New Books Shelf (June 11-18, 2008) June 10, 2008
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“In no great hurry, the short, simple train rumbles across the flat North German landscape. ‘Today the small train of my childhood is still running,’ writes Lotte Lehman in her autobiography of 1937, from Wittenberge through the thinning pine woods of sandy Wesprignitz County, straight to Perleberg, some twenty miles away.”
With these first lines, the reader of Never Sang for Hitler: The Life and Times of Lotte Lehmann is drawn to board the train that is the story of Lotte Lehmann’s extraordinary life. Michael H. Kater’s new book, hot off of Cambridge University Press (March 2008), details the struggles Lehmann faced as a brilliant singer and actress in Nazi Germany, her subsequent difficulties assimilating to American culture after she fled the Nazis, and her final days as a teacher and mentor to younger musicians.
For those fascinated by the tangled labyrinth of music, culture, and politics that ultimately resulted in “Romanticism,” James H. Donelan’s first book, Poetry and the Romantic Musical Aesthetic (Cambridge University Press, 2008), is a must-read. A nicely condensed dissertation, Donelan’s study of Hegel, Hölderlin, Wordsworth, and Beethoven provides a readable exploration of the intimately connected worlds of music and words in the first several decades of the 19th century.
Please stop by the music library to have a look at these books and the rest of our new titles this week!
These items will be available for circulation on June 18, 2008.
New Books Shelf (June 4 - 11, 2008) June 5, 2008
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New books to explore this week include another installment of the Global Music Series, Native American Music in Eastern North America (Diamond, Beverley. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008). Continuing the American music trend are two books exploring blues and jazz. Follow Your Heart, by Joe Evans and Christopher Brooks (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 2008), follows Joe Evans through his experiences performing with the greatest names in jazz, swing, and blues from Louis Armstrong to Billie Holiday. Playing the Changes: Milt Hinton’s Life in Stories and Photographs, brings the glory days of jazz alive with vivid photographs and equally vivid anecdotes from the life of Milt Hinton and his fellow musicians (Hinton, Milt, David G. Beger, and Holly Maxson. Nashville: Vanderbilt University Press, 2008).
A significant new work on Beethoven on our shelf this week is The Beethoven Song Companion by Paul Reid (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 2007). Taking his inspiration from John Reed’s The Schubert Song Companion, Reid has provided performers and scholars alike with a valuable reference for studying Beethoven’s songs. Each entry includes a thematic incipit, date of composition, first and modern editions, and full text in both German and English, followed by an analysis and exploration of the song’s context.
These items will be available for circulation on June 11, 2008.
NC Jazz News Flash - Chambers joins UNCWIL June 5, 2008
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Noted drummer Joe Chambers joins the faculty of UNC Wilmington. More details here.
New Books Shelf (May 28-June 4, 2008) June 3, 2008
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Wednesday is an eagerly anticipated day in the music department. Why? It’s the day Pat Canovai rotates the display of newly received books, CDs, DVDs, and journals. Within hours, faculty and students can be observed leafing through the books, waiting impatiently for the day a week later when the books will go into circulation. Especially exciting in the new CD collection this week is an album by the Duke Music Department’s very own John Brown, with the John Brown Quintet.
In new books this week, the selection ranges from a new installment in the Global Music Series (Lau, Frederick, Music in China: Experiencing Music, Expressing Culture. Oxford: Oxford University Press, 2008) to a reprint of Leonard Bernstein’s The Infinite Variety of Music (New York: Amadeus Press, 2007). Of special note is the new biography of Hall Johnson. Although the details of Johnson’s life have until now remained in shadow, Johnson’s concert arrangements of spirituals were performed by singers of the highest caliber from Marian Anderson to Denyce Graves. The author, Eugene Thamon Simpson, was a friend and student of Johnson, and writes with the enthusiasm and engaging warmth of a good friend, while retaining the objectivity necessary to document his facts carefully. (Simpson, Eugene Thamon, Hall Johnson: His Life, His Spirit, and His Music. Toronto: The Scarecrow Press, Inc., 2008).
Each year now brings a new bicentenary of some favorite 19th-century composer. After the excitement of festivals, concerts, and conferences has faded, we can look forward to more permanent commemorations of a great composer as conference proceedings and collected essays work their way through the press. Berlioz: Scenes from the Life and Work, edited by Peter Bloom for the Eastman Studies in Music series, comes in the aftermath of Berlioz’s 200th birthday celebrations in 2003. A confluence of respected authors from Jacques Barzun to David Cairns, the essays are organized into six loosely defined topics from “Aesthetic Issues” to “An Artist’s Life”, which explore in turn the multi-faceted talent and career path of one of the 19th century’s most enigmatic and eccentric musical pioneers. (Bloom, Peter. Berlioz: Scenes from the Life and Work. Rochester, N.Y.: Rochester University Press, 2008).
These items will be available for circulation on June 4, 2008.
Choral music May 29, 2008
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Lovers of choral music will be happy to know that the Music Media Center collection of CDs has recently added about 40 new discs from the Coro label, with performances from the noted English ensembles The Sixteen and the Hilliard Ensemble. Particularly worthy of note are the five volumes of works from the Eton Choirbook - practically the only surviving source of English choral music from the later fifteenth century, with music of unsurpassed beauty and detail in its counterpoint, the audible counterpart to the great religious architecture of the same period in England.
