Coleman Books

While browsing through the Large Print section of our local public library, my tired eyes lit on an old familiar title; Mountain Time. But this wasn't Ivan Doig's prose-poetry of the Montana sheep country that I expected. Instead, I was pleasantky surprised to find a different locale. the semi-desert and mountains of New Mexico. And a totally different attitude toward the land, its non-human occupants and their tanglrd relationships. The book is composed of about a hundred ( I didn't stop to count ) essays arranged chronologically, illustrating the author's gradual transition from a frustrated Eastern school teacher to a satisfed Southwestern professional writer. Each essay is self-contained, ideal for a brief literary escape from the dreary weather outside my window to the blue skies and strong sunshine of the New Mexico desert. Since you can't hop on a plane and fly to Sante Fe, this is the next best thing.
Charlie A Allen

Nicolas Slonimsky (b. St. Peterburg, Russia in 1894 - d. Christmas Day 1995 in Los Angeles at the exceptional age of 101 years, 9 months, 28 days) was an institution. He labeled himself a 'musical lexicographer,' having written several indispensable musical reference works such as 'Baker's Biographical Dictionary of Musicians,' and 'The Lexicon of Musical Invective' (containing hilarious entries from reviews and other sources), as well as the esoteric and encyclopedic, 'Thesaurus of Scales and Melodic Patterns.' He also wrote one of the most amusing musical autobiographies around, 'Perfect Pitch.' But before he became a scholar/writer he was a pianist, conductor, composer, and champion of modern music. For instance, he was the first person to conduct an orchestral work of Charles Ives in Europe, and in an appendix of this gargantuan book (1260 pages) he prints twenty pages of letters he received from Ives. Because he lived so long he knew just about everybody in the field of twentieth-century music. (I even met him once when he was approaching his 100th birthday.)

The primary content of the book is a day by day account of musical events throughout the Western world from January 1, 1900 up to the death of Ernst Krenek in 1991. This volume, its Fifth Edition, contains all the material of the previous editions (with corrections and additions) plus 1500 additional entries for the period after the Fourth Edition.

For a reasonably well-informed music-lover there is rarely a page in this book without information about events in music history that are familiar, as well as others that are interesting but otherwise unknown. To illustrate this I opened the book literally at random to pages 150-151 and found entries, among others, on the première of Zandonai's 'Francesca da Rimini'; a squib about the fifteen-year-old Henry Cowell demonstrating 'tone clusters' to the San Francisco Music Club; the première of 'Hashish,' a tone-poem by Sergei Liapunov; the première of George Butterworth's 'The Banks of Green Willow'; the première of Vaughan Williams's now-beloved 'London Symphony'; the première of Franz Schmidt's opera 'Notre Dame'; the première of Albéric Magnard's magnum opus, his Fourth Symphony; the first performance as orchestral piece (as opposed to accompaniment of a ballet) of Stravinsky's 'Sacre de printemps,' Pierre Monteux conducting. All these took place in February-April 1914. You get the idea.

Also included is a section of musical 'documents' such as the Ives letters mentioned, as well as things like the Futurist manifesto, a talk by Alban Berg entitled 'What is Atonality?,' letters to Slonimsky from luminaries such as Arnold Schoenberg, George Bernard Shaw, Anton von Webern and Edgard Varèse. There are documents from Soviet Russia illuminating the control the government placed on composers and some of their responses.

Also included is a valuable section of definitions of musical and allied terms applicable to the modern era with entries from abecedarianism (a gentle term to describe simplistic music - oh, what he has to say about what we would now call minimalism!) to Zen (and its influence on the avant-garde). He also defines some of his own neologisms; for instance, he tends to refer to twentieth-century music as 'vigesimosecular.' One can imagine him smiling at his mock-pompous use of such words.

