Singing

Singing
Author: Dan Marek
Publisher: Scarecrow Press
Total Pages: 260
Release: 2007
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0810857111

The Italian singing technique Bel Canto instructs, "He who knows how to breathe and how to pronounce, knows how to sing." Singing: The First Art incorporates the techniques of Bel Canto along with those of masters like Berton Coffin and Manuel Garcia to promote and facilitate vocal excellence. Many concepts are described, from correct posture and alignment to improving and maintaining proper breathing, from good pronunciation and diction to producing an even, pure tone, and from vocal ranges to singing within and smoothly shifting between vocal registers. Mannes Vocal Faculty member Dan H. Marek effectively breaks down these complicated concepts with clear exercises, helping the vocal student to achieve freedom and complete control over his or her instrument. A primary section on the history of singing stresses the importance of understanding vocal history while inspiring and motivating the student through the experiences of opera stars such as Enrico Caruso, Maria Callas, and Jussi Björling. The second section explains vocal techniques, including the use and proper pronunciation of the IPA (International Phonetic Alphabet), and provides 64 specific exercises with clearly defined goals designed to overcome faults and to develop vocal virtuosity. Complete instructions for transposing the exercises for both male and female voices are included, as well as drawings of the exercises, musical examples from vocal literature, excellent anatomical illustrations by Frank Netter, MD, and copious photographs of opera stars. Singing: The First Art is an invaluable text for students, professionals, singers, conductors, composers, and vocal medical professionals, or anyone interested in understanding and appreciating the vocal art.

A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers

A Biographical Guide to the Great Jazz and Pop Singers
Author: Will Friedwald
Publisher: Pantheon
Total Pages: 833
Release: 2010
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0375421491

An extensive biographical and critical survey of more than 300 jazz and popular singers is comprised of provocative, opinionated essays that incorporate the views of peers, fans and critics while assessing key movements and genres.

University Musical Encyclopedia: Great composers

University Musical Encyclopedia: Great composers
Author: Louis Charles Elson
Publisher:
Total Pages: 356
Release: 1912
Genre: Music
ISBN:

"These volumes form a complete encyclopedia and history of music and musicians. They comprise a library covering the whole field of musical literature. The material has been written by more than forty of the greatest musicians, critics, and experts on musical subjects in this country and Europe." copyright 1914.

The Oxford Handbook of Music Revival

The Oxford Handbook of Music Revival
Author: Caroline Bithell
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 721
Release: 2014-06-26
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0199384924

Revival movements aim to revitalize traditions perceived as threatened or moribund by adapting them to new temporal, spatial, and social contexts. While many of these movements have been well-documented in Western Europe and North America,those occurring and recurring elsewhere in the world have received little or no attention. Particularly under-analyzed are the aftermaths of revivals: the new infrastructures, musical styles, performance practices, subcultural communities, and value systems that grow out of these movements. The Oxford Handbook of Music Revival fills this gap, and helps us achieve a deeper understanding of how and why musical pasts are reimagined and transfigured in modern-day postindustrial, postcolonial, and postwar contexts. The book's thirty chapters present innovative theoretical perspectives illustrated through new ethnographic case studies on diverse music and dance cultures around the world. Together these essays reveal the potency of acts of revival, resurgence, restoration, and renewal in shaping musical landscapes and transforming social experience. The book makes a powerful argument for the untapped potential of revival as a productive analytical tool in contemporary, global contexts. With its detailed treatment of authenticity, recontextualization, transmission, institutionalization, globalization, the significance of history, and other key concerns, the collection engages with critical issues far beyond the field of revival studies and is crucial for understanding contemporary manifestations of folk, traditional, and heritage music in today's postmodern cosmopolitan societies.