Orchestra Expressions


Book Description

Orchestra Expressions(tm) provides music educators at all levels with easy-to-use, exciting tools to meet daily classroom challenges and bring new vibrancy and depth to teaching music. The lessons were written based on the National Standards for the Arts in Music -- not retro-fitted to the Standards. The program is music literacy-based and satisfies reading and writing mandates in orchestra class. The pedagogy involves a "four-fingers-down" start for every instrument and separate but simultaneous development of both hands. Each student book features an attractive full-color interior with easy-to-read notes and includes: -A 59-track accompaniment CD that covers Units 1-15 (a second CD covering Units 16-33 is available separately, individually as item 00-EMCO2006CD or in a 25-pack as item 00-EMCO2007CD) -Historical notes on some of the most notable composers of orchestral music -A thorough glossary of musical terms -Scales and warm-up exercises Future reprints may be printed with black and white interiors. This title is available in SmartMusic.




The German Way


Book Description

For All Students Ideal for a variety of courses, this completely up-to-date, alphabetically organized handbook helps students understand how people from German-speaking nations think, do business, and act in their daily lives.




Old German Christmas Music


Book Description

This collection includes works by Vincent Lübeck, Gottlieb Muffat, Franz Xaver Anton Murschhauser, Johann Pachelbel, Valentin Rathgerber, Samuel Scheidt, and Fredrich Wilhem Zachow.







A Very German Christmas


Book Description

A continuation of the very popular Very Christmas series conveying a festive spirit from the place where many Christmas traditions were invented. A delightful and unpredictable collection redolent of candle-lit trees, St. Nikolaus, gingerbread, the Christkindl, roast goose and red cabbage, Gugelhopf and stollen cakes, accompanied by plenty of schnapps.




German Christmas Traditions


Book Description

Christmas is a very special holiday not only in Germany but all over the world. It's such wonderful time of year and the magic atmosphere of December and the holiday season gets to everyone. This book will take you on a journey through many German Christmas traditions filled with happy childhood memories. Learn about longstanding traditions and customs like decorating your home, baking cookies (Weihnachtsplätzchen) and visiting the Christmas markets from someone who was born and raised in Germany. How do German children celebrate St. Nicholas Day? Who brings the Christmas gifts and when? What are the favorite Christmas ornaments and decorations in Germany? What dishes are eaten? These and many more questions will be answered in a very personal way. The author even included several of her favorite Christmas cookie recipes for you to bake.




Christmas in Germany


Book Description

"Perry's work is original, comprehensively researched, and a major contribution to understanding the central importance of the evolution of a consumer culture in modern Germany. The scholarship is sound, impressive, and provocative."ùRudy Koshar, University of Wisconsin-Madison --




Stories Behind the Best-loved Songs of Christmas


Book Description

Describes the origins of thirty-one famous Christmas songs, including "Jingle Bells," "O Holy Night," and "Rudolph the Red-Nosed Reindeer," and provides the lyrics to each.




Christmas in Germany


Book Description

For poets, priests, and politicians--and especially ordinary Germans--in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, the image of the loving nuclear family gathered around the Christmas tree symbolized the unity of the nation at large. German Christmas was supposedly organic, a product of the winter solstice rituals of pagan "Teutonic" tribes, the celebration of the birth of Jesus, and the age-old customs that defined German character. Yet, as Joe Perry argues, Germans also used these annual celebrations to contest the deepest values that held the German community together: faith, family, and love, certainly, but also civic responsibility, material prosperity, and national belonging. This richly illustrated volume explores the invention, evolution, and politicization of Germany's favorite national holiday. According to Perry, Christmas played a crucial role in public politics, as revealed in the militarization of "War Christmas" during World War I and World War II, the Nazification of Christmas by the Third Reich, and the political manipulation of Christmas during the Cold War. Perry offers a close analysis of the impact of consumer culture on popular celebration and the conflicts created as religious, commercial, and political authorities sought to control the holiday's meaning. By unpacking the intimate links between domestic celebration, popular piety, consumer desires, and political ideology, Perry concludes that family festivity was central in the making and remaking of public national identities.




Silent Night


Book Description

From an acclaimed military historian comes the astonishing story of World War I's 1914 Christmas truce—a spontaneous celebration when enemies became friends. It was one of history's most powerful—yet forgotten—Christmas stories. It took place in the improbable setting of the mud, cold rain, and senseless killing of the trenches of World War I. It happened in spite of orders to the contrary by superiors. It happened in spite of language barriers. And it still stands as the only time in history that peace spontaneously arose from the lower ranks in a major conflict, bubbling up to the officers and temporarily turning sworn enemies into friends. Silent Night, by renowned military historian Stanley Weintraub, magically restores the 1914 Christmas Truce to history. It had been lost in the tide of horror that filled the battlefields of Europe for months and years afterward. Yet, in December 1914, the Great War was still young, and the men who suddenly threw down their arms and came together across the front lines—to sing carols, exchange gifts and letters, eat and drink and even play friendly games of soccer—naively hoped that the war would be short-lived, and that they were fraternizing with future friends. It began when German soldiers lit candles on small Christmas trees, and British, French, Belgian, and German troops serenaded each other on Christmas Eve. Soon they were gathering and burying the dead, in an age-old custom of truces. But as the power of Christmas grew among them, they broke bread, exchanged addresses and letters, and expressed deep admiration for one another. When angry superiors ordered them to recommence the shooting, many men aimed harmlessly high overhead. Sometimes the greatest beauty emerges from deep tragedy. Surely the forgotten Christmas Truce was one of history's most beautiful moments, made all the more beautiful in light of the carnage that followed it. Stanley Weintraub's moving re-creation demonstrates that peace can be more fragile than war, but also that ordinary men can bond with one another despite all efforts of politicians and generals to the contrary.