Meet John Doe: Frank Capra, Director/Charles Wolfe, Editor (Rutgers Films in Print)

Book Description

The fall of the Soviet empire has not diminished the popularity of Dmitri Shostakovich's great symphonies and concertos one bit, despite the fact that most literature on him neglects any substantive discussion of the music itself in favor of biographical speculation on the relationship between the composer and the political climate of the day. This is the first book to provide a detailed, descriptive analysis of the 21 symphonies and concertos, work by work, explaining not just why they are significant documents of their time and place, but why they are great music in general. This offers readers an understanding of why Shostakovich's music enjoys the enduring support of performers and listeners alike, and how it fits into the great tradition of Western classical music generally.

Customer Reviews:

An excellent introduction to Shostakovich's major orchestral works.......2007-01-11

I believe that as his work becomes better-known, Shostakovich will be universally regarded as the composer who in the post World War I era of the 20th century has contibuted than any other to the expansion of the standard classical music repertory. Hurwitz'z book is an excellent, jargon-free introduction to his 15 symphonies and 6 concertos. Written with the general reader, it has interesting insights on virtually all the works covered, even on those few symphonies, such as the 12th, which are usually dismissed as substandard hackwork. He is well aware of the already massive Shostakovich literature, including the controversial "Testimony" by Solomon Volkov, but he is not afraid to form his own opinions which may or may not be contrary to received knowledge. Heartily recommended to all classical music lovers.

'Popular' treatment.......2006-11-12

Boy, do I ever hate being the ant at the picnic. But somebody has to say something. This is both useful and of little use simultaneously. That is, it is a well-written, conversational excursion through the repertoire that will be illuminating to many music-lovers. But at the same time it will teach them almost nothing.

Here is the problem: this book, like so many books on music written recently, takes the position that it would be the kiss of death to actually include a single musical example. To which many might say, yahoo! But if you resolutely avoid any use of musical notation, or even musical terms, in talking about music in a detailed fashion, then you find yourself having to say things like "and now the bippity-boop theme returns, this time on the flute." And I'm only slightly exaggerating. Imagine several pages about a work that uses a characteristic rhythm throughout in which the only way the author can refer to this rhythm is as 'The Rhythm'. Imagine if we have two themes and instead of describing one as being repeated eighth notes on D and the other as being rising fourths he has to refer to them as "the droney theme" and "the leapy theme". (These names are made up.) This is to reduce discussion of music to baby talk. And when the subject is large symphonic works, that seems particularly incongruous.

But I suspect that the author is not as much to blame as might be thought. He is after all, not starting a trend, but merely extending it. Apparently no-one, not even music-lovers, actually learns to read music any more. And also, apparently, if you want to actually, y'know, sell your book on music it must not contain any actual music.

But it's still baby-talk.

Music review.......2006-07-09

I found this most interesting and easy to read. Hurwitz has whimsical style that makes it easy to be informed and entertained. His works should make good textbooks for music students of the current generation.

Especially recommended for music students and classical music lovers everywhere.......2006-07-04

David Hurwitz, founder and editor of respected daily classical music magazine Classicstoday.com, presents Shostakovich Symphonies And Concertos: An Owner's Manual, an in-depth discussion of Shostakovich's grand musical creations. Offering much more than a technical analysis, Shostakovich Symphonies And Concertos also discusses at length what the music sounds like and how it works expressively. Featuring scrutiny of fifteen symphonies and six concertos in chronological order, Shostakovich Symphonies And Concertos provides a marvelous guided tour of the unfolding melodies as well as an overview of how Shostakovich's works fit into Western classical musical tradition. An accompanying full-length music CD contains a performance of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, which accurately showcases his style. Especially recommended for music students and classical music lovers everywhere.

A Guide to Listening to Shostakovich.......2006-06-19

Born in 1906 Shostakovich lived through the communist years in the Soviet Union. This book covers Shostakovich from his first symphony, completed when he was 19 through his next 14 symphonies and six concertos. It has relatively little in the way of biography, but instead is about his music.

Each major work is given a chapter of its own, and like the Owner's Manual of an automobile it describes the feelings generated by that work.

Mr. Hurwitz is perhaps the foremost writer working today in the field of classical music. He founded and is the executive editor of ClassicsToday.com a daily clasical music magazine, and is the chairman and founder of the Clkasical Internet Awards. He is the author of similar books on Wagner, Mozart, Mahler, Dvorak, and Haydn. The book includes an audio CD of Shostakovich's Fifth Symphony, easily his most famous.

