Having lived mostly in the remote deserts of Arizona and New Mexico with no access to formal training, Partch naturally created theatrical ritualistic works incorporating Indian chants, Japanese kabuki and Noh, Polynesian microtones, Balinese gamelan, Greek tragedy, dance, mime, and sardonic commentary on Hollywood and commercial pop music of modern civilization. First published in 1949, Genesis of a Music is the manifesto of Partch's radical compositional practice and instruments (which owe nothing to the 300-year-old European tradition of Western music.) He contrasts Abstract and Corporeal music, proclaiming the latter as the vital, emotionally tactile form derived from the spoken word (like Greek, Chinese, Arabic, and Indian musics) and surveys the history of world music at length from this perspective. Parts II, III, and IV explain Partch's theories of scales, intonation, and instrument construction with copious acoustical and mathematical documentation. Anyone with a musically creative attitude, whether or not familiar with traditional music theory, will find this book revelatory.

    Acclaimed as the most complete and intellectually satisfying analysis of the Wagner operas, the book has met with unreserved enthusiasm from specialist and casual music lover alike. Here, available for the first time in a single paperback volume, is the perfect companion for listening to, or attending, The Flying Dutchman, Tannh�user, Lohengrin, Tristan and Isolde, Die Meistersinger, the four operas of the Ring Cycle, and Parsifal. Newman enriches his treatment of the stories, texts, and music of the operas with biographical and historical materials from the store of knowledge that he acquired while completing his numerous books on Wagner, including the magisterial Life of Richard Wagner. The text of The Wagner Operas is filled with hundreds of musical examples from the scores, and all the important leitmotifs and their interrelationships are made clear in Newman's lucid prose. This is as fine an introduction as any ever written about a major composer's masterpieces. Newman outlines with unfailing clarity and astuteness each opera's dramatic sources, and he takes the student through the completed opera, step by step, with all manner of incidental insight along the way.--Robert Bailey, New York University

    The book begins with a review of playing in the key of C major but soon goes to F major/D minor followed by D major/B minor. Written in standard notation only. A companion double CD set is available for this book.

    

    Oscar Hammerstein's introduction, 'Notes on Lyrics' has been an acknowledged classic text for musical theatre. This volume edited by William Hammerstein, encompasses lyrics from Oscar Hammerstein's entire canon; from the early Indian Love Call written in 1924 with Otto Harbach and Rudolph Friml, to his final song, Edelweiss in 1959. Oscar Hammerstein's introduction, 'Notes on Lyrics' has been acknowledged classic text for musical theatre enthusiasts since 1949 and remains a definitive work today.

    The volume includes the development of Oriental, Medieval, and Renaissance music from the beginning to 1600. Its more than 200 representative examples are individually complete compositions, each of sufficient length to illustrate clearly a form or style. The authors provide an explanatory commentary with bibliography, English translations of foreign texts, and an index. The Library Journal says of it, in short, Volume 1 of the music historian's classic dreams...No competitors on the market. Highly recommended.