From Scarabea, Artusa's old nurse in Francesco Mannelli's La Maga Fuminata (1638 Venice) through the Canadian nursing sisters in Stephanie Martin's Llandovery Castle (2018 Toronto), over one hundred nurse characters appear in opera roles ranging from silent cast extra to principal singer. The Nurse in History and Opera: From Servant to Sister ......
Internationally recognized Bach authority Hans-Joachim Schulze authored a 225-part series on the cantatas of Johann Sebastian Bach. In this collection, James A. Brokaw II translates a selection of the essays, illuminating a wide range of biographical and cultural features of Bach's life and creative milieu. Schulze's lively and engaging ......
Adventures of an Original Fan during Beatlemania and Beyond
After February 9, 1964, everyone wanted to be Debbie Gendler. On that date, she was just one of a relative handful of lucky fans who were in the live audience for The Beatles’ historic performance on The Ed Sullivan Show—an iconic television event viewed in the living rooms of 73 million Americans. Everyone has a story to share about where they ......
This unique collaboration between a musicologist and two pianists - all experts in Russian music - takes a fresh look at the supercharged music and polarizing reception of the Russian composer Alexander Scriabin. From his Chopin-inspired miniatures to his genre-bending symphonies and avant-garde late works, Scriabin left a unique mark on music ......
In Opera as Art: Philosophical Sketches, Paul Thom argues for opera as an art, standing alongside other artforms that employ visual and sonic media to embody the great themes of human life. Thom contends that in great operatic art, the narrative and expressive content collaborate with the work's aesthetic qualities towards achieving this aim. This ......
During the rise of second-wave feminism in the '60s and '70s, political activists were not the only ones at work to usher in a more equitable world. In the music world, female rock performers were pursuing a revolution of their own: rejecting the industry's manufactured pop personas and the unacknowledged labor they contributed to male-led groups, ......
A History of Power, Acculturation, and Sovereignty
The Malay Nobat: A History of Power, Acculturation, and Sovereignty explores the history and meaning of the nobat, a court ensemble that has performed music for courts in Malaysia and Brunei with roots in the Islamicate world since Abbassid times. Raja Iskandar Bin Raja Halid examines the nobat spread throughout the Muslim empire and its emergence ......
From his upbringing as a "red-diaper baby" among some of the leading lights of American music and Left politics, to his legendary work as bassist for the Bill Evans trio, to his collaborations with such figures as Charles Mingus and Billie Holiday, Chuck Israels has witnessed over a half-century of change and innovation in American jazz music. In ......
Analysis, Aesthetics, and Experience of a 20th-Century Masterpiece
Morton Feldman viewed Piano and String Quartet as his capstone work--the culminating example of the aesthetic that Feldman spent his life seeking. Written in 1985, the year before Feldman's death, this single movement, roughly eighty-minute composition was heralded by Steve Reich as "the most beautiful work [of Feldman's] I know." Ray Fields ......
