Listening for America: Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim

Listening for America: Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim PDF Author: Rob Kapilow
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1631490303
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 737

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Book Description
Finalist • The Marfield Prize [National Award for Arts Writing] “Not since the late Leonard Bernstein has classical music had a combination salesman-teacher as irresistible as Kapilow.” —Kansas City Star “If you want to understand American history, listen to its popular music,” writes renowned NPR host Rob Kapilow. “If you want to understand America’s popular music, listen to its history.” Through the songs of eight legendary American composers—Kern, Porter, Gershwin, Arlen, Berlin, Rodgers, Bernstein, and Sondheim—Kapilow listens for the history not just of musical theater, but of America itself. Combining close readings of Broadway hits like “Summertime” and “Stormy Weather” with a wide-angled historical point of view, Listening for America shows us how we too can listen along as America discovered its identity through the epochal transformations of the twentieth century.

Listening for America: Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim

Listening for America: Inside the Great American Songbook from Gershwin to Sondheim PDF Author: Rob Kapilow
Publisher: Liveright Publishing
ISBN: 1631490303
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 737

Get Book Here

Book Description
Finalist • The Marfield Prize [National Award for Arts Writing] “Not since the late Leonard Bernstein has classical music had a combination salesman-teacher as irresistible as Kapilow.” —Kansas City Star “If you want to understand American history, listen to its popular music,” writes renowned NPR host Rob Kapilow. “If you want to understand America’s popular music, listen to its history.” Through the songs of eight legendary American composers—Kern, Porter, Gershwin, Arlen, Berlin, Rodgers, Bernstein, and Sondheim—Kapilow listens for the history not just of musical theater, but of America itself. Combining close readings of Broadway hits like “Summertime” and “Stormy Weather” with a wide-angled historical point of view, Listening for America shows us how we too can listen along as America discovered its identity through the epochal transformations of the twentieth century.

The American Songbook

The American Songbook PDF Author: Ann van der Merwe
Publisher: Rowman & Littlefield
ISBN: 1442242450
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 165

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Book Description
With their unforgettable melodies, timeless messages, and stylistic indebtedness to both jazz and Broadway, American popular standards have proven to be among the most widely performed and enjoyed songs of the past century. Shaped in many ways by the technological and cultural developments of the early twentieth century, they have also managed to transcend these origins and become an enduring part of the American musical landscape. Ann van der Merwe explores how and why American songbook standards developed in the early twentieth century and how these standards have shaped American—and even global—musical culture ever since. The American Songbook explores key aspects of individual songs, including the musical and lyrical reasons for their broad appeal and applicability over the years. The American songbook continues to permeate the fabric of our daily lives. It is a repertoire that spans generations, from Fred Astaire to Tony Bennett and Lady Gaga. As a result, music lovers both young and old will enjoy discovering how these beloved songs emerged and why they remain relevant a century later.

The Great American Songbook - The Singers

The Great American Songbook - The Singers PDF Author: Hal Leonard Corp.
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 1458481956
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 719

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Book Description
(Piano/Vocal/Guitar Songbook). Crooners, wailers, shouters, balladeers some of our greatest pop vocalists have poured their hearts and souls into the musical gems of the Great American Songbook. They sang in nightclubs and concert halls, on television and in films, and left us a legacy of recordings still in play today. Their interpretations entertained us, moved us to tears, and wove lyrics and music into the fabric of our lives, making us see ourselves in these quintessentially American songs. This folio features 100 of these classics by Louis Armstrong (Hello Dolly * What a Wonderful World), Tony Bennett (I Left My Heart in San Francisco), Rosemary Clooney (Count Your Blessings Instead of Sheep), Nat "King" Cole (Route 66), Bing Crosby (True Love), Doris Day (Bewitched), Ella Fitzgerald (How High the Moon), Judy Garland (Rock-a-Bye Your Baby with a Dixie Melody), Dean Martin (Everybody Loves Somebody), Frank Sinatra (Young at Heart), Barbra Streisand (People), Mel Torme (Heart and Soul), and many, many more.

The B Side

The B Side PDF Author: Ben Yagoda
Publisher: Riverhead Books
ISBN: 1594634092
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 338

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Book Description
An acclaimed cultural historian--drawing on previously untapped archival sources and interviews with such voices as Randy Newman, Jimmy Webb, Linda Ronstadt, and Herb Alpert--presents a social history of the great American songwriting era.

