Orchestras can be inspired to the heights of musical and expressive possibility by their maestros, or flabbergasted that someone who doesn't even make a sound should be elevated to demigod-like status by the public.This is the first book to go inside the rehearsal rooms of some of the most inspirational orchestral partnerships in the world. It's the first to see how Simon Rattle works with his musicians at the Berlin Philharmonic, how Mariss Jansons deals with the Concertgebouw Orchestra in Amsterdam, and how Claudio Abbado creates the world's most luxurious pick-up band every year with the Lucerne Festival Orchestra. From London to Budapest, Bamberg to Vienna, great orchestral concerts are recreated as a collection of countless human and musical stories. The book reveals how the catalysts of place, time, and personal history are alchemised into the indelible magic of life-changing performances.

    During his six-decade career, he has played with all the greats. His career sky-rocketed when Crosby, Stills & Nash played only their second gig together at Woodstock in 1969. With the addition of Neil Young, the band would go on to play the first rock stadium tour in 1974. Stephen Stills is the only person to have been inducted twice in one night into The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

    Among them is Sir Bradley Wiggins – a man uniquely placed to reflect on the history of this remarkable sport and its unforgettable titans.In Icons, Wiggins takes the reader on an extraordinarily intimate journey through the sport, presenting key pieces from his never-before-seen collection of memorabilia. Over the course of his illustrious career, he amassed hundreds of items – often gifts from its greatest and most controversial figures. Each reflects an icon, a race or a moment that fundamentally influenced Wiggins on both a personal and professional level.By exploring the lives and achievements of 21 of the sport’s key figures – among them Fausto Coppi, Jacques Anquetil, Miguel Induráin and Tom Simpson – Wiggins sheds new light on what professional cycling demands of its best competitors. Icons lauds their triumphs, elucidates their demons and sheds light on the philosophy and psychology that comprise the unique mindset of a cycling champion.

    Tired of the usual boring bake sales and dances, this group of high school seniors tried a novel approach to fundraising. They coaxed an initially reluctant administration to enter the rock concert business in the fall of 1967 by booking an on-the-rise, little-known British rock band named curiously enough The Who. In the inevitable clash between a Catholic high school's button-down culture and the destructive live act of The Who, something had to give. WSWIR deconstructs a rock n' roll perfect storm by reliving the events and revisiting with many of the colorful cast of characters (not just the students) involved in transforming the school's image from that of a staid, conservative high school in Scotch Plains, New Jersey to one that was soon at the cutting edge of the rock music scene in the years 1967 and 1968, rock n' roll's hey day. WSWIR is also a snapshot of The Who at a period in their career when for all intents and purposes they were little more than a cult band in the United States, known more for scintillating live performances than record sales. When surveying the various U.S. venues in which The Who performed on the way to reaching iconic status, one would be hard-pressed to find a more unusual setting than Union Catholic High School where The Who left an audience of mostly first-time concert-going teens with mouths agape. It was an event that is still talked about today by those who attended the show and scoffed at in disbelief by everyone else...that is, until now. This is a Black and White Edition, meaning with the exception of the front and back cover, all graphics are in black and white. The book includes rare photographs of The Who on the Union Catholic stage and backstage (in the teachers' lounge no less!) as well as other choice accoutrements.

    Earlier this year he published the Kindle-only No.1 bestseller, Paranoid, a dark, twisted and frequently hilarious memoir of his time working at the heavy end of the music business in the 1970s and 80s.Now comes his sensational Kindle-only biography of Pink Floyd, The Endless Journey: 50 Years Of Pink Floyd. Timed to coincide with The Endless River, the first all-new Pink Floyd album for 20 years, this is the book Wall describes as “The one I’ve been waiting all my life to write.”As the book explains, ‘Spread across four sides of music The Endless River is very much a Pink Floyd album in the historic, legendary sense. One meant to be listened to as one, long continuous, flowing piece.’As David Gilmour comments on the official Pink Floyd website, “I think the way the three of us, me, Nick and Rick have something when we play together, that has a magic that is louder than words.”This book is a tribute to that magic. The story of Pink Floyd, then and now, ebbing and flowing, like the tides of the moon, across time and space, to bring you to now.

