If I am not wrong, this book has been previously released under the title "Famous Mozart Operas. An analytical guide for the opera-goer and armchair listener", that's at least the title of the second edition I now have in front of me. For the readers acquainted with it, this new title may be a little misleading and suggesting a new revised edition. Equally misleading may be the double authorship: the Amazon.com database gives both Spike Hughes and Patrick Cairns Hughes as the book's authors, but this is simply a confusion resulting from the fact that Spike Hughes's real name - Patrick Cairns - has been used for copyrights. Hughes's book is a wonderful guide for anybody interested in Mozart operas - beginners will find here expert guidance through the operas' complicated plots, advanced Mozartians - a series of delightfully written essays highlighting many important points too often taken for granted. In the author's words, the book is meant to "serve as a supplement to those programmes found in most opera houses or to the analytical notes on the picturesque "sleeves" of L.P. records (I imagine that the new edition has "CD" here) which tell the story in more or less intelligible terms but do not always explain why the tenor should suddenly want to burst into a song, nor what he is singing about when he does". The guide contains 343 musical illustrations usually no longer than 5-6 bars, designed, according to the author, with the student of orchestration in mind, but this shouldn't set off anybody without a reading knowledge of music. Even without it, one is able to follow and enjoy Hughes's musical arguments easily - his language is simple and devoid of heavy specialistic jargon, though readers with no theoretical knowledge of music may sometimes need to consult a little dictionary of musical terms. I can't help thinking how wonderful it would be if such a delightful book - one of its kind - could be re-edited in our CD-room era with these musical illustrations actually played - or, even easier, supplemented by references to certain milestone recordings (just little notes on the margin referring to tracks and timing - nothing more simple in the CD era!). The book is divided into 5 chapters, each devoted to one opera ("Entfuehrung aus dem Serail; the three Da Ponte operas; Die Zauberfloete). Musical illustrations are inserted along the text and, where necessary, shortly discussed. These illustrations together with Hughes's insightful comments are the high points of the book and it would be difficult to find a popular introduction to Mozart's operas done with more charm combined with expertise. The guide is also very helpful in following stage productions of Mozart's operas either in the theater or on video. We have to remember that Mozart's stage instructions are very often skimpy and most of the important staging hints can be found in the libretti themselves (this seems to be of no importance to some opera directors today). Hughes's book offers its readers a vivid description of an "ideal" production, taking into considerations even the smallest of Mozart's stage directions. It also highlights certain difficult points, easily unnoticed, but important for the dramatic action. It is so easy to get lost in some of the plots - "Marriage of Figaro" being the best example - and Hughes does everything to make them as clear as possible, often borrowing helpful hints from literary works or other operas (here Beaumarchais's original play and Rossini's "Barbiere"). How many times did you wonder about the relation between Rossini's and Mozart's characters? If you are not eager to read Beaumarchais, this guide will answer all your questions. Here and there the author makes some mysterious statements that make you feel like a bad student who didn't do his homework. In the chapter on "The Magic Flute", page 200, description of Tamino's encounter with Papageno, brings a surprising piece of information about Papageno's past (supposedly told by Papageno himself): his "mother had been in the service of the ". I was really surprised, since the libretto - at last in the form I know it - never says anything about Papageno's mother, even more - the bird-catcher, asked by Tamino about his parents, declares that he knows nothing about them. Everything he knows, he continues, is that he has his straw hut nearby, which protects him "from the rain and cold". I don't know where the idea of Papageno's mother comes from, but before I suggest a mistake I would like to hear from more experienced Mozart opera lovers. The other strange statement appears in "Cosi fan tutte", when Despina, laughing at the two "Albanian" visitors' appearances, says - in Hughes translation: "What clothes! What faces! What moustaches! Are they Poles or Turks or what?" I am Polish and I was very surprised to find an allusion to Poles in no less than one of the Mozart's masterpieces, while the whole operatic literature contains maybe two or three. Despina, however, doesn't say Poles, she says "Vallacchi", what - if you listen to the opera without following the printed text - can easily be taken for "Polacchi". But Poland was hardly exotic in Mozart's times (in fact, it never was because of generally Western character of its culture) and making Guglielmo and Ferrando look like Poles wouldn't help create an exotic aura around them. "Vallacchi" are simply Wallachians or Rumanians, if we want to use a more familiar term, Wal(l)achia being a province of Rumania. These are, however, minor complaints about the book that cannot be praised enough for its charm, general expertise and beautiful language - the world of Mozart's operas as seen through it is now even more delightful (if it were possible). Indispensable!

