New Books at the Rohrbach Library: Visual and Performing Arts

Recasting computational design- a new modern agenda for a post-industrial, post-pandemic world. Mass production was the core technical logic of industrial modernity- for the last hundred years, architects and designers have tried to industrialize construction and standardize building materials and processes in the pursuit of economies of scale. But this epochal march of modernity is now over. In Beyond Digital, Mario Carpo reviews the long history of the computational mode of production, showing how the merger of robotic automation and artificial intelligence will stop and reverse the modernist quest for scale. Today's technologies already allow us to use nonstandard building materials as found, or as made, and assemble them in as many nonstandard, intelligent, adaptive ways as needed- the microfactories of our imminent future will be automated artisan shops. The post-industrial logic of computational manufacturing has been known and theorized for some time. By tracing its theoretical and technical sources, and reviewing the design theories that accompanied its rise, Carpo shows how the computational project, long under the sway of powerful antimodern ideologies, is now being recast by the urgency of the climate crisis, which has vindicated its premises-and by the global pandemic, which has tragically proven its viability. Looking at the work of a new generation of designers, technologists, and producers, Beyond Digital offers a new modern agenda for our post-industrial future.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER * A NEW YORK TIMES MOST ANTICIPATED BOOK * A timely, passionate, provocative, blisteringly smart interrogation of how we make and experience art in the age of cancel culture, and of the link between genius and monstrosity. Can we love the work of controversial classic and contemporary artists but dislike the artist? "A lively, personal exploration of how one might think about the art of those who do bad things" --Vanity Fair   "Monsters leaves us with Dederer's passionate commitment to the artists whose work most matters to her, and a framework to address these questions about the artists who matter most to us." --The Washington Post "[Dederer] breaks new ground, making a complex cultural conversation feel brand new." --Ada Calhoun, author of Also a Poet   From the author of the New York Times best seller Poser and the acclaimed memoir Love and Trouble, Monsters is "part memoir, part treatise, and all treat" (The New York Times). This unflinching, deeply personal book expands on Claire Dederer's instantly viral Paris Review essay, "What Do We Do with the Art of Monstrous Men?"    Can we love the work of artists such as Hemingway, Sylvia Plath, Miles Davis, Polanski, or Picasso? Should we? Dederer explores the audience's relationship with artists from Michael Jackson to Virginia Woolf, asking: How do we balance our undeniable sense of moral outrage with our equally undeniable love of the work? Is male monstrosity the same as female monstrosity? And if an artist is also a mother, does one identity inexorably, and fatally, interrupt the other? In a more troubling vein, she wonders if an artist needs to be a monster in order to create something great. Does genius deserve special dispensation? Does art have a mandate to depict the darker elements of the psyche? And what happens if the artist stares too long into the abyss?    Highly topical, morally wise, honest to the core, Monsters is certain to incite a conversation about whether and how we can separate artists from their art.

How the Italian Renaissance reinvented the power of princes by rediscovering Vitruvius and his architecture-and justified their right to rule. In Vitruvius- Writing the Body of Architecture, Indra Kagis McEwen argued that Vitruvius's first-century BC treatise De architectura was informed by imperial ideology, giving architecture a role in the imperial Roman project of world rule. In her sequel, All the King's Horses, McEwen focuses on the early Renaissance reception of Vitruvius's thought beginning with Petrarch-a political reception preoccupied with legitimating existing power structures. During this "age of princes" various signori took over Italian towns and cities, displacing independent communes and their avowed ideal of the common good. In turn, architects, taking up Vitruvius's mantle, designed for these princes with the intent of making their power manifest-and celebrating "the rule of one." Through meticulous descriptions of the work of architects and artists from Leon Battista Alberti to Leonardo, McEwen explains how architecture became an instrument of control in the early Italian Renaissance. She shows how architectural magnificence supported claims to power, a phenomenon best displayed in one of the era's most prominent monumental themes- the equestrian statue of a prince, in which the horse became an emanation of the will of the rider, its strength the expression of his strength.

