Books Recommendations
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Books of the Year - Winners 2023
7th Dec 2023
We are very pleased to announce the winning book publications for the annual Presto Music Awards! We have chosen five of the most outstanding publications from the past twelve months. Find out the winners here.
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Books of the Year - Finalists 2023
20th Nov 2023
In anticipation of the upcoming Presto Music Awards, we have compiled our selection of book titles all in the running as potential winners. The finalists range from composer biographies to analytical and educational music history books. Find out more.
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New Music Book Publications - 20th November 2023
20th Nov 2023
Observations and diaries from composer Errollyn Wallen, companions to Amy Beach and Mozart's The Magic Flute, a biography of film composer Elmer Bernstein, a guide for singers to French lyric diction, a revised edition of the Very Short Introduction to Film Music, a discussion of music and religion in the writings of Ian McEwan, and an account of ten technological innovations that transformed the music industry.
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New Music Book Publications - 30th October 2023
30th Oct 2023
An account of the young Mozart's trips to Italy, the history of the Academy of Ancient Music published to celebrate its fiftieth year, the tales and anecdotes behind favourite Christmas carols, the story of composers who fled Hitler's Germany in the 1930s, the cultural and musical evolution of the soprano from the sixteenth to the twenty-first century, a biography of Cecil Sharp and his rise to become the leading collector of folk song and dance in England in the Edwardian period.
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New Music Book Publications - 2nd October 2023
2nd Oct 2023
A reader for pianists by Alfred Brendel, a reassessment of the importance of Arnold Schoenberg, a collection of essays discussing Vaughan Williams and folk music, an anthology of sources exploring 600 years of musical activity compiled by Andrew Parrott, a paperback edition of a biography of Minna Wagner, activities to aid in the teaching of Key Stage 3 Music, and a companion to metal music.
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New Music Book Publications - 4th September 2023
4th Sep 2023
A history of song from the troubadours to the present day, a physiological guide to playing the violin, paperback editions of books on Ivor Gurney and Stephen Sondheim, a study of Mozart's operas in Prague, essays on African music by noted scholar Kofi Agawu, a biography of nineteenth-century American music critic John Sullivan Dwight, and an exploration of the relationship between music and the environment in medieval northern France.
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New Music Book Publications - 7th August 2023
7th Aug 2023
Books on the life and music of Schubert, Vaughan Williams, Silvestre Revueltas, and Elizabeth Maconchy, a guide for composers on writing for the organ, books for children on the trumpet, percussion, and the history of music from around the world, and a collection of interviews with artists connected with the Royal Academy of Music in London.
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New Music Book Publications - 10th July 2023
10th Jul 2023
The 2024 Boosey & Hawkes music diary, a biography of Arthur Bliss, an examination of the impact of the Strauss dynasty on Habsburg Vienna, a study of how the concepts of music theory can be applied within the genre of ethnomusicology, a history of American television music, a collection of art and illustrations by the late songwriter Scott Hutchison, and a behind-the-scenes look at the creation of the recent theatrical hit, Back to the Future: The Musical.
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New Music Book Publications - 19th June 2023
19th Jun 2023
An off-print from the acclaimed guide to musical notation, Behind Bars, a chronicle of representations of gay culture on Broadway, an investigation into the ways in which musicians engage with death, a collection of recently-discovered photographs taken in the 1960s by Paul McCartney, a reconsideration of the music of Bach and its relation to modernity, and a study of recordings from the 1950s by the Gerry Mulligan Quartet.
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New Music Book Publications - 5th June 2023
5th Jun 2023
An account of Rachmaninoff's final years spent living in America, an analysis of the value of music and how it can bring communities together, a history of minimalism in music, an introduction to medieval polyphony and song, a guide to the Great American Songbook, a paperback edition of Kate Molleson's award-winning reappraisal of twentieth-century music, and an exploration of what happens when a Broadway musical is turned into a Hollywood film.
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New Music Book Publications - 15th May 2023
15th May 2023
Biographies of Barber and Rachmaninoff, an introduction for children to the cello and flute, an analysis of the compositions of Ferruccio Busoni, a final collection of essays by the late musicologist Richard Taruskin, and an overview of the groundbreaking work carried out by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop.
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New Music Book Publications - 1st May 2023
1st May 2023
A guide to this summer's BBC Proms season, an analysis of Thomas Tallis and William Byrd's 1575 collection of sacred music (Cantiones sacrae), essays on Beethoven by scholars at the University of Manchester, a discussion of music in Oxford during the twentieth century, studies of songs by Clara Schumann and Benjamin Britten, and a history of the "Broadway Body".
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New Music Book Publications - 10th April 2023
10th Apr 2023
Reflections on music and performance from tenor Ian Bostridge, a history of music across different cultures through the millennia, an exploration of how A=440 hertz became the international standard for concert tuning, the life and times of Dutch composer Alphons Diepenbrock, a study of minstrels in late medieval England, and an examination of how Spanish folk music was collected during the early years of the Franco regime.
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New Music Book Publications - 27th March 2023
27th Mar 2023
A paperback edition of Steven Isserlis's book discussing Bach's Cello Suites, a guide to improvising fugues at the keyboard, the story of Nina Anisimova and her survival in the Soviet gulag, an approach to teaching choral singing using the Kodály concept, an assessment of British musical films after the Second World War, and an exploration of how science has helped to shape the evolution of music.
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New Music Book Publications - 13th March 2023
13th Mar 2023
An examination of errors and misprints in published editions of orchestral music, a biography of four largely-forgotten women composers, a guide to the violin and clarinet for children from the LSO, reception history of Haydn and Mozart during the nineteenth century, a study of music at British coronations from 1603 to the present, and a collection of Brian Eno's diaries.
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New Music Book Publications - 27th February 2023
27th Feb 2023
A study of the impact that singing can have on well-being, a companion to serialism, conversations with Black American composers, an exploration of Copland's visits to Latin America, a guide to the viola, a discussion of Kylie Minogue's debut album and its effect on the music industry, and an analysis of how listening to music affects the unconscious mind.
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New Music Book Publications - 6th February 2023
6th Feb 2023
A memoir of childhood from pianist Stephen Hough, an examination of the works of Beethoven, a biography of influential musicologist Edward J. Dent, an exploration of the importance of the symphony in Germany and the United States in 1933, an analysis of why dance matters, and paperback reissues of books on how the brain interprets musical patterns in different ways and the relationship between sound recording technology and American literature.
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New Music Book Publications - 23rd January 2023
23rd Jan 2023
An insight into the conducting profession, a discussion of the impact of Nietzsche on the composition of Mahler's first four symphonies, books on performers including Dame Nellie Melba, Edith Piaf, and Fred Astaire, and topics such as music and technology, Western music philosophy, Enlightenment thought in relation to the late works of Beethoven and Schubert, experimental music, and the concept of voice in late eighteenth-century Italy.
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New Music Book Publications - 9th January 2023
9th Jan 2023
Books on composers such as Brahms, Bach (Johann Sebastian as well as Carl Philipp Emanuel), Bliss, and Alan Bush, an insight into the life of pianist Igor Levit during lockdown, plus topics including seventeenth-century opera, women and music in Ireland, the songwriters of Tin Pan Alley, and the liturgical traditions of the Old Hispanic Office in Early Medieval Iberia.
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Eric Saylor's biography of Ralph Vaughan Williams
15th Dec 2022
David delves into one of our Books of the Year, offering his thoughts on a fascinating new biography by author and musicologist Eric Saylor of Ralph Vaughan Williams, released during the 150th anniversary of the composer's birth and published by Oxford University Press as part of their Master Musicians series.
