Music (25)

• Music
• Theatre

Performance Research Methods: Interdisciplinary Methods for Theatre, Dance and Performance Studies

• Liesbeth Groot Nibbelink
• Laura Karreman

'Performance Research Methods' is the first comprehensive guide to contemporary methodologies in performance studies, offering a clear and structured overview of the tools currently shaping research in theatre, dance, and performance. While many volumes focus on individual methods, this book uniquely surveys a range of approaches, presenting their historical background, analytical potential, practical application, and interdisciplinary relevance.

• Music
• Philosophy

Hylo Narrans: Echoes of Material Marronage

• Kevin Toksöz Fairbairn

This book explores the acoustic agency of brass as a vital medium through which histories of extraction, resistance, and collective creativity resonate. Blending metalwork, experimental instrument-building, and philosophical inquiry, the book listens closely to brass not just as material, but as storyteller—what the author calls hylo narrans, echoing Sylvia Wynter’s invocation of homo narrans. Grounded in their practice spanning artisanal craftsmanship and industrial labor, the author examines how materials respond, resist, and reshape meaning within the workshop, the concert hall, and the broader social fabric. By introducing chimeracords—hybrid sound objects forged from factory detritus—and their affordance for sonic experimentation, Hylo Narrans challenges Western narratives of purity, utility, and control, inviting readers to consider alternative storylines posed by materials-in-flight.

• European Studies: Italian Studies
• History of the Book
• Music

Sounding the Bookshelf 1501: Music in a Year of Italian Printed Books

• Tim Shephard
• Oliver Doyle
• Ciara O’Flaherty
• Annabelle Page
• Laura Ştefănescu

This volume explores how everyday texts in Renaissance Italy engaged with music, sound, and hearing. Of the 358 known editions printed in 1501, only a few contained formal music notation or specialist theory. Yet a surprising wealth of musical knowledge emerges from religious texts, classical commentaries, lifestyle guides, poetry, and more. These sources—rarely penned by professional musicians—reflect the broader cultural presence of music in early 16th-century life, touching on themes like music’s moral influence, its role in education, and its scientific understanding.

• Music
• Politics and Sociology

Improvising Otherwise: A Decolonial Feminist Approach to Improvisation in Early Modern English Culture

• Fatima Lahham

This volume redefines how we approach early music and cultural histories, intertwining feminist, decolonial, and creative perspectives. Fatima Lahham delves into the improvisational practices of early modern England, situating them within a rich tapestry of musical sources, theological texts, travel narratives, and natural histories. Inspired by Sara Ahmed’s notion of the “feminist ear,” the book amplifies voices and histories often unheard, re-examining the cultural interplay between England and the Ottoman Empire in the seventeenth century.

• Archaeology and Religion
• History
• Music

Music, Religion and Politics at Worcester Cathedral, 680-1950

• Richard Newsholme

This book provides a comprehensive history of music and liturgy at Worcester Cathedral, from its foundation in the seventh century to the mid-20th century. The author delves into how political shifts, public opinion, and national trends have influenced changes in the cathedral's practices over time, while also highlighting the distinct local dynamics at play.

• Biography
• Music

Meta-Xenakis: New Perspectives on Iannis Xenakis’s Life, Work, and Legacies

• Sharon Kanach
• Peter Nelson

Meta-Xenakis offers readers a comprehensive collection of insights into the history, works and legacy of Iannis Xenakis, one of the twentieth century’s most significant creative figures. It presents a transcontinental engagement with his life and output, focusing as much on the impact of the questions he posed as on the accomplishments of his body of work.

• Asian Studies
• Music

Rāgs Around the Clock: A Handbook for North Indian Classical Music, with Online Recordings in the Khayāl Style

• David Clarke
• Vijay Rajput

Rāgs Around the Clock is a rich and vibrant compendium for the discovery and study of North Indian classical music. The theory and practice of rāg are explored through two interlinked resources: a handbook of essays and analyses offering technical, historical, cultural and aesthetic perspectives; and two online albums – Rāg samay cakra and Twilight Rāgs from North India – featuring khayāl singer Vijay Rajput and accompanists.