It is not only recommended, but it is incumbent on anyone who wishes to read this book to read "The Sorrows Of Young Werther" by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe first. Otherwise, this book will make no sense whatsoever.

Mann writes a hilarious tale of "what if?" the real life Charlotte Kestner & Goethe met up in Weimer 50 or so years after the publication of Werther. The result is a true masterpiece of writing. We get to meet Charlotte, as well as Arthur Schopenhaur's rather ditzy (at least in this novel, anyway) sister, Adele along with the almighty Goethe himself. The book centers around an interesting question: which is more real? The true life Charlotte? Or the fictional one of Werther? This is an intriguing question, as Mann furnishes the "real" Kestner (which is also a fictional one) with a "real" personality; something which was rather lacking in Goethe's story.

The book has everything one would want for fans of both Goethe and Mann. It articulates the "pressures" put on people who exist in reality who provide the inspiration for fictional characters in novels. Who, in fact, has it worse? The innocent individual who is inserted into fictional stories? Or the artist who feeds personal experiences into the machinery of his genius with the efficacy of producing great art? Who makes the greater sacrifice in the name of creativity?

This is a truly wonderful book. Although most of Mann's books have a distinctive humor to them, this one is much more lighthearted than any of his others. There is even a wonderful chapter in which we first meet Goethe....a stream-of-consciousness which asks the $60,000 question: what HAPPENS inside a mind as massive as Goethe's? It kind of reminded me of Hermann Broch's "The Death Of Virgil" which asked a similar question regarding the mental acumen of Virgil in a stream-of-consciousness way. In either case, who could ask for anything more?

Jung-Stilling (Johann Heinrich Jung) was a mystic and Christian visionary, a member of the German Pietist Brethren. He personally experienced the tragedies of war after the invasion of Germany by France in 1792, and the effects of the Enlightenment and the French Revolution on religion, morality and life in his homeland. Jung believed that Jesus Christ would come in the year 1836, convinced that the events of Europe during this era were the signs of the end of the age. Jung developed a plan to evangelize and prepare Germany for the return of Jesus Christ, which he expounds in Menace Eastern-Light, the Man in the Grey Suit, written 1795-1800. This book is a compilation of the mystical and evangelical concepts of Jung. This translation makes available to the English-reading public the valuable ideas and concepts of this unique and famous German mystic and Christian visionary.

This volume includes all seven of the toccatas, miscellaneous preludes and fugues and suites, pieces from the Notenbüchlein for W. F. Bach, the Aria Variata, etc. While the "major" keyboard pieces are available in other Dover volumes, this is great to look around in for lesser known works-- and some pieces scholars now attribute to other composers. Sturdy and easy to read, with the usual minimum of editorial comment, my copy has weathered several years of playing and scribbling.

This book is astounding. I received it for Christmas, from my Aunt Marie, and it is one of the best books that I have ever read. It presents its subject in a whole new light. I cannot even read German, and I know that it is amazing just by looking at the title. Formata! Wow! What genius!

Towards the end of the middle ages, monarchs and kings came to the realization that the transmutation of elements may not be physically possible. The creation of wealth via alchemical means therefore shifted to another sphere. Rather than employ chemists laboring to create gold from lead, rulers instead hired economists to create gold from paper. The symbolism and metaphor of the alchemical process carried over from chemical to economic terms is really quite enlightening.

The relationship to the Faust legend and the role of Goethe in the development of the early modern economy makes this book a very interesting read for anyone who may be baffled by the current system of value creation in our modern economy.

The real insight of this book lies in its illumination of humankind's quest to gain mastery over time and our own mortality. Here the author demonstrates how science is used to gain predictive control over time by use of the past (the evidence of scientific method). Economics is used to master time via control over the future (money as "value" stored for future use). And the arts overcome the constraints of time by stretching out the present (the transporting nature of the sublime). The alchemical means by which this is accomplished is demonstrated clearly. Magic turns out to be very real indeed.

