The author draws upon his classroom experiences and observations in discussing ear training, the acoustic environment, and music's relation to other arts. Bibliogs

Creative Music Education: A Handbook for the Modern Music Teacher

Arts & Photography

Schafer, R. Murray

Music

Macmillan Pub. Co.

Entertaining recreations of soundscapes of past times and places precede a survey of methods for analyzing present-day soundscapes, distinguishing types of sound, and developing an understanding of the effects of sounds on us all.

The Tuning of the World

Random House, Inc.

E. T. A. Hoffmann and music

University of Toronto Press

My Life on Earth and Elsewhere, a memoir by the internationally-acclaimed Canadian composer, music educator and writer R. Murray Schafer, traces the author's life and growth as an artist from his earliest memories to the present. Scenes from his youth as an aspiring painter, a music student at the University of Toronto and a sailor on a Great Lakes freighter give way to memories of his several years of work and wandering in Europe, where he gained a deeper understanding of his vocation, and found, especially in Greece, the inspiration for much of the astonishing music he would create after his return to Canada.

My Life on Earth and Elsewhere

Humor & Entertainment

Porcupine's Quill

The soundscape--a term coined by the author--is our sonic environment, the ever-present array of noises with which we all live. Beginning with the primordial sounds of nature, we have experienced an ever-increasing complexity of our sonic surroundings. As civilization develops, new noises rise up around us: from the creaking wheel, the clang of the blacksmith’s hammer, and the distant chugging of steam trains to the “sound imperialism” of airports, city streets, and factories. The author contends that we now suffer from an overabundance of acoustic information and a proportionate diminishing of our ability to hear the nuances and subtleties of sound. Our task, he maintains, is to listen, analyze, and make distinctions. As a society we have become more aware of the toxic wastes that can enter our bodies through the air we breathe and the water we drink. In fact, the pollution of our sonic environment is no less real. Schafer emphasizes the importance of discerning the sounds that enrich and feed us and using them to create healthier environments. To this end, he explains how to classify sounds, appreciating their beauty or ugliness, and provides exercises and “soundwalks” to help us become more discriminating and sensitive to the sounds around us. This book is a pioneering exploration of our acoustic environment, past and present, and an attempt to imagine what it might become in the future.

The Soundscape

Destiny Books

When Words Sing (Ue26907)

European Amer Music Dist Corp

Rhinoceros In The Classroom R. Murray Schafer Item UE026922 Universal Edition Print Limited quantities, will not be re-printed

Rhinoceros in the Classroom

Universal Edition

E.T.A. Hoffmann (1776-1822) was a man of diversified talents -- an artist, composer, conductor, critic, jurist, and writer. Although he is best known for his stories, he was a music critic and composer for years before he wrote his celebrated Tales. Hoffmann has long been considered an extremely important force in the shaping of musical romanticism, yet this volume is the first adequate documentation of his influence. Because much of the primary material upon which the study is based, has not previously been available in English, the author has chosen an unusual but especially appropriate format, in which translations of Hoffmann's writings and Professor Schafer's critical commentary alternate. This book not only fills a unique gap in the history of the Romantic Movement by showing the effect of Hoffmann's writings on the early phases of musical romanticism in Germany, but also presents an over-all picture of romanticism in its incipient years.

E.T.A. Hoffman and Music (Heritage)

Here was a very special ritual – completely without a sense of striving, and promising no rewards. You wandered about amused and amazed, never sure whether you were there to be entertained or entertaining – for the moment you won a balloon or lost your money while upside down on a sky ride, you became an actor, watched by others and excited by their watching.
Patria (Latin for 'homeland') is composer R. Murray Schafer's life's work, a cycle of ten related music dramas created and performed over the last thirty years. Each play in the cycle has a common theme – the search of two lovers for one another through the many labyrinths of life on Earth. Though many of the same characters reappear in different sections, the scale of the cycle is vast, unfolding across many cultures and drawing extensively from numerous world mythologies. Many of these works are conceived for performance in unusual environments: on the surface of a lake, deep in a forest or even in a deserted mine. Some begin at dawn, sunset or midnight and some last for as long as a week.
This new, definitive edition of Patria contains all ten parts of the cycle, plus photos, pages from the scores (complex visual artworks in their own right), commentary on the performance of the pieces and Schafer's personal essays on aestheticism. In these remarkable works, the arts court one another: theatre meets ritual, mythology fuses with art, and the line between performer and audience blurs.

Patria: The Complete Cycle

Literature & Fiction

Essays & Correspondence

Coach House Books

Die Ordnung Der Klnge

Schott Music

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Books by Schafer, R. Murray