Matthew Brown - Böcker

For well over a century musicologists have been fascinated by composers' manuscripts and by the insights they might reveal about the nature of musical composition. This book suggests ways in which Debussy's sketches and drafts may be used to explain how he composed one of his last great symphonic scores: Ibéria (from Images for orchestra, 1903-10). Part 1 shows how we might understand the process of musical composition as a form of expert problem solving; it describes the compositional history of the work, the various intentional goals and historical constraints that guided Debussy's thinking, and some of the technical problems Debussy faced while composing this remarkable score. Part 2 reconstructs the genesis of each of the three movements in turn.

The arabesque, a crucial component of nineteenth-century aesthetics characterized by recurring patterns of interlocking geometric and floral ornamentation, was found in a wide range of forms of artistic expression and played a pivotal role in the music of Claude Debussy. Divine Arabesque explores the arabesque in Debussy's music and reveals its profound influence on his musical repertoire and on the works of other Symbolist artists and writers.Taking as his starting point a discussion of the short manifesto Debussy published in "La Revue blanche" in 1901, author Matthew Brown embarks on a thorough and comprehensive analysis of Debussy's works across all phases of his career and genres – from his early songs and piano pieces to mature orchestral compositions and late works. Along the way, Brown unveils the intertextual connections between Debussy's compositions and the works of such Symbolist artists as Edgar Allan Poe, Richard Wagner, Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mellarmé, Vaslav Nijinsky, and others.Featuring a rich collection of music examples and illustrations, Divine Arabesque sheds new light on the full range of Debussy's musical output and establishes his critical role in ushering in the age of Modernism.

The arabesque, a crucial component of nineteenth-century aesthetics characterized by recurring patterns of interlocking geometric and floral ornamentation, was found in a wide range of forms of artistic expression and played a pivotal role in the music of Claude Debussy. Divine Arabesque explores the arabesque in Debussy's music and reveals its profound influence on his musical repertoire and on the works of other Symbolist artists and writers.Taking as his starting point a discussion of the short manifesto Debussy published in "La Revue blanche" in 1901, author Matthew Brown embarks on a thorough and comprehensive analysis of Debussy's works across all phases of his career and genres – from his early songs and piano pieces to mature orchestral compositions and late works. Along the way, Brown unveils the intertextual connections between Debussy's compositions and the works of such Symbolist artists as Edgar Allan Poe, Richard Wagner, Charles Baudelaire, Stéphane Mellarmé, Vaslav Nijinsky, and others.Featuring a rich collection of music examples and illustrations, Divine Arabesque sheds new light on the full range of Debussy's musical output and establishes his critical role in ushering in the age of Modernism.

The first book to examine the transformation of sporting cultures in South America in the nineteenth and twentieth centuriesSports in South America follows the transformation of sporting cultures in South America leading up to Uruguay’s hosting of the first FIFA Men’s World Cup in 1930. Matthew Brown shows how South American soccer culture, envied worldwide, sprang out of societies that were already playing and watching games well before British sportsmen arrived to teach “the beautiful game.” These vibrant and distinct sporting traditions, including cycling, boxing, cockfighting, bullfighting, cricket, baseball, and horse racing, were marked by South American societies’ Indigenous and colonial pasts and by their leaders’ desire to participate in what they saw as a global movement toward human progress. Drawing on a wealth of original archival research, Brown debunks legends, highlights the stories of forgotten sportswomen and Indigenous sports, and unpacks the social and cultural connections within South America and with the rest of the world.

Wrapping its arms around a subject that covers everything from life at the molecular level to the entirety of an ecosystem, Biology tackles all the big ideas: biological classification and hierarchy, cell theory, genetics, the human body, evolution, and more. And it does so in that lively, useful, and intuitive way that makes the Big Fat Notebooks so singular and successful: Critical ideas are broken down and clearly explained; doodles illuminate tricky concepts; mnemonics provide memorable shortcuts; and quizzes recap it all. Plus, the author, Matthew Brown, a biomedical engineer and science communicator, has an easy, engaging way of bringing even the most complex scientific concepts to life.

