With his hallmark wit and humor, choral conductor and poet Robert Bode brings readers on a journey through twelve great choral works, offering anecdotes, valuable insights, and interpretive advice for each. Along the way, Bode chronicles his own learning journey and shares candidly about his mistakes, his triumphs, and his love for the repertoire that has played a significant role in his life and illustrious career. This wisdom-filled volume will forever change your understanding and inter...

Robert Bode has long been a sought-after American poet, providing deeply moving words for choral and solo music, many of which are included here. This collection of Bode's lyric poetry displays the poet's affection for the things of this world, both physical and emotional. "Songs" of morning, evening, nature, love, music, inspiration, and humor lift up and inspire thought. Most notably, the section focused on songs of justice, war, and healing offers many important messages for this time.

As featured in the Telegraph and on Radio 4's Today programme.'A magnificent treasury . . . a fascinating tour de force.' Observer**'Year of Wonder is an absolute treat - the most enlightening way to be guided through the year.' Eddie RedmayneClassical music for everyone - an inspirational piece of music for every day of the year, celebrating composers from the medieval era to the present day, written by a...

So what is sight-reading? Sight-reading is the ability to take a piece of music for the very first time and play it through as if you knew it your whole life. So when do you master Sight-Reading? Being a good reader is only half way there, you master Sight-reading when you are able to read anything in any given key, with any metric modulation, in any Clef, when you are able to transpose the notated music on the spot, following conductor cues performing dynamics, articulations and styles fl...

"In this one-of-a-kind celebration of singing with others, I'd call her pitch nearly perfect." —The AtlanticFor Stacy Horn, regardless of what is going on in the world or her life, singing in an amateur choir—the Choral Society of Grace Church in New York—never fails to take her to a place where hope reigns and everything good is possible. She's not particularly religious, and her voice is not exceptional (so she says), but like the 32.5 million other choru...

Winner of the Royal Philharmonic Award for Storytelling 2020'A rich, endlessly fascinating book.' Philip Pullman'One pleasure after another.' Gramophone'The delightful musings of a wise and worldly polymath.' Financial Times, Books of the YearStephen Hough is indisputably one of the world's leading pianists, winning global acclaim and numerous awards for his concerts and recordings, as well as being a writer and composer.

Have you ever been carried away by a piece of classical music? In this funny, evocative, personal eBook, previously published as ‘Music for the People: The Pleasures and Pitfalls of Classical Music’, Gareth takes us on a journey of musical discovery that explains and entertains in equal measure.Have you ever been carried away by a piece of classical music? The sad song of a single violin might make us cry, but the idea of finding out more about classical music can often be intimida...

This is a music textbook of strategies for improvising and composing; a simple guide to creating music today. This book contains a variety of methods for creating chords to put with melodies, a necessary skill in songwriting. You, the reader, will also discover many strategies for improvisation and for composing music, like generating new chords and arrangements, how to start, and how to get inspired. By following this systematic approach, you discover a complete understanding of chords, a...

It's never too late to play piano is perfect for those who wished they'd learnt to play the piano when they were younger, or those who wish they hadn't given up. At last, a truly grown-up approach to learning the piano! Pam Wedgwood, author of many popular piano series, takes you through the rudiments of piano technique and music theory in her own friendly style that's guaranteed to get results. The book is organized into clearly structured progressive units with a fabulous array of music ...

Ed Le Brocq invites you to come on a journey with him through a living tradition that spans a millennium - the tradition of Western classical music.Have you ever wondered where our music comes from? How did we arrive here, a place where we can have a hundred musicians on stage executing the wildest rhythms, a singer performing the most heartbreaking of melodies, or a solitary pianist playing an instrument that weighs half a tonne? How did the melodies and harmonies...

(Willis). The Modern Course series provides a clear and complete foundation in the study of the piano that enables the student to think and feel musically. It may be preceded by the Teaching Little Fingers to Play series. Follows uninterruptedly and in progressive sequence the musical foundation developed in Book 1.

Composer, pianist and writer Erik Satie was one of the great figures of Belle Époque Paris. Known for his unvarying image of bowler hat, three-piece suit and umbrella, Satie was a surrealist before Surrealism and a conceptual artist before Conceptual Art. Friend of Cocteau and Debussy, Picabia and Picasso, Satie was always a few steps ahead of his peers at the apex of modernism. There's scarcely a turn in postwar music, both classical and popular, that Satie doesn't anticipate. Moving from...