• Archaeology and Religion
• Music

Music and Spirituality: Theological Approaches, Empirical Methods, and Christian Worship

• George Corbett
• Sarah Moerman

The composer Sir James MacMillan has often referred to music as ‘the most spiritual of the arts’, and for many people, regardless of religious affiliation, this rings true. In listening to music, we are drawn to dimensions of human experience beyond the material. This collection brings together leading scholars from various disciplines – including Christian theology, musicology, and psychology and neuroscience – to interrogate the intimate relationship between music and spirituality.

• European Studies
• Music
• Politics and Sociology

Psychological Perspectives on Musical Experiences and Skills: Research in the Western Balkans and Western Europe

• Blanka Bogunović
• Renee Timmers
• Sanela Nikolić

This book features recent research on the psychology of music from the Western Balkans, foregrounding its specific topics, methods, and influences by bringing it into productive conversation with complementary research from Western Europe and further afield.

• Asian Studies
• Folklore and Ethnology
• History
• Music

Music and the Making of Modern Japan: Joining the Global Concert

• Margaret Mehl

In only 50 years, from the 1870s to the early 1920s, Japanese people laid the foundations for the country’s post-war rise as a musical as well as an economic power. Meanwhile, new types of popular song, fuelled by the growing global record industry, successfully blended inspiration from the West with musical characteristics perceived as Japanese.

• Education
• Music

Teaching Music Performance in Higher Education: Exploring the Potential of Artistic Research

• Helen Julia Minors
• Stefan Östersjö
• Gilvano Dalagna
• Jorge Salgado Correia

This book contributes presenting examples of artistic research projects that are embedded within Higher Music Performance courses at universities and conservatoires across Europe.

• Music
• Politics and Sociology

Classical Music Futures: Practices of Innovation

• Neil Thomas Smith
• Peter Peters
• Karoly Molina

This edited volume brings together contributions from a wide range of international academics and practitioners. It traces innovations within classical music practice, showing how these offer divergent visions for its future. The interdisciplinary contributions to the volume highlight the way contrasting ideas of the future can effect change in the present.

• Music
• Philosophy
• Science

Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music

• Steven Jan

Music in Evolution and Evolution in Music by Steven Jan is a comprehensive account of the relationships between evolutionary theory and music. Examining the ‘evolutionary algorithm’ that drives biological and musical-cultural evolution, the book provides a distinctive commentary on how musicality and music can shed light on our understanding of Darwin’s famous theory -- and vice-versa.

• Education
• Music

The Power of Music: An Exploration of the Evidence

• Susan Hallam
• Evangelos Himonides

Building on her earlier work, 'The Power of Music: A Research Synthesis of the Impact of Actively Making Music on the Intellectual, Social and Personal Development of Children and Young People', this volume by Susan Hallam and Evangelos Himonides is an important new resource in the field of music education, practice, and psychology.

• Music

The Voice of the Century: The Culture of Italian Bel Canto in Luisa Tetrazzini’s Recorded Interpretations

• Massimo Zicari

This innovative work considers the notion of bel canto and the manner in which this vibrant tradition lives in the records of Luisa Tetrazzini (1871-1940), one of the most celebrated sopranos ever. Tetrazzini, whose discographic career includes about 120 recordings, belongs to that generation of inspirational performers who heralded the dawn of a new era of music appreciation, alongside such iconic figures as Enrico Caruso, Adelina Patti and Nellie Melba.

• Music
• Philosophy

A Philosophy of Cover Songs

• P.D. Magnus

In A Philosophy of Cover Songs, P.D. Magnus demonstrates that philosophy provides a valuable toolbox for thinking about covers; in turn, the philosophy of cover songs illustrates some general points about philosophical method.

• Education
• Music
• Other languages
• Politics and Sociology

Replanteando la acción social por la música: la búsqueda de la convivencia y la ciudadanía en la Red de Escuelas de Música de Medellín

• Geoffrey Baker
• Claudia García

Este libro pionero examina el desarrollo de La Red de Escuelas de Música de Medellín, una red de 27 escuelas fundada en 1996 en la segunda ciudad principal de Colombia como respuesta a su reputación como la ciudad más peligrosa en la Tierra. Inspirada en El Sistema, el programa venezolano fundacional de educación musical, La Red es, no obstante, notablemente diferente: su historia es una de múltiples reinvenciones y de una búsqueda continua para mejorar su oferta educativa y alcanzar mejor sus objetivos sociales. Sus reflexiones internas e intentos de transformación arrojan luz valiosa sobre el pasado, el presente y el futuro de ASPM.

