A definitive text dealing with the theory and practice of Western music in the 20th Century. (Summary by Jennifer Stearns)

Music

Shakespeare's plays are full of music: love songs, comic ditties, serious ballads, and songs for witches and spirits. Over the centuries musicians and composers have also created musical adaptations based on Shakespeare's plays. Composer Christopher Wilson's Shakespeare and Music (1922) documents the musical history of each play across various genres, including opera and incidental music. (Summary by Elizabeth Klett)...

Music

This book talks about teaching, learning and performing on the piano in a delightful style, alternating between conversation and instruction. As he was the father of Clara Schumann and Robert Schumann's teacher, need I say more?...

Music

volunteers sing twenty of their favourite hymns.

Music, Religion, Poetry

As our weekly poem of 30-July-2006, “Jazz Fantasia” was a special challenge because it isn’t just about jazz, it IS jazz. The rhythm is central, but not so clearly defined, so we had to play around and improvise. Every reading is unique! (Summary by LauraFox)...

Music, Poetry

volunteers bring you this year's selection of 25 sacred and secular carols and Christmas songs, in English, German and Latin.

Holiday, Music, Religion

This book is not written for professional musicians, but for untaught lovers of the art. It gives broad instruction on composers, styles, instruments, venues - and when to believe the critics. (Summary by Sarah Jennings)...

Music, Instruction

volunteers bring you 14 recordings of Verses on a Young Lady Playing on a Harpsicord and Singing by Tobias Smollett. This was the Weekly Poetry project for November 21st, 2010. Tobias George Smollett (19 March 1721 – 17 September 1771) was a Scottish poet and author. He was best known for his picaresque novels, such as The Adventures of Roderick Random (1748) and The Adventures of Peregrine Pickle (1751), which influenced later novelists such as Charles Dickens....

Literature, Music, Poetry, Romance

volunteers bring you 12 recordings of My Heart and Lute by Thomas Moore . This was the Weekly Poetry project for December 12th, 2010 My Heart and Lute is a song/poem by Thomas Moore. In Through the Looking-Glass by Lewis Carroll, Alice recognizes the tune used in the song called Haddocks' Eyes sung by the White Knight....

Poetry, Music, Romance

An imagined day in the life of each composer gives the anonymous author scope to describe each one's work and life, sketchily, of course, but interestingly. (Summary by David Wales)...

Biography, Music

Originally published in 1906, this book is essentially a how to guide on music appreciation. Includes sections on the pianoforte, orchestral, and vocal music. Good for anyone who wishes for a greater appreciation of the wonders of music. (Summary by prwells32)...

Instruction, Music

Padre Ignacio has been the pastor of California mission Santa Ysabel del Mar for twenty years. In 1855 a stranger rides into the mission bringing news and a spiritual crisis. It's really more of a novella than a novel. (Summary by David Wales)...

Historical Fiction, Music, Religion, Westerns

A biography of the Polish composer and virtuoso pianist Frédéric Chopin and a critical analysis of his work by American music writer and critic James Huneker. (Summary by Julie VW)...

Music, Biography

A selection of Beethoven's letters from the compilation by Dr. Ludwig Nohl and translated by Lady Grace Wallace. (Summary by Scott D. Farquhar)

Memoirs, Music

’s first collection of sung and spoken folk ballads (13 in collection).

Music, Poetry

The Pirates of Penzance; or, The Slave of Duty is a comic opera in two acts, with music by Arthur Sullivan and libretto by W. S. Gilbert. The story concerns Frederic, who, having completed his 21st year, is released from his apprenticeship to a band of tender-hearted pirates. He meets Mabel, the daughter of Major-General Stanley, and the two young people fall instantly in love. Frederic finds out, however, that he was born on 29 February, and so, technically, he only has a birthday each leap year. His apprenticeship indentures state that he remains apprenticed to the pirates until his 21st birthday, and so he must serve for another 63 years. Bound by his own sense of duty, Frederic's only solace is that Mabel agrees to wait for him faithfully. (Summary from Wikipedia)Cast Narrator: https://catalog. .org/people_public.php?peopleid=2506 Julie VW Frederic: https://catalog. .org/people_public.php?peopleid=103 Karen Savage Pirate King: https://catalog. .org/people_public.php?peopleid=4698 StephenC Samuel: https://catalog. .org/people_public.php?peopleid=5717 Phil Chenevert Ruth: https://catalog. .org/people_public.php?pe...

