Genres Books

This book brings back a lot of memories and is full of classic photos of some classic performers. Mark Lawhon's photographic style seems to capture the music and the moment and freeze it in time.

From Ambrosia to Yes, Lawhon distills the drama and passion of live performances of musical giants through his camera lens. I was a mere pup in the 1970s and didn't attend my first rock concert until the mid-1980s, so it was nice to be able to see all the pics of 1970s bands.

What a wonderful book to review the bands and music I enjoyed so much in the 1970's! The photography is excellent, the shots clear and colorful! How it can take you right there! It is also filled with "insider" information about what was going on with our pop and rock idols of the time as they came through the midwest. Don't miss this! It's an opportunity to become privy to part of the world we loved so much growing up!

Super book that was very interesting. View point from a small town midwest attitude. Very fresh approach.

I really enjoy this book. Has some of the alltime favs included.

What? You play ragtime and you don't own this book YET? Think of it. 81 rags for how much? As an experienced ragtime artist, who got this book when it first came out in the 1970s, I can tell you that not only will it be a great start to your ragtime collection, but it will give you a foundation for the absolute best of piano ragtime. While you won't find ALL of Joplin's rags, nor a complete listing of those by Lamb and Scott, you will still see the core of what made them so notable. Hidden gems are the five Pastime Rags by Artie Matthews, works by pioneer Tom Turpin, and many solid rags from lesser-known composers like Clarence Woods. On eBay, should you find all of these pieces, you would easily spend over [what I expcted to] on the Joplin, Lamb, and Scott rags alone. Instead, it's less than 25¢ per piece. So what are you waiting for! Get it now! Also, look at other books edited by Dave Jasen. They constitute a great way to build a solid ragtimelibrary with little repetition.

There are a fair number of books on the market with ragtime sheet music in them. This is the one I've used the most over the years, since despite its quirks it's the best way of getting a hold of a generous amount of period ragtime, in unedited form.

About that "unedited form". The book photographically reproduces the original sheet music verbatim. This has its downside: the original music companies printed things in a quick'n'dirty manner, & while the sheet music from Stark (Joplin, Lamb, Scott, &c) is usually well-presented & carefully set, some of the other music is sprinkled with errors & eccentricities, especially the tunes by Charles Hunter. However, I'd rather have the typos--easily fixed--than have some meddling editor tidy up the text. Editions of these tunes by people like Max Morath tend to have a fair bit of editorial interference, & I'd much rather see what the tunes looked like without that kind of filtering.

Dover also prides itself on historically accurate reprints. This means that you get the original cover art.....which is as you'd imagine often pretty offensive by modern standards in its depiction of African-Americans. Still, it's just as well to be reminded of the historical conditions of this music's creation and dissemination. -- What's more irritating & less justifiable about the decision to include cover art is that it completely throws off the pagination. Since each piece is typically 4 pages long, adding the cover art makes for 5 pages--so that every second piece has its page turns in exactly the wrong place. This isn't a minor quibble: often the page turns are as a result placed in the middle of repeats, at key moments in the score, &c. Dover ought to have added some blank pages to keep the rectos & versos in the right sequence.

Anyway, enough caviling. What you get is an enormous pile of Joplin--nice, but that's easily enough available elsewhere. But you get a huge selection of work by most of the other really interesting figures of the period. I think Blesh's concept of "Classic Ragtime" is a crock, an attempt to make polemical distinctions between high art & popular trash in a genre where such distinctions are hard to make. & what does the idiosyncratic, rather naive music of Charles Hunter have to do with the sophisticated creations of Joplin or Artie Matthews anyway? Anyway, it's great to have all this stuff here--pieces by Robert Hampson, Hunter, Charles L Johnson, Joplin, Joe Jordan, Joe Lamb, Arthur Marshall, Matthews, Scott, Charles Thompson, Tom Turpin, Percy Wenrich, Clarence Woods. I've spent years working through the book.

