J. P. E. Harper-Scott

An analytical study of Elgar's music and its place in European musical history.

Edward Elgar, Modernist

A new theory of musical modernism, which brings contemporary philosophy into contact with music theory and interpretation.

Revolution, Reaction, and William Walton

The Quilting Points of Musical Modernism

Jim Samson

Why study music? How much practical use is it in the modern world? This introduction proves how studying music is of great value both in its own terms and also in the post-university careers marketplace. The book explains the basic concepts and issues involved in the academic study of music, draws attention to vital connections across the field and encourages critical thinking over a broad range of music-related issues. • Covers all main aspects of music studies, including topics such as composition, opera, popular music, and music theory • Provides a thorough overview of a hugely diverse subject, from the history of early music to careers in music technology, giving a head-start on the areas to be covered on a music degree • New to 'neume'? Need a reminder about 'ripping'? - glossaries give clear definitions of key musical terms • Chapters are carefully structured and organized enabling easy and quick location of the information needed

An Introduction to Music Studies

This thematic examination of Britten's operas focuses on the way that ideology is presented on stage. To watch or listen is to engage with a vivid artistic testament to the ideological world of mid-twentieth-century Britain. But it is more than that, too, because in many ways Britten's operas continue to proffer a diagnosis of certain unresolved problems in our own time. Only rarely, as in Peter Grimes, which shows the violence inherent in all forms of social and psychological identification, does Britten unmistakably call into question fundamental precepts of his contemporary ideology. This has not, however, prevented some writers from romanticizing Britten as a quiet revolutionary. This book argues, in contrast, that his operas, and some interpretations of them, have obscured a greater social and philosophical complicity that it is timely - if at the same time uncomfortable - for his early twenty-first-century audiences to address.

J. P. E. Harper-Scott

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