A Manual of Instruction in Vocal Music (1833)


Book Description

The first music textbook designed for use in English schools, Turner's Manual is more than a historical curiosity. This, the first music textbook specifically designed for use in English schools, was published in 1833 under the auspices of the Society for Promoting Christian Knowledge - an evangelical body much concerned with "good works" andthe furtherance of sound educational principles. The author was an experienced and influential London teacher, a practising musician and an advocate of the teaching methods of Pestalozzi, still then unfamiliar to most teachers inthis country. Although the pioneer English teaching manual for schools, Turner's Manualis not just a minor historical curiosity.







Vocal Authority


Book Description

A fascinating history of singing styles from the ancient world to the present.







Bernarr Rainbow on Music


Book Description

A memoir by the renowned historian of music education, Bernarr Rainbow, including a selection of his writings and a biographical introduction by Peter Dickinson. Bernarr Rainbow's [1914-1998] Memoirs written in the last year or two of his life offers a fascinating read about the life of the man who became the leading historian of music education. The book answers questions about how his life and work developed and how he came to establish the Bernarr Rainbow Trust before he died in 1998. The collection will also bring together Rainbow's writings published in various magazines, some of very limited circulation. Thenotes by Peter Dickinson cover Rainbow's earlier life and career, from archival material including press cuttings and including areas he does not cover in his memoirs. There are introductions by Gordon Cox and Charles Plummeridge. PETER DICKINSON, the composer and pianist, is emeritus professor, University of Keele and University of London. He has written or edited several books about twentieth-century music, including Copland Connotations [2002], The Music of Lennox Berkeley [2003], CageTalk [2006], and the more recent Lord Berners and Samuel Barber Remembered.







Bel Canto


Book Description

Bel canto, or 'beautiful singing, ' remains one of the most elusive performance styles vocalists strive to master. During the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries, composers routinely left the final shaping of recitatives, arias, and songs to performers, and singers treated scores freely so that inexpressively notated music could be turned into passionate declamation. In other words, vocalists saw their role more as one of re-creation than of simple interpretation. Familiarity with the range of strategies prominent singers of the past employed to unlock the eloquent expression hidden in scores enables modern performers to take a similar re-creative approach to enhancing the texts before them. In this first ever guide to bel canto, author Robert Toft provides singers with the tools they need not only to complete the creative process the composer began but also to bring scores to life in an historically-informed manner. Replete with illustrations based on excerpts from Italianate recitatives and arias by composers ranging from Handel to Rossini, the book offers discussions of the fundamental principles of expressive singing, each section including a practical application of the techniques involved. Drawing on a wealth of documents from the era, including treatises, scores, newspaper reviews, and letters, this book captures the breadth of practices singers used in the bel canto period. Complete with six scores (recitatives and/or arias) for performers to personalize through the old methods, and a companion website offering demonstrations of the principles involved, Bel Canto is an essential resource for any singer or vocal instructor wishing to explore and master historical techniques of interpretation and re-creation from the eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries.







Four Centuries of Music Teaching Manuals, 1518-1932


Book Description

Introductions to a variety of texts used for teaching music. Bernarr Rainbow is widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education, from the Greeks up to the present day, as attested by his comprehensive study Music in Educational Thought and Practice. His ambitious series, Classic Texts in Music Education, provides editions of manuals covering methods of teaching music from the sixteenth century to the twentieth. Professor Rainbow wrote detailed prefaces to the manuals, which are conveniently collected in this volume, offering insights into and analysis of those who taught music in different times and places and the methods they employed. They have been put into full context by GORDON COX.




Music in Independent Schools


Book Description

The first serious study of music in independent schools, which bears eloquent witness to a high standard achieved over the last fifty years. This is the first serious study of music in independent schools. The high standard of musical work in such schools has long been known but now Andrew Morris and his team have provided up-to-date information. There are contributions from seven individual schools - Bedford, Dulwich, Eton, Gresham's, St. Paul's, Uppingham and Worksop - as well as chapters about Girls' Schools, Preparatory Schools, Choir Schools and Specialist Schools. Andrew Morris was Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years and was President of the Music Masters and Mistresses Association in 1996-97. He is thus ideally placed to mastermind a substantial compendium which is eminently readable andabsorbing. The book includes material from Bernarr Rainbow's study, Music in the English Public School (1990) and brings it up to date. As a historian, Rainbow looked back at how music developed in independent schools. Progress was slow, even tortuous, but Rainbow's fascinating documents, supported by his commentary, show how idealism won through, and Morris and his colleagues bear eloquent witness to the very positive development over the last fifty years. ANDREW MORRIS taught in secondary modern, grammar and comprehensive schools in London before becoming Director of Music at Bedford School for thirty-two years. He was President of the Music Masters' and Mistresses' Association from 1996-97 and President of the RAM Club at the Royal Academy of Music 2005-06. He has examined for the ABRSM for over thirty years. BERNARR RAINBOW (1914-1998) is widely recognised as the leading authority on the history of music education. His seminal books are all published by Boydell and are listed on the back pages of this volume. His series of Classic Texts in Music Education is a major resource and in 1997 he foundedthe Bernarr Rainbow Trust which supports projects in music education. CONTRIBUTORS: Catherine Beddison, Elizabeth Blackford, Timothy Daniell, Richard Mayo, James Peschek, Alastair Sampson, Graham Smallbone, Jonathan Varcoe, Myfanwy Walters, Nathan Waring, Robert Weaver, Hilary Webster.