Fans of this book, by the way, should check out Trebor Tichenor's two volumes of ragtime rarities for Dover--these include some terribly obscure stuff along with lesser-known Scott & Lamb pieces, & is very much worth exploring if you're curious about the genre.

It is pretty hard. Wouldn't be good for a beginner. I suppose it would be good for an advanced student. Good songs in it.

Excellent book, a must for any rock music fan. Author John Perry has several books in this series and I loved them all. Crank up that trivia and play it loud!
Steveritt

Meaty Beaty Big and Bouncy

This is the real Who; the Rock'n Roll years when they wrote disposable hits that lasted all the way to the next one, a few weeks later. They just happened to be some of the greatest tunes ever written and MBBB is the account of how they came to be.

Author John Perry was one of the most elegant Rock'n Roll guitarists, and it shows. He knows his stuff; how the group set about producing its sounds, the history of the Who's management (surely one of the more colourful in the business) and he has viewed unique early material in the BBC's archives.

This is a great story, a cracking read and you earn a lot on the way.

Excellent book, and very funny. Most Who books are so serious. Not a all like The Who I know. The chapter on 'I'm a Boy', and the stuff about Zeppelin, I couldn't stop laughing.

Dave Marsh's 'Before I Get Old' is very thorough, but it's a bit dry. You can tell Meaty, Beaty, Big & Bouncy is written by a musician by the way the author conveys the feel of the music.

Tells you more about Townshend's best song than any other book I've come across.

Great pictures too.

A thoroughly well researched, entertaining and witty look into the madcap world of the Who and their rather fine music...buy this book now, or your life shall feel empty.

I can't really add much more to say about this very useful book - the above reviewers did an excellent job of describing it's content. I will, however, type up a list of what's in the content page since you can't "see inside" this book:

Preface
Introduction: First Principles
Section I: Scales
Comprehensive Diatonic Scales
Two-Octave Scale Forms
Rhythmic Formulas for Practice
Two-Octave Diatonic Scales in all Keys
Three-Octave Scales
Developing Velocity in Scales
Scales Beyond the Diatonic

Section II: Chords and Arpeggios
Systemic Cadences
Recurring Chord Forms
Cadences in the Principal Keys
Arpeggios
Basic Arpeggios in Increasing Complexity
Arpeggios with Thumb and Fingers Played Together
Practicing Arpeggios with the Carcassi Etude 2
Two Etudes by Dionisio Aguado

Section III: Left-Hand Development
Slurs
Basic Ascending Slur Exercises
Descending Slurs
Ascending and Descending Slurs Combined
Triplet Slurs
Slurs Across the Fingerboard
Chromatic Octaves and Tenths
Bar-Chord Strength Development

Section IV: Exercises in Technical and Interpretive Control
The Left Hand
The Right Hand
Interpretive Control

And there you have the entire contents page. Pretty impressive I think. If you practice these exercises and drills that Mr. Duncan has given, you will improve in many areas. I ask my more advanced students to purchase this book and we begin practicing two octave scales - minor and major.
There is nothing about this book so far, that I can find anything negative to comment on. It's well worth the money.

Classical Guitar 2000 is what is says:a companion to Charles Duncan's Art of Classical Guitar Playing (Art of Series).
Tons of guitar instruction books are being published. Just type in words like "mastering the guitar" and within soon you may get lost musing what to choose.
This book, written in 1993, may be the one to look for.
It is not written for the beginner. You'll not find the word "easy" in the book.
The serious student (Duncan's words and, I may add, the serious guitar player) will be guided from basic guitar technique to practical examples taken from the classical guitar literature.
It offers a well organized compendium of excercises, tools which provide guidance to "the process of learning and performing music". Again Duncan's words however to be completed by the tag "technical".

