Symbol and Metaphor in Opera
The Power and the Glory
This study examines the role of symbolism in the history of opera, with its attendant use of mythology, allegory, metaphor and imagery. From the very first, Orpheus emerges as the patron and guiding light of the genre, with its roots deeply embedded in the Classical heritage. The underpinning of action and meaning in the ancient stories provides a symbolic resonance that imparts so much of the enduring mystic and meaning of this rich genre. The various types and layers of figurative concepts and language are examined throughout the history of…
This study examines symbolism throughout the history of opera, from its mythological roots to contemporary works. It analyzes how allegory, metaphor, and imagery impart the enduring mystic and meaning of this rich genre, while reflecting on its future.
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The Global Reach of the Fandango in Music, Song and Dance
Spaniards, Indians, Africans and Gypsies
The fandango, emerging in the early-eighteenth century Black Atlantic as a dance and music craze across Spain and the Americas, came to comprise genres as diverse as Mexican son jarocho, the salon and concert fandangos of Mozart and Scarlatti, and the Andalusian fandangos central to flamenco. From the celebrations of humble folk to the theaters of the European elite, with boisterous castanets, strumming strings, flirtatious sensuality, and dexterous footwork, the fandango became a conduit for the syncretism of music, dance, and people of diverse Spanish, Afro-Latin, Gitano, and…
This book lays the foundations for learning about the fandango, an 18th century dance and music craze across Spain and the Americas. It describes how the dance became a conduit for the syncretism of music, dance and people and how it signified freedom of movement and expression.
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Music as a Spandrel of Evolutionary Adaptation for Speech
The Doors of Imagination
Some forms of human behavior make no sense in the light of evolution. Music is one of them, and it is the main subject of this book. Here, it is interpreted from a holistic perspective; music is embedded in our nature, it is embodied in our organisms, and it is emergent, a language that opens the doors of imagination for us. The first half of the book is dedicated to cognitive aspects of acoustic signalization: of learned bird song, of automatic mammal calls, and of speech and music in humans.…
Music makes no sense in the light of evolution. This book reveals it as an innate language that unlocks our imagination, allowing us to transcend reality and create. Not bad for what began as a spandrel of speech.
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From £34.99
Music is used to sell everything from cars to political candidates. How can words and melody so successfully manipulate us? This volume provides answers by examining the ways in which music of various genres, including folk, popular music, rock, and rap, is used to protest and to promote structures of political, commercial, and religious authority. Students, teachers, musicians, historians, policy makers, and fans of music and popular culture will find answers to questions such as: How does music help to build national identity, foster a sense of patriotism, and reflect…
How can words and melody so successfully manipulate us? This book examines how music—from folk and rock to rap—is used to protest and to promote political, commercial, and religious authority, fueling feminist movements, propaganda, and songs of resistance.
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From £33.99
Musical vernaculars are a rare and challenging object of study. Their sound can include everything—from local folk and popular songs to random foreign hits and fragments of classic repertoire. It is an everchanging element—eclectic, whimsical, and resistant to regularity. Based on the author’s multicultural experience, proficiency in Russian and Jewish music history, and interest in anthropology, this book explores the essential features of vernaculars. They can have varying degrees of changeability; some are quite stable, and exist in closed rural or immigrant communities (phylo-vernacular), while others are dynamic, like those…
Musical vernaculars are an eclectic and everchanging object of study. This book defends urbanized folk music, challenging the traditional view that only rural songs are authentic, and examines unexpected interconnections between Russian and Jewish music.
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Diversity in Australia’s Music
Themes Past, Present, and for the Future
This volume showcases academic research into the rich diversity of music in Australia from colonial times to the present. Starting with an overview of developments during the past 50 years, the contributions discuss Western and non-western genres (opera, film, dance, choral, chamber); the history of music-making in particular cosmopolitan and regional centres (Canberra, Brisbane, the Hunter Valley, Alice Springs); old, new, and experimental compositions; and a variety of performers and ensembles active at particular points in time. In addition, cultural tropes and music as social practice are also explored, providing…
This volume showcases the rich diversity of music in Australia from colonial times to the present. Starting with an overview of developments during the past 50 years, the contributions discuss both Western and non-western genres and the history of music-making in the country.
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From £30.99
Musicians, teachers and those who love music will find in this volume some answers to the question of how gender affects its practice, performance and reception. What was performing like for female rock singers in the 20th century? How did Bowie change our concept of performer identity? Just how sexist are the lyrics in glam metal songs? Is rap as homophobic as has been thought? Can female metal singers growl as well as men? Are LGBTQ+ issues reflected in 21st century music? Did Canadian New Wave groups tackle major social…
How does gender affect music? How did Bowie change performer identity? How sexist is glam metal? Are LGBTQ+ issues reflected in 21st century music? From French opera to metal and rap, these contributions challenge and inform, confirming that music shapes our gendered selves.
