Peter Williams 
J. S. Bach [PDF ebook] 
A Life in Music

Two classic collections of freedom songs, We Shall Overcome (1963) and Freedom Is A Constant Struggle (1968), are reprinted here in a single edition which includes a major new introduction by the edi …

This volume illuminates musical connections between Britain and the continent of Europe, and Britain and its Empire. The seldom-recognized vitality of musical theatre and other kinds of spectacle in …

This title was first published in 2002. Sir Peter Maxwell Davies is one of Britain”s most distinguished composers. This source book documents as much of the material on his music as is available to …

In Britain during the late 1970s and early 1980s, a new phenomenon emerged, with female guitarists, bass-players, keyboard-players and drummers playing in bands. Before this time, women”s presence i …

Hailed at its premiere at the London Coliseum in 1986 as the most important musical and theatrical event of the decade, The Mask of Orpheus is undoubtedly a key work in Harrison Birtwistle”s output. …

 With their complex textures, rich harmonies, and elaborate use of leitmotifs, the operas of German composer Richard Wagner (1813–83) remain some of the most influential—and contentious—in the h …

Originally published in 1948 and updated with a new introduction in 1970 this book is a classic study on the musical life of a Bantu people in Mozambique. It discusses the poetry on which the music a …

The Garland Handbook of African Music is comprised of essays from The Garland Encyclopedia of World Music: Volume 1, Africa, (1997). Revised and updated, the essays offer detailed, regional studies o …

Composed in 1908 by Scott Joplin, this charming and syncopated ragtime was his last published ragtime a decade after it was composed. Most likely the sections were compiled after his death from 2 or …

Listening is a social process. Even apparently trivial acts of listening are expert performances of acquired cognitive and bodily habits. Contemporary scholars acknowledge this fact with the notion t …