Books published by Scarecrow Press

This book presents a history of folk music festivals in the United States, beginning in the 19th century and ending in the early 21st century. The focus is on the proliferation and diversity of festivals in the 20th century.

In African American Folksong and American Cultural Politics: The Lawrence Gellert Story, scholar and musician Bruce Conforth tells the story of one of the most unusual collections of African American folk music ever amassedand the remarkable story of the man who produced it: Lawrence Gellert. Compiled between the World Wars, Gellerts recordings were immediately adopted by the American Left as the voice of the true American proletariat, with the songslargely variants of traditional work songs or bluesdubbed by the Left as songs of protest. As both the songs and Gellert's standing itself turned into propaganda weapons of left-wing agitators, Gellert experienced a meteoric rise within the circles of left-wing organizations and the American Communist party. But such success proved ephemeral, with Gellert contributing to his own neglect by steadfastly refusing to release information about where and from whom he had collected his recordings. Later scholars, as a result, would skip over his closely held, largely inaccessible research, with some asserting Gellert's work had been doctored for political purposes. And to a certain extent they were correct. Conforth reveals how Gellert at least assisted in the creation of some of his more political material. But hidden behind the few protest songs that Gellert allowed to become public was a vast body of legitimate African America folksongsenough to rival the work of any of his contemporary collectors.Had Gellert granted access to all his material, scholars would have quickly seen that it comprised an incredibly complete and diverse collection of all African American song genres: work songs, blues, chants, spirituals, as well as the largest body of African American folktales about Irish Americans (what were referred to as One Time Ishman tales). It also included vast swaths of African American oral literature collected by Gellert as part of the Federal Writers Project.In African American Folksong and American Cultural Politics, Conforth brings to light for the first time the entire body of work collected by Lawrence Gellert, establishing his place, and the place for the material he collected, within the pages of American folk song scholarship. In addition to shedding new light on the concept of protest music within African American folk music, Conforth discusses the unique relationship of the American Left to this music and how personal psychology and the demands of the American Communist party would come to ruin Gellert's life.African American Folksong and American Cultural Politics will appeal to students and scholars in the fields of American social and political history, African American studies, the history of American folk music, and ethnomusicology.

Agricultural geography is defined as the study of the geographical and locational attributes, patterns, and processes of crop and animal farming, and related subjects such as farm land, farm-associated human geographers, environmental issues, and theoretical works on the location of agricultural activities. The study of agricultural geography has produced a large amount of literature. This volume records and presents, in an organized manner, as much of this literature as possible. The entries of this compendium are written in a wide array of languages, including English, French, Spanish, Portuguese, Italian, German, Swedish, Danish, Dutch, Russian and others in order to provide the widest coverage possible.

Jewish conductor Hermann Levi strove for excellence and recognition as a composer and conductor of classical music in 19th-century Germany. He unerringly devoted himself to the orchestral performance of works by the two major figures of the time: Johannes Brahms and Richard Wagner. In spite of the anti-Semitic atmosphere, Levi saw the conducting of Wagner''s works as a major calling: one that pinnacled in the premier performance of Parsifal in Bayreuth. In this biography, newly translated into English by Cynthia Klohr, opera scholar and conductor Fritjof Haas surveys the life and work of this remarkable individual. Born of a long line of rabbis and raised on the ideals of political emancipation of Europe''s Jews, Levi sought to break the social constraints and boundaries imposed upon him because of his religious heritage by the power brokers of the classical music scene. Like so many German Jews of his generation, Levi struggled nearly all his life to dissolve the battle between personal lot and social prejudice. Drawing on the wealth of material from the "Leviana" repository in Munich, Germany, Haas artfully weaves together Levi''s personal history with his musical milieu to paint a portrait of this ambitious and ambivalent figure in the world of 19th-century German music. This work will be of special interest to musicologists, musicians, opera fans, classical music listeners, and historians and scholars of Judaic studies.