Contributing to the historiography of transnational and global transmission of ideas, Connections after Colonialism examines relations between Europe and Latin America during the tumultuous 1820s. In the Atlantic World, the 1820s was a decade marked by the rupture of colonial relations, the independence of Latin America, and the ever-widening chasm between the Old World and the New. Connections after Colonialism, edited by Matthew Brown and Gabriel Paquette, builds upon recent advances in the history of colonialism and imperialism by studying former colonies and metropoles through the same analytical lens, as part of an attempt to understand the complex connections - political, economic, intellectual, and cultural - between Europe and Latin America that survived the demise of empire. Historians are increasingly aware of the persistence of robust links between Europe and the new Latin American nations. This book focuses on connections both during the events culminating with independence and in subsequent years, a period strangely neglected in European and Latin American scholarship. Bringing together distinguished historians of both Europe and America, the volume reveals a new cast of characters and relationships ranging from unrepentant American monarchists, compromise seeking liberals in Lisbon and Madrid whenvisioned transatlantic federations, and British merchants in the River Plate who saw opportunity where others saw risk to public moralists whose audiences spanned from Paris to Santiago de Chile and plantation owners in eastern Cuba who feared that slave rebellions elsewhere in the Caribbean would spread to their island. Contributors Matthew Brown / Will Fowler / Josep M. Fradera / Carrie Gibson / Brian Hamnett / Maurizio Isabella / Iona Macintyre / Scarlett O'Phelan Godoy / Gabriel Paquette / David Rock / Christopher Schmidt-Nowara / Jay Sexton / Reuben Zahler

Contributing to the historiography of transnational and global transmission of ideas, Connections after Colonialism examines relations between Europe and Latin America during the tumultuous 1820s. In the Atlantic World, the 1820s was a decade marked by the rupture of colonial relations, the independence of Latin America, and the ever-widening chasm between the Old World and the New. Connections after Colonialism, edited by Matthew Brown and Gabriel Paquette, builds upon recent advances in the history of colonialism and imperialism by studying former colonies and metropoles through the same analytical lens, as part of an attempt to understand the complex connections—political, economic, intellectual, and cultural—between Europe and Latin America that survived the demise of empire.Historians are increasingly aware of the persistence of robust links between Europe and the new Latin American nations. This book focuses on connections both during the events culminating with independence and in subsequent years, a period strangely neglected in European and Latin American scholarship. Bringing together distinguished historians of both Europe and America, the volume reveals a new cast of characters and relationships including unrepentant American monarchists; compromise-seeking liberals in Lisbon and Madrid who envisioned transatlantic federations; British merchants in the River Plate who saw opportunity where others saw risk; public moralists whose audiences spanned from Paris to Santiago de Chile; and plantation owners in eastern Cuba who feared that slave rebellions elsewhere in the Caribbean would spread to their island.ContributorsMatthew Brown / Will Fowler / Josep M. Fradera / Carrie Gibson / Brian Hamnett / Maurizio Isabella / Iona Macintyre / Scarlett O’Phelan Godoy / Gabriel Paquette / David Rock / Christopher Schmidt-Nowara / Jay Sexton / Reuben Zahler

In this comprehensive textbook, editors Matthew J. Brown, Randy Duncan, and Matthew J. Smith offer students a deeper understanding of the artistic and cultural significance of comic books and graphic novels by introducing key theories and critical methods for analyzing comics. Each chapter explains and then demonstrates a critical method or approach, which students can then apply to interrogate and critique the meanings and forms of comic books, graphic novels, and other sequential art. Contributors introduce a wide range of critical perspectives on comics, including disability studies, parasocial relationships, scientific humanities, queer theory, linguistics, critical geography, philosophical aesthetics, historiography, and much more. As a companion to the acclaimed Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods, this second volume features 19 fresh perspectives and serves as a stand-alone textbook in its own right. More Critical Approaches to Comics is a compelling classroom or research text for students and scholars interested in Comics Studies, Critical Theory, the Humanities, and beyond.

In this comprehensive textbook, editors Matthew J. Brown, Randy Duncan, and Matthew J. Smith offer students a deeper understanding of the artistic and cultural significance of comic books and graphic novels by introducing key theories and critical methods for analyzing comics. Each chapter explains and then demonstrates a critical method or approach, which students can then apply to interrogate and critique the meanings and forms of comic books, graphic novels, and other sequential art. Contributors introduce a wide range of critical perspectives on comics, including disability studies, parasocial relationships, scientific humanities, queer theory, linguistics, critical geography, philosophical aesthetics, historiography, and much more. As a companion to the acclaimed Critical Approaches to Comics: Theories and Methods, this second volume features 19 fresh perspectives and serves as a stand-alone textbook in its own right. More Critical Approaches to Comics is a compelling classroom or research text for students and scholars interested in Comics Studies, Critical Theory, the Humanities, and beyond.

An interdisciplinary interrogation of the concept of British ‘informal empire’ in Latin America. Builds upon recent advances in the historiography of imperialism and studies of the nineteenth-century modern world, most obviously the work of Ann Stoler, Catherine Hall and C.A. BaylyCombines a comparative perspective with the juxtaposition of political economy, cultural history, gendered and postcolonial approachesBy proposing and debating alternative explanatory models, the book breathes new life into the flagging concept of ‘informal empire’Illuminates the study of British imperialism, from which Latin America is usually conspicuous only by its absence, and provides a broad and sound basis for interpreting the complex processes of nation-building and state-formation in Latin AmericaIncludes essays by scholars who have been shaping the debate for several decades, alongside work by a younger generation of researchers keen to re-conceptualise and re-assess the roles of commerce and culture in shaping informal empire

Biology? No Problem!This Big Fat Notebook covers everything you need to know during a year of high school BIOLOGY class, breaking down one big bad subject into accessible units. Including: biological classification, cell theory, photosynthesis, bacteria, viruses, mold, fungi, the human body, plant and animal reproduction, DNA & RNA, evolution, genetic engineering, the ecosystem and more.Study better with mnemonic devices, definitions, diagrams, educational doodles, and quizzes to recap it all.Millions and millions of BIG FAT NOTEBOOKS sold!

