Composers Books

Peggy Gilbert was a member of a musical family and grew up hearing music in her house: she was a professional tenor sax player for over 80 years and inspired generations. Her life, contributions, and ideas is based on oral history interviews and her own photo collection, newspaper clippings and more - and includes many materials not previously available on all-women bands from the 1920s-40s. Women's studies and music collections at the college level need this important reference.

Anyone interested in music history should buy this book. Peggy Gilbert went against all odds through her 102 years in "a man's world" to play music - her first true passion. An emotion (matched with stunning research and detail) that author Jeannie Pool has sweetly and scholarly captured. Couple all this love and history with an intro written by Peggy's talented friends, Lily Tomlin and Jane Wagner, and you are in for a wonderful read. This book should be the preface for one heck of a movie (Hollywood, be on alert!!)... but for now, hopefully, the reader can also catch an insightful filmed biography of the amazing Peggy Gilbert also directed by Ms. Pool (who knew the musician as well as anyone on the planet). Through her own talent and the dedication of Jeannie Pool, Peggy Gilbert truly does live on and on.

A must read for anyone who thought that they know about Reggea, Rock Steady, Ska - Jamaican music in general. This book must be the ultimate documentary of music as well as the music scene in Jamaica during the 60's,70's, and 80's. It's not just a book about Scratch; it is a book about all Jamaican musicians, singers and procuders of the period. It's the best documented piece of Jamaican history. Someday it will become the most sought after Jamaican history book!

David Kratz ensures that the reader lives moment by moment with almost every musician, producers, and Jamaican artist of the period - some of whom have long been forgotten. He takes you into the studios, delves into the background of each and every artist mentioned in the book, takes to the UK and US with Scratch and Bob Marley, then brings you back to the Black Art Studio where Scratch produced some of the most revolutionary and influential Jamaican music.

Any Jamaican who reads this book will certainly say: "Me know da music deh, but me didn't know sey a Scratch do it." The reader will soon learn that Scratch is the greatest Jamaican music producer. No other producer will ever come close to matching his skill and artistry of Scratch in the studio. Nuff respect to Scratch. He is a true genious! And hat's off to David Katz. He certainly knows how to "ride de rythm". The book is a master piece!

Scratch your Lee Perry itch. I am awed to have in my hands 536 pages of all things Upsetting. Buy this book, if a so a so.

I might well have called this "While I Slept" (with apologies to Art Buchwald). For, despite the facts that [a] Nicolas Slonimsky lived for more than 101 years (from 27 April 1894 to 25 December 1995), [b] because of this longevity, my life overlapped his by some 55 years, and [c] Slonimsky played a major role in a good part of the music I love (that of Charles Ives), he is a quite "new" discovery for me.

Born a Jew in St. Petersburg but baptized in the Orthodox church, Slonimsky was just one of many overachievers in his family. (As one example, his maternal aunt, Isabelle Vengerova, who - like him - was to emigrate to the United States, taught piano not only to Slonimsky but to Dmitri Tiomkin, the famous Hollywood composer, while both were still in Russia, and then to the likes of Samuel Barber, Leonard Bernstein, Aaron Copland, Lukas Foss and Gary Graffman, when she lived in New York and served for many years on the faculty of the Curtis Institute in Philadelphia.)

The 1917 Revolution led to Slonimsky's 1918 emigration from the Soviet Union, but not before he became known to a number of St. Petersburg composers and musicians of fame, not the least of whom was Alexander Glazunov, the director of the music conservatory there. His migratoy path while wending his way eventually to the U.S. is a story all in itself, with "pit stops" in Kiev, Karkhov, Yalta, Constantinople, Sofia, and, eventually, Paris, where he met Koussevitsky, Stravinsky and Prokofiev, assisting all three of them in various (and humorous) ways.

