Songs for the Spirits is the first in-depth study of the Vietnamese practice of communing with spirits through music and performance. During rituals dedicated to a large pantheon of indigenous spirits, a band of musicians perform an elaborate sequence of songs--a ''songscape''--for possessed mediums who carry out ritual actions, distribute blessed ......
Mamie Smith's 1920 recording of ''Crazy Blues'' is commonly thought to signify the beginning of commercial attention to blues music and culture, but by that year more than 450 other blues titles had already appeared in sheet music and on recordings. In this examination of early popular blues, Peter C. Muir traces the genre's early history and the ......
Performing Race and Gender on Havana's Lyric Stage
On September 29, 1927, at Havana's Teatro Regina, Cuban soprano Rita Montaner sang the premiere of Eliseo Grenet's tango-congo ''Ay Mamá Inés'' with her features obscured with blackened glycerin and her body clad in a coachman's tight pants, boots, and riding jacket. The blackfaced, cross-dressed actress's performance heralded the birth of the ......
The major historians of ancient Rome wrote their works in the firm belief that the exalted history of the Roman Empire provided plentiful lessons about individual behavior, inspiration for great souls, and warnings against evil ambitions, not to mention opportunities for rich comedy. The examples of Rome have often been resurrected for the opera ......
This compilation of essays takes the study of the blues to a welcome new level. Distinguished scholars and well-established writers from such diverse backgrounds as musicology, anthropology, musicianship, and folklore join together to examine blues as literature, music, personal expression, and cultural product. Ramblin' on My Mind contains pieces ......
This book is based on detailed notes taken by the author during a decade of study under one of the renowned teachers of piano, whose pupils included such pianists as Gary Graffman, Lilian Kallir, Jacob Lateiner, and Sylvia Saremba and such composer/conductors as Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Lukas Foss, and Thomas Scherman. Following a ......
In Bound for America, Nicholas Temperley documents the lives, careers, and music of three British composers who emigrated from England in mid-career and became leaders in the musical life of Federal-era America. William Selby of London and Boston (1738-98), Rayner Taylor of London and Philadelphia (1745-1825), and George K. Jackson of London, New ......
This volume is an encyclopedia of country music performers who have used comedy as a central component of their presentation. Loyal Jones offers a conversational and informative biographical sketch of each performer, often including a sample of the musician's humor, a recording history, and amusing anecdotal tidbits. In an entertaining style, ......
What does it mean to be ''Californian''? Mina Yang suggests an answer that lies at the intersection of musicology, cultural history, and politics. Consisting of a series of musical case studies of major ethnic groups in California, this book approaches the notion of Californian identity from diverse perspectives, each nuanced by class, gender, and ......
