National Network for Equitable Library Service

When acclaimed novelist Donna Leon is not conjuring up tales of crime and corruption in Venice, or reveling in delicious cuisine, she is listening to music. For Leon, patron of conductor Alan Curtis and his celebrated orchestra Il Complesso Barocco, that usually means the work of her favorite composer, George Frideric Handel. Over the years, Leon has noticed that the great musician filled his operas with arias that make reference to animals; rich in symbolism, the perceived virtues and vices of the lion, bee, nightingale, snake, elephant, and tiger, among others, resonate in his works.

Opera is often perceived to be characterised by excessive passions, sumptuous costumes, lavish sets, and ill-mannered divas. In reality, operas address the most fundamental and universal human concerns - love, death, jealousy, greed and power. In this timeless introduction, Alexandra Wilson rescues the art form from fading into insignificance and reveals the reasons behind its lasting appeal.

What does classical music mean to the Western World' How has it transformed over the centuries' What relevance does it have today' Julian Johnson inspires readers to explore over 1000 years of music, and examines how music is related to some of the big ideas of Western experience including spirituality, emotion, the weight of history, and self identity. Julian Johnson is currently Professor of Music at Royal Holloway, University of London. He is also a composer and public speaker on musicology, championing the relevance of classical music to the general public.

The first major rock music festival and the precursor to Woodstock, the Monterey International Pop Festival was an unprecedented gathering of pop, soul, jazz, and folk artists who took the stage one luminous weekend during the "Summer of Love." On the 16th, 17th, and 18th of June, 1967, the sleepy California coastal community of Monterey played host to the now-legendary concert. In its aftermath, the world of popular culture was transformed forever. The '60s were now upon us with a soundtrack, a style, and a political and social sensibility all its own.

Stan Levey is widely considered to be one of the most influential drummers in the history of modern jazz. During his extraordinary career, the self-taught Levey played alongside a who's who of twentieth century jazz artists: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Miles Davis, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins, Art Tatum, Ben Webster, Dexter Gordon, Lester Young, Thelonius Monk, Benny Goodman, Woody Herman, Ella Fitzgerald-the remarkable list goes on and on, and includes dozens of the most distinguished names in the annals of jazz and popular music.

This collection of Tibetan poetry and lyrics is accompanied by extensive commentary and offers a great insight into a rich literary culture. Tibet, remote and inaccessible, is less known to the western world for its literary than its artistic contributions to world culture. Nevertheless, it has produced a literature of enduring beauty and significance, the supreme achievement of which is the poetry of Milarepa, its greatest poet and saint. This Tibetan poetry book indicates in its poetic exaggeration that, to the Tibetans, his poetry contains all earthly and celestial wisdom.

"The days of poets moping around castle steps wearing black capes is over. The poets of today are amplified." - LEONARD COHEN Picking up where Samuel Johnson left off more than two centuries ago, Ray Robertson's Lives of the Poets (with Guitars) offers up an amplified gathering of thirteen portraits of rock & roll, blues, folk, and alt-country's most inimitable artists. Irreverent and riotous, Robertson explores the "greater or lesser heat" with which each musician shaped their genre, while offering absorbing insight into their often tumultuous lives.

Ragtime, the jaunty, toe-tapping music that captivated American society from the 1890s through World War I, forms the roots of America's popular musical expression. But the understanding of ragtime and its era has been clouded by a history of murky impressions, half-truths, and inventive fictions. Ragtime: A Musical and Cultural History cuts through the murkiness. A methodical survey of thousands of rags along with an examination of then-contemporary opinions in magazines and newspapers demonstrate how the music evolved, and how America responded to it.

It's no secret that Beethoven went deaf, that Mozart had constant money problems, and that Gilbert and Sullivan wrote musicals. But what were these people-and other famous musicians-really like' What did they eat' What did they wear' How did they spend their time' And-possibly most interesting of all-what did their neighbors think' Discover the fascinating and often humorous stories of twenty famous musicians-people of all shapes, sizes, temperaments, and lifestyles, from various countries and historical periods.

The death of Bon Scott is the Da Vinci Code of rock In death, AC/DC's trailblazing frontman has become a rock icon, and the legend of the man known around the world simply as "Bon" grows with each passing year. But how much of it is myth' At the heart of Bon: The Last Highway is a special-and unlikely-friendship between an Australian rock star and an alcoholic Texan troublemaker. Jesse Fink, author of the critically acclaimed international bestseller The Youngs: The Brothers Who Built AC/DC, reveals its importance for the first time.