A wide-ranging and engaging introduction to the place and power of colour in life and art by John Gage, author of the award-winning Colour and Culture. The complex phenomenon of colour has received detailed attention from the perspectives of physics, chemistry, physiology, psychology, linguistics and philosophy. However, the people who work most closely with colour - artists - have rarely been canvassed for their opinions on this mysterious subject. John Gage sets out to address this omission by focusing on the thoughts and practices of artists. Colour in Art is concerned with the history of colour, but is not itself a history; instead each chapter develops a theme from a different scientific discipline, as seen from the viewpoint of such diverse artists such as Wassily Kandinsky, Vincent van Gogh, Sonia Delaunay, Bridget Riley and Clifford Possum Tjapaltjarri. Drawing on examples through the ages, from ancient times to the present, the many topics covered include flags, synaesthesia, Theosophy, theatre design, film, chromotherapy and chromophobia. Featuring a new foreword by art writer Kelly Grovier outlining contemporary developments in the study of colour, and an updated bibliography, this new edition of this classic text offers a wide-ranging and engaging introduction to the place and power of colour in life and art.

An adventurous collection that examines how the design field has consistently failed to attract and support Black professionals-and how to create an anti-racist, pro-Black design industry instead. An Anthology of Blackness examines the intersection of Black identity and practice, probing why the design field has failed to attract Black professionals, how Eurocentric hegemony impacts Black professionals, and how Black designers can create an anti-racist design industry. Contributing authors and creators demonstrate how to develop a pro-Black design practice of inclusivity, including Black representation in designed media, anti-racist pedagogy, and radical self-care. Through autoethnography, lived experience, scholarship, and applied research, these contributors share proven methods for creating an anti-racist and inclusive design practice. The contributions in An Anthology of Blackness include essays, opinion pieces, case studies, and visual narratives. Many contributors write from an intersectional perspective on race, gender, sexuality, ethnicity, and ability. Each section of the book expands on community-driven concerns about the state of the design industry, design pedagogy, and design activism. Ultimately, this articulated intersection of Black identity and Black design practice reveals the power of resistance, community, and solidarity-and the hope for a more equitable future. With a foreword written by design luminary Elizabeth (Dori) Tunstall, An Anthology of Blackness is a pioneering contribution to the literature of social justice.

The first monograph on theinfluential contemporaryCuban-Americaninterdisciplinary artist andwriter Coco Fusco. Tomorrow, I Will Become an Island is the first in-depth study of the performances, videos, and social practice of the influential Cuban-American artist Coco Fusco. The book will accompany an international touring retrospective of the artist's work starting in 2023. Featuring contributions by renowned scholars of art history, performance art, and Cuban cultural politics, this monograph offers a comprehensive review of Fusco's interdisciplinary art practice and her transnational perspective on race, gender, and power. Fusco has been a leader in conversations around the intersection of identity, feminism, culture, and politics in the Americas and beyond. Emerging during the 1980s as a pioneering advocate of multiculturalism in the arts, Fusco utilizes performance, video, archival research, and writing to reflect upon the ways that intercultural relations and colonial histories shape the construction of the self and perceptions of cultural difference. Her work critically examines society from a postcolonial perspective, engaging with debates about cultural politics throughout the Americas, Europe, and elsewhere. This expansive approach is highlighted through a broad range of works that address themes including postrevolutionary Cuba, racial stereotypes, feminist politics, ethnographic displays, military interrogation, and sex tourism.

Grab a pencil and dive into the exciting world of manga with step-by-step drawing tutorials and expert techniques. Drawing manga and anime-style art is an ever-popular preoccupation for artists, with the promise of intriguing characters, cute animals, and atmospheric scenery leaping from lines on the page. Beginner's Guide to Drawing Manga provides an exciting and engaging introduction to this art style, with even the most basic of tools available to new artists today. The book boasts helpful guides to the tools and techniques needed for successful manga art. It also includes various types of character anatomy, using color, and design techniques that imbue even the most inexperienced artist's work with dynamic, believable, and compelling qualities. Step-by-step tutorials allow artists to practise the techniques shown at their own pace, while creating completed compositions that boost both imagination and confidence. Professional concept artists from around the world, working in various creative industries, dream up characters and worlds that are packed with entertaining details and ideas. Finally, sample briefs provide a springboard for readers to explore their own manga and anime concepts.