• European Studies
• European Studies: English and Irish Studies
• Literature
• Music

Auld Lang Syne: A Song and its Culture

• Morag Josephine Grant

In Auld Lang Syne: A Song and its Culture, M. J. Grant explores the history of this iconic song, demonstrating how its association with ideas of fellowship, friendship and sociality has enabled it to become so significant for such a wide range of individuals and communities around the world.

• Education
• Music
• Politics and Sociology

Rethinking Social Action through Music: The Search for Coexistence and Citizenship in Medellín’s Music Schools

• Geoffrey Baker

How can we better understand the past, present and future of Social Action through Music (SATM)? This ground-breaking book examines the development of the Red de Escuelas de Música de Medellín (the Network of Music Schools of Medellín), a network of 27 schools founded in Colombia’s second city in 1996 as a response to its reputation as the most dangerous city on Earth.

• Music

Classical Music: Contemporary Perspectives and Challenges

• Michael Beckerman
• Paul Boghossian

This kaleidoscopic collection reflects on the multifaceted world of classical music as it advances through the twenty-first century. With insights drawn from leading composers, performers, academics, journalists, and arts administrators, special focus is placed on classical music’s defining traditions, challenges and contemporary scope.

• American and Latin American Studies
• History
• Music

Acoustemologies in Contact: Sounding Subjects and Modes of Listening in Early Modernity

• Emily Wilbourne
• Suzanne G. Cusick

In this fascinating collection of essays, an international group of scholars explores the sonic consequences of transcultural contact in the early modern period. They examine how cultural configurations of sound impacted communication, comprehension, and the categorisation of people. Addressing questions of identity, difference, sound, and subjectivity in global early modernity, these authors share the conviction that the body itself is the most intimate of contact zones, and that the culturally contingent systems by which sounds made sense could be foreign to early modern listeners and to present day scholars.

• Archaeology and Religion
• Music

Annunciations: Sacred Music for the Twenty-First Century

• George Corbett

Through the theme of ‘annunciations’, this volume interrogates how, when, why, through and to whom God communicates in the Old and New Testaments. In doing so, it tackles the intimate relationship between Scriptural reflection and musical practice in the past, its present condition, and what the future might hold.

• Music
• Reference Books

Woodstock Scholarship: An Interdisciplinary Annotated Bibliography

• Jeffrey N. Gatten

Since August 1969, the Woodstock Music and Art Fair looms large when recounting the history and impact of the baby boom generation and the societal upheavals of the Sixties. Scholars study the sociological, political, musical, and artistic impact of the event and use it as a cultural touchstone when exploring alternative perspectives or seeking clarity. This interdisciplinary annotated bibliography records the details of over 400 English-language resources on the Festival, including books, chapters, articles, websites, transcriptions and videos. Divided into six main subsections―Culture & Society, History, Biography, Music, Film, Arts & Literature―for ease of consultation Woodstock Scholarship sheds light on all facets of a key happening in our collective history.

• Asian Studies
• Folklore and Ethnology
• Music
• Other languages
• Theatre

Tellings and Texts: Music, Literature and Performance in North India

• Francesca Orsini
• Katherine Butler Schofield

Examining materials from early modern and contemporary North India and Pakistan, Tellings and Texts brings together seventeen first-rate papers on the relations between written and oral texts, their performance, and the musical traditions these performances have entailed. The contributions from some of the best scholars in the field cover a wide range of literary genres and social and cultural contexts across the region.

• Music

A Musicology of Performance: Theory and Method Based on Bach's Solos for Violin

• Dorottya Fabian

This book examines the nature of musical performance. In it, Dorottya Fabian explores the contributions and limitations of some of these approaches to performance, be they theoretical, cultural, historical, perceptual, or analytical. Through a detailed investigation of recent recordings of J. S. Bach’s Six Sonatas and Partitas for Solo Violin, she demonstrates that music performance functions as a complex dynamical system.