Passionate; witty; and brilliant; Opera as Drama has been lauded as one of the most controversial; thought-provoking; and entertaining works of operatic criticism ever written. First published in 1956 and revised in 1988; Opera as Drama continues to be indispensable reading for all students and lovers of opera.
#2633094 in eBooks 2013-09-01 2013-09-01File Name: B00EQWQ8KE
Review
2 of 2 people found the following review helpful. Caveat: excellent book but youll need to download ISO files from MIT PressBy Joseph Ervin Jr.My apologies for the length of this review; but theres some "late-breaking news" you might want to know; especially as this book aint cheap!I almost dinged this book another star when I opened it up and discovered that it no longer comes with CDs. No problem; I thought. Ill go to the URL provided in the text and download the files. Oops; no files there. Just an e-mail link to request them from the webmaster at MIT Press. Well; the folks at MIT Press were very responsive; and I had the supplemental files on my roll-your-own CDs less than 24 hours later. No harm; no foul. Just FYI: I was given FTP access to two ISO images totaling about 1.2 gigabytes. Good thing I wasnt on dialup.So; let me stress that; as of November; 2014; youll need to request the supplemental files from MIT Press. This wasnt mentioned in any of the reviews here; but most of them are some years old. If youre like me and you learn best from hands-on experimentation; youre gonna want that material.OK; heres the scoop from the perspective of a computer-savvy novice in computer music. First; CSound has a formidable learning curve. Unlike Reason or GarageBand or many other current consumer-level music programs; you dont just draw notes in instrument or loop tracks and mix them down into music. If youre here looking for CSound guidance; you probably already know this. The book is heavy on acoustic theory and the theory of sound production (thats SOUND; not just music). CSound gives you enormous control of SOUNDS at the most fundamental level. Whether or not they sound MUSICAL is an entirely separate discussion.Second; I would have probably considered returning the book to were the folks at MIT Press not so responsive in providing the supplemental materials. You really need some of that stuff. Copying instrument parameters from the text into an editor would waste a lot of time and offer lots of chances for typos. More important; many of the chapters seem to provide instrument code (.orc); but not fully elaborated score code (.sco) in which to give instruments a workout. SCORE CODE IS ON THE CDS! Good to know. And; having immediate access to MP3 samples of the many; many instruments in action should aid your study.One final caveat: this book dates from 2000 and the CD material is from generally the same period. The newest version of CSound I could find on the CDs was version 4-something and Im using 6.03.1 on my iMac. Sound is sound and the fundamentals of producing it digitally are what they are. Still; the book was written when Windows XP was a "thing" and most Mac users were still using the Classic OS. There may well be code on the CD that uses opcodes that have been deprecated or which have seen a change in their required parameters. Our mileage is likely to vary.My initial rating will be four stars; but only because the lack of supplemental material could have been a significant problem and wasnt mentioned previously. Perhaps Ill revise it to "five" after Ive had a chance to delve into those 700-plus pages.32 of 33 people found the following review helpful. Great Resource for Computer MusicBy Michael GoginsFirst; I have to admit Im one of the contributors to the book. However; Ill make every effort to provide an unbiased review to help you decide if the book is for you.For those who dont know; Csound is a software synthesizer written by Barry Vercoe in the 1980s that continues to be used by mostly university-based composers of electronic music and computer music. Lately; because todays ordinary personal computers are more powerful than the mainframes used by the pioneers of computer music and come with decent sound cards; and also due to the spread of software synthesis into popular music with techno and electronica; independent composers and even some more pop-based musicians are beginning to use Csound.I find that the book is an enormously useful resource for computer musicians; even though the material is sometimes repetitive and is of uneven quality. With about 50 contributors; sometimes more than one person covers the same ground. Probably a sizeable chunk of the people seriously using Csound contributed to the book!Csound is one of the most powerful software synthesizer in existence (it is unquestionably the most powerful one that costs nothing!); and that makes it one of the most powerful musical instruments in history. However; its not a physical object but a computer program; and in fact its not even a finished program; its a programming language. So; its hard to use Csound; and even harder to get started.Not surprisingly; one of the main purposes of the Csound book is to explain how to program Csound. I find that the book does a pretty good job of this for beginners; and there is not much competition; so if you want to learn Csound; you need this book. However; the book is a collection of articles and does not present a seamless progression