New books in Music

Title: The Performing Style of Alexander Scriabin
Author: Leikin, Anatole
Publisher:Ashgate
Call Number: ML410
Synopsis from publisher

When Alexander Nikolayevich Scriabin's music was performed, the listeners' responses were ecstatic. Wilhelm Gericke, conductor of the Vienna opera, rushed backstage after one of Scriabin's concerts and fell on his knees crying, 'It's genius, it's genius...'. Extremely famous during his lifetime, Scriabin was quickly ignored after his death. Although he was always present in the mainstream of Russian music, until recently the outside world neglected him.Scriabin recorded nineteen of his compositions on the Hupfeld and Welte-Mignon reproducing pianos in 1908 and 1910. Fifteen of the player-piano rolls remain, and Anatole Leikin here provides the first detailed transcriptions, including evidence of Scriabin's performance: exact pitches and their timing against each other, rhythms, articulation, tempo fluctuations, dynamics and essential pedal usage. Based on these transcriptions (provided as an Appendix), the book focuses on an analysis of Scriabin's performing style within the broader context of Romantic performance practice.Anatole Leikin's book contributes significantly to the worldwide resurgence of interest in Scriabin's music and ideas.

 

Title:Music Makes Me: Fred Astaire and Jazz
Author: Decker, Todd
Publisher:University of California Press
Call Number:ML420.A896 D46 2011
Synopsis from back of book:
Is Fred Astaire: one of the great jazz artists of the twentieth century? Astaire is best known for his brilliant dancing in the movie musicals of the 1930s, but in Music Makes Me, Todd Decker argues that Astaire's work as a dancer and choreographer --particularly in the realm of tap dancing--made a significant contribution to the art of jazz. Decker examines the full range of Astaire's work in filmed and recorded media, from a 1926 recording with George Gershwin to his 1970 blues stylings on television, and analyzes Astaire's creative relationships with the greats, including George and Ira Gershwin, Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, and Johnny Mercer. He also highlights Astaire's collaborations with African American musicians and his work with lesser known professionals--arrangers, musicians, dance directors, and performers.


Title: Alan Lomax Assistant in Chrage: The Library of Congress Letters, 1935-1945
Author: Ronald D. Cohen ed.
Publisher: University Press of Mississippi
Call Number: ML423.L6347 A4 2011
Synopsis from publisher
Alan Lomax (1915-2002) began working for the Archive of American Folk Song at the Library of Congress in 1936, first as a special and temporary assistant, then as the permanent Assistant in Charge, starting in June 1937, until he left in late 1942. He recorded such important musicians as Woody Guthrie, Muddy Waters, Aunt Molly Jackson, and Jelly Roll Morton. A reading and examination of his letters from 1935 to 1945 reveal someone who led an extremely complex, fascinating, and creative life, mostly as a public employee.