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Beyond Sound: The College and Career Guide in Music Technology
by Scott L. PhillipsBeyond Sound is a must-read for anyone who loves music technology and wants to build a career in this competitive, fast-paced world. Author Scott L. Phillips draws on his seventeen-year career as a technology trainer and educator, and his extensive network of music technology professionals, to present an intimate view of the exciting world of music technology. The book offers an in-depth consideration of music technology education, including looks at specific programs and a clear explanation of different types of degrees. Moreover, it provides practical guidance on career preparation, including how to get a great internship, how to land that first job, and how to make connections and move up in a variety of businesses from recording to television and film to video games. And Phillips brings stories from successful professionals, who share their experiences, advice, and suggestions.
Beyond Sound: The College and Career Guide in Music Technology
by Scott L. PhillipsBeyond Sound is a must-read for anyone who loves music technology and wants to build a career in this competitive, fast-paced world. Author Scott L. Phillips draws on his seventeen-year career as a technology trainer and educator, and his extensive network of music technology professionals, to present an intimate view of the exciting world of music technology. The book offers an in-depth consideration of music technology education, including looks at specific programs and a clear explanation of different types of degrees. Moreover, it provides practical guidance on career preparation, including how to get a great internship, how to land that first job, and how to make connections and move up in a variety of businesses from recording to television and film to video games. And Phillips brings stories from successful professionals, who share their experiences, advice, and suggestions.
Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music
by Angela Myles BeechingWidely considered a classic, Beyond Talent is the "go to" guide for musicians. This newly revised and updated third edition cracks the code of how to build a creatively fulfilling career in music. With key insights into the mindset issues that often plague musicians, veteran career coach Angela Myles Beeching provides a wealth of strategies, examples, and real-world solutions. Step-by-step instructions detail how to design promotional materials, book performances, fund your projects, and cultivate a community of support so you can manage your career like a pro-without losing your soul. And this edition goes further: it unpacks how to deal head on with the typical "inner" challenges musicians face. From getting past perfectionism and fear, to sustaining motivation, finding your artistic voice, managing projects, time, and money, and setting achievable goals. With her straight-shooting, energizing approach, Beeching presents a wealth of practical solutions to help musicians take charge of their careers and get past the obstacles that have held them back. Whether you're an emerging artist or a mid-career professional, this edition offers the inspiration to transform your music career journey so you can get more of your best work out into the world and finally become the artist you are meant to be. Includes a free downloadable companion workbook.
Beyond Talent: Creating a Successful Career in Music
by Angela Myles BeechingWidely considered a classic, Beyond Talent is the "go to" guide for musicians. This newly revised and updated third edition cracks the code of how to build a creatively fulfilling career in music. With key insights into the mindset issues that often plague musicians, veteran career coach Angela Myles Beeching provides a wealth of strategies, examples, and real-world solutions. Step-by-step instructions detail how to design promotional materials, book performances, fund your projects, and cultivate a community of support so you can manage your career like a pro-without losing your soul. And this edition goes further: it unpacks how to deal head on with the typical "inner" challenges musicians face. From getting past perfectionism and fear, to sustaining motivation, finding your artistic voice, managing projects, time, and money, and setting achievable goals. With her straight-shooting, energizing approach, Beeching presents a wealth of practical solutions to help musicians take charge of their careers and get past the obstacles that have held them back. Whether you're an emerging artist or a mid-career professional, this edition offers the inspiration to transform your music career journey so you can get more of your best work out into the world and finally become the artist you are meant to be. Includes a free downloadable companion workbook.
Beyond the Baton: What Every Conductor Needs to Know
by Diane WittrySeasoned conductor Diane Wittry draws a comprehensive roadmap to a successful career in Beyond the Baton. With first-hand understanding of how the role of the conductor has changed across the years, she expertly examines the new set of duties--both on and off of the podium--that now fall upon the shoulders of the music director. From getting a job to fundraising and educational outreach, Wittry's comprehensive tips and strategies guide students and professional conductors alike through the leadership and organizational skills necessary for success. Numerous real-life examples illustrate vital skills for artistic leadership such as programming subscription, pops, and educational concerts; understanding the budget and the music director's role in funding the artistic vision; and presenting speeches, and radio and televised interviews. In informative conversations with the author, successful conductors Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, and JoAnn Falletta offer tips from personal experience on how music directors can work successfully with orchestras, and what their roles are with the board and the community.