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Sound in Motion
Cinema, Videogames, Technology and Audiences
Sound in Motion: Cinema, Videogames, Technology and Audiences is a collective volume that sheds more light on the intimate relationship between music and audiovisual culture in contemporary society. This book brings together researchers from different parts of the world, from the USA to Brazil, through Spain, Georgia, France and Austria, to understand, from different perspectives, a global phenomenon. It includes indispensable studies on music and cinema (revisited from a multicultural perspective), as well as original research on music in videogames and television, and the study of the real impact of…
This collection sheds light on the intimate relationship between music and audiovisual culture in contemporary society. It includes indispensable studies on music and cinema, as well as original research on music in videogames and television.
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£61.99
The Music on Stage conferences are a unique engine for interdisciplinary interaction, which is reflected in this compendium of the latest research by international scholars. Scholars and practitioners of operas by Handel, Mozart, Thomas, Chabrier, Korngold and Taktakishvili will find new “readings” from hitherto unexplored contexts and contemporary fine art. Also discussed is operatic lighting and the problematics of traditional lighting schemes apropos recent inventive methodologies. Popular sound development of the late 1960s is highlighted through unique oral transcripts. Other chapters discuss the intermediality of music and social media in…
This compendium of interdisciplinary research presents new “readings” on topics from opera by Handel and Mozart to 1960s popular sound. Chapters discuss operatic lighting, Wagner’s leitmotif technique, music and social media, and the art and politics of the collective Laibach.
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The Israeli Defence Forces’ Representation in Israeli Cinema
Did David Betray His Soldiers?
Of all the Biblical heroes, the character of King David is perhaps the most paradoxical and also the most difficult to grasp. He is the Biblical Man for all seasons: a warrior, a lover, a poet, a killer and a restorer. This elaborate and fascinating archetypal hero influenced and inspired the representation of the Israeli soldier in Israeli media, art and cinema, from the establishment of the State of Israel until the present day. This book investigates whether Israeli art and film now place a focus on soldiers not…
This title looks at whether Israeli art and film now place a focus on soldiers not as fighters, but as victims, and discusses the relationship between King David as an adult and the State of Israel half a century after its establishment.
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Small Places, Operatic Issues
Opera and Its Peripheral Worlds
This book details original case studies that represent five different social positions or characterisations of opera: namely, opera as social showcase from Bayreuth (1748), social distinction from Ljubljana (1887), social conflict from Brno (1920), social status from Mantua (1999) and social manifest from Belgrade (2005). These positions, which indicate opera’s social diversity in local, regional, provincial, and peripheral terms, as well as its social mutuality in international, transnational, global, or metropolitan terms, generally promote the idea of opera as a social venue, cultural practice, theatrical scene, lyrical site, musical place,…
Through its analysis of five different social positions or characterisations of opera from 1748 to 2005, this book creates a fruitful interpretative encounter of the academic domains of opera studies, historical sociology, cultural sociology and social and cultural anthropology.
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From £29.99
This volume brings together a number of perspectives on the musical landscape of Invercargill, a city at the bottom of Aotearoa/New Zealand. Invercargill is in many ways unique; it is relatively isolated, its access to liquor is controlled by a licensing trust, and it is home to the longest-serving mayor in Aotearoa. The musicking that occurs within Invercargill is surprisingly diverse and wide-ranging. This book acknowledges and explores many of the South’s musical communities, and in, doing so, illustrates the importance of music in local communities. It highlights the ways…
This book explores the surprisingly diverse musical landscape of Invercargill, a city at the bottom of Aotearoa/New Zealand. It illustrates the importance of music in local communities, enriching social connectedness, local identity, and the lives interwoven through them.
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Popular Music, Ethnicity and Politics in the Kenya of the 1990s
Okatch Biggy Live at “The Junction”
Okatch Biggy was the single most dominant benga artiste of the 1990s. Over that decade, benga was the most important genre of popular music in Kenya. What is it about the music of Okatch Biggy that made it attractive to his target audience, the Luo of the 1990s? Is there something about the Luo of the 1990s that predisposed them to this music? In the course of answering these—and related—questions, this volume analyzes Okatch Biggy’s songs as works of art, that is, by identifying the aesthetic and…
Okatch Biggy was the single most dominant benga artiste of the 1990s. Mboya analyzes Biggy’s songs as works of art, identifying the aesthetic and rhetorical conventions that are deployed in the songs, and exploring the central messages of the music, and their significance.
