The Authentic Gilbert & Sullivan Songbook [Paperback] Review

When I ordered this book, I did not realize that it contained facsimiles of earlier texts (or an earlier text). My real and only objection is that the print and the notes are fairly small and a trifle unclear.It would be difficult to put in on a piano and try to read it.
Loved the illustrations and the feel of the book.

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Product Description:
Fortunately many of the early vocal scores authorized by Sir Arthur Sullivan still exist--and are reprinted here. This volume features 92 songs from all 14 Gilbert & Sullivan operettas, reproduced here in the original key, in Sullivan's original piano arrangements. Included are songs from such well known works as HMS Pinafore, The Pirates of Penzance, The Mikado, as well as lesser known productions.

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The Mikado: or The Town of Titipu Vocal Score [Paperback] Review

As a performer, the most important asset of a score is legibility and freedom from errors. This PV is superb in that it is very legible and corrects errors from prior PV's.It is also inexpensive enough that a performer need not fear guilty about writing in the margins or breaking the binding.While not a critical edition, it has everything that a performer would want in a PV, and I would unhesitatingly recommend it over ANY other PV presently on the market, even those which have been "authenticated".

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Product Description:
Trusted the world over, the classic, authoritative G. Schirmer editions of the stage works of Gilbert and Sullivan have been spruced up! These new vocal scores feature the complete music and all dialogue, gorgeous color covers, plot synopses, articles on the famous partnership, the history of each operetta, filmographies and discographies. The sewn binding ensures a lifetime of use.The biggest success of the Gilbert and Sullivan career, this witty tale of tangled law and love is a thinly veiled commentary on Victorian England. Musical highlights include: A Wand'ring Minstrel I * As Some Day It May Happen * Three Little Maids from School Are We * The Sun, Whose Rays Are All Ablaze * Mi-ya Sa-ma * Willow, Tit-Willow * and more.

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The Mikado in Full Score [Paperback] Review

Any lover of this Gilbert & Sullivan masterpiece will gain a fuller appreciation of it by being able to follow the lyrics and dialog while listening to the operetta. The score also has a nicely written preface and synopsis of the story. Although knowing how to read music is not essential to the enjoyment of this Mikado full score, buyers that do read music will gain an even greater appreciation of it by being able to follow each instrumental line along with the lyrics of the songs. The Dover score is beautifully printed at a very bargain price to boot. Everyone can derive a great deal of pleasure from this score, no matter what level of musical training they possess. Highly Recommended! (P.S. I understand that the full score of The Pirates of Penzance is due for release this fall)

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Product Description:
The tale of Nanki-Poo and his passion for Yum-Yum has charmed audiences since its 1885 debut with graceful, well-loved melodies such as "Three little maids from school are we," "The flowers that bloom in the spring, tra-la," and many others. Now available in a newly edited, newly engraved full-score publication based on Sullivan's autograph and the first edition of the full score, this new performing edition by Ephraim Jones and Carl Simpson corrects many errors and incorporates Gilbert's later libretto changes.

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The Pirates of Penzance in Full Score [Paperback] Review

Dover's annotated full score of G&S's "Pirates" is not only well printed but useful.It contains many comments about alternate versions of the orchestral parts and a short history of its multi-continental premiere.

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The witty and rollicking tale of a young man apprenticed to a band of pirates too kindhearted for their own good, The Pirates of Penzance, or The Slave of Duty remains one of Gilbert and Sullivan's most beloved and frequently revived works. This newly engraved performing edition is based on Sullivan's autograph, contemporary copyists' scores, and both the first and second editions of the vocal score. It corrects numerous errors that have crept in over the years and is the first edition to offer performers the choice of using either the 1880 or 1908 versions of the Act II finale. Aficionados will be particularly delighted with the first accurate full score of the "Climbing over Rocky Mountain" section, which incorporates music from the legendary lost Gilbert and Sullivan operetta Thespis. Introduction by the editors. Instrumentation.

