by Marguerite Long (1981)
The French pianist, Marguerite Long, was closely associated with the music of Gabriel Fauré and became a favourite interpreter of his music. She studied and worked for a decade alongside the composer and dedicated her long and successful career to the promotion of his music.
Stuart Isacoff
Unfolds the ongoing history and evolution of the piano and all its myriad wonders: how its very sound provides the basis for emotional expression and individual style, and why it has so powerfully entertained generation upon generation of listeners.
Richard Bunger
This definitive manual describes how to "prepare" a piano properly (for compositions by John Cage and other composers for prepared piano) without damaging the instrument. The book includes numerous photos, diagrams, drawings, "Checklist for a Basic Preparation Kit", "Where to Obtain Materials", an annotated list of compositions for prepared piano, etc. Second American Edition, revised and expanded. - Author website.
W. Martin Bloomer
Latinity and Literary Society at Rome reaches back to the early Roman empire to examine attitudes toward Latinity, reviewing the contested origins of scholarly Latin in the polemical arena of Roman literature. W. Martin Bloomer shows how that literature's reflections on correct and incorrect speech functioned as part of a wider understanding of social relations and national identity in Rome. Bloomer's investigation begins with questions about the sociology of Latin literature - what interests were served by the creation of high style and how literary stylization constituted a system of social decorum - and goes on to offer readings of selected texts. Through studies of works ranging from Varro's De lingua latina to the verse fables of Augustus's freedman Phaedrus to the Annals of Tacitus, Bloomer examines conflicting claims to style not simply to set true Latin against vulgarism but also to ask who is excluding whom, why, and by what means. These texts exemplify the ways Roman literature employs representations of and reflections on proper and improper language to mirror the interests of specific groups who wished to maintain or establish their place in Roman society. They show how writers sought to influence the fundamental social issue of who had the power to confer legitimacy of speech and how their works used claims of linguistic propriety to reinforce the definition of "Romanness.". Through Bloomer's study Latinity emerges as a contested field of identity and social polemic heretofore unrecognized in classical scholarship. With its fresh interpretations of major and minor texts, Latinity and Literary Society at Rome is a literary history that significantly advances our understanding of the place of language in ancient Rome.
Martin Willis
"Using key canonical science fiction narratives, Mesmerists, Monsters, and Machines examines the intersection of the literary and scientific cultures of the nineteenth century. In this approach to the study of early science fiction, author Martin Willis maintains that science fiction was just as important in defining the culture of the nineteenth century as other critics maintain it was in shaping the twentieth century." "Mesmerists, Monsters, and Machines interrogates the cultural implications of scientific development as articulated, challenged, and reformulated by science fiction. Each chapter demonstrates that both science and fiction were vital parts of a culture of imaginative and empirical practices that were continually reacting to, arguing with, and influencing one another throughout the nineteenth century. In a narrative that cites classic science fiction texts, Willis establishes a timeline for the reader so that the cultural significance of science fiction is understood and its complexity and relevance to the nineteenth century is demonstrated." "Those interested in nineteenth-century history and literature, cultural studies, the history of science, and science fiction will welcome this addition to the scholarship."--Jacket.