Slonimsky's writing style is idiosyncratic. He is frequently puckish, sometimes acerbic, always superdensely, polysyllabically multifactual; I counted 300 words in one exuberant Russian-doll-like sentence. He created an enormous number of musical neologisms to describe musical processes and styles, some of which have entered the technical vocabulary; for instance, 'pandiatonicism' to describe the process by which 'all seven degrees of the diatonic scale are used freely in democratic equality.' He takes sly pokes at music he does not admire but is never mean-spirited. He gives technical analyses of major works (e.g., his extensive exegeses of the Mahler symphonies which were premièred in the 20th century.) He has some inexplicable hobby-horses. For instance, he gives the precise age at death of important musicians as I've done in my opening sentence. He raves about composers that few others seem to care for, e.g., the Swiss Hans Huber. He completely omits some composers that are now well-thought-of, e.g. Sweden's Wilhelm Stenhammar. He tends to go on at length about uses of scales and melodic patterns, not surprising considering his expertise in that area. But overall he is fair-minded and although not anywhere near complete - that would be impossible - the encyclopedic nature of the work requires fervent admiration. There are a few typos along the way - unavoidable - and an occasional error of fact, although it is clear that he makes every effort to correct them (there are frequent retractions of errors made in earlier editions); this even extends to poring over governmental and church birth and death records and newspaper reviews of première performances.

For someone like me who often writes reviews of recordings of obscure twentieth-century works, this volume is indispensable. For others who are generally interested in the musical history of the previous century it would be valuable if not absolutely necessary. Every library worthy of the name ought to have a copy. Slonimsky was one of our cultural treasures and thank goodness his words will live on.

Review by Scott Morrison

This is a wonderful book that facilitates the process of recording your life for generations to come. From best moments to favorite childhood games to pet peeves, this book is a thoughtful and provocative personal exploration that I would recommend to people of all ages. This is a gift you can give to yourself and leave as a legacy for your children and grandchildren.

If you do decide to buy this book or if you dare read it good luck to you! I recommend this book for all religous people, who want to discover new sprituality, like there was ever an old one. The point being read it with an open mind, don't try to understand it because you definetly won't, read it the way you would when you look at a baby.

I love the Easyfinder laminated maps from Rand McNally. They are extremely durable, meaning I won't have to repurchase a map that gets torn, spilled on, or just plain worn out. Even better, I can mark my routes & destinations on them with dry erase marker, then just wipe off when no longer needed. Map detail is top notch, as you would expect from Rand McNally. 5 stars, definitely my favorite maps.

I stumbled on this book in the only bookstore in that tawdry 'soiled dove,' Tombstone--and spent an evening lost in its exquisite, straight-on poems. Coleman's work here covers lots of ground, from the Apache Wars to the Star of Bannock, from a cowboy's victrola to quiet words at the edge of the mesa at Acoma. Many are grounded in Coleman's own southeastern Arizona. A few gems: "Belle Starr Addresses the Sewing Circle" is a frontier woman's eloquent assertion of her personhood and sexuality. "Letter from San Pedro" is a transplanted easterner's small, certain, flowing evocation of western land. "The Rainmaker" stirs together Bisbee, a bit of tall tale, and the worth of water in arid places. Read these poems. They'll leave you changed, a little more certain.

For those of us that were raised in small, rural communities, this book will definately bring back "the good old days." The author has caught the essence of life in a small town as well as made some great insights into those of us who have had to battle for resolution of life's situations.

This book is very detailed and full of good information that will indeed help parents who are in denial or dealing with the teenage blues. I wish I would have learned about this book two years ago. When my teen troubles began. I would have been able to notice the signs a lot sooner. I am happy however that I have found this book, because it has been very helpful in helping me to gain back the parental role and control in my own household. I most definately pay a lot more attention to what is going on with my children. I limit access to things and I double check the stories or lines they try to feed me. Great Great book, I HIGHLY RECOMMEND!!!!

This is a wonderful and exciting adventure full of mischief and fun with Sarg, his dog Old Troop and the Rainbow Fairies. My daughter and I were engrossed in this book as she read aloud to me, being challenged by new words and looking forward to seeing what the characters would do next. This one has become her newest and favorite book to read at bedtime. You won't regret buying this one!

This anthology was developed in a completely original way. It started out with a historical portrayal of the first Olympics in 1896, and proceeded through the Olympics in Lake Placid, NY in 1932, the 17th Olympics in Rome to the Winter Olympics in Calgary in 1988. There were wonderful historical facts about the Olympics, as well as each of the locations. The characters were believable and suited to time and place. The authors did a wonderful job of seamlessly connecting the involved family members from each generation, although I would have liked to know how the last story progressed from an American Olympian to a niece that was born in France and a little more about Sophie's parents. All in all, this anthology was packed with all that I love, faith in God first and foremost, and then facts and history of countries other than my own. I enjoyed this volume immensely, and recommend it highly!