The first book to offer a complete introduction to the recorder includes basic reference material previously unavailable in one volume. A special feature is the rich collection of illustrations which in themselves provide a history of the instrument.

Featuring fascinating accounts from practitioners, this Companion examines how developments in recording have transformed musical culture.

A practical guide to the history, music and technique of the recorder.

The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race shows teachers and students how and why Shakespeare and race are inseparable. Moving well beyond Othello, the collection invites the reader to understand racialized discourses, rhetoric, and performances in all of Shakespeare's plays, including the comedies and histories. Race is presented through an intersectional approach with chapters that focus on the concepts of sexuality, lineage, nationality, and globalization. The collection helps students to grapple with the unique role performance plays in constructions of race by Shakespeare (and in Shakespearean performances), considering both historical and contemporary actors and directors. The Cambridge Companion to Shakespeare and Race will be the first book that truly frames Shakespeare studies and early modern race studies for a non-specialist, student audience.

This Companion provides an overview of the composer Anton Bruckner (1824-1896). Sixteen chapters by leading scholars investigate aspects of his life and works and consider the manner in which critical appreciation has changed in the twentieth century. The first section deals with Bruckner's Austrian background, investigating the historical circumstances in which he worked, his upbringing in Upper Austria, and his career in Vienna. A number of misunderstandings are dealt with in the light of recent research. The remainder of the book covers Bruckner's career as church musician and symphonist, with a chapter on the neglected secular vocal music. Religious, aesthetic, formal, harmonic, and instrumental aspects are considered, while one chapter confronts the problem of the editions of the symphonies. Two concluding chapters discuss the symphonies in performance, and the history of Bruckner-reception with particular reference to German Nationalism, the Third Reich and the appropriation of Bruckner by the Nazis.

This Companion covers many diverse aspects of brass instruments and in such detail. It provides an overview of the history of brass instruments, and their technical and musical development. Although the greatest part of the volume is devoted to the western art music tradition, with chapters covering topics from the medieval to the contemporary periods, there are important contributions on the ancient world, non-western music, vernacular and popular traditions and the rise of jazz. Despite the breadth of its narrative, the book is rich in detail, with an extensive glossary and bibliography. The editors are two of the most respected names in the world of brass performance and scholarship, and the list of contributors includes the names of many of the world's most prestigious scholars and performers on brass instruments.

This Companion is an essential guide to all aspects of the organ and its music. It examines in turn the instrument, the player and the repertoire. The early chapters tell of the instrument's history and construction, identify the scientific basis of its sounds and the development of its pitch and tuning, examine the history of the organ case, and consider the current trends and conflicts within the world of organ building. Central chapters investigate the practical art of learning and playing the organ, introduce the complex area of performance practice, and outline the relationship between organ playing and the liturgy of the church. The final section explores the vast repertoire of organ music, focusing on a selection of the most important traditions.