Comedy, Music, Romance, Humor

Originally modeled on the Psalms and other poetic passages (commonly referred to as canticles) in the Scriptures, Christian hymns are generally directed as praise and worship to the monotheistic God. Many refer to Jesus Christ either directly or indirectly. Since the earliest times, Christians have sung psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, both in private devotions and in corporate worship (Matthew 26:30; 1 Cor 14:26; Ephesians 5:19; Colossians 3:16; James 5:13; cf. Revelation 5:8-10; Revelation 14:1-5). One definition of a hymn is ...a lyric poem, reverently and devotionally conceived, which is designed to be sung and which expresses the worshipper's attitude toward God or God's purposes in human life. It should be simple and metrical in form, genuinely emotional, poetic and literary in style, spiritual in quality, and in its ideas so direct and so immediately apparent as to unify a congregation while singing it. (Summary by Wikipedia)...

Music, Poetry

volunteers bring you 23 recordings of A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea by Allan Cunningham. This was the Weekly Poetry project for March 4, 2012. Allan Cunningham was a Scottish poet and author. Cunningham was apprenticed to a stonemason, but gave his leisure to reading and writing imitations of old Scottish ballads. His prose is often spoiled by its misplaced and too ambitious rhetoric; his verse also is ornate, and both are full of mannerisms. Some of his songs, however, hold a high place among British lyrics. A Wet Sheet and a Flowing Sea is one of the best British sea-songs, although written by a landsman.(Summary by Wikipedia)...

Adventure, Music, Nature, Sea stories, Travel, Poetry

The community wants to bring you a special treat for the 2006 Holiday Season. Here is a collection of traditional Christmas carols recorded by our wonderful voluteers. Enjoy! (Summary by Linda)...

Music, Holiday

The community wants to bring you a special treat for the 2009 Holiday Season. Here is a collection of 30 traditional Christmas carols performed in a variety of styles by our wonderful volunteers. Enjoy!...

Holiday, Music

volunteers bring you 17 recordings of Two Musicians by Sarah Orne Jewett. This was the Fortnightly Poetry project for January 16, 2011. She published her first important story in the Atlantic Monthly at age 19, and her reputation grew throughout the 1870s and 1880s. Her literary importance arises from her careful, if subdued, vignettes of country life that reflect a contemporary interest in local color rather than plot. Jewett possessed a keen descriptive gift that William Dean Howells called an uncommon feeling for talk — I hear your people....

Music, Philosophy, Poetry

volunteers bring you 13 recordings of October by Florence Earle Coates. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 9, 2011. Mrs. Coates gained notoriety both at home and abroad for her works of poetry—nearly three-hundred of which were published in literary magazines such as the Atlantic Monthly, Scribner's Magazine, The Literary Digest, Lippincott's, The Century Magazine, and Harper's. Many of her poems were set to music by composers such as Mrs. H. H. A. Beach (Amy Cheney Beach), Clayton Johns, and Charles Gilbert Spross. In 1915, Florence was unanimously elected poet laureate of Pennsylvania by the state's Federation of Women's Clubs. (Summary from Wikipedia)...

Fantasy, Music, Nature, Romance, Poetry

volunteers bring you 12 recordings of A Bird in a Gilded Cage by Arthur J. Lamb. This was the Weekly Poetry project for October 2, 2011. A Bird in a Gilded Cage is a song composed by Arthur J. Lamb (lyrics) and Harry Von Tilzer (music). It was a sentimental ballad (or tear-jerker) that became one of the most popular songs of 1900,[1] reportedly selling more than two million copies in sheet music. (summary from Wiipedia)...

Fantasy, Music, Philosophy, Romance, Poetry

This is a collection of 14 songs chosen from Walter Crane's The Baby's Opera and The Baby's Bouquet containing classic nursery rhymes from England, France, and Germany. The songs are sung by 's very own Carol Stripling....

Children, Music