Beyond the Baton: What Every Conductor Needs to Know
by Diane WittrySeasoned conductor Diane Wittry draws a comprehensive roadmap to a successful career in Beyond the Baton. With first-hand understanding of how the role of the conductor has changed across the years, she expertly examines the new set of duties--both on and off of the podium--that now fall upon the shoulders of the music director. From getting a job to fundraising and educational outreach, Wittry's comprehensive tips and strategies guide students and professional conductors alike through the leadership and organizational skills necessary for success. Numerous real-life examples illustrate vital skills for artistic leadership such as programming subscription, pops, and educational concerts; understanding the budget and the music director's role in funding the artistic vision; and presenting speeches, and radio and televised interviews. In informative conversations with the author, successful conductors Leonard Slatkin, Robert Spano, and JoAnn Falletta offer tips from personal experience on how music directors can work successfully with orchestras, and what their roles are with the board and the community.
Beyond the Beat: Musicians Building Community in Nashville
by Daniel B. CornfieldAt a time when the bulwarks of the music industry are collapsing, what does it mean to be a successful musician and artist? How might contemporary musicians sustain their artistic communities? Based on interviews with over seventy-five popular-music professionals in Nashville, Beyond the Beat looks at artist activists—those visionaries who create inclusive artist communities in today's individualistic and entrepreneurial art world. Using Nashville as a model, Daniel Cornfield develops a theory of artist activism—the ways that artist peers strengthen and build diverse artist communities.Cornfield discusses how genre-diversifying artist activists have arisen throughout the late twentieth-century musician migration to Nashville, a city that boasts the highest concentration of music jobs in the United States. Music City is now home to diverse recording artists—including Jack White, El Movimiento, the Black Keys, and Paramore. Cornfield identifies three types of artist activists: the artist-producer who produces and distributes his or her own and others' work while mentoring early-career artists, the social entrepreneur who maintains social spaces for artist networking, and arts trade union reformers who are revamping collective bargaining and union functions. Throughout, Cornfield examines enterprising musicians both known and less recognized. He links individual and collective actions taken by artist activists to their orientations toward success, audience, and risk and to their original inspirations for embarking on music careers.Beyond the Beat offers a new model of artistic success based on innovating creative institutions to benefit the society at large.
Beyond the Beat: Musicians Building Community in Nashville (PDF)
by Daniel B. CornfieldAt a time when the bulwarks of the music industry are collapsing, what does it mean to be a successful musician and artist? How might contemporary musicians sustain their artistic communities? Based on interviews with over seventy-five popular-music professionals in Nashville, Beyond the Beat looks at artist activists—those visionaries who create inclusive artist communities in today's individualistic and entrepreneurial art world. Using Nashville as a model, Daniel Cornfield develops a theory of artist activism—the ways that artist peers strengthen and build diverse artist communities.Cornfield discusses how genre-diversifying artist activists have arisen throughout the late twentieth-century musician migration to Nashville, a city that boasts the highest concentration of music jobs in the United States. Music City is now home to diverse recording artists—including Jack White, El Movimiento, the Black Keys, and Paramore. Cornfield identifies three types of artist activists: the artist-producer who produces and distributes his or her own and others' work while mentoring early-career artists, the social entrepreneur who maintains social spaces for artist networking, and arts trade union reformers who are revamping collective bargaining and union functions. Throughout, Cornfield examines enterprising musicians both known and less recognized. He links individual and collective actions taken by artist activists to their orientations toward success, audience, and risk and to their original inspirations for embarking on music careers.Beyond the Beat offers a new model of artistic success based on innovating creative institutions to benefit the society at large.
Beyond the Conservatory Model: Reimagining Classical Music Performance Training in Higher Education (CMS Emerging Fields in Music)
by Michael Stepniak Peter SirotinAmid enormous changes in higher education, audience and music listener preferences, and the relevant career marketplace, music faculty are increasingly aware of the need to reimagine classical music performance training for current and future students. But how can faculty and administrators, under urgent pressure to act, be certain that their changes are effective, strategic, and beneficial for students and institutions? In this provocative yet measured book, Michael Stepniak and Peter Sirotin address these questions with perspectives rooted in extensive experience as musicians, educators, and arts leaders. Building on a multidimensional analysis of core issues and drawing upon interviews with leaders from across the performing arts and higher education music fields, Stepniak and Sirotin scrutinize arguments for and against radical change, illuminating areas of unavoidable challenge as well as areas of possibility and hope. An essential read for education leaders contemplating how classical music can continue to thrive within American higher education.
