History & Criticism

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781915343086Author Pete ChrispFormat HardbackPage Count 144Imprint Sona BooksPublisher Danann Media Publishing LimitedWeight(grams) 930gDimensions(mm) 272mm...

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the most unfathomable composers in the history of music. How can such sublime work have been produced by a man who seems so ordinary, so opaque - and occasionally so intemperate?In this remarkable book, John Eliot Gardiner...

'Absolutely hilarious' - Neil Gaiman'One of the funniest musical commentators that you will ever read . . . loud and thoroughly engrossing' - Alan Moore'A man on a righteous mission to persuade people to "lay down your souls to the gods rock and roll".'...

Stuart Sutcliffe is the most famous contender for the crown of 'fifth Beatle'. One of the founding members, a close friend of Lennon, he left the band after their Hamburg sojourn in order to pursue his promising career as an artist, dying shortly...

This new biography of Maurice Ravel (1875-1937), by one of the leading scholars of nineteenth- and twentieth-century French music, is based on a wealth of written and oral evidence, some newly translated and some derived from interviews with the...

A new edition of Adam Zamoyski's definitive biography of Chopin, first published in 1979 and unavailable in English for many years. Few composers elicit such strong emotions as Chopin. Few have been more revered and cherished. And few have had...

With hundreds of interviews conducted over a 35-year span, this book is the most comprehensive history of television scoring to date. Music composed for television had, until recently, never been taken seriously by scholars or critics. Catchy TV...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780802778130Format HardbackPage Count 416Imprint Walker & CoPublisher Walker & CoWeight(grams) 869gDimensions(mm) 187mm * 154mm * 10mm

This entertaining history of Cuba and its music begins with the collision of Spain and Africa and continues through the era of Miguelito Valdes, Arsenio Rodriguez, Benny More, and Perez Prado. It offers a behind-the-scenes examination of music from a...

'The Stone Roses have become folk heroes, frozen in time. And their story, with roots in punk through post-punk, scooter boys, skinheads, Northern Soul, psychedelia, acid house and Madchester, is everything that is great about British street culture...

This work is part of a series of comprehensive practical guides for the solo piano. A reference book for all levels - amateur, student, teacher and professional - the purpose of the series is to help pianists with their choice of music to suit their own...

The Bastard Instrument chronicles the history of the electric bass and the musicians who played it, from the instrument's invention through its widespread acceptance at the end of the 1960s. Although their contributions have often gone unsung, electric...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781087881539Author Barrett MartinFormat PaperbackPage Count 204Imprint IngramSparkPublisher IngramSparkWeight(grams) 304gDimensions(mm) 229mm * 152mm * 12mm

Derek Bailey's Improvisation , originally published in 1980, and here updated and extended with new interviews and photographs, is the first book to deal with the nature of improvisation in all its forms,Indian music, flamenco, baroque, organ music,...

This title presents a compelling examination of the classic "Pavement" album, including interviews with all band members and record label staff. Upon its release in 1995, Wowee Zowee confounded a lot of "Pavement"'s fans. And yet, over the subsequent...

'Hungry Beat is the story of an all-too-brief era where the short-circuiting of that industry seemed viable. But hell, the times were luminous as was the music these artists made. The songs and many of the players remain, and here they tell their story...

The Oxford History of Western Music is a magisterial survey of the traditions of Western music by one of the most prominent and provocative musicologists of our time. This text illuminates, through a representative sampling of masterworks, those themes,...

The story of two outsiders and obsessives whose collision prompted an evangelistic alliance on the furthest frontiers of underground music.Steve Davis first met Kavus Torabi - guitarist with Gong, Guapo, Cardiacs and Knifeworld - in the mid-2000's at a...

Celebrate the 30th anniversary of the Backstreet Boys with the ultimate tribute book-filled with amazing tour photography, band-member profiles, fan memories, and more. Since breaking into the scene in 1993, the Backstreet Boys have sold over 100 million...

Nothing in the history of recording approaches Decca's mammoth venture in producing Wagner's Ring complete for the first time. It was eight years in the making and this book tells the story of how it was made and the people who made it, written by the...