Arriving first in the U.S. at Rochester (NY), where he had been invited to coach the newly-instituted American Opera Company at the Eastman School of Music, Slonimsky had his initial conducting experiences (not a total success, but one which nonetheless demonstrated that he had a unique ability to "decouple" his two arms, permitting him to conduct in two different meters at the same time [something that would stand him in good stead when he later conducted the music of Ives]). From there, he went to Boston, as Koussevitsky's assistant (also not without its humor). It was in Boston that he met his wife-to-be, Dorothy Adlow (another Russian Jewish immigrant who became famous in her own right as the only Jewish editor on the staff of the Christian Science Monitor), and formed his own small chamber orchestra - made up largely of musicians from the Boston Symphony - for the performance of "new, modern" music. It was here, in 1928, that he first met Henry Cowell, which was to factor importantly in his early championing of Charles Ives and his music.

Skipping (temporarily) the Ives - Slonimsky connection, in 1933 Slonimsky was invited to be the conductor of the Hollywood Bowl Orchestra, an assignment that ended in disaster when he programmed too much modern music for the tastes of the audience, not the least of which was Edgar Varèse's "Ionisation."

Later in life - in fact, largely for the balance of what was to turn out to be an exceedingly long and rich life - Slonimsky turned his attention and activities toward writing on musical matters, mostly as a musical biographer and lexicographer for various music encyclopedias such as Theodore Baker's "Biographical Dictionary of Musicians." His bulldog determination for "accuracy at whatever cost" knew no bounds, even going so far as to check historical newspaper accounts of the weather on the date of Mozart's funeral, to put the lie to claims that friends did not attend Mozart's funeral because of snow: the snow, not the funeral, was in fact canceled.

Among Slonimsky's other writings were treatises on music theory, including some rather abstruse writings on the theory of harmony that represented true inventions on his part. In one of the strangest juxtapositions - and truly one of the most hilarious chapters of the book - Slonimsky crossed paths, in 1981, with none other than Frank Zappa, who took a personal interest in Slonimsky's theories and actually applied portions of them to his compositions.

But it was the Ives connection which brought my attention to Slonimsky in the first place, on account of the anecdotes that Jan Swafford, in his "Charles Ives: A Life With Music," related regarding Slonimsky's early championing of Ives's music, decades before others (incuding Bernstein) did. In what for me is the "gravitational center" of the book, a chapter entitled "Three Places in New England," Slonimsky, with the greatest of warmth and a wealth of detail, describes his initial meeting of Ives (through the auspices of Cowell) and his concertizing in both the U.S. and Europe, including Ives works on the programs. Certainly a highlight largely lost to history was Slonimsky conducting the Berlin Philharmonic, on 5 March 1932, in a program of works by Ives, Ruggles and Varèse, to both critical and popular acclaim, as well as enthusiastic acceptance by the Berlin orchestra musicians for whom this music would have been impossibly difficult had it not been for Slonimsky's conducting expertise. Ives and Slonimsky were to remain lifelong friends, and Ives, despite his infirmaties later in life, and often with the greatest of physical difficulties, would correspond with Slonimsky. One can only wish that some recording or another of a Slonimsky performance of an Ives work would have survived, but apparently - and regrettably - this is an idle wish.

There is a sequel - of sorts - to this autobiography, called (with Slonimksy's tongue placed firmly in his cheek) "The First Hundred Years." Not an update that adds another five years to "Perfect Pitch," this one is a compendium of excerpts of some of his best writings (including excerpts from "Perfect Pitch"). There is no better way to gauge the length, breadth and depth of Slonimsky's interests and expertise on matters musical than this "sequel." But do read "Perfect Pitch" first. If you can stop laughing long enough to complete it.

Bob Zeidler

Intelligent and witty. The compelling life story of a wonderfully creative and open-minded pianist/conductor, mathematician and linguist. A great read even for people who are neither mathematicians nor into 20th century composers (like me).

Excellent -- a replacement for one lost in a flood several years ago...now I can sing again.

I began playing guitar in the early seventies, when the hippie generation had helped to bring folk music to the forefront of the popular music scene. The major forces behind the success of folk music at that time -- finally reaching all across America on the radio waves -- were Peter, Paul and Mary. They sang songs that they loved, and became part of our lives; these are the songs you will find in this book. The ones you remember, half-hummed snatches of tunes for every mood and moment. The book features both piano and guitar accompaniment. If I were to find fault with the book, it would be that there were still so many songs I wanted which were not included here, and that it did not have a spiral binding, and so my first copy split and finally needed to be replaced after many well-loved years. This book is the right place to start as you begin learning the best songs to know in the folk tradition.