Beyond the Conservatory Model: Reimagining Classical Music Performance Training in Higher Education (CMS Emerging Fields in Music)
by Michael Stepniak Peter SirotinAmid enormous changes in higher education, audience and music listener preferences, and the relevant career marketplace, music faculty are increasingly aware of the need to reimagine classical music performance training for current and future students. But how can faculty and administrators, under urgent pressure to act, be certain that their changes are effective, strategic, and beneficial for students and institutions? In this provocative yet measured book, Michael Stepniak and Peter Sirotin address these questions with perspectives rooted in extensive experience as musicians, educators, and arts leaders. Building on a multidimensional analysis of core issues and drawing upon interviews with leaders from across the performing arts and higher education music fields, Stepniak and Sirotin scrutinize arguments for and against radical change, illuminating areas of unavoidable challenge as well as areas of possibility and hope. An essential read for education leaders contemplating how classical music can continue to thrive within American higher education.
Beyond the Crossroads: The Devil and the Blues Tradition (New Directions in Southern Studies)
by Adam GussowThe devil is the most charismatic and important figure in the blues tradition. He's not just the music's namesake ("the devil's music"), but a shadowy presence who haunts an imagined Mississippi crossroads where, it is claimed, Delta bluesman Robert Johnson traded away his soul in exchange for extraordinary prowess on the guitar. Yet, as scholar and musician Adam Gussow argues, there is much more to the story of the devil and the blues than these cliched understandings.In this groundbreaking study, Gussow takes the full measure of the devil's presence. Working from original transcriptions of more than 125 recordings released during the past ninety years, Gussow explores the varied uses to which black southern blues people have put this trouble-sowing, love-wrecking, but also empowering figure. The book culminates with a bold reinterpretation of Johnson's music and a provocative investigation of the way in which the citizens of Clarksdale, Mississippi, managed to rebrand a commercial hub as "the crossroads" in 1999, claiming Johnson and the devil as their own.
Beyond the Roof of the World: Music, Prayer, and Healing in the Pamir Mountains
by Benjamin D. KoenWhile Western medicine has conventionally separated music, science, and religion into distinct entities, traditional cultures throughout the world have always viewed music as a bridge that connects the physical with the spiritual. Now, as people in even the most technologically advanced nations across the globe struggle with obtaining affordable and reliable healthcare coverage, more and more people are turning to these ancient cultural practices of ICAM healing (integrative, complementary, and alternative medicine). With Beyond the Roof of the World, Dr. Benjamin D. Koen unearths the Western separation of healing from spiritual and musical practices as a culturally determined phenomenon, and proves the relevance of medical ethnomusicology in light of the globally spreading ICAM healing practices. Using the culture found within the towering Pamir Mountains of Badakhshan Tajikistan, in a place poetically known as the Roof of the World, as the paradigm of ICAM healing, Koen shows spirituality and musicality to be intimately intertwined with one's physical life, health and healing. For the first time, Koen bridges the widespread gap between ethnomusicology and music therapy. Koen's extensive research and emersion into the Badakhstan culture provides the reader with an "insider" perspective while maintaining an "observer's" view, as he infuses the text with relevant scholarship.
Beyond the Roof of the World: Music, Prayer, and Healing in the Pamir Mountains
by Benjamin D. KoenWhile Western medicine has conventionally separated music, science, and religion into distinct entities, traditional cultures throughout the world have always viewed music as a bridge that connects the physical with the spiritual. Now, as people in even the most technologically advanced nations across the globe struggle with obtaining affordable and reliable healthcare coverage, more and more people are turning to these ancient cultural practices of ICAM healing (integrative, complementary, and alternative medicine). With Beyond the Roof of the World, Dr. Benjamin D. Koen unearths the Western separation of healing from spiritual and musical practices as a culturally determined phenomenon, and proves the relevance of medical ethnomusicology in light of the globally spreading ICAM healing practices. Using the culture found within the towering Pamir Mountains of Badakhshan Tajikistan, in a place poetically known as the Roof of the World, as the paradigm of ICAM healing, Koen shows spirituality and musicality to be intimately intertwined with one's physical life, health and healing. For the first time, Koen bridges the widespread gap between ethnomusicology and music therapy. Koen's extensive research and emersion into the Badakhstan culture provides the reader with an "insider" perspective while maintaining an "observer's" view, as he infuses the text with relevant scholarship.