    His magnificent new biography of Ludwig van Beethoven peels away layers of legend to get to the living, breathing human being who composed some of the world’s most iconic music. Swafford mines sources never before used in English-language biographies to reanimate the revolutionary ferment of Enlightenment-era Bonn, where Beethoven grew up and imbibed the ideas that would shape all of his future work. Swafford then tracks his subject to Vienna, capital of European music, where Beethoven built his career in the face of critical incomprehension, crippling ill health, romantic rejection, and “fate’s hammer,” his ever-encroaching deafness. Throughout, Swafford offers insightful readings of Beethoven’s key works. More than a decade in the making, this will be the standard Beethoven biography for years to come.

    

    In publishing his music and writing for the rising classes, Beethoven claimed freedom and expressed the emotions of the new rulers, the artists. The Eroica, Fidelio, and the piano works express the emotions of the new rulers — the intense love, the need for companionship of people, the forces that conspired to defeat the artist, and the strength and superiority of the artist in overcoming the weaknesses. The letters of Beethoven are the principal nonmusical expression of his personality in its relationship with the world of his time.In what he called the "dry letters of the alphabet," Beethoven depicted his fears, his loves, and his friendly relations: his fears of deafness and of corrupted texts by pirating printers; his loves, Bettina Brentano and Giulietta Guicciardi; and his friendly relations with Baron Zmeskall, Frau Nannette Streicher, and the music publishers Steiner and Company. He praises the poetry of Goethe and Schiller but condemns Goethe for his obeisance toward royalty. He solicits help during his perpetual trouble with his health and with his servants. He castigates publishers, sets prices for his works, and calculates letters of dedication. He expresses his love for his nephew, Carl, but documents the trouble that Carl was causing him by taking up his precious time. And although Beethoven liked to decorate the letters with musical openings and closings and an occasional song to the receiver, he increasingly signed his letters, "In haste."The 457 letters collected here are the most important of the letters of the spirit that was to shape and move a century. Explanatory notes comment upon works, on persons mentioned, and on the puns of which Beethoven was fond. The letters chronicle his business, his needs, his humor and bitterness, and his philosophy. They will give many insights into Beethoven's methods, his influences, his moods, and the conditions under which the master worked.

    Learning guitar theory with no knowledge about the names of the fretboard is comparable to learning complex arithmetic equations without knowing numbers! This book will make sure you don't end up like one of those guitarists! Here is why you should learn the fretboard: Understand how notes are arranged on the fretboard Create a mind map to navigate through the fretboard Communicate the ideas you have in your head to written format or to other musicians Create various visual references to make the fretboard less daunting And lots more Why Should I buy this book? It's only fair to ask yourself this question before spending your hard-earned money on anything. Here is what you'll find inside: The whole process of learning the fretboard simplified into 5 easy steps A step by step approach which will give you results even if you are a complete beginner 35+ exercises and tips to make sure you get results as fast as humanly possible The theory behind every concept for those who need it Countless memory techniques to make the process as simple as possible Beginner friendly - no prior music experience required All this taught in less than a day! Why this book from among the 100 others? I know there are multiple books out there that teaches you the exact same things. They have a lot more reviews and have been out for longer than this book. But here is how this book is different: Unique memory techniques which cannot be found elsewhere High quality pictures and diagrams to give you the whole picture Free bonus material including fretboard diagrams, Flash cards, Reference material and lots more! Gives you results faster than any book out there! I hope that was enough reasons to make you jump onto the book! So, what are you waiting for? Scroll up and click the BUY NOW button to get access to such a goldmine!

