Revisiting Music Theory

Revisiting Music Theory: A Guide to the Practice contains the basics of music theory with the vocabulary used in harmonic and formal analysis. The book assumes few music reading skills, and progresses to include the basic materials of music from J. S. Bach to the twentieth century. Based on Blatter’s own three decades of teaching music theory, this book is aimed at a one or two year introductory course in music theory, can serve for individual study, or as a review for graduate students returning to school. Drawing examples from well-known classical works, as well as folk and popular music, the book shows how theory is applied to practice. The book is divided into five parts. The first part introduces music notation, reviewing the basics of pitch, time, and dynamics as represented in written music. Part 2 introduces the concept of melody, covering modes, scales, scale degrees, and melodic form. Part 3 introduces harmony, dealing with harmonic progression, rhythm, and chord types. Part 4 addresses part writing and harmonic analysis. Finally, Part 5 addresses musical form, and how form is used to structure a composition. Revisiting Music Theory will be a valuable textbook for students, professors, and professionals.

Revisiting Music Theory: Basic Principles, Second Edition, surveys the basics of music theory and explains the terms used in harmonic and formal analysis in a clear and concise manner. Students will find Revisiting Music Theory to be an essential resource for review or reference, while instructors of introductory theory courses will find in these pages a solid foundation for cultivating musical thinking. Musicians of all kinds—amateur and professional alike—will find great value in augmenting and informing their knowledge of the art of music theory. The text covers the basic principles of music theory, including: • Musical notation • Key signatures and scales • Intervals, chords, and progressions • Melodic and harmonic analysis • Counterpoint and voice leading techniques • Musical forms and structures This second edition has been revised and reorganized to promote learning. Each section now includes an all-new selection of exercises, allowing readers to practice key skills and improve understanding. For students, instructors, and practicing musicians, Revisiting Music Theory offers an indispensable guide to the foundations of musical analysis.

Revisiting Music Theory: Basic Principles, Second Edition, surveys the basics of music theory and explains the terms used in harmonic and formal analysis in a clear and concise manner. Students will find Revisiting Music Theory to be an essential resource for review or reference, while instructors of introductory theory courses will find in these pages a solid foundation for cultivating musical thinking. Musicians of all kinds—amateur and professional alike—will find great value in augmenting and informing their knowledge of the art of music theory. The text covers the basic principles of music theory, including: • Musical notation • Key signatures and scales • Intervals, chords, and progressions • Melodic and harmonic analysis • Counterpoint and voice leading techniques • Musical forms and structures This second edition has been revised and reorganized to promote learning. Each section now includes an all-new selection of exercises, allowing readers to practice key skills and improve understanding. For students, instructors, and practicing musicians, Revisiting Music Theory offers an indispensable guide to the foundations of musical analysis.

With contributions by numerous experts

Challenges traditional Hollywood-derived models of star studiesIs classical Hollywood stardom the last word on film stars? How do film stars function in non-Hollywood contexts, such as Bollywood, East Asia and Latin America, and what new developments has screen stardom undergone in recent years, both in Hollywood and elsewhere? Gathering together the most important new research on star studies, with case studies of stars from many different cultures, this diverse and dynamic collection looks at film stardom from new angles, challenging the received wisdom on the subject and raising important questions about image, performance, bodies, voices and fans in cultures across the globe. From Hollywood to Bollywood, from China to Italy, and from Poland to Mexico, this collection revisits the definitions and origins of star studies, and points the way forward to new ways of approaching the field.Key featuresFeatures cutting-edge research on stardom and fandom from a range of different cultures, contributed by a diverse and international range of scholarsGenerates new critical models that address non-Hollywood forms of stardom, as well as under-researched areas of stardom in Hollywood itselfRevisits the definitions of stars and star studies that are previously defined by the study of Hollywood stardom, then points the way forward to new ways of approaching the fieldLooks at stars/stardom within a new local/translocal model, to overcome the Hollywood-centrism inherent to the existing national/transnational modelBrings into light various types of previously unacknowledged star textsEmploys a dynamic inter-disciplinary approachContributorsGuy Austin, Newcastle UniversityLinda Berkvens, University of Sussex Pam Cook, University of Southampton Elisabetta Girelli, University of St Andrews Sarah Harman, Brunel UniversityStella Hockenhull, University of WolverhamptonLeon Hunt, Brunel University Kiranmayi Indraganti, Srishti Institute of Art, Design and TechnologyJaap Kooijman, University of AmsterdamMichael Lawrence, University of SussexAnna Malinowska, University of SilesiaLisa Purse, University of ReadingClarissa Smith, University of SunderlandNiamh Thornton, University of Liverpool Yiman Wang, University of California-Santa CruzSabrina Qiong Yu, Newcastle UniversityYingjin Zhang, University of California-San Diego

This “lucidly argued, historically grounded . . . and timely book” reexamines the relationship between black cultures, jazz music, and critical theory (Alexander G. Weheliye, Northwestern University). A sustained engagement with the work of Theodor Adorno, Jazz As Critique looks to jazz for ways of understanding the inadequacies of contemporary life. While Adorno's writings on jazz are notoriously dismissive, he has faith in the critical potential of some musical traditions. Music, he suggests, can provide insight into the controlling, destructive nature of modern society while offering a glimpse of more empathetic and less violent ways of being together in the world. Taking Adorno down a new path, Okiji calls attention to an alternative sociality made manifest in jazz. In response to writing that tends to portray it as a mirror of American individualism and democracy, she makes the case for jazz as a model of “gathering in difference.” Noting that this mode of subjectivity emerged in response to the distinctive history of black America, she reveals that the music cannot but call the integrity of the world into question.

How do we explain the globalized musical world in which we find ourselves in the early 21st century and how did we arrive here? This extraordinary book outlines an understanding of the human musical story as an intercultural—and ultimately a transcultural—one, with travel and trade as the primary conditions and catalysts for the ongoing development of musical styles. Starting with the cultural and civilizational precedents that gave rise to the first global trading and travel network in both directions across the Afro-Eurasian Old World Web in the form of the Silk Road, the book proceeds to the rise of al-Andalus and its influence on Europe through the Iberian peninsula before considering the fusion of European, African and indigenous musics that emerged in the Americas between c1500-1920 as part of Atlantic culture and the New World Web, as well as the concurrent acceleration of globalism in music through European empires and exoticism. The book concludes by examining the musical implications of our current Age of Instantaneous Exchange that technology permits, and by revisiting the question of interculturality and transculurality in music.