascinate audiences the world over. To cellists they represent a musical bible, to listeners, scarcely less. Through what are on the surface simple dance suites, Bach takes us on a spiritual journey like no other, leading us from joy to tragedy, concluding in jubilation, even triumph. Award-winning international cellist Steven Isserlis, whose recent recording of the Suites met with the highest critical acclaim, goes deep into that emotional journey, bringing to bear all his many years' experience of performing the Suites. His book is intended as a rewarding companion for all music lovers, ranging from the casual listener to the performing musician. By offering his own very personal observations of the music, Isserlis's aim is to take the reader further into the world of the Suites in order to enhance the experience of hearing some of the greatest works ever composed. Praise for Steven Isserlis' BACH: THE CELLO SUITES 'The most wonderful cello-playing, surely among the most consistently beautiful to have been heard in this demanding music.' GRAMOPHONE 'Isserlis has done the impossible. He has given the listener something new, and indeed something outstandingly good . . . This recording can sit proudly on the shelf alongside the great recordings of Casals and Rostropovich. In fact, I may find myself picking it up as the favourite.' BBC RADIO 3

Download or read book The Secret Life of Cello Strings written by R. Caroline Bosanquet and published by Twayne Publishers. This book was released on 1996 with total page 0 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: