Balanced between the traditional and the postmodern, Subotnik (music, Brown U.) deftly and articulately manages to use the philosophies of Kant, Adorno, Bakhtin, and Derrida to review the music of Chopin, Mozart, and Stravinksy. Her discussion of the Magic Flute brings new rigor to the more usual romantic studies, and her exposition on Allan Bloom and Spike Lee in the final essay contextualizes the deconstructive critique she employs. Annotation copyright by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

A collection of essays, most previously published on the critical theory, aesthetics, and social historiography of western classical music since the late 1700's. Based largely on the ideas of Theodor W. Adorno. A companion volume, Deconstructionist variations, is planned. A paper edition is available (1874-7), $16.95. Annotation copyrighted by Book News, Inc., Portland, OR

This volume is an analytical study of 18 works by Brahms, making skillful use of Schoenberg's provocative concept of developing variation. It traces a genuine evolution through Brahm's compositions, considering their relationship to each other.

This book presents standard fiddle tunes in basic form, then shows you how, on a phrase-by-phrase basis, the tunes can become vehicles for your own improvisations. It is designed to open the door to creating spontaneous variations, or improvisations, based on the melodic structure unique to each tune. Each tune in the book is presented first in its basic form, then with four variations. the variations are printed directly beneath the melody with the corresponding measures aligned, so that you can easily compare them to the original melody and to each other. the accompanying CD features mandolin and rhythm guitar on separate channels, so you can turn off the lead and play along with the rhythm, or vice versa. Intermediate in difficulty.

A chamber work for violin, cello and piano commissioned by Trio Cavatina and the Fromm Foundation.

A valuable guide for experienced programmers who want to develop professional level expertise in C. The book also gives readers detailed programming information on developing serious business applications for commercial use.

First truly up-to-date treatment offers a simple introduction to optimal control, linear-quadratic control design, and more. Broad perspective features numerous exercises, hints, outlines, and appendixes, including a practical discussion of MATLAB. 2005 edition.

The mysterious true story of Connie Converse—a mid-century New York City songwriter, singer, and composer whose haunting music never found broad recognition—and one writer’s quest to understand her life This is the mesmerizing story of an enigmatic life. When musician and New Yorker contributor Howard Fishman first heard Connie Converse’s voice on a recording, he was convinced she could not be real. Her recordings were too good not to know, and too out of place for the 1950s to make sense—a singer who seemed to bridge the gap between traditional Americana (country, blues, folk, jazz, and gospel), the Great American Songbook, and the singer-songwriter movement that exploded a decade later with Bob Dylan and Joni Mitchell. And then there was the bizarre legend about Connie Converse that had become the prevailing narrative of her life: that in 1974, at the age of fifty, she simply drove off one day and was never heard from again. Could this have been true? Who was Connie Converse, really? Supported by a dozen years of research, travel to everywhere she lived, and hundreds of extensive interviews, Fishman approaches Converse’s story as both a fan and a journalist, and expertly weaves a narrative of her life and music, and of how it has come to speak to him as both an artist and a person. Ultimately, he places her in the canon as a significant outsider artist, a missing link between a now old-fashioned kind of American music and the reflective, complex, arresting music that transformed the 1960s and music forever. But this is also a story of deeply secretive New England traditions, of a woman who fiercely strove for independence and success when the odds were against her; a story that includes suicide, mental illness, statistics, siblings, oil paintings, acoustic guitars, cross-country road trips, 1950s Greenwich Village, an America marching into the Cold War, questions about sexuality, and visionary, forward thinking about race, class, and conflict. It’s a story and subject that is by turn hopeful, inspiring, melancholy, and chilling.