Music

Showcases all facets of African American music, including folk, religious, concert, and popular styles of today. Illuminates the profound role that African American music has played in American cultural history.

The Dictionary of American Classical Composers covers over 650 composers active from the 18th century to today. Covering all classical styles, it offers the most comprehensive overview of key composers in the United States available

"Nicolas Slonimsky's venerable single-volume reference is now a six-volume set, with better page layout and typeface, and a subject range outside its traditional concentration on classical music. Under new editorship since Slonimsky's death in 1995, coverage has expanded to over 1,000 new entries on classical music and over 2,000 new entries on jazz and popular music. Nice features include reprints of Slonimsky's witty introductions to earlier editions and indexes for genre, nationality, and women composers and musicians."--"Outstanding Reference Sources," American Libraries, May 2002.

Performance practice is the study of how music was performed over the centuries, both by its originators (the composers and performers who introduced the works) and, later, by revivalists. This first of its kind dictionary offers entries on composers, musicians/performers, technical terms, performance centers, musical instruments, and genres, all aimed at elucidating issues in performance practice. This A-Z guide will help students, scholars, and listeners understand how musical works were originally performed and subsequently changed over the centuries. Compiled by a leading scholar in the field, this work will serve as both a point-of-entry for beginners as well as a road map for advanced scholarship in the field.

Why is classical music predominantly the preserve of the white middle classes? Through a richly detailed ethnography, this book contributes to this ongoing debate with a timely and provocative intervention, locating classical music within one of the cultures that produces it--middle-class English youth -and foregrounds classical music as bodily practice of control and restraint.

Classical music is everywhere in video games. Works by composers like Bach and Mozart fill the soundtracks of games ranging from arcade classics to indie titles, to major franchises like BioShock, Civilization, and Fallout. Children can learn about classical works and their histories from interactive iPad games. World-renowned classical orchestras frequently perform concerts of game music to sold-out audiences. But what do such combinations of art and entertainment reveal about the cultural value we place on these media? Can classical music ever be video game music, and can game music ever be classical? Delving into the shifting and often contradictory cultural definitions that emerge when classical music meets video games, Unlimited replays offers a new perspective on the possibilities and challenges of trying to distinguish between art and pop culture in contemporary society

"The Music Tech Dictionary" provides the definitive glossary of music technology and pro audio topics and terms. It focuses on the terminology, techniques, and formats that are common in the audio and music technology field, and offers concise, pithy explanations of what each term represents. Users will be able to look up any music software, music technology, or audio related term they run across in their software, in articles, or in studios, for a short, complete overview.

Music in American Life is a longstanding series that embodies the twin goals of documenting the place of music in American culture and the cultural life that gives rise to particular musical forms.

Benny Goodman, Dizzy Gillespie, Jim Morrison, Kurt Cobain...these are the people who helped shape the history of music. Their stories and others are told in Musicians and Composers of the 20th Century. This five volume set offers biographical and critical essays on over 600 musicians in just about every genre imaginable, from Accordion Players to Musical Theater Composers to World Music, and everything in between.