chorus Books

"Strong at the Broken Places" is an excellent resource for anyone with a chronic or terminal illness, as well as for their family, caretakers, and friends. It really emphasizes the strength and perserverity of these five strong individuals. I highly recommend this book. Richard Cohen does a great job of emphasizing how important it is to treat the person, not just the illness or condition.

I was drawn to this book because I admire how the author Richard continues his life as a brilliant journalist despite a chronic illness. And because last year for the first time I was in the hospital myself for several days unexpectedly. Yes, for the first time in my life it was me in the hospital bed. AND I realized how challenging it is just to be INSIDE the hospital, let alone think about dealing with a chronic illness and living a life of hope. You know sometimes it's tough to keep up hope every day. This book is like six different volumes in a way -- it tells the story of five different 'citizens of sickness' and then a collective meeting with them all. You will find it a) inspirational -- b) informational and it will live on in YOU. I keep thinking of Denise who as the author says traded an impossible challenge (of conquering ALS) with a rigorous task (going to Antartica to see the penguins) she could complete. How come we all don't make plans to see the penguins or whatever it is that symbolizes our own vision in life? Each story of each person is more poignant than the other. This is not sniveling stuff-- it's real and not all nicey nice either. But it is fascinating to see how these people including the author turn their anger into fuel to keep going. Richard talks straight to you with his writing. I often feel like I'm sitting in a coffee shop or yes, a bar having a beer with this guy...he's honest. IT'S NOT EASY...heck it's really TOUGH and other words that won't get pass the Amazon cyber censors. BUT it is inspiring to thing that we may all be strong at our own broken places. Too often those of us from challenging families or who face chronic illness, pain or other obstacles feel 'defective' because of our difference. The author shows how to channel that into strength. This is a great book for anyone going through a life transition -- divorce or a major move or graduation or starting a new venture. For it is in the challenges that we discover opportunities. ENJOY -- every parent, every therapist, every doctor, every counselor and everyone into self-improvement will want to read these real words.

Some people may "understand" chronic illness like they are watching news video of a destructive Midwest twister - it's always happening to some other family. The statistics show otherwise. Richard Cohen does not take the reader on a pristine glass-bottom boat tour of devastating illnesses. "Strong at the Broken Places" tips the boat over and tosses the reader into the waters to swim - for a moment. Honesty begins with a trusted conversation. Cohen invites us to the table with five people, who each bluntly detail their brutal struggles with different chronic diseases. The respectful dialogue reveals that we may all have more in common with them than we care to admit. In the face of catastrophic events, we will all wish to have the strength that they have shown. Their lives set landmarks to guide others through their own realizations, acceptance and constructive determination.
Thank you, Denise, Buzz, Ben, Sarah, Larry and especially Richard, for sharing your strengths and fostering the humanity in all of us.

Book: Strong at the Broken Places: Voices of Illness, a Chorus of Hope by Richard M. Cohen

About: Cohen gets the stories of five people with chronic illnesses: Denise with ALS, Buzz with cancer, Ben with muscular dystrophy, Sarah with Crohn's disease and Larry with bipolar disorder.

Pros: The 5 people's stories are varied and moving.

Cons: Cohen does not let his subjects just tell their stories, which would have lead to a much better book as the five people profiled are very interesting, instead Cohen just seems to get in their way. A choice quote: "I'd rather hear this kid chew than listen to him talk about dying." While interviewing, He seems to try to get his subjects to say what he wants to hear and inserts far too much of his own struggle with MS and cancer as many statements that with "When I..." instead of focusing on the person he's supposed to be profiling. His analysis of the five adds very little and includes such groundbreaking lines as "Cancer is no fun. Neither are diseases of the bowel."

I believe this book is a must read for everyone. It touches you, it pulls you, it makes you want to scream and yell, it breaks you apart and puts you back together...but most importantly, it makes you appreciate all that is good about your life.

I have Crohns disease and I have a mental illness, two of the topics touched upon in this book. But I am a better person today for having read Strong At The Broken Places because I know that, in spite of my infirmities, I am strong and I will survive.

Thank you Richard Cohen!!!

I developed an appreciation for Handel's Messiah over 60 years ago, and to this day I listen to recordings of it frequently. While in college I became a participant, singing in the chorus, and have done so many times since. A while back I gave my vocal score to my daughter for her use, not realizing how much I missed having it at hand. Since I recently purchased a replacement I feel complete again as I refresh my readings of this great work, truly an all time classical composition.
Donald A Carlson

My copy of Handel's Messiah arrived when stated and in in perfect condition. Thank you

The Messiah is, by far, my favorite piece of classical music. It has been a Christmas tradition for me to attend singalong Messiah concerts for many years. This score has been the choice of the choral conductors and organizers of the concerts of which I have been a part. I bought this book to give to my son-in-law for Christmas, as part of a package that also included a recording of a radio program about the Messiah and Handel, and a CD of the music. He is an musician, so I knew he would enjoy it, and I wanted to provide him with material to share with my granddaughters, so they could also become acquainted with this great piece of music. He was very pleased to receive the gift.