May I briefly urge music lovers to search out this book about Malcolm Arnold. The author, Piers Burton-Page, reminds us that as a player Arnold was Britain's finest young trumpeter. He then developed rapidly as a composer, reaching his widest audiences with many film scores (The Bridge on the River Kwai, Hobson's Choice, and Whistle down the Wind are among the favourites) and brilliant orchestral works.

Burton-Page paints a fascinating portrait of a composer who has worked in many fields, and whose complex personality gives his music a depth and range which are only hinted at in some of his more popular works.

Why is this valuable book no longer available? In late 2001, just when many concerts around the world are celebrating Arnold's 80th birthday, it seems perverse that the book is no longer in print. There must be some enterprising publisher out there who should seize the moment. Get the authoritative Piers Burton-Page to revise the book and bring it up to date. Burton-Page charts the extraordinary ups and downs of a leading musican's life with affection and honesty. Now let's have the revised edition.

I am biased of course! But I spent 10 years on and off writing about the life and music of Sir Malcolm Arnold - now 75 - and it was a labour of love. He is severely ill with a form of brain damage that has impaired his memory: even so, it was wonderful how he was able to recall incidents from his earliest years in remarkable detail. He was able to help me enormously with the events of his later life too. All this started with a love of his music, and I hope this is reflected in my biography, too. What a shame it is already out of print. Come on some of you publishers out there, how about asking me for an update, and then reprinting

THIS BOOK WAS GIVEN TO ME BY MY SISTER WHO HAD READ IT AND KNEW I WOULD LOVE IT! AND I DID. MONTPARKER WRITES WITH A WONDERUFL CLARITY AND "RIGHT-ON-NESS." WHETHER ONE IS AN ARTIST OF ANY SORT, VISUAL, MUSICAL OR ARCHITECTURAL OR "MERELY" A LOVER OF THE ARTS, CAROL MONTPARKER KNOWS HOW TO GET HER MESSAGE ACROSS. ONE REALIZES THE WORK, THE INSIGHT AND THE DEVOTION THIS MUSICIAN BRINGS TO HER TALENT AND HOW SHE IS OPEN TO MUSIC OF ALL KINDS. SHE NEVER DENIGRATES MUSICIANS, AND SHE LISTENS, NOT ONLY WITH A KEEN EAR,BUT WITH COMPASSION AND UNDERSTANDING OF THE THE PERFORMER AND THE MUSIC. WHETHER YOU ARE A PLAYER OR LISTENER OF MUSIC, CAROL MONTPARKER SPEAKS TO YOU AND SEEMS TO BE IN TOUCH. SHE IS HONEST AND STRAIGHT FORWARD WITHOUT BEING OVERLY SENTIMENTAL. I LOVE THIS BOOK! READ IT!

Carol Montparker writes with insight, warmth, and sensitivity. She has great feeling for the difficulties and rewards of the pianist's vocation. She expresses appreciation to the famous pianists she has interviewed for Clavier Magazine, and yet she speaks of her students with respect, also. Her insights into the challenges facing a pianist and her reverence for the art form make this book eminently worth reading.

No hablo inglés. Como lo anuncié arriba, espero que lo que estoy comprando sea una partitura para el concierto No 1 de brahmns, que estoy muy interesado en comprar y acá en Colombia no he podido conseguirla.

What may at first seem as a mere oddity, is actually a wonderful and extremely clever transcription. The ingenious concept in this arrangement is the synthesis of the piano part and the orchestral part into one big scheme, which is then cleverly divided between the two players, as opposed, say, to a piano vs. orchestra parts,as it would be in a regular "Klavierauszug" (clearly impossible in a one-piano four-hand setting). Both parts are more or less equal in difficulty, and even though it's not an easy ride, it's much less taxing than the original piano solo part in the op. 15. Advanced piano players will enjoy this wonderful arrangement enormously. As another reviewer wrote about Mozart piano 4-hands pieces - playing piano 4 hands is more fun than the law allows, and I might say that playing this arrangement is no exception to this observation.