The American Song Book

The American Song Book PDF Author: Philip Furia
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0199391882
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 279

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Book Description
The American Song Book, Volume I: The Tin Pan Alley Era is the first in a projected five-volume series of books that will reprint original sheet music, including covers, of songs that constitute the enduring standards of Irving Berlin, Jerome Kern, the Gershwins, and other lyricists and composers of what has been called the "Golden Age" of American popular music. These songs have done what popular songs are not supposed to do-stayed popular. They have been reinterpreted year after year, generation after generation, by jazz artists such as Charlie Parker and Art Tatum, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong. In the 1950s, Frank Sinatra began recording albums of these standards and was soon followed by such singers as Tony Bennet, Doris Day, Willie Nelson, and Linda Ronstadt. In more recent years, these songs have been reinterpreted by Rod Stewart, Harry Connick, Jr., Carly Simon, Lady GaGa, K.D. Laing, Paul McCartney, and, most recently, Bob Dylan. As such, these songs constitute the closest thing America has to a repertory of enduring classical music. In addition to reprinting the sheet music for these classic songs, authors Philip Furia and Laurie Patterson place these songs in historical context with essays about the sheet-music publishing industry known as Tin Pan Alley, the emergence of American musical comedy on Broadway, and the "talkie" revolution that made possible the Hollywood musical. The authors also provide biographical sketches of songwriters, performers, and impresarios such as Florenz Ziegfeld. In addition, they analyze the lyrical and musical artistry of each song and relate anecdotes, sometimes amusing, sometimes poignant, about how the songs were created. The American Songbook is a book that can be read for enjoyment on its own or be propped on the piano to be played and sung.

"But He Doesn't Know the Territory"

Author: Meredith Willson
Publisher: U of Minnesota Press
ISBN: 1452965013
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 176

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Book Description
Chronicles the creation of Meredith Willson’s The Music Man—reprinted now as the Broadway Edition Composer Meredith Willson described The Music Man as “an Iowan’s attempt to pay tribute to his home state.” Now featuring a new foreword by noted singer and educator Michael Feinstein, this book presents Willson’s reflections on the ups and downs, surprises and disappointments, and finally successes of making one of America’s most popular musicals. Willson’s whimsical, personable writing style brings readers back in time with him to the 1950s to experience firsthand the exciting trials and tribulations of creating a Broadway masterpiece. Fresh admiration of the musical—and the man behind the music—is sure to result.

Easy to Remember

Easy to Remember PDF Author: William Zinsser
Publisher: David R. Godine Publisher
ISBN: 9781567923254
Category : Biography & Autobiography
Languages : en
Pages : 300

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Book Description
In this warm and affectionate book, William Zinsser describes his lifelong love affair with American popular song and the American musical theater.

The Great American Songbook - Country

The Great American Songbook - Country PDF Author:
Publisher: Hal Leonard Publishing Corporation
ISBN: 9781476875491
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
For voice and piano or guitar(s), with chord symbols and guitar chord diagrams.

A Fine Romance

A Fine Romance PDF Author: David Lehman
Publisher: Schocken
ISBN: 0805242716
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 272

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Book Description
In A Fine Romance, David Lehman looks at the formation of the American songbook—the timeless numbers that became jazz standards, iconic love songs, and sound tracks to famous movies—and explores the extraordinary fact that this songbook was written almost exclusively by Jews. An acclaimed poet, editor, and cultural critic, David Lehman hears America singing—with a Yiddish accent. He guides us through America in the golden age of song, when “Embraceable You,” “White Christmas,” “Easter Parade,” “Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered,” “Can’t Help Lovin’ Dat Man,” “My Romance,” “Cheek to Cheek,” “Stormy Weather,” and countless others became nothing less than the American sound track. The stories behind these songs, the shows from which many of them came, and the shows from which many of them came, and the composers and lyricists who wrote them give voice to a specifically American saga of love, longing, assimilation, and transformation. Lehman’s analytical skills, wit, and exuberance infuse this book with an energy and a tone like no other: at once sharply observant, personally searching, and attuned to the songs that all of us love. He helps us understand how natural it should be that Wizard of Oz composer Harold Arlen was the son of a cantor who incorporated “Over the Rainbow” into his Sabbath liturgy, and why Cole Porter—the rare non-Jew in this pantheon of musicians who wrote these classic songs shaped America even as America was shaping them. (Part of the Jewish Encounter series)

The Great American Banjo Songbook

The Great American Banjo Songbook PDF Author: Alan Munde
Publisher: Hal Leonard Corporation
ISBN: 1540002632
Category : Music
Languages : en
Pages : 292

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Book Description
(Banjo). Explore the repertoire of the Great American Songbook with this 70-song colletion, masterfully arranged by Alan Munde and Beth Mead-Sullivan for 3-finger, Scruggs-style 5-string banjo. Rhythm tab, right hand fingerings and chord diagrams are included for each of these beloved melodies. Songs include: Ain't She Sweet * Blue Skies * Cheek to Cheek * Home on the Range * Honeysuckle Rose * It Had to Be You * Little Rock Getaway * Over the Rainbow * Sweet Georgia Brown * and more.