The Oxford Companion to Australian Music edited by Warren Bebbington (Secondhand Book)

SECONDHAND BOOK

The Oxford Companion to Australian Music, a major addition to the range of Oxford music reference books, will be of great interest to music lovers, as well as to musicians, scholars, and students. To date no volume has combined biographical information about key musicians, an interpretive account of Australia’s musical heritage, a critical guide to compositions and recordings, and a guide to the burgeoning scholarly literature in the field.

Australia’s musical life has been remarkably diverse. Professor Warren Bebbington, the General Editor, believes that scholars’ appreciation of Australian music has been too narrow. The Companion, with more than two thousand entries, written by 180 contributors, ranges across a wide spectrum, from ancient Aboriginal traditions and European-derived orchestral, operatic and concert music, to Australian folk, jazz, country, popular, rock, electronic, and experimental music. It covers the music not only of mainstream audiences but also of Australia’s religious denominations and recent immigrant communities. Special attention is given to the distinctive features of Australian musical life: its reliance on government support rather than private or ecclesiastical patronage; its appetite for eisteddfods, choral societies and bands; the shadow cast by European traditions; the vicissitudes of its attitudes towards composers; and the role of regional cities and towns.

Entries on individuals comprise half the Companion. They include noted composers and performers as well as teachers, instrument makers, lyricists, critics, scholars, impresarios, and administrators. Famous subjects include Nellie Melba, Peter Dawson, Percy Grainger, Peggy Glanville-Hicks, Gladys Moncrieff, Joan Sutherland, Richard Bonynge, Barry Tuckwell, Charles Mackerras, Yvonne Kenny, Peter Allen, Olivia Newton-John, Robyn Archer, Reg Livermore, Stuart Challender, and John Farnham. Also represented are key orchestras and organisations like the ABC, Musica Viva, and the Sydney Symphony Orchestra. Many well-known groups are included, such as the Seekers, the Bee Gees, AC/DC, and Midnight Oil. There are numerous entries on Aboriginal subjects and on key musical organisations and companies. The Companion devotes considerable space to a series of longer entries covering musical works, institutions, genres, instruments, terms, and some of the historical and cultural contexts of Australian music. These key essays offer a highly readable and authoritative framework for a better understanding of the shape and originality of music-making in Australia.

Specifications:

Condition: Good, minor wear

Publisher: Oxford University Press

Year: 608pp

Format: Hardback, with dustjacket

Pages: 608pp

ISBN: 0195534328

$30.00

1 in stock