Dmitri Shostakovich: A Life in Film: The Filmmaker's Companion 3 (The KINOfiles Filmmaker's Companions)

Average customer rating:

Dmitri Shostakovich: A Life in Film: The Filmmaker's Companion 3 (The KINOfiles Filmmaker's Companions)
John Riley
Manufacturer: I. B. Tauris
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Movies | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books
ASIN: 1850437092
Release Date: 2005-01-13

Book Description

Between 1929 and 1970, Dmitri Shostakovich wrote almost 40 film scores of Soviet films, from Stalinist cult epics to classical literary adaptations. His long and distinguished cinema career has hitherto been overlooked. Combining analysis and anecdote, John Riley provides this first account to examine the scores and their contexts in the films for which they were written, the ways in which contemporary events shaped both films and scores, and how he thought about, developed and applied his film music.

Average customer rating:

A 20th-century Well Tempered Clavier

Preludes and Fugues for Piano
Dmitry Shostakovich
Manufacturer: Dover Publications
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books

General | Performing Arts | Arts & Photography | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0486268616

Customer Reviews:

A 20th-century Well Tempered Clavier.......2000-08-05

Because copyright laws have changed since this Dover edition came out in 1991 - originally these pieces were not covered by copyright due to Russian law - it it has now gone out of print. To get these wonderful preludes and fugues, republished from the original Moscow editions from 1956 and 1966, at the original price of $12.95, seems incredible now. The volume includes the 24 Preludes, Op.34 from 1932-3 and five early preludes dating from 1920-21, but also the masterly, 24 Preludes and Fugues, Op.87, a 20th-century Well-Tempered Clavier, written between October 1950 and March 1951. Wilfred Mellers, in his essay for Keith Jarrett's recording on ECM, says the cycle "need fear no comparision with its model." It's rarely seen second-hand, so the library may be the only option.

Shostakovich Studies (Cambridge Composer Studies)

Average customer rating:

Extremely fine collection of essays

Shostakovich Studies (Cambridge Composer Studies)

Manufacturer: Cambridge University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

History & Criticism | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Look Inside Entertainment Books | Trip | Specialty Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0521028310

Book Description

Few composers' posthumous reputations have grown as steadily as Shostakovich's. Yet outside the concert hall the focus of attention seems to have been on the extraordinary circumstances of his life rather than on the music itself. This book seeks to show that the power of his work stems as much from its craftsmanship as from its political and personal context. The eleven essays lay a foundation for a proper understanding of Shostakovich's musical language as well as providing new insights into the issues surrounding his composition.

Customer Reviews:

Extremely fine collection of essays.......2006-11-12

This book is indispensable if you are really interested in Shostakovich. It contains an important essay by Richard Taruskin--and pretty much every essay by Taruskin on Shostakovich is important--detailed treatment of subjects such as Russian use of modes, Shostakovich's vocal music, the second piano trio in e minor and on and on. Not an easy read, but scholarly and well worth the effort.

A Shostakovich Casebook (Russian Music Studies)

Average customer rating:

Best Shostakovich Book Out There
Agreement
A necessary corrective
A Reply to Tim Page

A Shostakovich Casebook (Russian Music Studies)

Manufacturer: Indiana University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

ASIN: 0253218233

Book Description

A Shostakovich Casebook brings together 25 essays, interviews, newspaper articles, and reviews—many newly available since the collapse of the Soviet Union—to create a volume of essential reading and cutting-edge scholarship in Russian music studies. The contributors include Malcolm H. Brown, Laurel Fay, Irina Antonovna Shostakovich, and Richard Taruskin.

Customer Reviews:

Best Shostakovich Book Out There.......2007-07-25

This book is so informative. You get many different Shostakovich experts talking about what information exists out there. Incredibly informative about Shostakovich, but also about what information is reliable if you would like to do further research.
I highly, highly recommend this book, before all other Shostakovich materials out there.

Agreement.......2007-04-12

I write only to second the first two reviews and bring the debate up to date. When 'Testimony' first appeared in 1979, the naive political attack of the then Soviet union obscured the more profound criticism of those who knew Shostakovich well - namely, their incredulity that a personality as complex and secretive as Shostakovich was would ever have revealed himself to such a degree to a comparative stranger. Volkov did not help his cause by refusing to disclose the bulk of the transcript for many years.

