Altri libri che potrebbero interessarti

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  The Blues - A Very Short...

  Elijah Wald

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  Praised as "suave, soulful, ebullient" (Tom Waits), Elijah Wald is one of the leading popular music critics of his generation. In The Blues, Wald surveys a genre at the heart of American culture. 
   
   
   
  It has been defined by lyrical structure, or as a progression of chords, or as a set of practices reflecting West African "tonal and rhythmic approaches," using a five-note "blues scale." He traces its roots in work and praise songs, and shows how it was transformed by such professional performers as W. C. Handy, who first popularized the blues a century ago. He follows its evolution from Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith through Bob Dylan and Jimi Hendrix; identifies the impact of rural field recordings of Blind Lemon Jefferson, Charley Patton, and others; explores the role of blues in the development of both country music and jazz; and looks at the popular rhythm and blues trends of the 1940s and 1950s, from the uptown West Coast style of T-Bone Walker to the "down home" Chicago sound of Muddy Waters. Wald brings the story up to the present, touching on the effects of blues on American poetry, and its connection to modern styles such as rap. 
   
   
   
  As with all of Oxford's Very Short Introductions, The Blues tells you—with insight, clarity, and wit—everything you need to know to understand this quintessentially American musical genre.

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  Far from Over - The Music and...

  Dalton Higgins

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  Spotlighting one of today's most talked about and successful musicians, this unauthorized biography showcases the Grammy-nominated talent of hip-hop artist Aubrey Graham, aka Drake. The account reveals the entertainer as a triple threat: a rapper, a singer, and an actor whose journey to fame has been nothing short of atypical. From his debut going double platinum and selling millions of copies in the United States alone to topping the Billboard 200 charts and spawning numerous hits, this chronicle reviews Drake's numerous achievements, including the record-breaking digital popularity of his sophomore release. The celebrity's acting career is also touched upon, detailing how he is already being touted as the next Will Smith — another respectable rapper and an award-winning actor — after starring in nine seasons of Degrassi: The Next Generation, one of the most consistently watched drama series for teens in North America. Conducting a journey through the life of a 25-year-old wonder, the book travels from Drake's childhood in Toronto to his emergence as an unlikely global pop culture hero — breaking all of the music industry and societal clichês in the process — illustrating what makes this modern-day Renaissance man tick.

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  Art History Chinese art

  Stephen W. Bushell, Pierre...

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  As the centre of Far-Eastern art, China has always fascinated Westerners, who take an interest in its religious leaders and savants as much as in its artists. Sophisticated and mysterious, Chinese art has persistently developed for 10,000 years through unequalled talent, which long ago established its artistic preeminence. Admired and imitated by all, today Chinese paintings and porcelain are the timeless reminders of a decadent past which continues to astound people around the world. Dealing not only with architecture, sculpture and painting but also with bronze and porcelain, this text offers a complete panorama of Chinese arts and civilisation until the fall of the Empire in 1911.

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  How to be Chic in the Winter -...

  Fiona Ferris

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  Late summer heading into early autumn/fall is a such beautiful time of the year. You can feel everything growing still and soft; nature is slowing down and people are getting cozy. The most stunning colours can be found outdoors at this time. 
  Despite the natural beauty and your looking forward to the coziness of winter, you find that a few short months later things have gone awry. You have ploughed headlong into winter without design or plan; you are wearing the same clothes as last year because you have not put thought into your wardrobe; you have put on weight from indiscriminate eating and are complaining in your head, or worse, out loud that ‘it’s cold today’. This was me! 
  Many warm-blooded creatures hibernate when it is cold out and go with their natural instincts by doing so. They don't enter the spring season stressed; rather, animals waking up from hibernation are coming to sleepily, well rested and ready for the warmer season; so, why don’t we? We wouldn't go to sleep for months on end, but perhaps we can take a leaf out of their book and make winter a mental spa time of rejuvenation, beauty and pleasure. 
  It is easy to be enthusiastic about the winter season when the leaves are turning. Fall fashions are always fun to look forward to. We can rekindle our love for the colours of plum, navy and camel at this time of year. But a few months later the novelty has already worn off! 
  Discover strategies for not just surviving, but thriving this winter; on how to have a chic and beautiful winter season and emerge, like a butterfly ready for a gorgeous spring and summer. 
  If you are ready to change how you feel about the winter season, treat yourself to a copy of ‘How to be Chic in the Winter’!

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  Metaphor and Musical Thought

  Michael Spitzer

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  "The scholarship of Michael Spitzer's new book is impressive and thorough. The writing is impeccable and the coverage extensive. The book treats the history of the use of metaphor in the field of classical music. It also covers a substantial part of the philosophical literature. The book treats the topic of metaphor in a new and extremely convincing manner."-Lydia Goehr, Columbia University The experience of music is an abstract and elusive one, enough so that we're often forced to describe it using analogies to other forms and sensations: we say that music moves or rises like a physical form; that it contains the imagery of paintings or the grammar of language. In these and countless other ways, our discussions of music take the form of metaphor, attempting to describe music's abstractions by referencing more concrete and familiar experiences. Michael Spitzer's Metaphor and Musical Thought uses this process to create a unique and insightful history of our relationship with music—the first ever book-length study of musical metaphor in any language. Treating issues of language, aesthetics, semiotics, and cognition, Spitzer offers an evaluation, a comprehensive history, and an original theory of the ways our cultural values have informed the metaphors we use to address music. And as he brings these discussions to bear on specific works of music and follows them through current debates on how music's meaning might be considered, what emerges is a clear and engaging guide to both the philosophy of musical thought and the history of musical analysis, from the seventeenth century to the present day. Spitzer writes engagingly for students of philosophy and aesthetics, as well as for music theorists and historians.

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  Where there was no Cowdung - The...

  Solomon Osewe Oketcho

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  Raw hails from a village called Katandi in Kirewa, west Budana with Nagongera for a town in Tororo District, in the eastern region of Uganda, where Cowdung is non-existence. this symbolized poverty because the presence of Cowdung meant the presence of cows and the abundance of wealth.Raw fell in love with Nyar Opala, to her utter horror, though she found no dung at Rwa's family home. This implied that he was poorer than a church mouse, who ate holes out of Swiss cheese.Love still blossomed and the two love birds got married. they had 5 sons and 2 daughters, among them was one boy named Nyathirach. the book then involves an inspirational story while threatening to become a cautionary tale at every turn.

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