    I've written 1,000 of them and it's really just another one.' Jimmy Webb 'When I heard it I cried. It made me cry because I was homesick. It's just a masterfully written song.' Glen CampbellThe sound of 'Wichita Lineman' was the sound of ecstatic solitude, but then its hero was the quintessential loner. What a great metaphor he was: a man who needed a woman more than he actually wanted her.Written in 1968 by Jimmy Webb, 'Wichita Lineman' is the first philosophical country song: a heartbreaking torch ballad still celebrated for its mercurial songwriting genius fifty years later. It was recorded by Glen Campbell in LA with a legendary group of musicians known as 'the Wrecking Crew', and something about the song's enigmatic mood seemed to capture the tensions in America at a moment of crisis. Fusing a dribble of bass, searing strings, tremolo guitar and Campbell's plaintive vocals, Webb's paean to the American West describes a telephone lineman's longing for an absent lover, who he hears 'singing in the wire' - and like all good love songs, it's an SOS from the heart.Mixing close-listening, interviews and travelogue, Dylan Jones explores the legacy of a record that has entertained and haunted millions for over half a century. What is it about this song that continues to seduce listeners, and how did the parallel stories of Campbell and Webb - songwriters and recording artists from different ends of the spectrum - unfold in the decades following? Part biography, part work of musicological archaeology, The Wichita Lineman opens a window on to America in the late-twentieth century through the prism of a song that has been covered by myriad artists in the intervening decades.'Americana in the truest sense: evocative and real.' Bob Stanley

    He writes openly about his film career, the huge success of The Krays, his tremendous fight against brain cancer and on to today with fame again in EastEnders. This is a stunningly written account of a fascinating life written with candour and wit. 'There are tears and laughter, and it's all told with honesty, style and unexpected humour. This inspiring tale reveals his hopes and fears as he battled for his life while trying to get his career back into the groove. It will have you glassy-eyed, torn between the Kleenex and digging out your old Spandau Ballet albums' The Mirror

    It can teach anyone to play, we promise! Includes instruction CD with 99 tracks. We guarantee this book will get you started playing bluegrass banjo.

    A student of Anton Rubinstein and a leading exponent of the works of Chopin, Liszt, and Schumann, he always balanced his virtuoso playing with a firm adherence to the piece as written. It is this balanced approach to piano playing that he advocates in this highly regarded volume on piano technique.The first section of the book contains a discussion of the rules and tricks of correct piano playing: touch, methods of practicing, the use of the pedal, playing the piece as it is written, "How Rubinstein Taught Me to Play," and indispensables in pianistic success. The second, much longer, section contains Hofmann's answers to specific questions sent to him by piano students and amateurs: questions on positions of the body and hand, actions of the wrist and arm, stretching, staccato, legato, precision, fingering, octaves, the pedals, practice, marks and nomenclature, phrasing, rubato, theory, transposing, and much more.Full of important background information that is highly useful to every piano player, this book will set students on the right track in their studies and allow every amateur to measure the level of his commitment and the quality of the instruction he is receiving. For insight into many facets of playing the piano, there is no better guide than Josef Hofmann.

    This title presents a retrospective of the beautiful haze that was rock's golden age, from the end of the hippies through glam and punk, and into 80's heavy metal.

    Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon tell it like it was. Accept no substitutes.The unique story of the Clash, by the Clash. The Clash were a band like no other. Pioneers of punk rock, their incendiary gigs, intelligent songwriting, definitive style and passionate idealism caught the spirit of the times and made them a worldwide phenomenon. Rolling Stone magazine declared London Calling one of the greatest albums of all time, their autobiographical documentary Westway to the World won a Grammy, and their music lives on, influencing emerging bands and exciting new audiences today.This is the only book to be created by the band and is now available as an eBook. The Clash: trendsetters, icons, revolutionaries. One of the most influential bands of their time, they have inspired bookshelves of commentary, but this is the only book to be created by the band themselves. With unprecedented access to the Clash archives and original interviews with band, this publication tells it like it was. The full story from the last gang in town. Strummer, Jones, Simonon and Headon in their own words.Reviews‘One of the greatest bands of all time.' The Edge, U2 'A massive inspiration for me.' Bernard Sumner, Joy Division and New Order 'I adore The Clash.' Pete Townshend, The Who'One of England's greatest bands.' Nick Hornby ‘What could be more fun than a book about The Clash written by The Clash - What makes this tome more worthy than the reams of unofficial Clash literature available is that in it, the band tells their story in their own words - it's packed with little secrets and playful digs - Brilliant.' Short List 'Thrilling - This is a treasure trove of hitherto undiscovered gems. Long overdue.' Classic Rock ''This book is a cracker - crammed with Clash bits and bobs.' The Sunday Times