"A remarkably complex portrait of Aretha Franklin's music and her tumultuous life." --Rolling StoneAretha Franklin began life as the golden daughter of a progressive and promiscuous Baptist preacher. Raised without her mother, she was a gospel prodigy...

An autobiographical meditation on art from the world-renowned dancer and choreographerIn this ceaselessly questioning book, acclaimed African American dancer, choreographer, and director Bill T. Jones reflects on his art and life as he describes the...

An analysis of Verdi's entire operatic output done in great depth and detail and based on exhaustive research in European archives. The first volume of this monumental study is a reissue. Two additional volumes are in preparation.

Vividly describing the great performers and performances of the past as well as exploring the contemporary dance world, this revised and extended edition is a comprehensive study of dance.Dance’s extraordinary range extends from classical ballet and...

An exploration of the sensuous and the passionate, as expressed in operas by Mozart and Beethoven. Music, language, and drama come together in opera to make a whole that conveys emotional reality. In this book, Irving Singer develops a new mode for...

How did the Victorians engage with the ancient world? Victorian Culture and Classical Antiquity is a brilliant exploration of how the ancient worlds of Greece and Rome influenced Victorian culture. Through Victorian art, opera, and novels, Simon Goldhill...

Tchaikovsky's final symphony has fascinated generations of music lovers since its first performance just over a century ago. Professor Jackson explores sensitively and without prejudice the question of the Pathétique's program and its relation to...

The American musical has achieved and maintained relevance to more people in America than any other performance-based art. This thoughtful history of the genre, intended for readers of all stripes, offers probing discussions of how American musicals,...

Antonin Dvorák made his famous trip to the United States one hundred years ago, but despite an enormous amount of attention from scholars and critics since that time, he remains an elusive figure. Comprising both interpretive essays and a selection of...

Ella Fitzgerald (1917-1996) possessed one of the twentieth century's most astonishing voices. In this first major biography since Fitzgerald's death, historian Judith Tick offers a sublime portrait of this ambitious risk-taker whose exceptional musical...

Jon Savage, the author of the canonical England's Dreaming, explodes new ground in this electrifying history of pop music from 1955 through 1979. In demonstrating that gay and lesbian artists were responsible for many of the greatest cultural...

A lively chronicle of the year that shaped popular music forever, with an all new Spotify appendix!More than half a century ago, friendly rivalry between musicians turned 1965 into the year rock evolved into the premier art form of its time and...

THE INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLERNew York Times bestselling author Alan Paul's in-depth narrative look at the Allman Brothers' most successful album, and a portrait of an era in rock and roll and American history.The Allman Brothers Band’s Brothers...

“An expedition into the troubled soul of one of the world’s greatest songwriters.”—Haaretz “A fascinating and intense account of Leonard Cohen’s time in Israel during the 19-day Yom Kippur War of 1973. A must for any Leonard Cohen completist.”—Suzanne...

Discovered at last, the legendary lost manuscript of Grateful Dead co-founder and primary lyricist Robert Hunter, written in the early 1960s--a wry, richly observed, and enlightening remembrance of "the scene" in Palo Alto that gave rise to an incredible...