from easy to difficult; nor are all of the chapters of high quality; so if youre a beginner; you may find it hard to discern your path through the book. It may be that the biggest gap; as far as beginners are concerned; is not technical at all; but rather the lack of a clear explanation of where computer music fits into the larger world of music. I doubt that many pop musicians realize that digital audio; hard disk recording; software synthesis; and digital audio signal processing were all invented by academic computer music people! Nor do I think many people understand how the aesthetic attitude and compositional techniques arising from avant-garde electronic and computer music have come to permeate contemporary rap; techno; and film music. A brief introductory chapter on basic history would have been most welcome.If you already have experience with Csound; or with other software synthesizers such as Reaktor or Buzz; or with analog synthesizers or virtual analog synthesizers such as the Nord Virus; then you may find the book quite useful because it explains the principles of digital signal processing and software sound synthesis very clearly with numerous examples and articles. Best of all; each example comes with a working Csound orchestra and score; and on the CD ROMs that accompany the book; there are sound examples that you can play right away to hear how the orchestras work. If you then start modifying the example orchestras and listening to the results; you are on your way to becoming a Csound composer.In fact; I am sure the book would make an excellent textbook for a conservatory course in electronic music or computer music; because the CD ROMs contain the Csound program (which is freeware!) and other auxiliary programs; which in themselves are a rich resource; as well as the many examples and a variety of actual compositions created with Csound. Unfortunately; the compositions are not often up to the usually high standard of the technical material. This is a pity; because there are some wonderful pieces of music done; in whole or in part; using Csound. Sill; no other computer music textbook (and I have them all; as far as I know) has so many working examples of instruments all ready to run; or even has any real sample pieces at all. So if youre a composition or synthesis teacher; you need to check it out.Finally; if youre a composer of electronic music or computer music; you cannot find anything this useful anywhere! The only comparison I can think of is the tracker resources on the Web; but they do not cover nearly as much ground. The vast library of sample instruments and compositions is a bleeping treasure trove waiting to be plundered. And thanks probably to the fact that the books editor; Richard Boulanger; teaches at Berklee College where many jazzers and session players go; the examples are not limited to academic styles of music but also cross over into techno and pop. The CD ROM chapters; many of them by composers; discuss not only Csound; but also issues in music theory and composition that are relevant to computer music and indeed to music in general.4 of 4 people found the following review helpful. An opus work on both Csound and computer musicBy calvinnmeThis book is one of a relatively small number of texts that are essential for the library of the computer music practitioner. The book has two CD-ROMs full of several books worth of material. This book is not only a remarkable reservoir of information specific to the Csound compiler; it is also very useful as a general source concerning many aspects of computer music techniques and synthesis methods.Many have lamented the terse documentation of the Csound manual since it does not provide sufficient examples of how the various opcodes and features of the language may be used by composers and researchers. The Csound Book succeeds brilliantly in filling the void. Even for the seasoned computer musician; the text provides numerous opportunities for "ah ha!" moments and spurs renewed creative responses to musical problems. Part of the reason for this lies in the abundant resources of the language itself and its continued development and refinement by members of the Csound community.This is a great companion book; allowing the reader to explore practical applications of concepts such as Fourier synthesis; digital filter theory; chaotic systems; reverberation; and algorithmic composition. This is accomplished very elegantly and always with reference to direct experience with the aid of numerous examples of Csound code. The book serves an important function by providing concrete examples of myriad synthesis methods; digital signal processing techniques; and specialized applications within one conceptual framework.This book is full of excellent graphics; uniform and well commented coding examples; illustrative instrument-design flowcharts; thorough indexing; appendices of various kinds; all of it extremely well edited. There is an impressive unity to the text even though different authors have written the various chapters.There is a treasure trove of instruments and compositions contained on the CD-ROMs. Many of these are by established composers of computer music and by the authors of the various chapters. Others; however; are by students from around the world. I highly recommend this book to anyone interested in computer music in general and Csound specifically.