A USA TODAY BESTSELLER A New Yorker Best Book of the Year A New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice A Washington Post Best Graphic Book of the Year #1 New York Times bestselling, award-winning New Yorker cartoonist Roz Chast's new graphic narrative, exploring the surreal nighttime world inside her mind--and untangling one of our most enduring human mysteries: dreams. Ancient Greeks, modern seers, Freud, Jung, neurologists, poets, artists, shamans--humanity has never ceased trying to decipher one of the strangest unexplained phenomena we all experience: dreaming. Now, in her new book, Roz Chast illustrates her own dream world, a place that is sometimes creepy but always hilarious, accompanied by an illustrated tour through "Dream-Theory Land" guided by insights from poets, philosophers, and psychoanalysts alike. Illuminating, surprising, funny, and often profound, I Must Be Dreaming explores Roz Chast's newest subject of fascination--and promises to make it yours, too.

As seen in The New York Times, Vogue Mexico, Latina Magazine, and The Art Newspaper The essential survey showcasing the work of more than 300 modern and contemporary artists born or based in Latin America Latin American artists have gained increasing international prominence as the art world awakens to the area's extraordinary art scenes and histories. In an accessible A-Z format, this volume introduces key artworks by 308 artists who together demonstrate the variety and vitality of artwork being made. Focusing on those born, or who have lived, in the 20 Spanish and Portuguese-speaking regions of Latin America, and featuring historic and living artists - both those celebrated internationally and names less-known outside their native countries - this book has been created in close collaboration with an expert panel of 68 advisors and writers. Artists featured include: Allora and Calzadilla, Manuel Alvarez Bravo, Francis Alÿs, Olga de Amaral, Fernando Botero, Leonora Carrington, Lygia Clark, Carlos Cruz-Diez, Leonor Fini, Gego, Felix Gonzalez-Torres, Carmen Herrera, Graciela Iturbide, Alfredo Jaar, Frida Kahlo, Guillermo Kuitca, Wifredo Lam, Teresa Margolles, Marisol, Cildo Meireles, Ana Mendieta, Beatriz Milhazes, Ernesto Neto, Hélio Oiticica, Gabriel Orozco, José Clemente Orozco, Diego Rivera, Zilia Sánchez, David Alfaro Siqueiros, Cecilia Vicuña, Adrián Villar Rojas and Faith Wilding. The advisory panel includes: Deri Andrade, David Ayala-Alfonso, Fernanda Brenner, Estrellita B. Brodsky, Tatiana Cuevas, Anna Di Stasi, Andrés Gustavo Duprat, Raphael Fonseca, Zanna Gilbert, Laura Hakel, Yina Jiménez Suriel, Maya Juracán, Pablo Léon de la Barra, Miguel A. López, Bernardo Mosqueira, Gerardo Mosquera, Rodrigo Moura, Laura Orozco, Taisa Palhares, Maylin Pérez, Catherine Petitgas, Patricia Phelps de Cisneros, Florencia Portocarrero, Ileana Ramírez Romero, Amy Rosenblum-Martín, Emiliano Valdés and Michael Wellen.

Examines how and why religion matters in the history of modern American art.   Andy Warhol is one of the best-known American artists of the twentieth century. He was also an observant Catholic who carried a rosary, went to mass regularly, kept a Bible by his bedside, and depicted religious subjects throughout his career. Warhol was a spiritual modern: a modern artist who appropriated religious images, beliefs, and practices to create a distinctive style of American art.   Spiritual Moderns centers on four American artists who were both modern and religious. Joseph Cornell, who showed with the Surrealists, was a member of the Church of Christ, Scientist. Mark Tobey created pioneering works of Abstract Expressionism and was a follower of the Bahá'í Faith. Agnes Pelton was a Symbolist painter who embraced metaphysical movements including New Thought, Theosophy, and Agni Yoga. And Warhol, a leading figure in Pop art, was a lifelong Catholic. Working with biographical materials, social history, affect theory, and the tools of art history, Doss traces the linked subjects of art and religion and proposes a revised interpretation of American modernism.  