This survey of Monteaux's life tells of a classical musician composer who became famous for conducting the world premiere of Stravinsky's Rite of Spring in Paris in 1913. He conducted its first concert performance and worked with many of the greatest classical composers of his time: this biography creates an affectionate portrait of a man who worked with the best.

A wonderful read, very rich in detail. Informative, delightful, humorous, sad, even inspiring.

Canarina is a very fine writer--no surprise to those of us who swore by his record reviews in the 1980's. Monteux's busy life could easily have degenerated into a series of dates and program listings, but the author's great skill prevents that from happening. He supplies meaningful context, perceptive interpretation of events, and fascinating digressions at all the right moments.

There is plenty of insider information, from the author himself, who knew Monteux and was a student at the Hancock school; from other professionals, conductors, players, librarians, critics and the like; and from members of the Monteux family. And no one is more knowledgeable than Canarina about Monteux's many recordings, their dates and their virtues.

Read it! You won't regret it.

I thoroughly enjoyed the book. This very candid yet sincere look at the trials and tribulations of the Jubes makes it that much more amazing that the group still sings with conviction. Perhaps it is because of those trials and tribulations that the Jubes continue to make recordings that touch your soul.

Reading the book made me feel like I was a part of the group. In this book, the Jubes accomplished the task of taking you on a trip through the `60s, `70s, `80s, and `90s and pulling you onto the road, into their car, onto the stage and into the studio as if you were a part of the group.

I also found the layout of the book to be quite interesting. The stories told from the Jubes' perspective and in their own words served to prove why the Jubes is such a hard-hitting group and in such great demand. They tell it like it is (or was). That is one reason why they continue to be one of top group in the quartet industry.

Thank you for the history lesson. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in quartet music and to those who are interested in Black history.

As a quartet enthusiast I am very familar with the Pilgrim Jubilees and this is just the case of a deserving party finally getting their reward. Though only a handful of book on this genre of music have been written, this is only the second to focus on a particular quartet group (The first on Smithdale Mississippi's Williams Brothers). The book is definitely a well deserved tribute to these quartet Legends. Having established a very distinct driving sound that has become popular in the quartet industry, the Jubes tell a very powerful and heart warming story that has all the elements for good reading. From the hilarious stories of their youthful years, to the more serious questions of death within the group, the reader is taken on a gripping emotional journey. As a side note the book even includes one of the most inclusive discographies of the Jubes recorded works. If you love quartet gospel then you must own this book which features a handful of great stories about Quartet Legends past and even those still with us today. As quartet fans, supporters, and enthusiasts alike your quartet collection is not complete until you pick up this book.

this book is about my dad's sister aunt molly jackson.my dad was biil garland .aunt molly was called pistol packin momma because she rode horseback across the mountains to deliver babies. she always carried her pistol with her in case there was trouble.she had a gruff voice ,but a twinkle in her eye when she would tell her stories.she believed in helping people and, her songs reflected this.she was a treasure.aunt molly is a part of our mountain heritiage we should never forget.i teach my children and grandchildren about my mountain heritiage

I first heard about "pistol packin' mama" when I was a child. They played the song on the radio then announced that Molly Jackson had died. My mother told me then that she was my granny's half-sister. What child is not going to be fascinated by being related to someone with that sort of nickname? My grandma, Lona Isabelle, is the Garland that did not leave Kentucky. She married Matt Doolin and proceeded to have lots of children. At least one of her sons was killed in the coal mine. She told me lots of stories but never once mentioned Molly. My cousins and I were understandably curious but could not find out anything about her. We saw Jim and Sarah when they came to visit, but they never mentioned her either. We have all tried to find out about her in various libraries with very little luck. I have just started using the internet and this was one of the first things I looked up.I found this book and ordered it, hoping it would give me some idea about who she was. I received the book yesterday and could not put it down. Obviously all of my family will be as interested as I am. I think it will be fascinating to anyone interested in labor relations, women's roles in history, or Appalachian living. It was well worth the money to me and you will be getting more orders from our family. I want to thank Shelly Romalis for taking the time to research and write this book.