Music History

During the 1920s, a visit to the movie theater almost always included a sing-along. Patrons joined together to render old favorites and recent hits, usually accompanied by the strains of a mighty Wur …

Challenges the longstanding perception that modernist composers made art, not money, and that those who made money somehow failed to make art. Patrons have long appeared as colorful, exceptional figu …

This book offers a comprehensive study of Webern’s life, influences, and music, charting his significance as a pioneering figure in modern music. Kolneder, a respected musicologist and director of th …

From his early albums with the Mothers of Invention, Frank Zappa established a reputation as a musical genius who pushed the limits of culture throughout the 1960s and 1970s, experimenting with a ble …

Fanfare for a City invites us to listen to the sounds of Paris during the Second Empire (1852–1870), a regime that oversaw dramatic social change in the French capital. By exploring the sonic worlds …

‘Tristan and Isolde’ is a renowned opera composed by Richard Wagner. It tells the tragic and passionate love story of Tristan, a knight, and Isolde, an Irish princess. Set in mediaeval times, the ope …

This title is part of UC Press's Voices Revived program, which commemorates University of California Press’s mission to seek out and cultivate the brightest minds and give them voice, reach …

Established in the 1950s by musician and engineer Pierre Schaeffer, the Groupe de Recherches Musicales would become the nerve center for avant-garde artists experimenting with sound and acoustics, as …

Rhythm & blues emerged from the African American community in the late 1940s to become the driving force in American popular music over the next half-century. Although sometimes called “doo-wop, ” “s …