Lou Harrison

Lou Harrison
Author: Leta E. Miller
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Total Pages: 424
Release: 1998
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN:

Lou Harrison, who celebrated his 80th birthday in 1997, has often been cited as one of the America's most original and influential composers. In addition to his prolific musical output, Harrison is also a skilled painter, calligrapher, essayist, critic, poet, and instrument-builder. During his long and varied career, he has explored dance, Asian music, tuning systems, and universal languages, and has actively championed political causes ranging from pacifism to gay rights. As an articulate and outspoken observer of the contemporary musical scene, he is frequently quoted in the media; yet until now no comprehensive study of his life and works has been published. The present book, supported by extensive archival research and nearly 70 interviews, examines the ideas that have shaped Harrison's creative output, as seen through the eyes of the composer and his associates. A detailed biographical section is followed by individual chapters focusing on Music and Dance, Intonation and Tuning, Instruments, Asian influences, Gamelan, Music and Politics, Music Criticism, and Compositional Processes. In a separate chapter, the authors describe the historical background of the San Francisco gay community, Harrison's literary and musical statements on gay rights, and possible "gay markers" on his musical style. An annotated works-list details over 300 compositions, and a full-length CD illustrates the text in sound, including several unique and previously unrecorded works. This engaging study of Harrison's life and works will be indispensable to students and scholars of American music and to performing artists and programmers.

Composing the World

Composing the World
Author: Andrew James Hicks
Publisher: Oxford University Press
Total Pages: 345
Release: 2017
Genre: Music
ISBN: 0190658207

Taking in hand the current "discovery" that we can listen to the cosmos, Andrew Hicks argues that sound-and the harmonious coordination of sounds, sources, and listeners-has always been an integral part of the history of studying the cosmos. In Composing the World, Hicks presents a narrative tour through medieval Platonic cosmology with reflections on important philosophical movements along the way. The book will resonate with a variety of readers, and it encourages us to rethink the role of music and sound within our greater understanding of the universe.

A Composer's World

A Composer's World
Author: Paul Hindemith
Publisher: Schott Music
Total Pages: 234
Release: 2022-10-17
Genre: Music
ISBN: 3795730287

The Book aims to be a guide through the little universe which is the working place of the man who writes music. As such it talks predominantly to the layman, although the expert composer may also find some stimulation in it... From the center of basic theory our discussion will spread out into all the realms of experience which border the technical aspect on composing, such as aesthetics, sociology, philosphy and so on... We must be grateful that with our art we have been placed halfway between science and religion, enjoying equally the advantages of exactitude in thinking... and of the unlimeted world of faith. Paul Hindemith, from the preface

Composing Interactive Music

Composing Interactive Music
Author: Todd Winkler
Publisher: MIT Press
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2001-01-26
Genre: Music
ISBN: 9780262731393

Interactive music refers to a composition or improvisation in which software interprets live performances to produce music generated or modified by computers. In Composing Interactive Music, Todd Winkler presents both the technical and aesthetic possibilities of this increasingly popular area of computer music. His own numerous compositions have been the laboratory for the research and development that resulted in this book. The author's examples use a graphical programming language called Max. Each example in the text is accompanied by a picture of how it appears on the computer screen. The same examples are included as software on the accompanying CD-ROM, playable on a Macintosh computer with a MIDI keyboard. Although the book is aimed at those interested in writing music and software using Max, the casual reader can learn the basic concepts of interactive composition by just reading the text, without running any software. The book concludes with a discussion of recent multimedia work incorporating projected images and video playback with sound for concert performances and art installations.

Composing Japanese Musical Modernity

Composing Japanese Musical Modernity
Author: Bonnie C. Wade
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 282
Release: 2014-01-13
Genre: History
ISBN: 022608549X

When we think of composers, we usually envision an isolated artist separate from the orchestra—someone alone in a study, surround by staff paper—and in Europe and America this image generally has been accurate. For most of Japan’s musical history, however, no such role existed—composition and performance were deeply intertwined. Only when Japan began to embrace Western culture in the late nineteenth century did the role of the composer emerge. In Composing Japanese Musical Modernity, Bonnie Wade uses an investigation of this new musical role to offer new insights not just into Japanese music but Japanese modernity at large and global cosmopolitan culture. Wade examines the short history of the composer in Japanese society, looking at the creative and economic opportunities that have sprung up around them—or that they forged—during Japan’s astonishingly fast modernization. She shows that modernist Japanese composers have not bought into the high modernist concept of the autonomous artist, instead remaining connected to the people. Articulating Japanese modernism in this way, Wade tells a larger story of international musical life, of the spaces in which tradition and modernity are able to meet and, ultimately, where modernity itself has been made.

