Bibliography, History, Pedagogy and Philosophy in Music and Percussion

Description

Section I contains more than a hundred brief essays headed with bibliographic entries, covering aspects of contemporary percussion music. Section II contains more than twenty essays on a broad selection of subjects having to do with music ranging from the symphony to the xylophone. Section III contains several essays of musical scholarship covering analysis, biography, education, history, pedagogy and performance. The biographical sketches are of a professional nature. “The book traverses an expansive terrain of composers: some of the well known masters who happened to write for various percussion instruments, and others, writing as percussion performers themselves, who have made contributions to the solo literature. . . . there is an entire section devoted to women in the field. Geary Larrick deals at length with the literature on percussion music, and reviews, for instance, catalogues of instruments and the literature written for them. Monographs and methods, both historical and pedagogical, fall within the scope of his discussion, and he has reviewed many solo anthologies (some of which are for students), and collections of orchestral excerpts. . . . Even more diversity appears in his commentary on percussion instruments. Naturally the instruments of the orchestral percussion section are appropriate here, but the Afro-Cuban and Afro-Brazilian instruments appear alongside oriental and biblical instruments. . . . concise and within the reach of every insider. It is even accessible to outsiders, where the world of percussion has remained, until now, incomprehensible. This book shows how vast and variegated that world is.” Richard Pinnell, Chair, Department of Musick University of Wisconsin- LaCrosse