Marina Frolova-Walker and Jonathan Walker, Shostakovich’s Symphony no. 5 (Oxford Keynotes)
This book is devoted to Shostakovich’s most controversial symphony composed at the peak of Stalin’s purges. It delves into the history of the work's composition, the pressures Shostakovich experienced at the time, and the cultural environment from the time the composer began work on Symphony through to the settling of its official critical reception. At the center of this exploration is the musical score itself, which is full of secrets that have taken decades to uncover.
John Rink, Music in Profile: Twelve Performance Studies (New York: Oxford University Press)
John Rink's book addresses fascinating topics in the field of musical performance studies concerning the history, analysis and psychology of music, as well as artistic research. It offers manifold practical insights into musical performance, ranging from detailed technical features to overall shape. Rink explores issues surrounding the identity and artistic voice of the performer by elucidating the sense-making and decision-making process underlying musical performance of all kinds. He also offers broad insights into musical ontology, epistemology and semantics, in addition to demonstrating some of the methodologies now used to study performance. As a whole, the book highlights the powerful effects that experiencing music in performance can have on those who take part in it, in any capacity.
Stephen Cottrell, Dafni Tragaki and Stephen Wilford (eds.), Ethnomusicology and its Intimacies: Essays in Honour of John Baily (Routledge)
Dr Stephen Wilford’s co-edited volume ‘Ethnomusicology and its Intimacies: Essays in Honour of John Baily’, edited with Professor Stephen Cottrell (City, University of London) and Dr Dafni Tragaki (University of Thessaly), was published by Routledge in December 2023. The volume focuses upon the various ways in which ethnomusicologists interpret the concept of intimacy in their work, and brings together sections on Performance, Auto/biographical Strategies, and Film, which are placed alongside interviews with a range of scholars and musicians. All of the contributors are either former colleagues or students of Emeritus Professor of Ethnomusicology John Baily (Goldsmiths, University of London), and the volume serves as a way of noting his eightieth birthday year and celebrating his contribution to ethnomusicology over many decades. The book will be launched at an event at Goldsmiths in February 2024.