Beyond the Score: Music as Performance
by Nicholas CookIn Beyond the Score: Music as Performance, author Nicholas Cook supplants the traditional musicological notion of music as writing, asserting instead that it is as performance that music is loved, understood, and consumed. This book reconceives music as an activity through which meaning is produced in real time, as Cook rethinks familiar assumptions and develops new approaches. Focusing primarily but not exclusively on the Western 'art' tradition, Cook explores perspectives that range from close listening to computational analysis, from ethnography to the study of recordings, and from the social relations constructed through performance to the performing (and listening) body. In doing so, he reveals not only that the notion of music as text has hampered academic understanding of music, but also that it has inhibited performance practices, placing them in a textualist straightjacket. Beyond the Score has a strong historical emphasis, touching on broad developments in twentieth-century performance style and setting them into their larger cultural context. Cook also investigates the relationship between recordings and performance, arguing that we do not experience recordings as mere reproductions of a performance but as performances in their own right. Beyond the Score is a comprehensive exploration of new approaches and methods for the study of music as performance, and will be an invaluable addition to the libraries of music scholars - including musicologists, music theorists, and music cognition scholars - everywhere. Publication of this book was supported by the AMS 75 PAYS Endowment of the American Musicological Society, funded in part by the National Endowment for the Humanities and the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation.
Beyond the Story: 10-Year Record of BTS
by BTS Myeongseok KangTHE FIRST EVER OFFICIAL BOOK—Published in celebration of BTS’s 10th Anniversary, stories that go beyond what you already know about BTS, including unreleased photos and all album information.After taking their first step into the world on June 13, 2013, BTS will celebrate the 10th anniversary of their debut in June 2023. They have risen to the peak as an iconic global artist and during this meaningful time, they look back on their footsteps in the first official book. In doing so, BTS nurtures the power to build brighter days and they choose to take another step on a road that no one has gone before.BTS shares personal, behind-the-scenes stories of their journey so far through interviews and more than three years of in-depth coverage by Myeongseok Kang, who has written about K-pop and other Korean pop culture in various media. Presented chronologically in seven chapters from before the debut of BTS to the present, their vivid voices and opinions harmonize to tell a sincere, lively, and deep story. In individual interviews that have been conducted without a camera or makeup, they illuminate their musical journey from multiple angles and discuss its significance.In addition, portrait photos that show BTS as individuals and artists open the book, and throughout there are concept photos, tracklists of all previous albums, and over 330 links to videos. As digital artists, BTS has been communicating with the world through the internet and this book allows readers to immediately access trailers, music videos, and more online to have a rich understanding of all the key moments in BTS history. Complete with a timeline of all major milestones, BEYOND THE STORY is a remarkable archive—truly everything about BTS in one volume.
Beyond Unwanted Sound: Noise, Affect and Aesthetic Moralism
by Marie ThompsonNoise is so often a 'stench in the ear' – an unpleasant disturbance or an unwelcome distraction. But there is much more to noise than what greets the ear as unwanted sound. Beyond Unwanted Sound is about noise and how we talk about it. Weaving together affect theory with cybernetics, media histories, acoustic ecology, geo-politics, sonic art practices and a range of noises, Marie Thompson critiques both the conservative politics of silence and transgressive poetics of noise music, each of which position noise as a negative phenomenon. Beyond Unwanted Sound instead aims to account for a broader spectrum of noise, ranging from the exceptional to the banal; the overwhelming to the inaudible; and the destructive to the generative. What connects these various and variable manifestations of noise is not negativity but affectivity. Building on the Spinozist assertion that to exist is to be affected, Beyond Unwanted Sound asserts that to exist is to be affected by noise.
