Other books that might interest you

• 

  The Politics of Opera - A...

  Mitchell Cohen

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A wide-ranging look at the interplay of opera and political ideas through the centuriesThe Politics of Opera takes readers on a fascinating journey into the entwined development of opera and politics, from the Renaissance through the turn of the nineteenth century. What political backdrops have shaped opera? How has opera conveyed the political ideas of its times? Delving into European history and thought and an array of music by such greats as Lully, Rameau, and Mozart, Mitchell Cohen reveals how politics—through story lines, symbols, harmonies, and musical motifs—has played an operatic role both robust and sotto voce.Cohen begins with opera's emergence under Medici absolutism in Florence during the late Renaissance—where debates by humanists, including Galileo's father, led to the first operas in the late sixteenth century. Taking readers to Mantua and Venice, where composer Claudio Monteverdi flourished, Cohen examines how early operatic works like Orfeo used mythology to reflect on governance and policy issues of the day, such as state jurisdictions and immigration. Cohen explores France in the ages of Louis XIV and the Enlightenment and Vienna before and during the French Revolution, where the deceptive lightness of Mozart's masterpieces touched on the havoc of misrule and hidden abuses of power. Cohen also looks at smaller works, including a one-act opera written and composed by philosopher Jean-Jacques Rousseau. Essential characters, ancient and modern, make appearances throughout: Nero, Seneca, Machiavelli, Mazarin, Fenelon, Metastasio, Beaumarchais, Da Ponte, and many more.An engrossing book that will interest all who love opera and are intrigued by politics, The Politics of Opera offers a compelling investigation into the intersections of music and the state.

  Show book

• 

  How Do Rumors Get Started - The...

  Marcus A. Thompson

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In the summer of 1986, the song "Rumors" by Timex Social Club dominated the radio airwaves, topping all Billboard magazine urban charts with the number position for Hot 100 Black Singles, Hot Black Singles - Sales, Hot Black Singles-Airplay, Hot Dance/Disco-Club Play, and Hot Dance/Disco-12 inch singles sales. 
  This was no small feat for four young men from Berkeley California (Marcus Thompson, Alex Hill, Michael Marshall, and Kevin Moore) who were unknown songwriters at the time. 
  Along with instant stardom came a treacherous ride through the music business. A journey filled with greed, broken friendships, and culminating with the group break up less than one year later. 
  How Do Rumors Get Started is a powerful, edgy, and amusing look behind the scenes of rap music in the mid-80s.

  Show book

• 

  Mellencamp - American Troubadour

  David Masciotra

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  An in-depth biography of “a major artist whose work is sometimes obscured by the shadows of Bob Dylan and Bruce Springsteen” (Craig Werner, author of Up Around the Bend: An Oral History of Creedence Clearwater Revival).   Despite his numerous hits and Grammy nominations—and his induction into the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame—John Mellencamp remains one of America’s most underrated songwriters. In Mellencamp, David Masciotra explores the life and career of this important talent, persuasively arguing that he deserves to be celebrated alongside artists like Bruce Springsteen, Neil Young, and Bob Dylan. Starting with his modest beginnings in Seymour, Indiana, Masciotra details Mellencamp’s road to fame, examining his struggles with the music industry and his persistent dedication to his midwestern roots as he found success by remaining true to where he came from. From a cultural critic who has contributed to the Washington Post, Atlantic, and Los Angeles Review of Books and who “writes with the precision and integrity and humanity of a great journalist” (New York Times–bestselling author James Lee Burke), this thoughtful analysis highlights four decades of the artist’s music, which has consistently elevated the dignity of everyday people and honored the quiet heroism of raising families and working hard.

  Show book

• 

  The Emancipation of Slaves...

  Mathew Knowles

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  In The Emancipation of Slaves Through Music, music mogul Dr. Mathew Knowles presents a keen examination of the liberating effects of music on an oppressed people. By taking readers on the journey of its secret use during slavery up through its eventual commercialization in the industry, he exposes the art form's true power. Between its informative pages, the book explores the uprooting of Africans via the transatlantic slave trade and the evolving effect on the people and their music. We follow the boats where communication went from a loud moan to chants that stirred rebellion, on into acts of escape where a song might just signal a time to flee.The music of those stolen people became a tool and a medicinal balm that usually carried a message of hope through struggle. Chapters delve into songs behind rebellions and 'sorrow songs,' that lead us to deeper understandings about modern rap and even dancehall 'chanting.' Here, the reader takes a ride on the melodic voices and rhythms seeking freedom for more than physical bodies from chains. The survival of an enslaved people's music through many tumultuous eras has allowed it to re-root into a musical culture like no other in history.

  Show book

• 

  Seeing Through Evil

  Ph.D. Matthew Fox

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  Bringing light to the dark side of evil, so that it removes the disguise and the illusion, visionary theologian Mathew Fox provides a new perspective on an ages old subject. He calls for an open dialogue about evil and what it truly means.  In an era when human beings are fully capable of destroying the species along with the biosphere, Fox points to the roots of evil within, as a way out and through.

  Show book

• 

  A Stranger's Pose

  Emmanuel Iduma

  • 0
  • 0
  • 0

  A Stranger’s Pose is an evocative and mesmerising account of travels across different African cities. With lyrical and absorbing prose, Emmanuel invites the reader to share in his travels, and the encounters he made along the way. Alongside these depictions of new places and people is a compelling, and very personal, meditation on the meaning of home, and the importance of intimacy to a lone traveller. Through these vignettes—an arrest in a market in N’djamena, meeting the famed photographer Malick Sidibe in Bamako, speaking with a migrant in Tangier who says “the sea is the only way,”—Emmanuel showcases the generosity of strangers, the power of language and translation, and much more.

  Show book