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Chopin - A Listener's Guide to the Master of the Piano: Unlocking the Masters Series [Paperback] Review

Amadeus Press has filled a underserved niche in the classical music literature with these marvelous little guides to the great composers and their greatest compositions.They fill the gap between the highly detailed, scholarly volumes of the lives of the great composers ... and the too-superficial tiny guides that offer too little program notes on the music or the composer.It gives you a compelling "play-by-play" description of each composition without venturing into musicology that would lose a beginner.The entire series is extremely well written and make a great guides to new discoveries.It should appeal to beginners as well as classical veterans alike.This Chopin volume is proving to be a valuable guide as I explore in depth Chopin's music and the great performances on disc.

Every major category is covered in satisfying depth to give you solid understanding of what is behind each work - and what in particular is historically and musically significant in them.ALl major works are covered: the lilting Waltzes .. the pensive and sometimes turbulent Nocturnes ... the weighty Sonatas, Scherzos and Ballades ... the delicate miniatures ... the amazing early piano concertos ... the showpieces, Etudes, Preludes and even the few chamber pieces of Chopin are explored to reveal many curious historic details.

This volume on Chopin makes for compelling reading and is one of the only modern volumes of program notes on the piano music of Chopin I could find.The number of works covered is large and satisfying with enough detail to give you a deep appreciation of the significance, musical structures and impact of each work.In a way, it reads much like program notes in a CD, but covering the entire range of Chopin's life and works.Other reviews below outline the range covered.The volume, supplemented by classic volume like Schonberg's "Lives of the Great Composers" should give a high quality education to the music of Chopin.This book includes a Naxos CD containing performances by Idl Bieret which gives a quality intro to Chopin, but some listeners will surely want to explore the great Chopin performances of pianists like Rubinstein, Horowitz, Kissin, Perahia, Argerich and many others.Bottom line: these "Unlocking the Masters Series" are a great investment to deepening one's appreciation that will not go out of style any time soon.5 stars.

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Product Description:
Frederic Chopin died a famous man with his place in the musical pantheon secure. Yet the works that were once most popular tended to be his lightest and least challenging, leading many listeners and critics to view him as a miniaturist and composer for the salon. The bold pieces now revered as his masterpieces-the epic and tragic structures of the ballades, scherzos, polonaises, and sonatas, and the compact but daring preludes and mazurkas-were rarely played and poorly understood. In fact, a larger proportion of Chopin's pieces are now in the active repertory than that of any composer. Chopin - A Listener's Guide to the Master of the Piano takes a detailed tour through the life and oeuvre of the sovereign master of the keyboard. The composer's metabolic adaptation of the melodic structures of Italian opera and the folk music of his native Poland for the resources of the piano are examined in detail, as are the originality and boldness he displayed throughout his tragically short, astonishing career. The book is accompanied by a CD containing 15 complete compositions (and one full movement from his Piano Sonata No. 2) performed by pianist Idil Biret, from her complete survey of the composer's music on the Naxos label.

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Tchaikovsky's Piano Concerto No. 1 & Rachmaninoff's Piano Concerto No. 2 (With Orchestral Reduction for Second Piano) [Paperback] Review

The music is fantastic, being the most popular concerto repertoire of Russian origin, but the edition assumes the reader some sort of Russian professional.Right away one notices that there are very few fingeringsnoted, and altogether I have found maybe one editor's note on execution inthe entirety of the two concertos.The edition contains no introduction tothe music, no informative synopsis of any sort, no helpful backgroundhistory on the composer's methods, reasonings or motivation for the musicto aid the interpreter, nothing at all, in fact, but the notes themselves. Not even a photograph of Rachmaninoff or Tchaikovsky to identify the namewith.This lack of support for the performer is considerably below thestandards of any serious edition.Unless one is well-prepared with someamount of collected knowledge of Rachmaninoff and Tchaikovsky, and with theexperience of having listened to each of these concertos, the edition willleave you stranded.But, then again, it is great music one must have.

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Product Description:
Only one-volume edition of two great concertos: the Tchaikovsky Piano Concerto No. 1 in B-flat Minor, Op. 23, and the Rachmaninoff Piano Concerto No. 2 in C Minor, Op. 18. Each concerto is accompanied by an orchestral reduction for second piano-the universal standard for learning and rehearsing all concertos. G Schirmer edition.


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