Books in the Amadeus series

In ÊThe Composer-Pianists: Hamelin and The EightÊ Robert Rimm writes about eight legendary enigmatic and interrelated composer-pianists of the instrument''s golden age and goes on to consider their present-day advocate and astounding interpreter Marc-Andr© Hamelin whose dynamic playing and engaging personality immediately impressed Rimm upon their first encounter. Rimm portrays The Eight (Alkan Busoni Feinberg Godowsky Medtner Rachmaninov Scriabin and Sorabji) as the piano''s aural sensualists and explores the relationships among their music their music-making their ideas and their lives.

LEADING TONES: REFLECTIONS ON MUSIC MUSICIANS AND THE MUSIC INDUSTRY

THE INFINITE VARIETY OF MUSIC

The John Adams Reader: Essential Writings on an American Composer gathers a colorful and wide-ranging selection of pieces from leading musical commentators and critics. Included are revealing interviews with the composer as well as eloquent essays by Ingram Marshall, Michael Steinberg, Alex Ross, Sarah Cahill, Alan Rich, and many others. Editor Thomas May has grouped this collection into four sections: profiles of the artist (including a fascinating memory piece from Ingram Marshall on Adams's early San Francisco years), detailed essays on the major works, interviews with some leading collaborators and interpreters, and critical reception. This reader should be of use both as an introduction for the general reader to a preeminently significant American artist and as a reference for the more serious student or scholar.

THE ANATOMY OF A NEW YORK DEBUT RECITAL

These essays by respected scholars examine representative operatic productions from diverse national schools and periods together forming a comprehensive history of the staging techniques of opera over the centuries.

This detailed analysis of every record made by Maria Callas examines the development of her art from her first recordings in 1949 to the last in 1977.

This lucid guide traces the concerto''s evolution over the major periods of music: baroque, classical, romantic, and 20th century. The compositions of each important composer are discussed in detail, making this a useful companion to the form.

MUSIC FOR PIANO

Claude Debussy was the father of the modern era in classical music. His innovations liberated Stravinsky Schoenberg and Bartìk to write their iconoclastic works and his harmonic inventions are still heard in American jazz. Though he was among the most compelling figures of the Belle »poque his life is little known to all but scholars; and of his considerable musical output only ÊPrelude to the Afternoon of a FaunÊ ÊLa merÊ and ÊClair de luneÊ are widely known.ÞHarvey Lee Snyder addresses this cultural neglect by presenting the composer and his music without jargon or biographical trivia in a richly detailed accurate narrative that reads like a novel. Here is the story of a poor unschooled Parisian boy swept by odd coincidences to the Paris Conservatory at age ten. Here is a brilliant man struggling to invent a tonal language capable of expressing his unique musical vision finding inspiration not in Bach and Beethoven but in Mallarm©''s poetry and the paintings of Whistler and Turner; a man determined to end two centuries of Germanic domination of European music. Here is a reclusive gentle man whose misguided love affairs ended in scandal and scorn. His hard work failed to end decades of poverty and debt but when he died in 1918 he was and has remained the foremost French composer of the twentieth century.

Current market forces in the performing arts, such as aging audiences, electronic media, and HD broadcasts, have changed the operatic landscape. Young opera singers entering the workforce find themselves navigating difficult and highly competitive waters. Previously ignored skill sets become assets - and, in many cases, requirements - in casting. But most singers graduate from college having never taken a formal acting class and knowing little about acting technique as it pertains to their craft.Singer and Actor demystifies theatrical acting technique stemming from Stanislavsky's Method of Physical Action and provides singers at all levels a roadmap with which to complete character preparation, using a clear and organized progression based on the work of Franchelle S. Dorn and exercises and examples (recitatives, arias, and ensembles). Singers (including choristers) are given the necessary tools to prepare auditions and inhabit a character from rehearsal to final performance.Singer and Actor also provides a history of acting from its beginnings to the present day, including a survey of acting techniques from Stanislavsky, Meisner, Hagen, Strasberg, Larry Moss, and others. Drawing additionally on the writings of composers and other creators of opera, the book deals with the misconception that only the singing matters in opera and includes a discussion of previous approaches to operatic acting.

THE AMADEUS BOOK OF THE VIOLIN CONSTRUCTION HISTORY AND MUSIC

MARCEL MOYSE VOICE OF THE FLUTE