"Jerrold Levinson's new book, Music in the Moment, makes a major contribution to the now flourishing field of philosophy of music. He has a daring thesis about music listening that is going to shake up the experts, and pose for them, and for us all...

We seem to see melodrama everywhere we look—from the soliloquies of devastation in a Dickens novel to the abject monstrosity of Frankenstein’s creation, and from Louise Brooks’s exaggerated acting in Pandora’s Box to the vicissitudes endlessly reshaping the life of a brooding Don Draper. This anthology proposes to address the sometimes bewilderingly broad understandings of melodrama by insisting on the historical specificity of its genesis on the stage in late-eighteenth-century Europe. Melodrama emerged during this time in the metropolitan centers of London, Paris, Vienna, and Berlin through stage adaptations of classical subjects and gothic novels, and they became famous for their use of passionate expression and spectacular scenery. Yet, as contributors to this volume emphasize, early melodramas also placed sound at center stage, through their distinctive—and often disconcerting—alternations between speech and music. This book draws out the melo of melodrama, showing the crucial dimensions of sound and music for a genre that permeates our dramatic, literary, and cinematic sensibilities today. A richly interdisciplinary anthology, The Melodramatic Moment will open up new dialogues between musicology and literary and theater studies.

What is required for a listener to understand a piece of music? Does aural understanding depend upon reflective awareness of musical architecture or large-scale musical structure? Jerrold Levinson thinks not. In contrast to what is commonly assumed, Levinson argues that basic understanding of music only requires properly grounded, present-focused attention, and that virtually everything in the comprehension of extended pieces of music that suggests explicit architectonic awareness can be explained without positing conscious grasp of relationships across broad spans. Levinson rejects the notion that keeping music's large-scale form before the mind is somehow essential to fundamental understanding of it. As evidence, he describes in detail the experience of listening to a wide range of music. He defends, with some qualifications, the views of nineteenth-century musician and psychologist Edmund Gurney, author of The Power of Sound, who argued that musical comprehension requires only attention to the evolution of music from moment to moment. Music theory standardly misapprehends the experience and mindset of most who know and love classical music, concludes Levinson. His book is a defense of the passionate and attentive, though architectonically unconcerned, music listener.

The MP3 and iPod revolution have changed forever how people listen to music, but choosing what to listen to next remains the dilemma of music lovers everywhere. As music director of KCRW in Santa Monica, CA, and DJ of the influential "Morning Becomes Eclectic” show, Harcourt uncovers the best in new and overlooked music for over half a million listeners every day. In Music Lust, Harcourt does what Nancy Pearl did for books in her national bestseller Book Lust. With more than 80 unique and unusual thematic lists, Harcourt offers a wide-ranging guide to the best in recorded music, from Frank Sinatra to Frank Zappa, Billie Holiday to Billy Bragg, bebop to hip-hop, The White Album to Back in Black, and much, much more. Known as an international tastemaker, Harcourt lends his discerning ear in recommended listening lists such as "Queens of Punk,” "Great Road Music,” and "My Desert Island Discs.” Within each list, key bands and performers are introduced and discussed, and pivotal albums and songs identified. With the diversity of genres represented and Harcourt at the helm, Music Lust’s eclectic access to musicians, themes, and styles is spot-on for this moment in music.

History.

The ability to improvise represents one of the highest levels of musical achievement. Yet what musical knowledge is 3equired for improvisation? How does a musician learn to improvise? What are the neural correlates of improvised performance? These are some of the questions explored in this unique and fascinating new book.

Musical spectacles are excessive and abstract, reconfiguring time and space and creating intense bodily responses. Amy Herzog's engaging work examines those instances where music and movement erupt from within more linear narrative frameworks. The representational strategies found in these films are often formulaic, repeating familiar story lines and stereotypical depictions of race, gender, and class. Yet she finds the musical moment contains a powerful disruptive potential. Dreams of Difference, Songs of the Same investigates the tension and the fusion of difference and repetition in films to ask, How does the musical moment work? Herzog looks at an eclectic mix of works, including the Soundie and Scopitone jukebox films, the musicals of French director Jacques Demy, the synchronized swimming spectacles of Esther Williams, and an apocalyptic musical by Taiwanese director Tsai Ming-liang. Several refrains circulate among these texts: their reliance on clichés, their rewriting of cultural narratives, and their hallucinatory treatment of memory and history. Drawing on the philosophical work of Gilles Deleuze, she explores all of these dissonances as productive forces, and in doing so demonstrates the transformative power of the unexpected.

This collection of intermediate piano solos is perfect for the romantic at heart. All of the pieces are lyrical, expressive, and absolutely beautiful! Titles: * Daydream * First Loss * A Heart Takes Flight * Lament * A Lovely Mood * Love Theme * Prairie Love * Simple Pleasures.

Here's a lifeline for anyone who's had a frustrating day, week, or month in the elementary music classroom--and that, of course, includes all of us. Teaching music is hard. This insightful and affirming book makes it easier, outlining strategies for all the details that make your classroom a successful learning environment. You'll learn ways to manage yourself and your workload; your relationships with colleagues, students, and families; and how to plan and deliver curriculum.