Cremona violins occupy a unique and storied place in violin history. This book contains a brief account of that history — the rise and fall of the Cremonese art of violin making that dominated over two centuries. It is primarily devoted, however, to the physics behind violin acoustics, specifically the research of William F “Jack” Fry over the past several decades. The gradual evolution of his ideas leading to a holistic approach is chronicled, in sharp contrast to the conventional “reductionist” analysis. With rare insights, he has come closer than anyone before in reproducing the tonal qualities of the great Italian masters. This historic achievement makes the book extremely valuable for violin makers and violin researchers, enabling young and aspiring violinists to own excellent sounding instruments with the acoustical marvels of the old at affordable prices.The accompanying video features Fry's demonstration of how and why minute changes in thickness graduations make predictable changes in tonal qualities of an instrument.

This title contains a brief account of the history of the Cremona violins - the rise and fall of the art that dominated over two centuries - and is primarily devoted to the physics behind the violin acoustics, specifically the research of William F. 'Jack' Fry over the past four decades and more.

Gateways to Understanding Music explores music in all the categories that constitute contemporary musical experience: European classical music, popular music, jazz, and world music. Covering the oldest forms of human music making to the newest, the chronological narrative considers music from a global rather than a Eurocentric perspective. Each of sixty modular "gateways" covers a particular genre, style, or period of music. Every gateway opens with a guided listening example that unlocks a world of music through careful study of its structural elements. Based on their listening experience, students are asked to consider how the piece came to be composed or performed, how the piece or performance responded to the social and cultural issues at the time and place of its creation, and what that music means today. Students learn to listen to, explain, understand, and ultimately value all the music they may encounter in their world. FEATURES Global scope—Presents all music as worthy of study, including classical, world, popular, and jazz. Historical narrative—Begins with small-scale forager societies up to the present, with a shifting focus from global to European to American influences. Modular framework—60 gateways in 14 chapters allow flexibility to organize chronologically or by the seven recurring themes: aesthetics, emotion, social life, links to culture, politics, economics, and technology. Listening-guided learning—Leads to understanding the emotion, meaning, significance, and history of music. Introduction of musical concepts—Defined as needed and compiled into a Glossary for reference. Consistent structure—With the same step-by-step format, students learn through repeated practice how to listen and how to think about music. In addition to streamed audio examples, the companion website hosts essential instructors’ resources.

This volume considers audiovisual material as a primary source for historiography. By analyzing how the same sounds are used in different media contexts at different times, the contributors challenge the linear perspective of music history based on canonical authority.

This book demonstrates how the creative industries are driving new sectoral and spatial dynamics in European cities, regions, and countries, and how these may be influenced by international and global dynamics. It takes a purposeful geographical approach to the study of the creative industries across various Western, Central and Eastern European contexts since the 2008-2009 recession. Despite the growing research looking at the development of the creative industries in the last 15 years, there are still gaps in the coverage of what is happening in Central and Eastern Europe compared to Western Europe. This book addresses these gaps in two parts focusing on particular geographical scales and creative processes: local interplay between sector and space and the role of the creative industries in regional and national economies after the crisis. The book presents original analyses of the post-crisis environment, and novel data on topics such as the role of institutions in the regulation of the fashion industry in global cities, the impact of clustering on film innovation, location patterns of art galleries, regional specialisations and paths of professional carriers in creative industries.

Chandra is an intimate portrait of a highly private and brilliant man, Subrahmanyan Chandrasekhar, a Nobel laureate in physics who has been a major contributor to the theories of white dwarfs and black holes. "Wali has given us a magnificent portrait of Chandra, full of life and color, with a deep understanding of the three cultures—Indian, British, and American—in which Chandra was successively immersed. . . . I wish I had the job of reviewing this book for the New York Times rather than for Physics Today. If the book is only read by physicists, then Wali's devoted labors were in vain."—Freeman Dyson, Physics Today "An enthralling human document."—William McCrea, Times Higher Education Supplement "A dramatic, exuberant biography of one of the century's great scientists."—Publishers Weekly