A Sunday Times Art Book of the Year: written by one of the UK's foremost art critics, this new narrative history of the Renaissance takes in the whole of Europe and its global context. What was the 'Renaissance'? In the nineteenth century this flowering of creativity and thought was celebrated as the birth of the modern world. Today many historians are sceptical about its very existence. Earthly Delights rekindles the Renaissance as a seismic change in European mentalities, in a panoramic history that encompasses Florence and Bruges, London and Nuremberg. Artists from northern as well as southern Europe, including Leonardo, Bosch, Bruegel and Titian, star in a captivating and beautifully illustrated narrative that sets their lives against a period of convulsive change across a continent that was finding itself as it 'discovered' the world. Art critic and writer Jonathan Jones tells the story of Renaissance artists as pioneers, adventurers and 'geniuses', a Renaissance concept. Albrecht Dürer gazes with wonder on Aztec art in Brussels in 1520, Leonardo da Vinci tries to perfect a flying machine, Hieronymus Bosch finds inspiration in West African ivory carvings imported by the Portuguese to Antwerp. A then unknown Netherlandish painter, Pieter Bruegel, arrives in 1550s Rome just as Michelangelo is striving in the same city to raise the new St Peter's Basilica towards heaven. From Atlantic voyages to Germanic woods, Italian palazzi to the royal castle of Prague, this was an age when people dared to experiment with the occult and dabble in utopias: to think and create new worlds.

Richly illustrated volume exploring the inseparable histories of modernist abstraction and twentieth-century textiles.   Published on the occasion of an exhibition curated by Lynne Cooke, Woven Histories offers a fresh and authoritative look at textiles--particularly weaving--as a major force in the evolution of abstraction. This richly illustrated volume features more than fifty creators whose work crosses divisions and hierarchies formerly segregating the fine arts from the applied arts and handicrafts.   Woven Histories begins in the early twentieth century, rooting the abstract art of Sophie Taeuber-Arp in the applied arts and handicrafts, then features the interdisciplinary practices of Anni Albers, Sonia Delaunay, Liubov Popova, Varvara Stepanova, and others who sought to effect social change through fabrics for furnishings and apparel. Over the century, the intersection of textiles and abstraction engaged artists from Ed Rossbach, Kay Sekimachi, Ruth Asawa, Lenore Tawney, and Sheila Hicks to Rosemarie Trockel, Ellen Lesperance, Jeffrey Gibson, Igshaan Adams, and Liz Collins, whose textile-based works continue to shape this discourse. Including essays by distinguished art historians as well as reflections from contemporary artists, this ambitious project traces the intertwined histories of textiles and abstraction as vehicles through which artists probe urgent issues of our time.  

"Ink and paper are my muses. Using hand press printing and printers' ink to create original prints has absorbed me for the last 47 years. I love the qualities of all papers, especially fine rag papers and washi papers. Their tactile and soft surfaces beg to receive ink and I am always happy to oblige them." -- George A. Walker George A. Walker is one of Canada's foremost woodcut artists. Over the past 40 years Walker has created more than 1,000 wood engravings to illustrate seven wordless books and countless prints covering subjects ranging from literary works to half-remembered dreams, to historical figures and events. Ink and Paper is a collection of the best of Walker's work from the 1970s to the present. The book is a complete survey of his career, with over 250 prints -- including many from his wordless novels about important figures in Canadian art, politics and history -- as well as photos of Walker's handmade limited edition books. Each carefully selected image, complete in itself, is paired on the facing page with a complementary image that enhances the visual experience. Ink and Paper is capped with an afterword by Tom Smart, curator, essayist and director of the Beaverbrook Art Gallery. Walker attributes his fascination with woodcuts and their use in wordless novels to attending an exhibition featuring the work of Frans Masereel, the first master of the wordless novel. After the exhibition he began an obsessive pursuit to find books illustrated with woodcuts, wood engravings and linocuts, and to learn everything he could about fine art printmaking and the art of wood engraving. The result of that obsession is a four-decade career and an astounding body of work -- celebrated here for the first time in this gorgeous retrospective.

