A Songh Without Words

Much has been written about the profoundly deaf, but the lives of the nearly 30 million partially deaf people in the United States today remain hidden. Song without Words tells the astonishing story of a man who, at the age of thirty-four, discovered that he had been deaf since childhood, yet somehow managed to navigate his way through Andover, Yale, and Columbia Law School, and to establish a prestigious international legal career. Gerald Shea's witty and candid memoir of how he compensated for his deafness -- through sheer determination and an amazing ability to translate the melody of vowels. His experience gives fascinating new insight into the nature and significance of language, the meaning of deafness, the fierce controversy between advocates of signing and of oral education, and the longing for full communication that unites us all. /DIV

Expertly arranged Piano music by Felix Mendelssohn from the Kalmus Editions series. These Romantic era songs were written for advanced players. This collection contains all fifty Songs Without Words and the Six Children's Pieces

These 48 pieces were composed over a period of two decades, beginning in 1832, and published in eight groups of six each. Many of these songs were dedicated to the women in Mendelssohn's life and reflect the sunniest qualities of his melodiousness, spontaneity and invention. Maurice Hinson has skillfully researched and edited these works back to their original form and provides a very informative introduction, which includes many detailed suggestions for a stylistic interpretation and performance, as well as biographical information on the composer's life.

The world's premier method for learning modern plectrum style guitar, time-tested and proven successful in building the theoretic and technical foundation needed to play in any style. All seven grades of this method are written in standard notation only to encourage better sight reading. In Grade 1, the student guitarist will learn to play solos, duets, scales, and chords in the keys of C, A minor, G and E minor. Even in Grade 1, the student is already exposed to the chord/melody concept of guitar performance.A supplementary study book entitled Grade 1 Studies, two different play-along CD recordings (pop version and traditional), and a DVD are available. the companion recordings feature Tommy Flint and William Bay playing in split-track format, with the solo parts performed on the right channel, and the accompaniment or second duet parts played on the left. the student can play along with the full recording, or tune out either channel and play the missing part.

In a first-ever publishing event, the remarkable photography and writings of Countess Sophia Tolstoy reveal the unfolding of her life with her famous husband--and evocatively portray a glittering world that soon would fade away. 120 photographs.

Songs without Words (Romances sans paroles) is the book in which, unabashedly, Paul Verlaine becomes himself and, in so doing, becomes the iconic poet of the French nineteenth century. A book of musical sequences, it seeks and finds exquisite purity of expression, best exemplified by Il pleure dans mon coeur, the most famous and most inimitable of all French lyric poems. And it is a book of intertwining narratives also, each of which entertains abasements and ecstasies, crises, crimes and expiations. These, in their separate ways, detail the shadowlands of artistic purity. Verlaine adores and defiles his child-bride, Mathilde. He takes to the road with Arthur Rimbaud, the love of his life, his muse, his captive and captor. Exhaustion is everywhere counterpoised with exaltation, squalor with splendor. And yet, in nearly every syllable, the dignity of Poetry and of human affections, proves inviolable.

Rapturous in its ability to depict the creative process, Words Without Music allows readers to experience that sublime moment of creative fusion when life merges with art. Biography lovers will be inspired by the story of a precocious Baltimore boy, the son of a music-shop owner, who entered college at age fifteen, before traveling to Paris to study under the legendary Nadia Boulanger; Glass devotees will be fascinated by the stories behind Einstein on the Beach and Satyagraha, among so many other works. Whether recalling his experiences working at Bethlehem Steel, traveling in India, driving a cab in 1970s New York, or his professional collaborations with the likes of Allen Ginsberg, Ravi Shankar, Robert Wilson, Doris Lessing, and Martin Scorsese, Words Without Music affirms the power of music to change the world.