“Inventively mixing mystery, magic, and alternate history, Glover's nail-biting debut takes readers to Reconstruction era Philadelphia.” —Publishers Weekly, starred review Hetty Rhodes and her husband, Benjy, were Conductors on the Underground Railroad, ferrying dozens of slaves to freedom with daring, cunning, and magic that draws its power from the constellations. With the war over, those skills find new purpose as they solve mysteries and murders that white authorities would otherwise ignore. In the heart of Philadelphia’s Seventh Ward, everyone knows that when there’s a strange death or magical curses causing trouble, Hetty and Benjy are the only ones that can solve the case. But when an old friend is murdered, their investigation stirs up a wasp nest of intrigue, lies, and long-buried secrets—and a mystery unlike anything they handled before. With a clever, cold-blooded killer on the prowl testing their magic and placing their lives at risk, Hetty and Benjy will discover how little they really know about their neighbors . . . and themselves. “An unforgettable debut . . . Wholly original and thoroughly riveting.” —Deanna Raybourn, New York Times–bestselling author of A Murderous Relation “A seamless blending of magic, mystery, and history . . . Glover’s worldbuilding, characters, and attention to historical detail create a delightfully genre-bending debut!” —Tananarive Due, American Book Award–winning author of Ghost Summer: Stories
A Russian spy and scientist imparts to his paramour interconnected memories detailing his early days as a Bolshevik-era theremin innovator through his Moscow imprisonment and assignments to eavesdrop on Stalin. By the award-winning founder of the Said the Gramophone blog. Original.
A world-renowned conductor and composer who has lead most of the major orchestras in North America and Europe, a talented musician who has played under the batons of such luminaries as Toscanini and Walter, and an esteemed arranger, scholar, author, and educator, Gunther Schuller is without doubt a major figure in the music world. Now, in The Compleat Conductor, Schuller has penned a highly provocative critique of modern conducting, one that is certain to stir controversy. Indeed, in these pages he castigates many of this century's most venerated conductors for using the podium to indulge their own interpretive idiosyncrasies rather than devote themselves to reproducing the composer's stated and often painstakingly detailed intentions. Contrary to the average concert-goer's notion (all too often shared by the musicians as well) that conducting is an easily learned skill, Schuller argues here that conducting is "the most demanding, musically all embracing, and complex" task in the field of music performance. Conducting demands profound musical sense, agonizing hours of study, and unbending integrity. Most important, a conductor's overriding concern must be to present a composer's work faithfully and accurately, scrupulously following the score including especially dynamics and tempo markings with utmost respect and care. Alas, Schuller finds, rare is the conductor who faithfully adheres to a composer's wishes. To document this, Schuller painstakingly compares hundreds of performances and recordings with the original scores of eight major compositions: Beethoven's fifth and seventh symphonies, Schumann's second (last movement only), Brahms's first and fourth, Tchaikovsky's sixth, Strauss's "Till Eulenspiegel" and Ravel's "Daphnis et Chloe, Second Suite." Illustrating his points with numerous musical examples, Schuller reveals exactly where conductors have done well and where they have mangled the composer's work. As he does so, he also illuminates the interpretive styles of many of our most celebrated conductors, offering pithy observations that range from blistering criticism of Leonard Bernstein ("one of the world's most histrionic and exhibitionist conductors") to effusive praise of Carlos Kleiber (who "is so unique, so remarkable, so outstanding that one can only describe him as a phenomenon"). Along the way, he debunks many of the music world's most enduring myths (such as the notion that most of Beethoven's metronome markings were "wrong" or "unplayable," or that Schumann was a poor orchestrator) and takes on the "cultish clan" of period instrument performers, observing that many of their claims are "totally spurious and chimeric." In his epilogue, Schuller sets forth clear guidelines for conductors that he believes will help steer them away from self indulgence towards the correct realization of great art. Courageous, eloquent, and brilliantly insightful, The Compleat Conductor throws down the gauntlet to conductors worldwide. It is a controversial book that the music world will be debating for many years to come.
Middle-graders often wonder how electricity is transmitted and how we are protected from being shocked. Pegis takes these readers along on an exploration of the roles conductors and insulators play in the transmission.
Expressive Conducting: Movement and Performance Theory for Conductors applies the insight of movement and performance theory to the practice of conducting, offering a groundbreaking new approach to conducting. Where traditional conducting pedagogies often place emphasis on training parts of the body in isolation, Expressive Conducting teaches conductors to understand their gestures as part of an interconnected system that incorporates the whole body. Rather than emphasizing learning specific patterns and gestures, this book enables student and professional conductors to develop a conducting technique that is centered around expressing the themes of the music. Drawing parallels to the worlds of acting, this text treats the body as the conductor’s instrument. Coaching notes derived from years of experience as a performance movement specialist offer readers approachable methods for eliminating communication barriers—both conscious and subconscious—to encourage optimal performance, highlighting acting theory, movement exercises and the significance of weight distribution. Unlike other conducting approaches, this text understands that conducting resonates throughout the entire body and is not conveyed by the hands or baton alone. With a comprehensive consideration of the conductor’s body and movements, featuring over 50 original illustrations, Expressive Conducting advances strategies for improving one’s conducting skills in rehearsal and performance. Jerald Schwiebert has developed a practical language for expressive conducting. Together, Schwiebert and Barr present a text that is suitable for conducting students, instructors, and professionals alike.
(Meredith Music Resource). This incredible book by one of the world's foremost authorities on conducting contains no conducting patterns, and no advice on how to conduct any piece. Instead, it focuses on the skills, knowledge and experiences needed to become and function as a conductor-teacher. "This text is a 'must have' for all serious musicians. It captures the legacy and wisdom of one of the most important conductors of our time. This is what can happen when a focused and inquisitive mind meets up with a uniquely creative imagination." Eugene Migliaro Corporon, Director of Wind Studies, College of Music University of North Texas (a href="http://youtu.be/JM6g4KBA4Fk" target="_blank")Click here for a YouTube video on On Becoming a Conductor(/a)