Since its inception in the mid-twentieth century, American music theory has been framed and taught almost exclusively by white men. As a result, whiteness and maleness are woven into the fabric of the field, and BIPOC music theorists face enormous hurdles due to their racial identities. In On Music Theory, Philip Ewell brings together autobiography, music theory and history, and theory and history of race in the United States to offer a black perspective on the state of music theory and to confront the field's white supremacist roots. Over the course of the book, Ewell undertakes a textbook analysis to unpack the mythologies of whiteness and western-ness with respect to music theory, and gives, for the first time, his perspective on the controversy surrounding the publication of volume 12 of the Journal of Schenkerian Studies. He speaks directly about the antiblackness of music theory and the antisemitism of classical music writ large and concludes by offering suggestions about how we move forward. Taking an explicitly antiracist approach to music theory, with this book Ewell begins to create a space in which those who have been marginalized in music theory can thrive.

The lives, loves, adventures and trailblazing careers offour extraordinary women from a stunning debut biographer.

The authorized biography of the legendary artist, Tupac Shakur, a "touching, empathetic portrait" (The New York Times) of his life and powerful legacy, fully illustrated with photos, mementos, handwritten poetry, musings, and more Artist, poet, actor, revolutionary, legend Tupac Shakur is one of the greatest and most controversial artists of all time. More than a quarter of a century after his tragic death in 1996 at the age of just twenty-five, he continues to be one of the most misunderstood, complicated, and influential figures in modern history. Drawing on exclusive access to Tupac's private notebooks, letters, and uncensored conversations with those who loved and knew him best, this estate-authorized biography paints the fullest and most intimate picture to date of the young man who became a legend for generations to come. In Tupac Shakur, author and screenwriter Staci Robinson--who knew Tupac from their shared circle of high school friends in Marin City, California, and who was entrusted by his mother, Afeni Shakur, to share his story--unravels the myths and unpacks the complexities that have shadowed Tupac's existence. Decades in the making, this book pulls back the curtain to reveal a powerful story of a life defined by politics and art--a man driven by equal parts brilliance and impulsiveness, steeped in the rich intellectual tradition of Black empowerment, and unafraid to utter raw truths about race in America. It is a story of a mother and son bound together by a love for each other and for their people, and the relationship that endured through their darkest times. It is a political story that begins in the whirlwind of the 1960s civil rights movement and unfolds through a young artist's awakening to rage and purpose in the '90s era of Rodney King. It is a story of dizzying success and its devastating consequences. And, of course, it is the story of Tupac's music, his timeless, undying message as it continues to touch and inspire us today.

NEW YORK TIMES and WALL STREET JOURNAL BESTSELLER To Jeezy's legion of fans, his name is synonymous with hustle, grit, and the integrity to go out there and achieve your dreams. In his first book, Adversity for Sale: Ya Gotta Believe, Jeezy shares never heard stories of what it took for him to beat the odds and get out of the streets, his mindset he carefully honed to get an edge, and the lessons that changed his life and business. Born into poverty and raised in a small town in the middle of South Georgia's so-called "Black belt," Jeezy realized at an early age that nothing was going to come easy, there were no handouts headed his way, and if he ever wanted anything in life, he was going to have to get out there and get it on his own. So that's what he did.  Now, for the first time, Jeezy retraces his steps, going back to day one to share how he turned nothing into something, stayed solid, survived the trap, and triumphed over adversity to become the successful artist, father, husband, entrepreneur, and philanthropist that he is today.  Adversity for Sale isn't a street memoir. Like his music, these pages are filled with lessons from his deeply personal story to motivate you to go out and get after your dream.

Contemporary popular musics such as hip hop, techno, grime, EDM, drill, house and so on are among the most listened to in the world and yet, typically, they are barely covered in the music classroom if at all. This needs to be better reflected in educational, cultural, and social terms. In wider society, these musics are often treated as if they are the causative for the social dysfunction that, in fact, they merely reflect. At the same time, projects, programmes and practices of such contemporary popular musics can and have supported wellness and healing. Editors Pete Dale, Pamela Burnard, and Raphael Travis Jr. argue that there is huge potential here for enhanced inclusion. Music for Inclusion and Healing in Schools and Beyond explains that when this music is included in the school curriculum or utilised in therapeutic contexts, huge leaps in healing and wellness can be achieved, as well as educational attainment and enjoyment in school contexts. This unique book seeks to account for those positive impacts, theorise them and help to extend and advance their impact. Contributing authors invite readers to re-think the possibilities and potentials for contemporary popular musics to gain the prestige that their actual popularity would suggest they should already command. The various contributors of this book are from diverse ethnic, social and academic backgrounds, and this title includes several chapters from practitioners who have not written about the work they do before now. Readers will learn not only about the impact of projects that utilize such music but also ideas about how that impact can best be measured.