But when he finally he did so, it turned out that his practical reasons for keeping the ms. to himself were correct - for inspection revealed such obvious indications that Shostakovich had by no means endorsed the book as to end the controversy and Volkov's reputation with it. This analysis is detailed in the Shostakovich Casebook, and also in the Bard Festival handbook. The material is not at all dry, but quite interesting to people wondering how working historials and biographers actually do business.

It is worth noting, however, that even the harshest critics acknowledge the enormous service 'Testimony' performed to Shostakovich, in presenting the West with a different image of the man than simply genius-cum-party-hack. It caused many people (myself, for example) to take a look at a musical accomplishment that was prodigious by any standard. The revitalized interest in DDS's chamber music, songs, and what were once considered his minor works, has led to a massive and long overdue appreciation of a towering musical genius. Volkov is owed a debt of gratitude for that that no one denies.

A necessary corrective.......2006-11-12

I could not possibly agree more strongly with Mr. Katz, the other reviewer. The Washington Post review cannot be let stand as it misunderstands the problem and demonstrates more than ever our need for this book. It is a sad truth that every book of falsehood published needs probably five or ten books of truth to correct.

Plus, and alone worth the price of the volume, there is included one of Richard Taruskin's invaluable essays on Shostakovich demonstrating once more his astonishing vision and learning with respect to Russian music.

A Reply to Tim Page.......2006-02-01

I've never posted a review before, but I can't allow the above "editorial review" to go unanswered. I don't understand how, after reading Laurel Fay's article in this book, there could possibly be a sliver of doubt in anybody's mind that Testimony is a massive fraud.

While I agree that the view of Dmitri Shostakovich as a loyal communist is naive and simplistic, the view espoused by Testimony is at least as much so. The veracity of the portrait of Shostakovich presented in Testimony is, at least, open to questions. The authenticity of the book itself has been demolished by Laurel Fay's excellent detective work. There can no longer be any doubt that what Shostakovich affixed his signature to was a collection of previously published writings. The departure from these earlier texts comes, in every single case, immediately following the end of the page which has been signed. There could not be any clearer evidence that the authentification of the book was carried out under false pretenses.

Mr. Page draws attention to the agressive tone and the sometimes-monotonous focus of A Shostakovich Casebook. Publishing this kind of jeremiad wouldn't be necessary if Western journalists didn't persist in their stubborn refusal to acknowledge that Testimony, whatever its merits may be, was written by Solomon Volkov without the help of Dmitri Shostakovich.

-- Jonah I. Katz

Massachusetts Institute of Technology

Tahiti Trot and Jazz Suite No. 1: Study Score

Average customer rating:

Tahiti Trot and Jazz Suite No. 1: Study Score

Manufacturer: G. Schirmer, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Songbooks | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 4118918218

6 Romances for Tenor and Piano: Voice and Piano

Average customer rating:

6 Romances for Tenor and Piano: Voice and Piano

Manufacturer: Sikorski
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0634034510

Book Description

In Russian and German.

Average customer rating:

Adagio and Allegretto: Study Score

Manufacturer: Sikorski
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 0634034545

Book Description

For String Orchestra.

Shostakovich (Oxford Studies of Composers)

Average customer rating:

Shostakovich (Oxford Studies of Composers)
Norman Kay
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0193154226

Average customer rating:

Shostakovich in Context

Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Music | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Japan | Asia | History | Subjects | Books

Russia | History | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0198166664

Book Description

This volume presents recent research into Dmitri Shostakovich's life (1906-1975) and work by leading British, American, Russian, and Israeli scholars. It is occasioned by the ever-growing interest in a composer whose significance in and for the history of twentieth-century music is, as Richard Taruskin has commented, immense, possibly unparalleled and above all, continuing. The authors of the thirteen articles are musicologists, Russian literature specialists, biographers, and cultural historians, whose diverse fields of expertise are reflected in the interdisciplinary nature of the materials collected here. The collection presents Shostakovich and his legacy in a variety of different contexts and its interdisciplinary nature will also serve to open up discussion. In this way, it breaks from previous tendencies to focus on the purely extrinsic qualities of the composers musical oeuvre, which has so often been interpreted in terms of autobiography. The chapters span the composer's entire career and contain substantial amounts of new information about Shostakovich and his musical legacy.

