Barbra Streisand has enjoyed worldwide artistic success for more than three decades, and her recordings are a consistent and integral part of her multifaceted professional life. As part of Greenwood's series, Companions to Celebrated Musicians, this volume explores the musical life and style of Barbra Streisand and places her in the context of American popular music of the second half of the 20th century. Attention is given to other aspects of her career as they relate to her recordings. Chapters proceed chronologically and trace Streisand's evolving musical career and her successes. Analytical sections focus on musical elements, such as instrumentation and orchestration, melody, harmony, rhythm and tone, dynamics, and form, as they examine in detail Streisand's recordings and songs. This study of Barbra Streisand's music will appeal to American and popular music scholars and fans alike. The detailed musical analysis is written in straightforward prose. An appendix includes an album discography, song discography, and listing of other recordings and videos. An extensive bibliography serves as a guide to further research.
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Book Description
Editorial Reviews
Review
“This is a good resource for library music collections.”–American Reference Books Annual
About the Author
LINDA POHLY is Associate Professor of music history and musicology at Ball State University.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
73 of 74 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Expensive Disappointment,
By CyberLouis (ALEXANDRIA, VA USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Barbra Streisand Companion: A Guide to Her Vocal Style and Repertoire (Companions to Celebrated Musicians) (Hardcover)
There is a huge void when it comes to musical studies or analyses on Streisand. Having been fascinated all my life with Streisand's voice, but having no formal musical training, I didn't think twice about spending $50 on The Barbra Streisand Companion.It didn't take more than a day to realize this book is not what I expected. For starters, the book is comprised of 6 chapters, 3 appendices, and a reference bibliography. Of all these 256 pages, only 4 chapters (122 pages) are presented as musical analyses. Chapter 1 is devoted to biographical material (as if we need another biography) and includes details such as: -Barbra was named to the International Best Dressed List in 1965; -Barbra was snubbed by the Oscars; -Barbra has a hobby of buying and redecorating houses; and -Barbra has Christie's auctions to sell her belongings. Honestly, I do not know how the author feels these details contribute to a musical study of Miss Streisand. After the biography, the author categorizes Barbra's lengthy career into four time periods (hence, the four chapters mentioned earlier) and begins her "analytical sections". Are you familiar with My Fair Lady? If you are reading this, you probably are. In that movie, Henry Higgins is a professor who studies language and enunciation. I was reminded of him as I read the following in the Companion: "Careful study...illuminates the diversity of her palette as related to diction. Words ending in er are sung as though spelled uh or ah...vowel combinations...are almost chewed...." This kind of analyses in repeated over and over (and over) in this book. The quote above was made in reference to The Barbra Streisand Album. However, in the discussion of this album, there is no reference to Barbra's vocal range (highest note, lowest note), the key she is singing on, or how well she is singing in tune. Other than diction, the author does touch on some of the musical influences noted, song types (she lumps all Barbra's early years into 4 categories), and descriptions of how certain songs are played out. However, these descriptions are rarely useful, and quite honestly, not anything the reader doesn't already know. For example, "this ... arrangement begins with Barbra and plucked string bass. Shortly, strings and brass and a rhythm section join...". Honestly, most Streisand fans could have easily written this. When reading the Preface, I noticed it started with a Streisand quote, "...excellence is in the details." Which is why I was very surprised when I came across a number of factual errors in the discography, For example: -p. 196. "Barbra and Neil received a Grammy...for their recording." (No, they did not.) -p. 200. "The score [Yentl]...is rated multi-platinum in sales" (No, it is only platinum.) -p. 210. "Nolte won in the category of Best Actor." (Again--No. Nolte did not win an Oscar for The Prince of Tides.) In short, this book provides some new, unique material in the area of musical analyses, but for the most part, has little the average Streisand fan doesn't already know. However, if you are Professor Higgins (and I truly hope he only exists in My Fair Lady), this is the one Streisand book you must have.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Excellent read....a must for any Barbara fan!!!,
This review is from: The Barbra Streisand Companion: A Guide to Her Vocal Style and Repertoire (Companions to Celebrated Musicians) (Hardcover)
what an engaging look at the career of the greatest female american vocalist of our generation. If you are a fan this book is an absolute treasure from start to finish.
1 of 1 people found the following review helpful:
4.0 out of 5 stars
A Barbra Fan's or Vocal Enthusiast's Dream,
By
This review is from: The Barbra Streisand Companion: A Guide to Her Vocal Style and Repertoire (Companions to Celebrated Musicians) (Hardcover)
I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. I have been a lifelong fan of Ms. Streisand's vocals, and to have all of her styles and vocal capabilities studied and documented along with interesting tid-bits about her career is truly a great thing for posterity. Very interesting, entertaining and memory provoking!
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