Books concerning performance practice are by their very nature controversial, and we can't ask Bach, Handel, or Telemann what they actually meant when they used a short-hand symbol or expected a performer to improvise a decoration. Or can we? Professor Neumann has compiled a volume based on writings in the Baroque era that attempts (successfully in my opinion) to provide some clues to the sketchy musical notations of busy and prolific composers in the Baroque era. His ideas are indeed controversial, but I think that they are well-reasoned and often brilliant. His knowledge of sources in the Baroque is magnificent, and his arguments are keenly-reasoned. This is a book of somewhat limited readership. Performers and scholars who play or edit Baroque music will find this to be a useful reference with a strong idex, a good bibliography, and a helpful guide to solving questions of decoration. Those who don't have an active involvement with Baroque music will find the book cryptic.

This is the best reference on the Classical Orders of Architecture I have Seen. It has very good text in the first chapter explaining the orders and proportions, but what makes this book unique are the measured drawings of examples of each of the orders. Many variations and richly illistrated.

This is a book that really should be read by the layman, specially parents. Pestalozzi was one among many human beings who came to this Planet and did his best in order to help mankind to move ahead in terms of social and moral progress. For him education is the main tool that will drive one to be fully integrated as well as an active participant of his own community. Many scholars and educational expertise throughout the world have written so much about his ideas and teachings. Nevertheless, it sounds like most of them give too much importance to the technical aspects of a structured method, and forget about the simplicity and the essential point in his teachings. According to his ideas the family is an undeniable path to acquire education in a wide sense. A healthy family will enable one to reach "the satisfaction of natural wants that creates inner peace" and as the author of this book enphasizes "develops unconsciously the child's capacities for love, confidence, gratitude, even before the notions of obligation and duty are understood." His method actually relies basically on family values under a perception of a true relationship among its members, all guided by a true sense of love. His precept "Love is the eternal basis of education" gives the direction to be followed on the parents' effort to help the child on his moral development. "The child must be educated to be not only a skilled laborer, or an artisan, or a scholar, but a satisfactory husband to his wife, father to his son, citizen of his country. He must be able in his particular place in the community to be self-reliant and to help the others", reinforces the author. Pestalozzi also understood the profound influence and the very important role that religion plays in the educational process, although he did not take any formal religion for grant but acknowledged the importance of a true Christianity, undrstanding this to be "not only a doctrine but also a way of life". In his thinkings the relationship which exists between mother and child will develop in the latters's soul the idea of God. From that perspective Pestalozzi believed that "the feelings of love, trust, gratitude and the readiness to obey must be developed im me before I can apply them to God. I must love men, trust men, thank men, and obey men before I can aspire to love, trust, thank, and obey God. Although the author struggles to fully interpret Pestalozzi's method and often points to some incorrectness perpetrated by the schoolmaster, which makes the reading a little tough, this book allow us to take our own trip through a moving story and make our own interpretation and decision about guiding our sons. The Pestalozzi's ideas on education matter, undoubtedly is an ifficient remedy for the societies' illness that still reigns in our days. Unfortulately this is an out of print book and one has to struggle to death in order to buy it. Anyhow, it is worth trying.

Although Professor Bluestein establishes a new area of study called poplore, this book is not new. Rather it reflects the author's many years of study and work as a modern folklorist. His efforts to bridge the gap between committed folksinging activists and folklore should inspire considerable scholarship although I have read that the book went unnoticed by the academic folklore circles in the states. It's a shame because by reconsidering the life and work of artists such as Pete Seeger and Jean Ritchie, Bluestein reacquaints with the essence of people's song in the US context. Just as Huddie Ledbetter's opus, both in prison and beyond, served to establish an American genre in Lomax, the work of Bluestein's "poplorists" shows us how Leadbelly's legacy will live on. The introductory section on Herder, Whitman and Emerson is fascinating. This is very interesting study and I found it invaluable for my own PhD dissertation research at a Spanish university.