The last of the Spanish Romantics, composer, conductor, and impresario Federico Moreno Torroba (1891-1982) left his mark on virtually every aspect of Spanish musical culture during a career which spanned six decades, and saw tremendous political and cultural upheavals. Federico Moreno Torroba: A Musical Life in Three Acts explores not only his life and work, but also the relationship of his music to the cultural milieu in which he moved.
The guitar lessons of Julio Sagreras are among the most universally used collections of guitar music and represent a milestone in didactic guitar literature. This book, which includes the first three volumes of the original six-volume series, is an ideal introduction to classical guitar playing as well as to LatinAmerican guitar music. Text written in English and Spanish with French and German translations in an appendix at the back of the book
Spanish émigré guitarist Celedonio Romero gave his American debut performance on a June evening in 1958. In the sixty years since, the Romero Family—Celedonio, his wife Angelita, sons Celín, Pepe, and Angel, as well as grandsons Celino and Lito—have become preeminent in the world of Spanish flamenco and classical guitar in the United States. Walter Aaron Clark's in-depth research and unprecedented access to his subjects have produced the consummate biography of the Romero family. Clark examines the full story of their genius for making music, from their outsider's struggle to gain respect for the Spanish guitar to the ins and outs of making a living as musicians. As he shows, their concerts and recordings, behind-the-scenes musical careers, and teaching have reshaped their instrument's very history. At the same time, the Romeros have organized festivals and encouraged leading composers to write works for guitar as part of a tireless, lifelong effort to promote the guitar and expand its repertoire. Entertaining and intimate, Los Romeros opens up the personal world and unfettered artistry of one family and its tremendous influence on American musical culture.
"Granados was among the leading pianists of his time, and his eloquence at the keyboard inspired critics to dub him the "poet of the piano." In Enrique Granados: Poet of the Piano, Walter Aaron Clark offers the first substantive study in English of this virtuoso pianist, composer, and music pedagogue. While providing detailed analyses of his major works for voice, piano, and the stage, Clark argues that Granados's art represented a unifying presence on the cultural landscape of Spain during a period of imperial decline, political unrest, and economic transformation. Drawing on newly discovered documents, Clark explores the cultural spheres in which Granados moved, particularly of Castile and Catalonia. Granados's best-known music was inspired by the art of Francisco Goya, especially the Goyescas suite for solo piano that became the basis for the opera. These pieces evoked the colorful and dramatic world that Goya inhabited and depicted in his art. Granados's fascination with Goya's Madrid set him apart from fellow nationalists Albeniz and Falla, who drew their principal inspiration from Andalusia. Though he was resolutely apolitical, Granados's attraction to Castile antagonized some Catalan nationalists, who resented Castilian domination. Yet, Granados also made important contributions to Catalan musical theater and was a prominent figure in the modernist movement in Barcelona.".
Based on a study of Madrid (1850-1930), Discordant Notes argues that sound, noise, street music and flamenco have played a key role in structuring the transition to modernity by helping to negotiate social attitudes and legal responses to fundamental problems such as poverty, insalubrity, and crime.
This book brings together 22 essays by musicologists of different nationalities and offers studies conducted within todays most active research lines within the field of musicology. The contributions refer to the analysis of networks of relationships that musical activities and phenomena had developed with the Franco regime (1938-1975). These offer approaches to specific genres (chamber music, instrumental and theatrical music, flamenco, jazz, copla, light music, and cinematic music) and to diverse repertories and creative musical languages (nationalist, Neoclassical, and avant-garde) without neglecting the study of the creation, musical discourse, and its producers (composers, performers, and critics) within the domain of public and private institutional frameworks. Also, they investigate the musical policies that formed part of the regime and involved repertories, creators, and performers. In this regard, the chapters that study music in the context of international relations up to the end of the Second World War stand out, as do those that investigate the impact that historical events such as the Spanish Civil War. Others specifically examine musical influences exerted beyond the Spanish borders on foreign composers and their contexts as well as on Spanish composers in exile. This volume presents a critical synthesis of the historiographic reflection that to date has dealt with the relations of music with the Franco regime, together with an analysis of the theoretic-artistic and identity-defining speeches in force during early Francoism, with an evaluation of their precedents.
As guitar instruction increases in popularity in secondary schools, many band, choir, and orchestra teachers are asked to teach guitar. In one helpfully concise volume, Teaching Beginning Guitar Class: A Practical Guide provides all of the practical tools that are necessary to teach guitar in the classroom, especially for music instructors who are not guitar specialists. Formatted to follow the school year from summer planning to opening weeks of the fall semester to a week-to-week timeline for the full school year, Teaching Beginning Guitar Class encompasses all possible needs for a non-guitar playing music instructor navigating the world of guitar instruction in a classroom setting. In twelve expertly organized chapters, author and veteran guitar teacher Bill Swick gives hard and fast guides for instruction, providing reassurance alongside invaluable tips for novice guitar educators. This book addresses questions such as 'I Do Not Play Guitar, Why Do I have to Teach Guitar?'; 'What is the Classroom Lifespan of a Guitar?'; and 'New Students in January?' while also providing practical solutions including basic setup, how to select the correct method book, and equipment maintenance.
The Panama Canal is a world-famous site central to the global economy, but the social, cultural, and political history of the country along this waterway is little known outside its borders. In Música Típica, author Sean Bellaviti sheds light on a key element of Panamanian culture, namely the story of cumbia or, as Panamanians frequently call it, "música típica," a form of music that enjoys unparalleled popularity throughout Panama. Through extensive archival and ethnographic research, Bellaviti reconstructs a twentieth-century social history that illuminates the crucial role music has played in the formation of national identities in Latin America. Focusing, in particular, on the relationship between cumbia and the rise of populist Panamanian nationalism in the context of U.S. imperialism, Bellaviti argues that this hybrid musical form, which forges links between the urban and rural as well as the modern and traditional, has been essential to the development of a sense of nationhood among Panamanians. With their approaches to musical fusion and their carefully curated performance identities, cumbia musicians have straddled some of the most pronounced schisms in Panamanian society.