Do we learn "music" from books? I don't think so. The book provides the tools to reach the technical levels to perform but it is not by accident that Duncan uses the word "student" several times in his introduction.
Set a goal, get organized, be inspired and find a source to fire the inspiration and enthousiasme to make music. The book may help you to reach that goal.

This book contains the quintessential essay on nail-filing in the literature for classical guitar. I require it for all serious classcial guitar students studying with me. It's discussion of tension as falling into the categories of functional and dysfunctional tension is a very important discussion that helps the developing student realize how the hand function properly. This book is on my "Basic Library" list for all students, classical and otherwise.
Thomas O. Olson, MM, Performer and teacher of Classical guitar, graduate, the Cleveland Institue of Music.

This book is terrific for any serious student who wants a complete book of exercises for left and right hand development. What I like most about this book is the presentation of the scales. He gives you 33 pages of scales: melodic minor, major scales, chromatic, diminished, etc. in one, two, and three octave ranges. He shows you different approaches to the same scale -- two string version and three string version; 5 string versions and six string versions, etc.

There are good arpeggio exercises, cadence exercise,slur exercises, chord change exercises, chromatic octave and tenths exercises, and everything else you could think of. The explanations are clear. The print is big (nice layout to the book) and easy to read.

I first read Duncan's book, The Art of Classical Guitar Playing, which is a companion to his Classical Guitar 2000 book. That's also very good and unique. Classical Guitar 2000 is the practical application of what he discusses in his Art of Classical Guitar book.

I also have Pumping Nylon by Scott Tennant, and although both books are outstanding and I use both on a frequent basis, I prefer this book.

I consider this piece a mandatory one in the repertoire of any serious flutist, as it is perhaps one of the first examples of "crossover" music between classical and jazz styles. The recording itself was a platinum record during the 1970's. The recording is still available so that the written music can be followed easily, and if you are fortunate enough to have a good pianist to follow, you will find the music fun and not so difficult to play, if you are an intermediate or advanced flutist.

I bought this a few months ago and am about half way through learning the whole thing. I've owned the record/CD since 1974, so I was very familiar with the music , which I think helps. Claude Bolling's unique piano style can be imitated very easily once the songs are learned. There are some very difficult passages in these songs, so learning everything may take some time, but the challenge is worth it once you start to become familiar with them. The one relatively easy song, Irlandaise, can be learned fairly quickly if you've had any classical musical training. Overall, a great piece of music and worth every penny!

I`ve just heard this music performed live in Thiviers France.
If you like jazz and classical you`ll like this.
It`s a sprinkling of Bach with a dusting of Jaques Loussier and a dash of Django and a soupcon of MJQ and a generous helping of Bolling. It`s lively, melodious and lyrical in turn.
I`m going to buy it.

This is a wonderful piece of music if you love the idea of playing jazz but do not know how to improvise. The jazz purests would condem music like this...not improvised, but it is good and absolutley fun to play. It is necessary to get a good jazz trio-(piano,bass and drums) to accompany the flute. The feel must be right so the flute can sound its best!

I have not found a less expensive score than Dover. The book is sturdy and the pages are bound tightly. I put my scores through much use, and none of the pages have ever fallen out of the Dover editions. One thing to note about this score is that it's edited by Mikuli, one of Chopin's pupils; the older Dover publications of this book had edits by Paderewski, which I actually prefer over Mikuli. However, the fingerings are only minor issues.

This is a great book. I have used it on numerous occasions and can give no more than an absolute satisfactory report. Often, publishers write incorrect fingering and/or dynamics, and this book appears to have not subdued to that level. The publishers obviously knew what Chopin wanted and delivered just that instead of placing marks they thought were appropriate.

I've had this book for several years, and have marked it up, dog-eared it, spilled coffee on many pages, and otherwise treated it with familiar reverence. It has become a great friend.

The type-setting is crystal-clear. The edition notes are instructive. The pages never fall out, even if you crease the spine to keep the book flat against the piano stand.

