The Teacher's Manual of the Tonic Sol-fa Method

The Teacher's Manual of the Tonic Sol-fa Method
Author: John Curwen
Publisher: Boethius Press
Total Pages: 424
Release: 1986
Genre: Music
ISBN:

Written late in life, this remarkable book was described by Percy Scholes as offering the most practically valuable study of the art of teaching music in existence.The first book of its kind to appear in the language, it began by summarising principles common to the teaching of all subject, next applying those principles to the teaching of music. Even today the thoughtful reader will find himself impressed by Curwen's exposition of general educational principles expressed in jargon-free terms and supported by excerpts from the writings of the leading educatinal thinkers of his day. The text has been enlarged by four per cent for ease of reading.

From Biblical Book to Musical Megahit

From Biblical Book to Musical Megahit
Author: Juanita Karpf
Publisher: Univ. Press of Mississippi
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2023-11-27
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1496848918

Many churchgoers will recognize the name William Bradbury, a nineteenth-century American composer of popular hymns still sung at Sunday services. Bradbury’s name may also bring to mind Esther, the Beautiful Queen, his choral setting of a text based on the biblical Book of Esther. The uncomplicated score became enormously popular almost immediately after its initial publication in 1856. In From Biblical Book to Musical Megahit: William B. Bradbury’s “Esther, the Beautiful Queen,” Juanita Karpf traces the work’s rich performance and reception history. Bradbury emphatically stated that he intended Esther to be sung as an unadorned religious and educational piece. Yet many music directors exploited the potential for his score, producing elaborately staged events with costumes, scenery, and acting. Although directors retained Bradbury’s original music, they nonetheless facilitated Esther’s rapid entrée into the realm of music theater. This stylistic transformation ignited a firestorm of controversy. Some clergy and religiously pious citizens condemned theatrical representations of biblical texts as the epitome of debauchery, sacrilege, and sin. In contrast, more tolerant and open-minded theater enthusiasts welcomed the dramatic staging of Esther as wholesome entertainment and as evidence of a refreshingly enlightened approach to biblical interpretation. However heated this debate seemed at times, it did little to quell the continued rise in popularity of Esther. In fact, by the late 1860s, Bradbury’s score had worked its way across the continent, north to Canada and, eventually, to Great Britain, Australia, Asia, and Africa. With performances recorded over a century after Bradbury published his score, Esther became, by any measure, an international megahit.