"I'm not here to change your mind about Dusty Springfield or Shostakovich or Tupac Shakur or synthpop. I'm here to change your mind about your mind." There are countless books on music with much analysis given to musicians, bands, eras and/or genres. But rarely does a book delve into what's going on inside us when we listen. Michel Faber explores two big questions: how do we listen to music and why do we listen to music? To answer these questions, he considers a range of factors, which includes age, illness, the notion of "cool," commerce, the dichotomy between "good" and "bad" taste and much more. From the award-winning author of The Crimson Petal and the White and Under the Skin, this idiosyncratic and philosophical book reflects Michel Faber's lifelong obsession with music of all kinds. Listen will change your relationship with the heard world.

After the breakup of the Beatles in 1971, Paul McCartney formed Wings with his wife Linda on keyboards, ex-Moody Blues guitarist Denny Laine, and American session drummer Denny Seiwell. For ten dramatic and turbulent years, the band weathered the critics, endured drug busts, survived a harrowing recording session in Nigeria, changed drummers constantly, and produced a great deal of remarkable music. One of the most successful bands of the seventies--this post-Beatles years book tells the stories behind the #1 hits "Listen To What the Man Said," "My Love," "Band on the Run," "Jet," "With a Little Luck," and "Coming Up." Pete Chrisp reveals the band's inner dynamics and Paul's determination to pursue a new sound, the criticisms Linda initially got from fans and bandmates, and the character conflicts that kept the lineup changing. With a feature on Wings guitarist Henry McCullough, the book features a complete discography, a list of singles and albums also includes a treasure chest of Wings promotional material--album covers, posters, ads, and photos of the band on tour.

BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is an unprecedented glimpse into the creative life of one of America's most groundbreaking, influential and enduring artists. 'If there is anything new to be discovered about Bob Dylan, you can probably find it in The Bob Dylan Centre... Now the Bob Dylan Centre is publishing its first book, essentially the archive in miniature: Bob Dylan: Mixing up the Medicine. It is a 608-page tome examining over 1000 images and objects culled from the collection by archivists and curators Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel.' - The Telegraph Several years ago, a treasure trove containing some 6,000 original Bob Dylan manuscripts was revealed to exist. Their destination? Tulsa, Oklahoma. The documents, as essential as they are intriguing-draft lyrics, notebooks, and diverse ephemera- comprise one of the most important cultural archives in the modern world. Along with countless still and moving images and thousands of hours of riveting studio and live recordings, this priceless collection now resides at The Bob Dylan Center in Tulsa, Oklahoma, just steps away from the archival home of Dylan's early hero, Woody Guthrie. Nearly all the materials preserved at The Bob Dylan Center are unique, previously unavailable, and, in many cases, even previously unknown. As the official publication of The Bob Dylan Center, BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is the first wide-angle look at the Dylan archive, a book that promises to be of vast interest to both the Nobel Laureate's many musical fans as well as a broader cultural audience. Edited by Mark Davidson and Parker Fishel, BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE focuses a close look at the full scope of Dylan's working life, particularly from the dynamic perspective of his ongoing and shifting creative processes-his earliest home recordings in the mid-1950s right up through Rough and Rowdy Ways (2020), his most recent studio recording, and into the present day. The centerpiece of BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is a carefully curated selection of over 600 images including never-before-circulated draft lyrics, writings, photographs, drawings and other ephemera from the Dylan archive. With an introductory essay by Sean Wilentz and epilogue by Douglas Brinkley, the book features a surprising range of distinguished writers, artists and musicians, including Joy Harjo, Greil Marcus, Michael Ondaatje, Gregory Pardlo, Amanda Petrusich, Tom Piazza, Lee Ranaldo, Alex Ross, Ed Ruscha, Lucy Sante, Greg Tate and many others. After experiencing the collection firsthand in Tulsa, each of the authors was asked to select a single item that beguiled or inspired them. The resulting essays, written specifically for this volume, shed new light on not only Dylan's creative process, but also their own. BOB DYLAN: MIXING UP THE MEDICINE is the magnum opus every Bob Dylan fan has been waiting for since the 60s and will be a landmark publication for the ages.

