Writing for general readers and specialists alike, Gallo illuminates the artistic, cultural, social, and political dimensions of secular music, vocal and instrumental. His account also sheds new light on the potent influence of French culture in Italian courtly life.

Johann Sebastian Bach is one of the unfathomable composers in the history of music. This book explains the ideas on which Bach drew, how he worked, how his music is constructed, how it achieves its effects - and what it can tell us about Bach the man.

The return to Lexicon begins when thirteen-year-old cousins Ivan and Daphne find their Aunt Adelaide deathly ill. Leaving their aunt to rest, Ivan and Daphne accidentally let their younger cousin, Lila, in on their secret world of Lexicon. Ivan and Daphne must track Lila, who disappears, through the frozen landscape to the Land of Winter where social status and freedom are determined by how well one sings. Fortunately for Lila, her musical talent lands her in the most favorable place. Separated by class now, the cousins face cold, hunger, poverty, illness, injustice, and the malicious plotting of a power-hungry blind man. Slave, servant, and fine lady, the three cousins must escape their own imprisonment before they reunite, provoke a revolution, and restore spring to the Land of Winter.

A concentrated study of Johann Sebastian Bach’s creative output and greatest pieces, capturing the essence of his art. Throughout his life, renowned and prolific composer Johann Sebastian Bach articulated his views as a composer in purely musical terms; he was notoriously reluctant to write about his life and work. Instead, he methodically organized certain pieces into carefully designed collections. These benchmark works, all of them without parallel or equivalent, produced a steady stream of transformative ideas that stand as paradigms of Bach’s musical art. In this companion volume to his Pulitzer Prize–finalist biography, Johann Sebastian Bach: The Learned Musician, leading Bach scholar Christoph Wolff takes his cue from his famous subject. Wolff delves deeply into the composer’s own rich selection of collected music, cutting across conventional boundaries of era, genre, and instrument. Emerging from a complex and massive oeuvre, Bach’s Musical Universe is a focused discussion of a meaningful selection of compositions—from the famous Well-Tempered Clavier, violin and cello solos, and Brandenburg Concertos to the St. Matthew Passion, Art of Fugue, and B-minor Mass. Unlike any study undertaken before, this book details Bach’s creative process across the various instrumental and vocal genres. This array of compositions illustrates the depth and variety at the essence of the composer’s musical art, as well as his unique approach to composition as a process of imaginative research into the innate potential of his chosen material. Tracing Bach’s evolution as a composer, Wolff compellingly illuminates the ideals and legacy of this giant of classical music in a new, refreshing light for everyone, from the amateur to the virtuoso.

THE STORY: The home of the Blackwoods near a Vermont village is a lonely, ominous abode, and Constance, the young mistress of the place, can't go out of the house without being insulted and stoned by the villagers. They have also composed a nasty s

One of the 20th century's most beloved novels is still winning hearts, Dodie Smith's I Capture the Castle! “This book has one of the most charismatic narrators I've ever met.” -- J.K. Rowling, author of the Harry Potter series Adapted to a feature film in 2003, I Capture the Castle tells the story of seventeen-year-old Cassandra and her family, who live in not-so-genteel poverty in a ramshackle old English castle. Here she strives, over six turbulent months, to hone her writing skills. She fills three notebooks with sharply funny yet poignant entries. Her journals candidly chronicle the great changes that take place within the castle's walls, and her own first descent into love. By the time she pens her final entry, she has "captured the castle"-- and the heart of the reader-- in one of literature's most enchanting entertainments.

Dr. Suzuki questioned why all vocalists vocalize every day to improve their voices, but instrumentalists do not do so every day with their instruments. He believes that on any instrument, one needs to practice to make a more beautiful tone. First he talks about playing a beautiful resonant tone with the bow while plucking the string with a finger. When a pizzicato is played, the resonance goes on for a long time. Students should listen to that resonance and play the same kind of clear beautiful sound. He talks about how to make a difference in the tone by using a different bow speed, how to practice to find the resonance point, how to change the weight of the arm on the bow to produce a different kind of tone, and how to change tone color. This book includes all of Dr. Suzuki's basic ideas about tone.

A magical castle with a life of its own ... and a plucky princess who will defend it at all cost

The central subject of this richly illustrated book is the life and career of J. S. Bach, but nearly half the pages are devoted to engaging and detailed descriptions of the everyday world that surrounded him in the early 1700s. Both elements contain the unexpected. Written by a master storyteller and renowned performer of Bach's music.

A Grammy Award-winning singer and her husband share what a Godly marriage looks like and encourage readers with faith-forward and Biblical relationship advice. ​ Fantasia Taylor—American Idol, Grammy-winning vocalist, and chart-topping singer—and her husband businessman Kendall Taylor were both successful and living in their purpose when they met and married three weeks later. Their marriage has had its ups and downs, but the one thing that has sustained them through all of it is the practice of taking off their crowns—the accolades, their egos, the things the world tells you matter—and serving each other within the home. It doesn’t matter who you are in the world—you need to humble yourself and serve your partner in order to put your marriage, your family, and your faith first. Seven years later, after facing a host of real-world challenges—from marital stress to professional and financial pressures, to their high-risk pregnancy and the premature birth of their daughter—Fantasia and Kendall’s marriage has become a beacon of hope and love as they have opened up about their lives in their weekly ‘Taylor Talks’ broadcast. Now, in their first book together, Fantasia and Kendall dish about their shared experiences and struggles, opening up about the challenges and triumphs they’ve faced together and how they have come out stronger for them. They also share stories about how they've made their relationship work against all odds and why they try to always treat each other like royalty. In their trademark no-nonsense, real-talk style, they discuss topics that affect all relationships, including the importance of submitting to one another, handling conflict, clearing the lines of communication, keeping the romance alive, navigating the challenges of blended family, and how to maintain healthy relationships when you haven’t seen them modeled before. Insightful, wise, and grounded in faith, Fantasia and Kendall’s story offers hope and encouragement and gives straight-up advice about making your relationships last.