First broadcast in the not too distant past on a television station in Minnesota, Mystery Science Theater 3000 soon grew out of its humble beginnings and found a new home on cable television. This simple show about a man and two robots forced to watch bad movies became a cult classic, and episodes of the series continue to be packaged in DVD collections to this day. In Reading Mystery Science Theater 3000: Critical Approaches, Shelley S. Rees presents a collection of essays that examine the complex relationship between narrative and audience constructed by this baffling but beloved television show. Invoking literary theory, cultural criticism, pedagogy, feminist criticism, humor theory, rhetorical analysis, and film and media studies, these essays affirm the show's narrative and rhetorical intricacy.

Tackles the difficult problem of preservation of music in all of its formats-scores, parts, and all types of recordings.

This book covers the proceedings of the March 1985 Music Library Association Preconference.

Paul Robeson was a towering figure in American culture, conquering many disparate venuesfrom football and film to law to Shakespeare. An extraordinary athlete-scholar-actor-singer, Robeson also became a crusader for human rights. And though he was admired by many, his controversial support of the Soviet Union during the Cold War and the era of McCarthyism led to ostracism and his declining health.In Robeson: An American Ballad, Arnold H. Lubasch chronicles the remarkable life of this twentieth-century original. In this concise and readable account, Lubascha New York Times veteran for almost 40 yearsreports on Robeson's life story more accurately and clearly than any previous books.In addition to detailing the highs and lows of Robeson's life and career, Lubasch offers several personal anecdotes about this American icon, and includes commentary on the 100th-anniversary celebration of Robeson's birth. This engaging work will be of interest to virtually everyone, but especially to scholars and students of U.S. and African American history and culture.

You are getting ready for a performance of Donizetti's L'elisir d'amore and you have a few questions. How many clarinets are in the orchestra? How many orchestra members appear onstage? How many different sets are there? How long does the opera typically run? What are the key arias? Are any special effects or ballet choreography required? Who owns the rights? Where was it premiered? What are the leading and supporting roles?The Opera Manual is the only single source for the answers to these and other important questions. It is the ultimate companion for opera lovers, professionals, scholars, and teachers, featuring comprehensive information about, and plot summaries for, more than 550 operasincluding every opera that is likely to be performed today, from standard to rediscovered contemporary works. The book is invaluable, especially for opera professionals, who will find everything they need for choosing and staging operas. But it is also a treasure for listeners. Similar reference books commonly skip over scenes and supporting characters in their plot summaries, lacking even the most basic facts about staging, orchestral, and vocal requirements. The Opera Manual, based on the actual scores of the works discussed, is the only exhaustive, up-to-date opera companiona ';recipe book' that will enable its readers to explore those operas they know and discover new ones to sample and enjoy.

This Music Leaves Stains presents the full story behind the Misfits and their ubiquitous, haunting skull logo, a story of unique talent, strange timing, clashing personalities, and incredible music that helped shape rock as we know it today. James Greene, Jr., maps this narrative from the band's birth at the tail end of the original punk movement through their messy dissolve at the dawn of the 1980s right on through the legal warring and inexplicable reunions that helped carry the band into the 21st century.

Handbook of Warning Intelligence: Assessing the Threat to National Security was written during the cold war and was classified for 40 years. The majority of this manual, however, is now finally available to the general public. An abridged version, Anticipating Surprise: Analysis for Strategic Warning, was published, but this original document goes into much greater detail about the fundamentals of intelligence analysis and forecasting. It discusses military analysis, as well as the difficulties in understanding political, civil, and economic analysis and assessing what it means for analysts to have warning judgment.Much of what Grabo writes in her book seems to appear in many of the numerous commission reports that emerged after the 9/11 attacks. However, this book was written in response to the surprise attack of the Soviet Unions invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1968. According to the author, that event was no surprise. And while analysts have to take some of the blame for their failure to strenuously present their case that the threat was real and imminent, what occurred was a failure by policymakers to listen to the warning intelligence reports that were written at the time.

