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Subject Area: Music-Strings

A Catalogue of the Works of Ralph Shapey
 Finley, Patrick
2023 1-4955-1164-2 116 pages
"The purpose of this catalogue is to list the works of the composer Ralph Shapey, with additional information that might serve--among others--students, performers, and librarians. The catalogue information herein was gathered primarily from Presser Publications in Bryn Mawr, PA, where several files of program notes, clippings of reviews, and final copies of Shapey's works are kept. In addition, information was gathered from the holdings of the New York Public Library and Shape's private collection. The listing is as comprehensive as possible, inclusive even of certain early works withdrawn from publication at the request of the composer. Certain entries contain information sent to me by Shapey." Patrick Finley [Introduction]

Aldo Parisot, The Cellist: The Importance of the Circle
 Hawkshaw, Susan
2023 1-4955-1148-0 216 pages
"This book will explore the career of renowned cellist Aldo Parisot, using first hand interviews with him and his wife Elizabeth as well as material from written sources. The book will stress Mr. Parisot's solo career, and will also touch upon his teaching career. My argument will be that Parisot is an extraordinary cellist with a creative bent. Not only was he an exceptional interpreter of what composers put on paper, but he also made creative suggestions to composers with regard to how their music might be more effective on the cello and more effective in general. Composers such as Villa-Lobos and Martino tailored their work to his cellistic personality, and Parisot sometimes made suggestions having to do with composition along the way. For example, Villa-Lobos in his Second Cello Concerto wrote a slow movement similar to what he had done in his Bachianas. ...This book might be useful to all students of the cello as well as Mr. Parisot's students in particular, as there is much to be learned from Parisot's comments on the history of the cello, and also about the expansion of the cello repertoire and the history of cello ensemble playing in the twenty and twenty-first centuries. It might also be of interest to scholars in the history of string performance and the cello in particular, but it is written in non-technical language and might equally well be read by contemporary aficionados of the cello." -Susan Hawkshaw ("Preface") This book was originally published in 2018 by Pendragon Press.

Biography of the Turkish Composer Ahmed Adnan Saygun and a Discussion of His Violin Works
 Giray, Selim
2003 0-7734-6879-X 132 pages
Adnan Saygun, one of the leading composers of the Turkish Five, was a serious ethnomusicologist who led the fieldwork in gathering folk material, and collaborated with the prominent musicological researcher and composer Béla Bartók. Saygun's music is published and recorded and performed internationally. After a biography, this study uses Saygun's violin music to discuss his practice of utilizing Turkish folk elements in Turkish classical music. It thus provides the non-Turkish performer with an understanding of the performance practice of the authentic Turkish folk idiom in Saygun's original compositions and Turkish classical music. A list of Saygun's works (revised by the composer) and a discography follow.

The Chevalier de Saint-Georges: Virtuoso of the Sword and the Bow
 Banat, Gabriel
2023 1-4955-1122-7 560 pages
This is a biography of The Chevalier de Saint-Georges. "Now, over two centuries after his death, the legacy that Saint-Georges left to posterity is as multifaceted as his attributes: fairness, honor, strength, courage, and a passion for justice. But above all, he left us a musical heritage that has enriched our knowledge and appreciation of that most human of instruments: the violin." -Gabriel Banat ["Epilogue"] This book was originally published by Pendragon Press in 2006.

Works for the Viola by Pulitzer Prize Winning Composers: An Annotated Bibliography
 Weaver, Michael Alan
2006 0-7734-5737-2 184 pages
The Pulitzer awards in music have been representative of America’s best composers since 1917. Twenty-eight Pulitzer Prize winning composers, three Pulitzer Traveling Scholarship recipients, and two Pulitzer Special Award winners have written compositions for viola solo, viola with keyboard, and for viola with orchestra. This annotated bibliography catalogues each Pulitzer award winner’s compositions for these instrumentations. Each entry includes information concerning the composition’s premiere, publication details, dedication, commission, availability, a brief description, a selective bibliography, and a selective discography. Only compositions originally for viola and orchestra, viola and keyboard or viola solo are included. Some works are for another instrument or viola, as indicated by the original composer. Transcriptions by someone other than the original composer and works written for another alto clef instrument, but not for the viola, are not included. Descriptions of compositions were gleaned from music critics, prominent viola performers, presidents of composer societies, the composers themselves, reviews in journals and newspapers, or from performance and recording program notes. A brief history of the Pulitzer Prize in music is included. Publisher contact information, along with their instructions concerning the acquisition of out- of-print, archive or made-to-order requests, is also included.