This monograph investigates the promotion and consumption of high musical culture among leisured society in Victorian London, by focusing on the activities of the concert manager John Ella and his Musical Union [1845-81], an eminent, long-lived institution for chamber music, much feted across Europe in its day. It combines a biography of Ella with a social-economic history of the Musical Union, its players, repertoire and audiences, and sets them against the gradually shifting contexts for Londo...
Five Maskers
Zhou Long's realisation of this folk-dance, indigenous to north-east China, has all its kaleidoscopic colour and rhythmic drive, with some brilliant licks for each of the instruments. Scored for brass quintet (trumpet in C doubling piccolo trumpet, trumpet in B flat, horn in F, trombone, tuba), this work is within the technical range of good student groups, and amply repays the attention of professional ensembles.
This comprehensive but concise guide for the student of orchestration is also an excellent book of reference for the practicing musician. Each instrument is considered within its respective group and helpful details are given on compass, technique, and timbre. The author takes many passages written for keyboard instruments and shows how they may be scored for a variety of combinations, thereby showing in the clearest possible manner the principles underlying effective orchestration. Exercises at...
Chamber Music: A Listener's Guide is a collection of essays about the essential masterworks of the chamber music literature, written to be meaningful to non-professional but interested music-lovers while providing enrichment even for committed chamber music enthusiasts. The book covers a core repertoire of pieces for representative instrumental groupings for three or more players that a concertgoer is most likely to encounter in the course of concert-going, focusing on frequently performed works...
This book tells the story of how a regional Chinese theatrical form, Shanghai Yue Opera, evolved from the all-male ’beggar’s song’ of the early twentieth century to become the largest all-female opera form in the nation, only to face increasing pressure to survive under Chinese political and economic reforms in the new millennium. Previous publications have focused mainly on the historical development of Chinese theatre, with emphasis placed on Beijing opera. This is the first book to take a...