Then, of course, there's the glorious music itself. So much magnificent music in one volume. Perhaps we should even see this as one of the Great Books of the Western World.

I'm a pianist/piano teacher. I choose this edition for teaching my students. This is a complete book at lower price. The book is durable. Pages don't come out easily.

I just love this musical. This book has ALL the songs of the 1966 production, the movie and the revival. Buy it today!

I have to be completely honest with you, I think the love story behind Cabaret is extremely unnerving, even grotesque, However, I love the music, the music is beautiful.

Although I like all of the songs, I do not think the singing from any of the productions can compete with the explosive performance combination of Joel Grey and Liza Minnelli in the film version of the show.

Thankfully the book does not make you choose one production over the others, you get all three, and for a very low price.

The book has three glossy pages in the front, each representing a different rendition of Cabaret with brightly colored pictures. On the bottem of each of these pages are the Tony or Academy Awards that were achieved by that specific production.

A Small note: The musical Cabaret has won 12 Tonys and 8 Academy awards in its lifetime.

The rest of the book is music, except for the chapter or show titles, which have black and white pictures from each production.
The music is great, however, it is the orchestral scores from the origional productions translated into piano, so not all of the music is there.

You could compare it to "Raphsody in Blue" being performed on one piano rather than by a whole orhcestra, there are many notes missing when you try to put an orchestra into one piano.

This is why I gave it 4 star. My music teacher has the music score from the movie for piano, and from seeing that sheet music, I can say that if you buy it from the productions individualy, you will have more accuracy in your music and lyrics, since each production has its own variation.

In this book there is only one version of "Money,Money,Money" the movie version, and only one version of "Willkommen", the origional 1966 version. The problem with this is that "Money, Money, Money" is very differant in the new broadway production, and "Willkommen" is done differently in each production too, but only one version of each song is availiable in this book.

I am still thrilled with the book, it's a wonderful addition to any music collection. It is harder music than your average broadway musical, so if you cannot play the piano, and do not plan on learning, I would advise you not to get this book.

"Maybe This Time" is my favorite song in the book, a beautiful slow ballad. "Mein Heir" and "Money, Money, Money" are next to it; they are wonderful songs.

The songs from the revival are obsolete in comparison to the earlier numbers, although, many of the numbers cut from the origional 1966 production are very worth while.

The 1966 cut production number that have been added into the book are what make this book worth buying, they are fabulous numbers that never really had a day in the sun.

I am still tempted to give the book 5 stars because it is wonderful music. If you like Cabaret at all, its music, or Kander and Ebb, its the perfect book to have, not just as a collecters item to sit on the shelf, but as a book you can play from all the time.

"What good is sitting alone in your room? Come hear the music play. Life is a cabaret, old chum,- come to the cabaret-."

As you might guess - for the title above - I'm a huge, I mean, HUGE, 'Cabaret' fan and collector. So, of course, I found this book delightful, but - taking the risk of making a fool out of myself - I must warn to anyone who doesn't know it that these are the scores of the songs. I bought it thinking that it was something else - I don't know exactly what -, and I don't regret it, but it's not what I expected it to be... Thanks God I have a pianist friend so he can play it for me :-)Anyway, it's a must-have for every 'Cabaret-collector' out there.

This is the finest of all song and sheet music books from the Broadway show and film version of "Cabaret". It contains not only every musical number from most productions and the film, it gives background information and contains great photos as well. For anyone looking for the music from "Cabaret" or anyone wanting a look inside what the experience of "Cabaret" is, this is the book to buy. A necessity for any actor or "Cabaret" lover.

This is a good book because it is virtually the only complete set of Scriabin preludes I could find. The binding leaves a bit too be desired but all in all not a bad edition. The music it contains is five stars. Scriabin is one of my favorite piano composers.