Average customer rating:

Excellent Assortment of Brain Benders

Mensa All-Color Puzzle Book 2: Challenge your mind with over 400 full color puzzles
Robert Allen
Manufacturer: Firefly Books
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: 1552095002

Book Description

Here are more than 400 fun and challenging full color puzzles for the puzzle junkie. Lateral thinking puzzles, word and number puzzles, logic brainteasers, letter grids, visual puzzles and more, all graded according to degree of difficulty: easy, medium and hard. All answers are included, as is information on joining the Mensa societies in the United States or Canada.

See it's sister book Mensa All-Color Puzzle Book 1 for more fun.

Customer Reviews:

Excellent Assortment of Brain Benders.......2003-07-14

This book is laid out beautifully and contains over three hundred full-color brain benders. It follows in the Mensa tradition of difficult yet visually pleasing puzzlers. A great choice.

Average customer rating:

Mensa Mind Challenge
Robert Allen
Manufacturer: Thunder Bay Press (CA)
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Logic & Brain Teasers | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 1571458832

Book Description

Mensa Mind Challenge includes more than 500 puzzles, from cunning numerical conundrums and testing word games to logic teasers, enigmatic lateral thinking tests, and abstract visual problems. They don't follow any special pattern, so you'll never know what challenge is lying in wait on the next page. Organized by level of difficulty from straightforward to downright devilish, you'll get some practice in puzzle thinking with the easy section, build skills in the medium section, and develop an edge for the really hard part. No special skills or abilities are needed -- just common sense, basic literacy, the ability to think things through, and determination.

Average customer rating:

Giant Book of Mensa Mind Challenges
Mensa , J.J. Mendoza Fernandez , Jaime Poniachik , Lea Poniachik , Tim Sole , Rod Marshall , and Karen C. Richards
Manufacturer: Main Street
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

General | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Logic & Brain Teasers | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1402710496

Book Description

Take the Mensa challenge. These extraordinarily entertaining puzzles can confound even those with high IQs--and that's what makes them such delightfully tricky fun. A few can be solved relatively quickly, but the hardest may seem nearly impossible to crack. Give your skills a real workout on numerical conundrums, word games, lateral thinking problems, and riddles. Brainteasers, arranged in order of difficulty, train the mind and provide a good time all at once. The most complex bafflers include chess, logic, and spatial puzzles. Here's just one example of what's inside: A farmer has twenty sheep, ten pigs, and ten cows. If we call the pigs cows, how many cows will he have?

The answer: Ten cows. We can call the pigs cows, but that doesn't make them cows.

Giant Book of Mensa Mind Challenges/Challenging Thinking Puzzles

Average customer rating:

Giant Book of Mensa Mind Challenges/Challenging Thinking Puzzles
Jaime & Lea; Sole, Tim; Marshall, Rod; Fernadez, J.J. Mendoza; Dispezio, Michael A. Poniachik
Manufacturer: Main Street Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000K3HWGW

Mensa Mind Maze Challenge (Mensa (Booksales))

Average customer rating:

A worry about Section 1, Puzzle 59
Great concept

Mensa Mind Maze Challenge (Mensa (Booksales))
John Bremner
Manufacturer: Book Sales
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Logic & Brain Teasers | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books

Puzzles | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: 0785811583

Customer Reviews:

A worry about Section 1, Puzzle 59.......2000-12-27

A nice challenge but I believe that the given solution is not unique.....I've found another! Hence I have gone off on a wild goose chase, eventually ending up at a previously solved problem....I would love to believe I am wrong, but can't believe I am!

Still, a good challenge!

Great concept.......2000-09-18

Here's the deal with Mind Maze...it's a whole bunch of really cool puzzles, all within one large puzzle. This is a great concept - one I've never seen before. The puzzles range from easy to difficult, are all solvable, and all need to be solved in order to complete the ultimate puzzle, which is determining 'codes' and 'keys' using the answers to problems already solved. The ultimate answer is a single number. For puzzle-solving fans, there are a wide range of puzzles, so the book does not become boring. Although there are no traditional favorites such as crosswords or crostics (anacrostics, depending on who publishes the book), the true puzzling fan will certainly maintain a high interest level throughout. Although it is a little more expensive than the usual newsstand item, I believe its novelty makes it worth it.