Beyond Unwanted Sound: Noise, Affect and Aesthetic Moralism
by Marie ThompsonNoise is so often a 'stench in the ear' – an unpleasant disturbance or an unwelcome distraction. But there is much more to noise than what greets the ear as unwanted sound. Beyond Unwanted Sound is about noise and how we talk about it. Weaving together affect theory with cybernetics, media histories, acoustic ecology, geo-politics, sonic art practices and a range of noises, Marie Thompson critiques both the conservative politics of silence and transgressive poetics of noise music, each of which position noise as a negative phenomenon. Beyond Unwanted Sound instead aims to account for a broader spectrum of noise, ranging from the exceptional to the banal; the overwhelming to the inaudible; and the destructive to the generative. What connects these various and variable manifestations of noise is not negativity but affectivity. Building on the Spinozist assertion that to exist is to be affected, Beyond Unwanted Sound asserts that to exist is to be affected by noise.
Bhangra Moves: From Ludhiana to London and Beyond
by AnjaliGera RoyBhangra is commonly understood as the hybrid music produced in Britain by British Asian music producers through mixing Panjabi folk melodies with western pop and black dance rhythms. This is derived from a Punjabi harvest dance of the same name. This book looks at Bhangra's global flows from one of its originary sites, the Indian subcontinent, to contribute to the understanding of emerging South Asian cultural practices such as Bhangra or Bollywood in multi-ethnic societies. It seeks to trace Bhangra's moves from Punjab and its 'return back' to look at the forces that initiate and regulate global flows of local texts and to ask how their producers and consumers redirect them to produce new definitions of culture, identity and nation. The critical importance of this book lies in understanding the difference between the present globalizing wave and previous trans-local movements. Gera Roy contrasts the frames of cultural imperialism with those of cultural invasion to show how Indian cultures have constantly reinvented themselves by cross-pollinating with 'invading' cultures such as Hellenic, Persian, Arabic and many others in the past. By looking at Bhangra's flows to and from India, the book revises the relation between culture, space and identity and challenges boundaries. It weighs both the uses and costs of visibility provided by global networks to marginalized groups in diverse localities and explores whether collaborations between Bhangra practitioners, largely of working class origin, give ordinary people any control over the circulation of culture in the global village. Finally, the book considers whether cultural practices can alter hierarchies and power structures in the real world.
Bhangra Moves: From Ludhiana to London and Beyond
by AnjaliGera RoyBhangra is commonly understood as the hybrid music produced in Britain by British Asian music producers through mixing Panjabi folk melodies with western pop and black dance rhythms. This is derived from a Punjabi harvest dance of the same name. This book looks at Bhangra's global flows from one of its originary sites, the Indian subcontinent, to contribute to the understanding of emerging South Asian cultural practices such as Bhangra or Bollywood in multi-ethnic societies. It seeks to trace Bhangra's moves from Punjab and its 'return back' to look at the forces that initiate and regulate global flows of local texts and to ask how their producers and consumers redirect them to produce new definitions of culture, identity and nation. The critical importance of this book lies in understanding the difference between the present globalizing wave and previous trans-local movements. Gera Roy contrasts the frames of cultural imperialism with those of cultural invasion to show how Indian cultures have constantly reinvented themselves by cross-pollinating with 'invading' cultures such as Hellenic, Persian, Arabic and many others in the past. By looking at Bhangra's flows to and from India, the book revises the relation between culture, space and identity and challenges boundaries. It weighs both the uses and costs of visibility provided by global networks to marginalized groups in diverse localities and explores whether collaborations between Bhangra practitioners, largely of working class origin, give ordinary people any control over the circulation of culture in the global village. Finally, the book considers whether cultural practices can alter hierarchies and power structures in the real world.
Biblical: Rob Halford's Heavy Metal Scriptures
by Rob HalfordThe Metal God himself, Rob Halford - lead vocalist of Judas Priest and author of the critically acclaimed and reader-beloved autobiography, Confess - delivers a bible of hard rock and heavy metal, all in his enlightening, hilarious, and one-of-a-kind voice.Rob Halford has long been known for his legendary voice. As the front man of Judas Priest, his vocals have always been tremendous, and tremendously influential. In 2020, he brought his voice to the page with a glorious autobiography. Fans and readers loved Halford's frank and open narrative, as well as his terrific insight and sense of humour. Now, in Biblical, Halford runs his expert eye over all facets of the hard rock history and the heavy metal world. Biblical is a lively encyclopaedia in which Halford shares his opinions, memories, and anecdotes regarding every element of the rock and roll work and lifestyle from tours to tattoos, riffs to riders, and drugs to devil horns. In Halford's relaxed and honest tone, the book mixes serious and in-depth pieces with whimsical reflections on lessons learned during his fifty years of a life in music. Biblical is a handed-down-from-on-high holy tome that transports fans behind the scenes and back into their record collections, to the almighty ways of rock.