Scriabin was a contemporary of Rachmaninoff, in fact, he studied under the same teacher. Like Rachmaninoff, he was a bridge composer between the late Romantic and the 20th Century period. He was far more modern, in fact, than Rachmaninoff, though his early works were profoundly influenced by Chopin (Rachmaninoff less so--he was influenced by Chopin but also Tchaikovsky.)

Despite the fact both composers shared Russian heritage and a love of the piano, Rachmaninoff did not admire Scriabin's works, saying he had gone off in a wrong direction. While I love Rachmaninoff's piano works intensely, I have to say that he was really wrong about Scriabin. This is some of the most gorgeous, introspective, Impressionist piano music ever written.

Scriabin had a tragically short life, yet he composed quite a number of etudes, preludes, sonatas and other short piano works. Dover has done a huge favor by putting all the preludes and etudes into a single volume. There is enough material here for years of exploration into the music of a piano master. The edition is a compact volume that manages to sit well on the piano music stand, and the music print is clear and easy to read.

Scriabin was one of the supreme composers of the piano. This book is treasure trove for any serious lover of piano music.

Scriabin's preludes and etudes represent everything from Scriabin's early days through to the final ones. The preludes etudes show such a wide variety of styles and colors of such a wide variety of difficulties (from very easy preludes to some extremely demanding etudes) that this book would give anyone years of beautiful music to study.

Many pianists and aspiring musicians tend to categorize Scriabin as a "2nd-tier" composer, ignoring all but a few of his works (such as his etudes Op. 8 No. 12 and Op. 42 No. 5, both included in this volume). Before purchasing this volume (and the sonatas and miscellaneous pieces), I was under this false impression as well; however, the more Scriabin I play, the more I am convinced of his incredible innovation, creativity, and talent for writing thoroughly profound music in a matter of a few dozen bars.

After having read through most of the book, and having seriously studied a fair number of the works within, I tend to be thoroughly dissatisfied with most performances of his music - I believe that the lack of color and architecture in many modern performances of his music make it sound shallow and boring; thus the general lack of interest in his music.

For such a cheap price, I would implore any pianist or piano student to purchase this volume and discover Scriabin for themselves. It's the best ten bucks I've ever spent.

If you don't happen to have the complete Bach Gesellschaft edition in your library, you can get bits of it very cheaply. This is indispensable music. Even I, a guitarist, find I have to have this around. These suites are often played on other instruments, including guitar. Ever since they were rediscovered by Pablo Casals in the early part of the last century, they have been the sort of music that lies at the heart of what music really is. Music for solo cello is a bit like an anti-MTV--not just empty spectacle, but everything except the absolute essence of music has been removed.

There is a seriously funny moment in one of Patrick O'Brian's novels of the British Navy when Aubrey says to Maturin regarding some odd music he had found in a London shop: "Bach had a father!" Of course they had been playing things by J. C. Bach, one of J. S. Bach's sons known as the 'English Bach'. It is funny because Maturin's reaction makes it clear that it is an accepted fact that nearly all of us have fathers. But the passage continues with some lovely writing about Bach's music. And yes, as I recall, the oeuvre in question is a cello suite. Or was it a violin partita?

In any case, buy this book. It is the greatest music, it is cheap, it is an unimpeachable edition and you are helping keep back the forces of darkness.

This is a pretty good book for fiddling around with, but I wish it had more markings like dynamics and accents.

I cannot actually rate the quality of the book (so I gave 5 stars to Bach), but I wanted to comment about another's review, that he/she wished there were more dynamics and markings. As I understand it, Bach provided virtually no dynamics, on purpose, for these pieces. This is why various CD's by differing artists can show quite a bit of difference in playing style. I've heard comparative playback of some of these by various celloists, and it is quite interesting. Bach left these out purposely, so feel free to provide your own interpretation.

Dover Publications are very good. Lots of room for notes. : ) Excellent price.

Another sweet, satisfying romance from Betty Neels!