This important volume in onomastics, the study of names, presents a listing of Yiddish first names in the modern period: 1750 to the present day. Yiddish Given Names: A Lexicon resumes, collects, documents, and corrects the available body of research on Yiddish given names. It aims to establish the modern corpus and give the origins of the names therein. Rella Israly Cohn has amassed and preserved a number of names that have become extremely rare, almost to the point of disappearing, and correctly identified their sources using a number of works both commonly available and difficult to find.The book begins with preliminary material that orients the reader, explains technical terms and classifications, and describes the evolution of Yiddish names throughout their history. Following is the lexicon itself, which is comprised of over 250 names with variant forms and alphabetized according to the English transliteration. Each entry relates the Yiddish name to its source language, shows a source form, and gives the attestations of the name in its various forms in the earliest written works. Concluding with several appendixes that offer additional information and assist in reference and accessibility, this significant work will serve scholars in onomastics, linguistics, and Yiddish and will be of interest to both scholars and laypersons researching their family history or the cultural legacy of the Jewish community worldwide.

Celebrating 100 years of Peter Pan, this fourth volume in the Centennial Studies series explores the cultural contents of Barrie's creation and the continuing impact of Peter Pan on children's literature and popular culture today, especially focusing on the fluctuations of time and narrative strategies.

The musical scores of Stanley Kubrick's films are often praised as being innovative and forward-looking. Despite playing such an important part in his productions, however, the ways in which Kubrick used music to great effect is still somewhat mysterious to many viewers. Although some viewers may know a little about the music in 2001 or A Clockwork Orange, few are aware of the particulars behind the music in Kubricks other films.In Listening to Stanley Kubrick: The Music in His Films, Christine Lee Gengaro provides an in-depth exploration of the music that was composed for Kubrick's films and places the pre-existent music he utilized into historical context. Gengaro discusses the music in every single work, from Kubrick's first films, including the documentary shorts The Flying Padre and Day of the Fight, through all of his feature films, from Fear and Desire to Eyes Wide Shut. No film is left out; no cue is ignored.Besides closely examining the scores composed by Gerald Fried for Kubrick's early works, Gengaro pays particular attention to five of the director's most provocative and acclaimed films2001: A Space Odyssey, A Clockwork Orange, Barry Lyndon, The Shining, and Eyes Wide Shut. For each film, she engages the reader by explaining how the music was excerpted (and changed, in some cases), and how the historical facts about a musical piece add layers of meaningsometimes unintendedto the films.Meant for film lovers, music lovers, and scholars, Listening to Stanley Kubrick is a thoroughly researched examination into the musical elements of one of cinema's most brilliant artists. Appropriate for a cinema studies or music classroom, this volume will also appeal to any fan of Kubrick's films.

Theatre in London has celebrated a rich and influential history, and in 1976 the first volume of J. P. Wearing's reference series provided researchers with an indispensable resource of these productions. In the decades since the original calendars were produced, several research aids have become available, notably various reference works and the digitization of relevant newspapers and periodicals. This second edition of The London Stage 19101919: A Calendar of Productions, Performers, and Personnel provides a chronological calendar of London shows from January 1910 through December 1919. The volume chronicles more than 3,000 productions at 35 major central London theatres during this period. For each entry the following information is provided: Title AuthorTheatrePerformersPersonnelOpening and closing dates Number of performancesOther details include genre of the production, number of acts, and a list of reviews. A comment section includes other interesting information, such as a plot description, first-night audience reception, noteworthy performances, staging elements, and details of performances in New York either prior to or after the London production. Among the plays staged in London during this decade were Chu Chin Chow, The Gaol Gate, Hindle Wakes, Justice, Kismet, Pygmalion, and Rebecca of Sunnybrook Farm, as well as numerous musical comedies (British and American), foreign works, operas, and revivals of English classics.A definitive resource, this edition revises, corrects, and expands the original calendar. In addition, approximately 20 percent of the materialin particular, information on adaptations and translations, plot sources, and commentsis new. Arranged chronologically, the shows are fully indexed by title, genre, and theatre. A general index includes numerous subject entries on such topics as acting, audiences, censorship, costumes, managers, performers, prompters, staging, and ticket prices. The London Stage 19101919 will be of value to scholars, theatrical personnel, librarians, writers, journalists, and historians.