MENSA; Mighty Mind Benders - Challenge Your IQ; Over 200 Puzzles to Increase Your Brain Power

Average customer rating:

MENSA; Mighty Mind Benders - Challenge Your IQ; Over 200 Puzzles to Increase Your Brain Power
Harold Gale & Carolyn Skitt
Manufacturer: Carlton Books Ltd
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback
ASIN: B000ROQ4SQ

Average customer rating:

Giant book of Mensa mind challenges
J. J Mendoza Fernandez
Manufacturer: Sterling Pub. Co
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Unknown Binding

Puzzles | Puzzles & Games | Entertainment | Subjects | Books
ASIN: B0006RKZMU

Mind Teasers Logic Puzzles & Games of Deduction

Average customer rating:

Mind Teasers Logic Puzzles & Games of Deduction

Manufacturer: Sterlilng Publishing Co., Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover
ASIN: B000CBYBUM

Book Description

According to a recent issue of the Harvard Business Review, more than experience or training, it's a person's level of resilience in the face of stressful circumstances that will determine whether he succeeds or fails. Resilience at Work gives readers the courage and determination to face stressful problems instead of denying or avoiding them. Readers will learn proven techniques for:* Increasing positive attitudes like commitment, control, and challenge, while decreasing those of isolation, powerlessness, and threat* Developing patterns of support based on giving and getting assistance Luckily, resilience is not simply an ability one is born with, but a skill anyone can learn and improve. Resilience at Work gives readers the motivation and tools to work constructively and remain hardy through difficult situations, and turn stressful changes in the workplace into golden opportunities.

Customer Reviews:

Another Stress Book.......2005-10-13

The negative effects of stress have challenged people for a long, long time. For years, psychologists have endeavored to offer advice and assistance to those coping with personal and professional issues. For obvious reasons, many counselors, consultants, and trainers have focused on managing stress at work. Employers want smooth operations without the potential serious consequences of stress-induced problems. Careers have been destroyed by inabilities to deal with the ongoing changes in business.

I opened this book with an expectation that I might find some new secrets...perhaps a whole new approach to how workers-individually and collectively-could function much differently. What I found was another book on stress. Others may see some new ideas, but I've read a lot in this field so my expectations are probably higher than the average reader.

The text is organized to explain resilience-essentially having the inner strength to cope because you're doing a good job at managing change. The authors describe this as developing hardiness, the foundation of their Hardiness Institute. The book reports on a 12-year longitudinal study of employees at Illinois Bell Telephone. The stress of all the change over the years caused the departure or failure of two-thirds of the workers. The survivors practiced effective stress management techniques. The keys they promote include approaching change as a challenge, developing sound problem-solving strategies, resolving conflicts, and building commitment.

Readers will find an abundance of case studies that make points for the authors, teaching techniques and offering examples to stimulate thought.

Hardiness Works.......2005-09-09

What a delightful read! I have been through the Hardiness Training as a student of the authors and am now trained to provide the program to others. This book is a wonderful guide on how to apply the techniques in the workplace; quite timely considering we're all in a world of constant change. The use of real-life examples of resilient and non-resilient individuals was very clever. A brillantly written book and a truly wonderful legacy for Dr. Maddi and Dr. Khoshaba to give to the world!

Learn hardiness from the master.......2005-02-27

RESILIENCE AT WORK shows how to learn the core elements of hardiness that Salvadore Maddi identified in his classic research project at Illinois Bell Telephone twenty years ago. Maddi and Khoshaba explain that "the key to resilience is hardiness," and then show readers how to develop the three core hardiness attitudes:
* commitment
* control
* challenge

To these. they add two vital skills: transformational coping and social support.

RESILIENCE AT WORK reflects decades of practical experience teaching hardiness skills in corporate settings. Many real-life examples illustrate the points. A concluding chapter provides companies with guidelines for improving worker resiliency.

Finally, a self-help book that is relevant to our times!.......2005-02-20

What a great book! In today's difficult times, being a resilient person is probably one of the most important things we should develop and this book shows you how. I especially like that it is written in a clear cut manner with case study examples. This book will help anyone who has trouble bouncing back from life's adversities and teaches strategies to successfully handle stress. A most helpful and interesting read!

Books:

Books Index

Books Home

Recommended Books