Formed in 1964 and still going strong in 2019, the Moody Blues are one of the most enduring bands in the history of rock. R&B, pop, psychedelic, symphonic, prog rock, folk rock, synth-pop, mainstream rock, they've experienced it all. 'Go Now', A number...

A miracle of still-plentiful hair, raw sex-appeal, and strutting talent . The frontman of one of the most influential and controversial groups of all time. A musical genius with a career spanning over four decades. He is a testament to British glamour,...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9781907222672Author Rose SimpsonFormat PaperbackPage Count 256Imprint Strange Attractor PressPublisher Strange Attractor Press

Few styles of popular music have generated as much controversy as progressive rock, a musical genre best remembered today for its gargantuan stage shows, its fascination with epic subject matter drawn from science fiction, mythology, and fantasy...

Without Beethoven, music as we know it wouldn't exist. Who was this titan of world culture? 'You want to build a Beethoven library? There can be no better starting point... Brilliant.' John Suchet, Classic FM presenter Through 100 recordings,...

Radiohead are not like other bands. For over three decades they have charted a singular course. As their music has become more beautiful, more strange and more uncompromising, the band who make it have become more popular, evolving from the indie clubs...

In August 1994, Manic Street Preachers released The Holy Bible, a dark, fiercely intelligent album that explored such themes as mental illness, murder and war. Richey Edwards, the band's lyricist and motive force, vanished five months later; he was never...

When a musician dies, it is rarely the end of their story. While death can propel megastars to even further success, artists overlooked in their lifetime might also find a new type of fame. But a badly timed move or the wrong deal can see the artist...

From the Clash to Los Crudos, skinheads to afro-punks, the punk rock movement has been obsessed by race. And yet the connections have never been traced in a comprehensive way.White Riot is the definitive study of the subject, collecting first-person...

When Hereford group Silence teamed up with songwriter Ian Hunter in 1969 to form a group that aimed to be a cross between Bob Dylan, the Rolling Stones and Procol Harum, they rapidly became one of Britain's most popular live acts, but a major hit single...

Ten songs, from ""Bill Bailey, Won't You Please Come Home"" (1902) to ""You Made Me Love You"" (1913), ignited the development of the classic pop ballad. In this exploration of how the style of the Great American Songbook evolved, Michael G. Garber...

A brand-new look at the life and music of renowned composer Erich Wolfgang KorngoldErich Wolfgang Korngold (1897-1957) was the last compositional prodigy to emerge from the Austro-German tradition of Mozart and Mendelssohn. He was lauded in his youth by...

Richard Cook and Brian Morton's Penguin Jazz Guide: The History of the Music in 1001 Best Albums is an indispensible guide to the recordings that every fan should know. Richard Cook and Brian Morton's Penguin Guide to Jazz Recordings is firmly...

'Superb celebration of his life and work ... a must-read tribute' CLASSIC POP, 5/5'The funniest and most revealing of all music journalists' - NEIL TENNANT 'A laugh riot' - CLASSIC ROCK4/5 - Mojo 4/5 - Record Collector8/10 - Uncut Idiosyncratic...

Johann Sebastian Bach's chorale settings have been vital to the teaching of music ever since they were composed. His four-voiced harmonisations represent a Baroque composer's approach to melodies that are often centuries older. As musical styles...

'Exhilarating' - Sunday Times 'Funny and moving' - Jarvis Cocker Music critic and writer Paul Morley weaves together memoir and history in a spiralling tale that establishes classical music as the most rebellious genre of all. Paul Morley had...

The vibrant intellectual, social and political climate of mid eighteenth-century Europe presented opportunities and challenges for artists and musicians alike. This book focuses on Mozart the man and musician as he responds to different aspects of that...

In a series of essays, "Undercurrents" identifies the key concepts and underlying themes that have been hardwired into the modern era's most radical musics, ever since Thomas Edison invented the record player. The phonograph, electronics, chance...

Hired Guns is a look across several decades of the music industry through the experiences and careers of a selection of professional female musicians. Those women profiled are members of influential, acclaimed bands and touring musicians with major acts;...

Apologies but we at Booksplease don't have a full description for this book.Book InformationISBN 9780140062236Author Robert PalmerFormat PaperbackPage Count 320Imprint Penguin USAPublisher Penguin Putnam IncWeight(grams) 249gDimensions(mm) 196mm * 130mm...