The lute’s cultural impact throughout the Dutch Golden Age can be compared to that of the piano in the 19th century. It was the universal instrument for solo music-making, as well as in ensembles and to accompany singers, mainly associated with the social elite - the aristocracy and the prosperous burghers. This richly illustrated book is the first to showcase famous and obscure lutenists, professional musicians and amateurs, the lute music in books and manuscripts, the lute makers and the...

Ship Stabilizers: The Design and Operation in Correcting the Rolling of Ships presents the working principles and operation of various types of gyrocompasses and automatic pilots. This book discusses the fundamental principles of synchro systems and servomechanisms. Organized into 12 chapters, this book begins with an overview of the problem of the reduction of rolling. This text then explores the means of resisting rolling, which have been used or are still being used, including bilge kee...

Learn about the world's greatest classical compositions and musical traditions in The Classical Music Book.Part of the fascinating Big Ideas series, this book tackles tricky topics and themes in a simple and easy to follow format. Learn about Classic Music in this overview guide to the subject, great for novices looking to find out more and experts wishing to refresh their knowledge alike! The Classical Music Book brings a fresh and vibrant take o...

Finalist for the 2001 Pulitzer Prize in Biography. A landmark biography of Bach on the 250th anniversary of the composer's death, written by the leading Bach scholar of our age.Although we have heard the music of J. S. Bach in countless performances and recordings, the composer himself still comes across only as an enigmatic figure in a single familiar portrait. As we mark the 250th anniversary of Bach's death, author Christoph Wolff presents a new picture that brings to life this ...

Eminent historian Paul Johnson dazzles with a rich, succinct portrait of Mozart and his musicAs he’s done in Napoleon, Churchill, Jesus, and Darwin, acclaimed historian and author Paul Johnson here offers a concise, illuminating biography of Mozart. Johnson’s focus is on the music—Mozart’s wondrous output of composition and his uncanny gift for instrumentation.Liszt once said that Mozart composed more bars than a trained ...

This superbly authoratitive new work provides a comprehensive A-Z guide to some 1000 years of Western music. It explores in detail the lives and achievements of a vast range of composers, as well as looking at such key topics as music history (from medieval plainchant to contemporary minimalism), performers, theory and jargon. Throught Griffiths skilfully blends lightly worn scholarship with personal insight, whether examining the emotional colouring that different musical keys achieve or ...

Grandiose and glamorous, Baroque music stands alone, written to glorify the finest courts of Europe, in Italy, France, Germany, England, Austria and even far flung Spain. Its greatest composers, such as Vivaldi, Handel and Bach, head a fascinating cast of musical magicians, including Albinoni, Pachelbel and Scarlatti. Their lives are as intriguing as their music: we find virtuoso performers who earned their bread and butter in the cathedrals of Europe while keeping company with kings and q...

When we think of Music we have in mind an organization of musical sounds into something definite, something by design, not by chance, the product of the working of the human mind with musical sounds and their effects upon the human sensibilities. So long as man accepted the various phenomena of musical sounds as isolated facts, there could be no art. But when he began to use them to minister to his pleasure and to study them and their effects, he began to form an art of music. The story of...

In Europe the tradition of secular dance has continued unbroken until the present. In the late Middle Ages it was an important and frequent event—for the nobility a gracious way to entertain guests, for the peasantry a welcome relaxation from the toils of the day. Now back in print, this collection presents compositions that are known or suspected to be instrumental dances from before ca. 1420. The 47 pieces vary in length and style and come from French, Italian, English, and Czech sources...

The Middle Ages began with the collapse of the Roman world. This left a military and political system in ruins but a cultural world-view largely intact. Artistically rich and varied in themselves, the medieval centuries also sparked both the artistic Renaissance and the religious Reformation that followed. Rich but musically lost? Buildings and statues endure, but how can we ever really know about early music and what the Medieval and Renaissance world sounded like? From the evidence that r...

Revised and expanded, A Performer's Guide to Seventeenth Century Music is a comprehensive reference guide for students and professional musicians. The book contains useful material on vocal and choral music and style; instrumentation; performance practice; ornamentation, tuning, temperament; meter and tempo; basso continuo; dance; theatrical production; and much more. The volume includes new chapters on the violin, the violoncello and violone, and the trombone—as well as updated and expand...

'Fascinating ... Composer Andrew Gant is a masterful guide, introducing readers to the major players and key themes of an entrancing topic.' BBC History MagazineWhether you prefer Baroque or pop, Theremins or violins, the music you love and listen to shapes your world. But what shaped the music?Ranging across time and space, this book takes us on a grand musical tour from music's origins in prehistory right up to the twenty-first century. Charting ...