The book arrived in a very timely manner. It was in excellent shape. I am extremely happy to have it. Now I can mark it all up for the soprano lines.

Our Chancle Choir preformed excerpts with guest soloist I wanted my own score. The quickness in receiving this was of utmost importance. I was delighted to receive a copy just like the ones purchased by our church. A beautiful score to own.

The Magical Chorus is not only a fierce and fearsome look at a century and a half of Russian history, but a tantalizing journey behind the appearances of history, with insight only Solomon Volkov can forge. Volkov stalks his books stealthily page by page until capture; the hunt always excites and invigorates, and reveals essences. Magical Chorus is no exception to the wiles of an author who for whatever reason remains oddly controversial. For me, he's a master writer. Brilliance mesmerizes around the lightest details of Russian cultural life, as Volkov's passions become ours. Magical Chorus languored about too long for me until the middle 'A Rendevous With Stalin', where ignites the connection to the book's real and entrancing heart - the Russian mystery of mirrors between her rulers and artists. After that, Volkov takes off. Uncle Joe's moral tics, and Stalinism itself, are dissected like a surgeon; Akhmatova (noting she died thirteen years to the day after Stalin), Yevtushenko, sympathetic stories of Prokofiev and Mayakovsky. Volkov's empathy never impedes his duty as a writer. The best thing about reading him is he never gives you reason to tire. This is a first rate keeper that harbors a blistering study of tragedy.

Susan Haugland is a true scholar, yet writes Crowd Control from the perspective of a master teacher. Ms. Haugland's no-nonsense advice is a perfect introduction for pre-service teachers to the many decisions that go into managing a music classroom. More than a discipline guide, Crowd Control offers proactive guidance to everything from classroom layout to assessment. Haugland's twenty-plus years in the trenches are evident as is her scholarly knowledge of pedagogy.

I highly recommend Crowd Control if you are a beginning teacher or an experienced teacher looking for empathetic ideas. Particularly, if you are responsible for teaching the next generation of music teachers, crowd control is an excellent book to stimulate discussion with your students on the how, when, what, and why of managing a music classroom and program.

Bill Fordice
G.W. Carver Elementary
K-5 General Music Teacher
Clarke College
Instructor in Music Education

I actually expected this book to outline strategies to help with classroom management in any music class or performing ensemble. What I got was a book full of things I already knew (how to make assessments, seating charts, and rubrics) and contradictions. In the beginning of the book, she outlines her classroom management plan. I'm sure it works for her and probably some other teachers, but it wasn't useful to me. She stated that she takes 25 points from students grades if they receive 3 checks during the week and later states that you shouldn't grade based on behavior!? Our school forbids grading based on behavior, so clearly, that's not going to work for me.

She did have some good ideas, like making sure you are organized and clear with your expectations. She also mentioned that you have to be really vigilant for catching and issuing consequences to all students that misbehave. Honestly, that stuff is not worth buying a book about.

Finally, an excellent resource for grammar school music teachers. Written as if in friendly converstation with someone who knows how it is for real in the classroom!

I stumbled to the end of my first year of teaching in June, and like the author (and every first year teacher I've ever heard of), I needed to address my classroom management before coming back to the classroom. I was dissappointed the book didn't come out until later in the summer, but it's short enough that it's taken me only a few days to go through it: a pleasant change from the old college textbooks I've been mining.

The book is written very informally, which was off-putting at first. I've come to expect the tone of "Here's what to do". This book is more like having an experienced colleague handing you her beginning of the year material and prepping you for your classes. Rather than saying "It's important that your discipline system is fair," Haugland says, "Here's my discipline system and why I think it works." Most books of this type are hesitant to give you a method, and would rather give you theories and refer you to your mentor teacher or college professors. Refreshingly, this book gives you a method, as well as valuable appendices, such as the check system that she uses in class, and a copy of her chorus handbook (which I'm using right now as a reminder of what I've left out of mine).

Haugland is very clear that hers is not the only or necessarily best way for every situation, but having just finished my first year, I know that just having a management plan that has been road tested is a key to getting past the management and into the teaching.

Memorize this book before you interview for a single teaching job.

This is a wonderful book. Literally. That is, it is full of wonders. At his not infrequent best -- in his essays on jazz and the blues -- Luc Sante reminds this reader of Edmund Wilson. Like Wilson, Sante is dogged and forensic. Without showing off, he tells you things you didn't know and puts you gratefully in his debt. And at his most casual (for instance, his piece on Rudolph Giuliani), Luc Sante is a joy to read.

