American Popular Music and its Business: The First Four Hundred YearsVolume I: The Beginning to 1790 - Hardcover

Sanjek, The Late Russell

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0195040287 ISBN 13: 9780195040289

Publisher: Oxford University Press, 1988

Synopsis

This three-volume work tells the complete story of American popular songs, their authors, and the business they set in motion. Volume one explores the inception of the music publishing business in Elizabethan England and traces music activity in England until 1790, examining popular balladry, copyright problems, the start of music printing, religious music, professional music makers, musical theater, eighteenth-century music, and such leading musical figures as Purcell, Handel, and Haydn. Also discussed are the beginnings of music in the United States, including musical theater, black music, and the Great Awakening and its relationship to music publishing.

About this title

About the Author:

Russell Sanjek, former Vice-President, Broadcast Music Inc..

Review:

"Extremely significant and original....A necessary addition to every serious college library and to many public libraries. Unlikely to be superseded for many decades such is the range of scholarship and the depth and thoroughness of the examination of the topic."--Choice

"A monumental historical work...Destined to become a fundamental source on the topic....Directed to scholars and students, it belongs in all serious collections of U.S. popular music and is a readable set that profiles American music and the music business of the past three
decades."--Come-All-Ye

"An astonishing work of discovery. Its wealth of research has been crafted into a lucid, continuously absorbing narrative. There is nothing else like it in the literature. Russ has left a resounding legacy."--Nat Hentoff

"Russell Sanjek witnessed at firsthand many of the events that helped shape the music industry. He relates the often complex story with uncommon clarity."--Is Horowitz, Billboard Magazine

"Only Russ Sanjek had the requisite love, the diligence, and most especially, the arcane information that informs this colossal work of research and writing. How grievous it is that he lived long enough to complete the job but not long enough to see it in print."--Jerry Wexler

"There is no one to replace Russell Sanjek. His years of dedicated participation and scholarly research in the music industry made his the most well-informed mind in his field. There was virtually nothing lacking in his accumulated knowledge of American popular music. Much of it was first hand
and the balance acquired through continuous reading and questioning. That he was a Vice President of BMI affords stature and pride to our organization. His death was a great professional and personal loss. His work will take its rightful place on all library shelves and become the definitive source
for information in its field. It was a great honor for me to have worked with him for 25 eventful years in which he presented himself always with grace and wit--a legacy which I am proud to share."--Frances W. Preston, President and CEO, Broadcast Music, Incorporated

"Until now we have not had a comprehensive history of the business of American music. Russell Sanjek's encyclopedic volumes fills that void. Sanjek...had unusual expertise....Lively reading."--American Historical Review

"Nobody knew the commercial music world better than Russ Sanjek--every facet historically and pragmatically; songwriters, song plugging, classical and jazz composers, publishing, record producers, performers, performing rights, public relations, music journalism, copyrights, even graphic arts.
His thoroughly documented disclosures will surprize and inform contemporary music people whose awareness goes back only to the advent of rock and roll. Russ's love of the business permeates the pages of this readable definitive reference work. Anyone now or henceforth involved in music business can
be grateful that he lived long enough to complete it."--William L. Simon, Reader's Digest, (Retired)

About this edition

• Publisher: Oxford University Press
• Publication date: 1988
• ISBN 10: 0195040287
• ISBN 13: 9780195040289
• Binding: Hardcover
• Number of pages: 494