The Busy Woman's Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book

The Busy Woman's Guide to Writing a World-Changing Book
Author: Cynthia Morris
Publisher:
Total Pages: 220
Release: 2019-05-15
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 9780975922477

This book takes the confusion and uncertainty out of writing a non-fiction book. It's a step-by-step guide to clarifying the message, organizing the material and writing in ways that work for the reader's goals and lifestyle. Writer's coach Cynthia Morris gives you a map to help you design and enjoy your own writing practice.

Composing a Life

Composing a Life
Author: Mary Catherine Bateson
Publisher: Grove Press
Total Pages: 264
Release: 2001
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9780802138040

This reissue of Bateson's treatise on the improvisational lives of five extraordinary women uses their personal stories to delve into the creative potential of the complex lives of today, where ambitions are constantly refocused on new goals and possibilities.

Composing Capital

Composing Capital
Author: Marianna Ritchey
Publisher: University of Chicago Press
Total Pages: 221
Release: 2019-08-05
Genre: Music
ISBN: 022664023X

The familiar old world of classical music, with its wealthy donors and ornate concert halls, is changing. The patronage of a wealthy few is being replaced by that of corporations, leading to new unions of classical music and contemporary capitalism. In Composing Capital, Marianna Ritchey lays bare the appropriation of classical music by the current neoliberal regime, arguing that artists, critics, and institutions have aligned themselves—and, by extension, classical music itself—with free-market ideology. More specifically, she demonstrates how classical music has lent its cachet to marketing schemes, tech firm-sponsored performances, and global corporate partnerships. As Ritchey shows, the neoliberalization of classical music has put music at the service of contemporary capitalism, blurring the line between creativity and entrepreneurship, and challenging us to imagine how a noncommodified musical practice might be possible in today’s world.

Arranging Music for the Real World

Arranging Music for the Real World
Author: Vince Corozine
Publisher: Mel Bay Publications
Total Pages: 225
Release: 2015-08-27
Genre: Music
ISBN: 1610656660

This book is written from a composer's point of view and is intended to be a reference book for the analysis of arranging techniques. Its aim is to help composers and arrangers improve their compositional skills as well as their understanding of various musical styles. Through a study and analysis of the scores and styles of the master composers, the author gives a broad view of the music of both the past and of the present. This allows the musician to navigate within the contemporary music scene with an essential awareness of and appreciation for all genres of music. the skills and concepts taught in this book will help the aspiring arranger harmonize melodies and write counter-melodies quickly and efficiently utilizing various combinations of instruments and voices, whether for pops orchestra, television, or recordings, according to the demands of modern commercial music.

Multimodal Composing in Classrooms

Multimodal Composing in Classrooms
Author: Suzanne M. Miller
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 191
Release: 2013-06-19
Genre: Education
ISBN: 1136637796

Taking a close look at multimodal composing as an essential new literacy in schools, this volume draws from contextualized case studies across educational contexts to provide detailed portraits of teachers and students at work in classrooms. Authors elaborate key issues in transforming classrooms with student multimodal composing, including changes in teachers, teaching, and learning. Six action principles for teaching for embodied learning through multimodal composing are presented and explained. The rich illustrations of practice encourage both discussion of practical challenges and dilemmas and conceptualization beyond the specific cases. Historically, issues in New Literacy Studies, multimodality, new literacies, and multiliteracies have primarily been addressed theoretically, promoting a shift in educators’ thinking about what constitutes literacy teaching and learning in a world no longer bounded by print text only. Such theory is necessary (and beneficial for re-thinking practices). What Multimodal Composing in Classrooms contributes to this scholarship are the voices of teachers and students talking about changing practices in real classrooms.