Description from the book back cover:

Claribel Brown had never met a man who annoyed and exasperated her quite as much as Dr. Marc van Borsele. She was very grateful to him for helping her when she met with a minor accident, but that was no reason for him to keep turning up on her doorstep in search of her company just when it suited him. It might be the way they behaved in his part of the world but it certainly wasn't what she was used to! After all, he didn't care for her as a woman, not with the glamorous Irma on hand to charm him ... Or did he?

Book Description: SHE DIDN'T KNOW THE RULES OF ENGAGEMENT Getting engaged to Marc van Borsele was the last thing Claribel wanted. Marc was the most annoying and exasperating man she had ever met! But, as engagement was only pretense and she did own Marc a favor, Claribel agreed. She soon discovered that make-believe can come true, even if you don't want it to! Before she knew it, Claribel found herself head over heels in love... ...And the course of true love never did run smooth.

The nerve! The Arrogance! Dr. Marc van Borsale assisted Claribel Brown when she was injured while waiting for a bus after work. He insisted upon driving her home in his Rolls Royce, explaining that he was a doctor. Almost immediately upon arrival he cautioned her against accepting lifts from strangers. To her shock and horror she met him again at the London hospital where she worked as a Physiotherapists; he was a visiting Dutch Orthopedic Specialist/Surgeon, in her hospital - in her department! He continually barged into her life: showing up at her apartment unannounced, charming her parents, and coercing her into a "fake" engagement. He failed to mention that he was a Dutch Baron and that he owned a small castle. That didn't matter because the engagement was fake, the loving "act" that they put on in public was fake, and she had to remember that. His title was real, his castle was real, the engagement ring was real, just as the fact that she had fallen in love with him was real.

This is a wonderful, somewhat humorous story sure to make any Neels fan smile.

      Pretty Claribel Brown was not having a good night. Waiting in line for a bus in a torrential London downpour is no one's idea of a good time, and it didn't help matters when the person in front of her stepped on poor Claribel's foot and injured it.  But a handsome Dutch doctor who witnessed the incident whisked the young lady away in his Rolls Royce to her apartment to clean her up, so fortune must have been smiling down upon her after all.

Or was it? The good doctor turned out to be as brusque a fellow as any you would want to meet, and rubbed Claribel the wrong way every chance he got! And to improve upon the matter, he was apparently taking over rounds at Jerome's Hospital where she worked as a physiotherapist.

How will Claribel manage working with this overbearing man every day?

What worked for me:

Normally I don't care for books where the couples are always cross and at odds with each other, but this one usually had me chuckling rather than feeling annoyed. (Though I will say that Claribel's independent streak sometimes appeared more like slight immaturity in the form of contrariness for the sake of itself. But then, Marc's personality reminded me very much of that of Professor Henry Higgins in "My Fair Lady". No wonder Claribel's knickers were always in a knot!)

I've enjoyed medical stories ever since my mother handed down her Cherry Ames books to me when I was ten. It was nice to pick up another one, even though there was no mystery to solve.

Size-wise Claribel was a tall, well-rounded girl whom the hero referred to at their first meeting as "hefty". I couldn't help but picture her as a Sophie Dahl type.

What didn't work for me:

I can't imagine hauling my own two cats with me every time I go home to my mother's as Claribel did!

Overall:

A solid read for fans of sweet category novels and medical romances.

If you liked "The Course of True Love" you might also enjoy "The Bridesmaid's Reward", "More to Love", "Runaway Bay", "His Seductive Revenge", "Carried Away", "His E-mail Order Wife", "Spellbound", "A Worthy Heir", "The Legacy Tree", or "Sweet Memories".

I like the novel because the settings are so well written that you can imagine your self there with the characters. The characters are realistic with old fashion values that show love in its truest form. The best part of novel is the way Ms. Neels doesn't emphasis the necessity of outer beauty in any of her heroines. Every novel is a prize in itself.