Presents a collection of oral stories from Africa, drawn from sources representing 250 years of history and almost 12 million square miles of geography. This may very well be the most widely shared repertoire of African oral traditions outside of the continent.

A defense of Schenkerian analysis of tonality in music.A wide range of music -- from Bach to Mozart and Brahms -- is marked by its use of some form of what is generally called "tonality": the tendency of music to focus melodically on some stable pitch or tonic and for its harmony to use functional triads. Yet few terms in music theory are more enigmatic than that seemingly simple word "tonality." Matthew Brown's Explaining Tonality: Schenkerian Theory and Beyond considers a number of disparate ways in which functional tonality has been understood. In particular, it focuses on the comprehensive theory developed by Heinrich Schenker in his monumental three-part treatise Neue musikalische Theorien und Phantasien [1906-1935].Schenker systematically investigated the ways in which lines and chords behave both locally within individual tonal phrases and globally across entire compositions. Explaining Tonality shows why Schenker was able to elucidate tonal relationships so successfully and the many advantages that his explanations have over those of his rivals. In addition, it proposes some ways in which Schenker's approach can be extended to tonal features in works from before Bach [such as Monteverdi] and after Brahms [such as Debussy, Stravinsky, and much popular music of today].Along the way, the book explores six methodological criteria that help in building, testing, and evaluatinga plausible theory of tonality or, indeed, any other musical phenomenon: accuracy, scope, fruitfulness, consistency, simplicity, and coherence. It reveals how understanding the tonality of a piece can shed light on other aspects of musical composition. And, in conclusion, it describes some ways in which Schenkerian theory might fruitfully develop in the future.Matthew Brown is Professor of Music Theory at the Eastman School of Music, Universityof Rochester, and author of Debussy's "Ibéria" [Oxford University Press].

The first detailed study of Schenker's pathbreaking 1906 treatise, showing how it reflected 2500 years of thinking about harmony and presented a vigorous reaction to Austro-Germanic music theory ca. 1900.What makes the compositions of Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, and Brahms stand out as great works of art? Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935) set out to answer this question in a series of treatises, beginning with a strikingly original work with the deceptive title Harmonielehre (roughly: Treatise on Harmony, 1906). Whereas other treatises of the period associated harmony with the abstract principles governing chords and chord progressions, Schenker's treated it as the conceptual glue that allowed the individual elements of a work (melodies, motives, chords, counterpoint, etc.) to work together locally and globally. Yet this book,though renowned and much cited, has never been studied systematically and in close detail. Heinrich Schenker's Conception of Harmony approaches Schenker's 1906 treatise as a synthesis of ancient ideas and very new ones. It translates, for the first time, two preparatory essays for Harmonielehre and describes his later views of harmony and the ways in which they influenced and also were ignored by the 1954 edition and translation, entitled simply Harmony. Though problematic, Harmony was the first published translation of a major work by Schenker, inaugurating the study of his writings in postwar America and Britain, where they continue to be highly influential.

The first detailed study of Schenker's pathbreaking 1906 treatise, showing how it reflected 2500 years of thinking about harmony and presented a vigorous reaction to Austro-Germanic music theory ca. 1900.What makes the compositions of Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Chopin, and Brahms stand out as great works of art? Heinrich Schenker (1868-1935) set out to answer this question in a series of treatises, beginning with a strikingly original work with the deceptive title Harmonielehre (roughly: Treatise on Harmony, 1906). Whereas other treatises of the period associated harmony with the abstract principles governing chords and chord progressions, Schenker's treated it as the conceptual glue that allowed the individual elements of a work (melodies, motives, chords, counterpoint, etc.) to work together locally and globally. Yet this book, though renowned and much cited, has never been studied systematically and in close detail. Heinrich Schenker's Conception of Harmony approaches Schenker's 1906 treatise as a synthesis of ancient ideas and very new ones. It translates, for the first time, two preparatory essays for Harmonielehre and describes his later views of harmony and the ways in which they influenced and also were ignored by the 1954 edition and translation, entitled simply Harmony. Though problematic, Harmony was the first published translation of a major work by Schenker, inaugurating the study of his writings in postwar America and Britain, where they continue to be highly influential.