Bibliotheca Zelteriana: Rekonstruktion der Bibliothek Carl Friedrich Zelters. Alphabetischer Katalog
by Thomas RichterDer Alphabetische Katalog, der mehr als 2600 Einträge verzeichnet, dient der Erschließung des schriftstellerischen und epistolographischen Lebenswerks Zelters und Nachforschungen nach dem Verbleib der Bibliothek der Berliner Singakademie: der größte Teil der Sammlung an Büchern, Handschriften und Musikalien ging nach Zelters Tod an diese Institution über und gilt seit 1945 als verschollen.
Bic Runga's Drive (33 1/3 Oceania)
by Henry JohnsonFrom entering a high-school music competition to being honoured with the New Zealand Orderof Merit, Bic Runga has an established place within contemporary popular music. Focusing on her iconicalbum, Drive, and including informative case studies of representative tracks on the album, this book provides not only an in-depth study of one album, but skilfully navigates Runga's creative work over three decades to illuminate some of the key stages of her career. The book discusses the performer's rise to stardom, musical style, accolades and performance achievements. Blending popular music studies with media analysis, the book is the first to offer a detailed study of Runga's creativity and a close-up study of her debut and critically acclaimed album.
Bic Runga's Drive (33 1/3 Oceania)
by Henry JohnsonFrom entering a high-school music competition to being honoured with the New Zealand Orderof Merit, Bic Runga has an established place within contemporary popular music. Focusing on her iconicalbum, Drive, and including informative case studies of representative tracks on the album, this book provides not only an in-depth study of one album, but skilfully navigates Runga's creative work over three decades to illuminate some of the key stages of her career. The book discusses the performer's rise to stardom, musical style, accolades and performance achievements. Blending popular music studies with media analysis, the book is the first to offer a detailed study of Runga's creativity and a close-up study of her debut and critically acclaimed album.
Bicycle Diaries
by David ByrneSince the early 1980s, David Byrne has been riding a bicycle as his principal means of transportation in New York City. A few years later he discovered folding bikes, and starting taking them with him on music tour overseas, and experienced a sense of liberation as he pedalled around many of the world's principal cities. The view from his bike seat has given Byrne a panoramic window on urban life over the last thirty years as he has cycled round cities such as London, Berlin, Buenos Aires, Istanbul, Manila, New York, Detroit and San Francisco. From music and the visual arts, to globalisation, politics, the nature of creative work, fashion and art, this book gives the reader an incredible insight into what Byrne is seeing and thinking as he pedals around these cities.Filled with intimate photographs, incredible musical stories and a powerful ecological message, this is an enchanting celebration of bike riding and of the rewards of seeing the world at bike level. David Byrne is a co-founding member of the musical group Talking Heads. He has produced many solo albums and collaborated with such noted artists as Twyla Tharp, Robert Wilson and Brian Eno. He has received Grammy, Oscar and Golden Globe awards and was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in 2002.
Big Bangs: The Story Of Five Discoveries That Changed Musical History
by Howard GoodallThe dramatic story of five key turning points in a thousand years of Western music - discoveries that changed the course of history. Who first invented 'Doh Re Mi...'?What do we mean by "in tune"?Looking back down the corridor of a thousand years, Howard Goodall guides us through the stories of five seismic developments in the history of Western music. His "big bangs" may not be the ones we expect - some are surprising and some are so obvious we overlook them - but all have had an extraordinary impact. Goodall starts with the invention of notation by an 11th-century Italian monk, which removed the creation of music from the hands of the players to the pens of the composers; moves on to the first opera; then to the invention of the piano, and ends with the story of the first recording made in history. Howard Goodall has the gift of making these complicated musical advances both clear and utterly fascinating. Racy and vivid in a narrative full of colourful characters and graphic illustrations of technical processes, he also gives a wonderful sense of the culture of trial and error and competition, be it in 11th-century Italy or 19th-century America, in which all progress takes place. Big Bangs opens a window on the crucial moments in our musical culture - discoveries that made possible everything from Bach to the Beatles - and tells us a riveting story of a millennium of endeavour.