This book shows that the sounds of the early modern stage do not only signify but are also significant. Sounds are weighted with meaning, offering a complex system of allusions. Playwrights such as Jonson and Shakespeare developed increasingly experimental soundscapes, from the storms of King Lear (1605) and Pericles (1607) to the explosive laboratory of The Alchemist (1610). Yet, sound is dependent on the subjectivity of listeners; this book is conscious of the complex relationship between sound as made and sound as heard. Sound effects should not resound from scene to scene without examination, any more than a pun can be reshaped in dialogue without acknowledgement of its shifting connotations. This book listens to sound as a rhetorical device, able to penetrate the ears and persuade the mind, to influence and to affect.

The crack of thunder, a blood-curdling scream, creaking doors, or maybe complete silence. Sounds such as these have helped frighten and startle horror movie audiences for close to a century. Listen to a Universal classic like Dracula or Frankenstein and you will hear a very different soundtrack from contemporary horror films. So how did we get from there to here? What scared audiences then compared to now? This examination of the horror film's soundtrack builds on film sound and genre scholarship to demonstrate how horror, perhaps more than any other genre, utilizes sound to manipulate audience response. Beginning with the Universal pictures of the early 1930s and moving through the next nine decades, it explores connections and contrasts throughout the genre's technical and creative evolution. New enthusiasts or veteran fans of such varied films as The Mummy, Cat People, The Day the Earth Stood Still, Psycho, Halloween, A Nightmare on Elm Street, Scream, The Conjuring, Paranormal Activity, and A Quiet Place will find plenty to explore, and perhaps a new sonic appreciation, within these pages.

As the author mentions in the Preface, the intent of the book is to explain in a non-technical manner the main outlines of parts of science specially related to the questions and problems of music, assuming no previous knowledge either of science or of mathematics on the part of the reader. Sir James Jeans, who was a noted British scientist, gave a physical analysis of musical sounds, in what is considered to be the best exposition on the subject, a book of great intellectual stature. His aim was to convey precise information, in a simple non-technical way, that will be of interest to the amateur as well as the serious student of music. The discussion begins with an explanation of the development of the human faculty of hearing. For example, why do some sounds produce pleasure when they reach our ears and some pain? How do we retain the pleasurable quality, as it passes on from one stage of electronic equipment to another? These and other pertinent questions on the transmission and reproduction of sound are answered. The various methods of producing sound, and the qualities of the sounds produced, are further discussed as they relate to vibrations of strings and harmonics, and vibrations of air. Harmony and discord are also considered. In the final chapters on the concert room and hearing, the discussion focuses on the transmission of sound from its source to the eardrum and from the eardrum to the brain. A general theory of acoustics is also covered as well as acoustical analyses. "Science and Music is a rare book, as an author does not often combine very distinguished scientific abilities with musical knowledge and power of simple exposition. It will probably become a minor classic." - Manchester Guardian.

Sound Synthesis and Sampling provides a comprehensive introduction to the underlying principles and practical techniques applied to both commercial and research sound synthesizers. This second edition has been rigorously updated throughout and includes a new chapter on performance, examining how synthesizers have become embedded within more sophisticated musical performance instruments. Martin Russ' highly readable and non-mathematical approach makes the subject accessible whatever your level of experience. The book features: · Detailed illustrations to aid your understanding · Topics presented in bite-size sections within each chapter · Additional notes in the margin to reinforce important points · Examples of representative instruments and software · Time lines showing the development of a topic in its historical context · Questions at the end of each chapter for checking your comprehension · A glossary for quick reference · A jargon guide to demystify the varied terminology As such, the book is particularly suitable for students of music technology, audio engineering, acoustics, electronics and related courses. Musicians, engineers and multimedia specialists will also want to keep a copy to hand for reference. .

Features a full year's worth of ready-to-use spelling lessons, worksheets, quizzes, and review tests Helps students master spelling through varied reinforcement activities. Engages students with lively, easy-to-use resources.

Romantic Women Poets: Genre and Gender focuses on the part played by women poets in the creation of the literary canon in the Romantic period in Britain. Its thirteen essays enrich our panoramic view of an age that is traditionally dominated by male authors such as Wordsworth, Coleridge, Byron, Shelley, Keats and Scott. Instead the volume concentrates on the poetical theory and practice of such extraordinary and fascinating women as Joanna Baillie, Charlotte Smith, Anna Laetita Barbauld, Dorothy Wordsworth, Helen Maria Williams, Lady Morgan, Ann Radcliffe, Mary Shelley, Letitia Elizabeth Landon, Anna Seward, and Lady Caroline Lamb. Female and male poetics, gender and genres, literary forms and poetic modes are extensively discussed together with the diversity of behaviour and personal responses that the individual women poets offered to their age and provoked in their readers. There have been several important collections of essays in this particular area of study in the last few years, but this volume reflects and complements much of this earlier critical work with specific strengths of its own.