Young adults often struggle with confusion or guilt because they perceive themselves as different from others, especially their peers. For some of these individuals, the arts can help them cope with adolescent turmoil, allowing them to express their emotions in poems, stories, painting, songs, and other creative outlets. Sensitive teachers and parents know how important it is for young people to realize that they are not alone in their quest for self-knowledge and finding their way in the world. It can make a difference when readers find something in a book that helps them understand more about who they are and helps them understand others. In Portrait of the Artist as a Young Adult: The Arts in Young Adult Literature, Lois Thomas Stover and Connie S. Zitlow examine books in which the coming-of-age for young adults is influenced by the arts. Stover and Zitlow consider the connection between the arts and a young person's developing sense of self, the use of art to cope with loss and grief, and how young adults can use art to foster catharsis and healing. The young people in these books either identify as artists or use the arts in intentional ways to explore their identities. They often have artistic gifts that make them stand outside the norms of teenage life, yet those gifts also help them find a sense of community. Artists considered in this book include painters, photographers, sculptors, actors, directors, choreographers, dancers, composers, musicians, graffiti artists, and others. The books discussed also explore the ways adults can nurture the artist's development and understand the way young people sometimes use the arts to form their unique identity. Included is an annotated bibliography organized by art discipline, as well as an appendix about using the arts pedagogically, making Portrait of the Artist as a Young Adult a valuable resource for educators, parents, librarians, and young adults.

Since the beginning of network television, many shows have been preceded by an announcement or theme song that served various purposes. In the 1950s and '60s, it was common for announcers to declare that a program had been ';brought to you by' a sponsor who paid for the privilege of introducing a show. Other programs, such as The Twilight Zone, Star Trek, and The Odd Couple, provided a brief encapsulation of the show's subject matter, a practice that has continued for recent shows like Alias, Battlestar Galactica, Person of Interest, and the various editions of Law & Order. In Television Introductions: Narrated TV Program Openings since 1949, Vincent Terrace has assembled openings for more than nine hundred television shows from the past seven decades. The only documented history of narrated television program introductions, this volume is arranged by type of programming, such as comedy, drama, Western, game show, soap opera, and children's show. In addition to quoting the opening material, entries provide information about each show's network history and years of broadcast. Many entries include descriptions of the show, the names of announcers, and a list of main cast members, as well as a sponsor pitch exactly as spoken. Openings for programs with multiple introductions like The Adventures of Ozzie and Harriet and Charlie's Angels are also included. For programs that featured new guest stars every episodesuch as game shows and variety programsTerrace has selected a representative introduction. In addition to the theme song credits found in the main text, there are also appendixes of theme songs and their composers and/or singers, as well as a listing of commercial releases (on DVD, VHS, CD, and LP) of shows and their soundtracks. A comprehensive resource for researchers and pop culture aficionados alike, Television Introductions provides a fascinating look at this neglected part of TV history.

In 2003, the Korean singing tradition of p'ansori joined the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity, a distinctive honor bestowed by the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organization. P'ansori is a music genrean oral tradition comprisingi arias and narratives. Often the individual singer acts out the story of young and old, good and bad, and male and female. In Korean P'ansori Singing Tradition: Development, Authenticity, and Performance History, Yeonok Jang studies the periodical developments and changes in the performance context, vocal developments, singing style, audience involvement, contemporary performance, cinematic history, and private and government sponsorship of p'ansori. Covering the period from the early development of p'ansori, including the origins and early formation of the genre, to contemporary performance, Jang surveys this remarkable genre of storytelling, song, theater, and performance. Throughout, she considers not only issues of historical context but also questions of cultural identity, past and present. Researchers in the fields of Korean studies, folk music, oral history, ethnic music, narrative and theatrical music, and cultural studies will find this work of significant value.