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Postgraduate Voices in Punk Studies
Your Wisdom, Our Youth
This volume represents the first academic collection to draw upon postgraduate research in exploring the punk scene. Cutting-edge studies, spanning both local and global contexts, are covered with contributions from a range of academic disciplines, including art and design, sociology, cultural studies, English, and music. The chapters are loosely focused around three themes: scenes; gender, “race” and sexuality; and therapy and laughter. The collection builds upon, and diversifies, existing academic work in punk studies covering such topics as “whitestraightboy” hegemony, straight-edge in France, CRT and the links between punk and…
The first academic collection of postgraduate research on the punk scene. These cutting-edge, interdisciplinary studies explore themes of gender, race, and sexuality, covering topics from French straight-edge to the links between punk and 90s rave culture.
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£58.99
This book originates from the 2017 edition of the multidisciplinary Modern Heavy Metal Conference, organised in Helsinki, Finland. This collection of seven scholarly essays explores local scenes and identities within heavy metal music from multiple angles, covering a variety of different countries and metal sub-genres from Finland to Indonesia, and from black metal to metalcore. The essays here lay various theoretical perspectives and incorporate vivid examples with metal bands and scenes from all over the world. By exploring themes and discourses that are central to both research and practice, this…
The seven scholarly essays gathered here explore local scenes and identities within heavy metal music from multiple angles, covering a variety of different countries and metal sub-genres from Finland to Indonesia, and from black metal to metalcore.
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Bruce Springsteen’s America
A Dream Deferred
Weaving from jargon-free critical analysis to a fan’s passionate participatory research, this book places work and class at the center of the work of Bruce Springsteen. It juxtaposes the “uninspiring” work of his characters (factory workers, carwash attendants, cashiers, waitresses, farmhands, and immigrants) with the work of Bruce Springsteen himself as an indefatigable musician and performer. Springsteen is the hunter of invisible game, the teller of second-hand lives of common folks who ride used cars, believe that being born in the USA entitles them to something better, and keep the…
Moving from jargon-free critical analysis to a fan’s passionate participatory research, this book places work and class at the centre of Bruce Springsteen’s oeuvre. It presents him as the bard of the downtrodden and is testament to the life-giving power of rock and roll.
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Opera as Anthropology
Anthropologists in Lyrical Settings
This book contemplates the relationship between opera and anthropology. It rests on the following central arguments: on the one hand, opera is quite a new and “exotic” topic for anthropologists, while, on the other, anthropology is still perceived as an unusual approach to opera. Both initial arguments are indicative of the current situation of the relationship between anthropological discipline and opera research. The book introduces the work of anthropologists and ethnographers whose personal and professional affinity for opera has been explicated in their academic and biographical accounts. Anthropological, ethnological, ethnographic,…
Kotnik considers the relationship between opera and anthropology. His study rests on the following central arguments: on the one hand, opera is a new and “exotic” topic for anthropologists, while, on the other, anthropology is still seen as an unusual approach to opera.
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Philosophical Considerations on Contemporary Music
Sounding Constellations
The musical universe of the 20th and 21st centuries is a force-field in which styles, instruments, personalities and stories can be found that are ascribable to conceptual frameworks that may differ greatly one from another. Such complexity cannot be traced back to single theories or all-encompassing interpretations, but may be tackled, philosophically, starting from certain characteristics. This book identifies nine such characteristics: namely, Extremes, Noise, Silence, Technology, Audience, Listening, Freedom, Disintegration, and New Media. Each of these permits us to open up unforeseen philosophical-cultural paths and interpret, in its multifarious…
Fronzi describes how complexity in music of the 20th and 21st centuries can be tackled philosophically, starting from certain characteristics. He identifies nine characteristics that permit us to open up philosophical-cultural paths and interpret contemporary music developments.
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£52.99
For much of the mid-twentieth century, Roberto Gerhard found himself an outsider. He was airbrushed from much writing on contemporary music in Spain during the Franco regime, and was known in England more for his ‘commercial’ music for theatre, film and radio than his concert works. However, his significance as a musical innovator in developing serial technique and in the field of electro-acoustics is now being gradually recognised in both Spain and England, as well as further afield. The volume explores an extensive range of Gerhard’s work from the early…
This volume explores Roberto Gerhard’s work from the early Wind Quintet through to the late period Metamorphoses. It suggests evidence that situates his idiosyncratic experiments alongside, rather than after, the total serialist works of his European counterparts.
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£52.99
This book provides an overview of the communicative processes that encompass the creation, interpretation, perception, and evaluation of the various phenomena constituting musical art. The numerous internal and external communicative links in the spheres of the composer, the performer, the listener and the musicologist-critic – links which constitute a complex system of the transmission of musical information – are considered from a socio-cultural perspective, which determines the high social role of the academic genres of music. The book will be of use to professional musicians and to all those interested…
Yakupov summarises the communicative processes encompassing the creation, interpretation, perception, and evaluation of the various phenomena of musical art. He considers the numerous communicative links in the spheres of the composer, performer, listener and musicologist-critic.
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