Whenever a person engages with music-when a piano student practices a scale, a jazz saxophonist riffs on a melody, a teenager sobs to a sad song, or a wedding guest gets down on the dance floor-countless neurons are firing. Playing an instrument requires all of the resources of the nervous system, including cognitive, sensory, and motor functions. Composition and improvisation are remarkable demonstrations of the brain's capacity for creativity. Something as seemingly simple as listening to a tune involves mental faculties most of us don't even realize we have. Larry S. Sherman, a neuroscientist and lifelong musician, and Dennis Plies, a professional musician and teacher, collaborate to show how our brains and music work in harmony. They consider music in all the ways we encounter it-teaching, learning, practicing, listening, composing, improvising, and performing-in terms of neuroscience as well as music pedagogy, showing how the brain functions and even changes in the process. Every Brain Needs Music draws on leading behavioral, cellular, and molecular neuroscience research as well as surveys of more than a hundred musical people. It provides new perspectives on learning to play, teaching, how to practice and perform, the ways we react to music, and why the brain benefits from musical experiences. Written for both musical and nonmusical people, including newcomers to brain science, this book is a lively and easy-to-read exploration of the neuroscience of music and its significance in our lives.

Authored by Hip-Hop legend LL COOL J with Vikki Tobak and Alec Banks, this momentous volume celebrates the fiftieth anniversary of the influential culture, sound, and preeminent voices of American Hip-Hop music. LL COOL J Presents The Streets Win commemorates the birth, rise, and progression of Hip-Hop's culture and its indisputable impact on American music over the past fifty years. LL COOL J presents the journey of this music genre through rarely seen photographs of Hip-Hop from its inception, from block party performances to street shots, parties, sessions at recording studios, and more. The imagery is accompanied by first-person recollections from Hip-Hop's MCs, B-Boys, graffiti artists, and DJs who share how they fell in love with Hip-Hop, broke into the business, their artistic and personal style inspiration, and their views on Hip-Hop's culture and music. Stories are told by icons DJ Kool Herc, Salt-N-Pepa, MC Lyte, KRS-One, Eminem, Mary J. Blige, Grandmaster Flash, Run-D.M.C., Beastie Boys, De La Soul, Slick Rick, Public Enemy, Snoop Dogg, Dr. Dre, Nas, A Tribe Called Quest, Big Daddy Kane, Fat Joe, DJ Khaled and more. Each page features a treasure trove of images by celebrated Hip-Hop photographers including Joe Conzo Jr., Ernie "Brother Ernie" Paniccioli, Jonathan Mannion, Janette Beckman, Estevan Oriol, Jamel Shabazz, Mike Miller, Clay Patrick McBride, and others who documented the growth; ephemera such as album covers, notebook drawings, and lyrics; party announcements; street scenes; clothing; and graffiti art. This definitive volume of the most important origin stories from the last fifty years of Hip-Hop is the perfect gift for music and photography fans.

Gives a clear, step-by-step guide to ensemble understudying in muscial theatre. Aimed at professionals and aspiring professional students in musical theatre and related BA/BfA courses. The only book to address this central element of professional practice for professional actors, singers and dancers.

Music Technology Essentials provides an overview of the vocabulary, techniques, concepts, and devices used in contemporary music production and guides readers through the essential fundamentals of music technology so that they can create their own music productions at home. This highly accessible book covers sound fundamentals and theory, as well as practical topics like hardware, software, MIDI, digital audio, synthesis, computer notation, and audio-visual applications, to equip the reader with the principles they need to achieve professional-sounding results. Each chapter is accompanied by real-life examples and exercises that can be applied to any digital audio workstation software, to put the lessons into practice. This book will also help readers evaluate their requirements for home music production while working within a sensible budget. Music Technology Essentials is the ideal textbook for beginners inside and outside of the classroom, including those on music and music production courses, who wish to enter the world of music technology but are unsure where to start or what to purchase.