KILL ALL YOUR DARLINGS is a collection of Luc Sante pieces originally published, although many in somewhat different form, in journals or newspapers (such as The New York Review of Books or The Village Voice) between 1990 and 2005. (If you are wondering about the title, Sante provides no explanation or clues other than noting that "Kill all your darlings" was "writerly advice attributed to William Faulkner.") The individual pieces, 25 in all, deal with New York City and its environs or with significant (and, in several cases, not-so-significant) figures or events in American music, literature and belles-lettres, the visual arts, or pop culture broadly construed.

Inasmuch as I had read and valued highly two of Sante's previous books ("Low Life" and "The Factory of Facts"), I bought this book with high expectations simply because it was by Luc Sante. But reading 25 disparate pieces, with no real unifying threads or themes, was not quite as smooth sailing as I had anticipated. I could only read two or three at a time, over several weeks. And, unfortunately, the least interesting pieces (at least to me) were the ones on New York City at the beginning of the book. But the intrinsic interest picked up after the first 110 pages, with the high points, to my mind, being the pieces on Bob Dylan, Buddy Bolden, the origin/invention of the blues, Hegre and the Tintin books, Walker Evans, two of Michael Lesy's books of American photographs, and Robert Mapplethorpe.

Sante is a keen observer and often insightful commentator regarding popular and "middlebrow" culture as well as the underbelly and detritus of American life. He writes well and with a distinctive voice. (An example: "All kinds of thoroughly debunked specimens -- the noble cowboy, the contented housewife, the edenic small-town past -- continue to stagger along in the collective imagination because of their proven effectiveness as topical analgesics for reality-based headaches.") This collection illustrates that almost any of his pieces are worth reading, although it will be the rare reader indeed who truly is interested in everything that Sante writes about. All the same, these pieces probably are best read as they were published -- one at a time.

Finally, kudos to the publisher for a sturdy yet reader-friendly binding and a very readable lay-out.

I attended the Broadway run of "A Chorus Line" in 1975 as well as it's revival in Los Angeles in 2008. I loved the music, but for the first time I was able to read and understand the book and the lyrics and realized how much I didn't hear or comprehend when I sat there in the audience. Reading "A Chorus Line-the book of the musical" was a revelation and is now prominent among my Broadway reference library. Special thanks to James Kirkwood, Nicholas Dante for their book and Edward Kleban for his lyrics and their contribution to the music of Marvin Hamlisch and the vision of Michael Bennett.

A Chorus Line is what many people (with the exception of this reviewer) considers the best musical ever written. I feel that the best musical ever written wa Chorus Line's original Tony award competitior, Chicago (which alas, won no awards that year.) That isn't to say that I don't like the show. I think it has one of the best musical books ever written and some nice songs.
The show tells the personal stories of dancers auditioning for an unknown musical in 1975. The stories range from hysterical to sad to disturbing. I'm sure that the actor\dancers that told these tales were exceptional. Some of them, like Kelly Bishop and Donna McKechnie, have gone on to great success.
The show's score is nice, but nowhere near the calibur of Chicago's excellent music and lyrics. Marvin Hamlisch supplies nice tunes with a soft rock beat. The most memorable is "One" which is sort of like a Jerry Herman showtune. "Dance: Ten;Looks: Three" is also charming. The montage, which includes two good songs "Hello 12, Hello 13, Hello Love" and "Nothing" also has nice music.
Ed Kleban's lyrics are conversational and blend well with the dialouge. They are sometimes funny and sometimes touching. However, they are sometimes rather predicitable and nowhere near the brillance of Fred Ebb's ironic, cynical lyrics for Chicago.
However, the book is so superb, it makes the okay score nearly perfect for the show.
I do think that A Chorus Line is an important piece. It's extremely well written. However, I doubt if any busy director would take the time to personally talk to eac auditioner about their life. The story is slightly implausable.
However, the great director- Michael Bennet, the great writers and cast made this show a singular sensation that brought tourism and prosperity back to New York.

C'mon! A chorus Line is THE best musical ever written! Now you can have the chance to own a wonderfully published script to this amazing music. I also suggest buying the cd to the musical to go with the script. It's just a pity that this script can not encapsulate the performances of the original cast as well. But I guess you can't have your cake and eat it too. But you can buy this script... and for a severely discounted price!...Congratulations. Jump at this deal immediately.

I bought this book for the 22nd Anniversary of when I did this show. This the best tool for anyone that needs research for this show. It is on target in terms of tempos, dialogue etc.

A Chorus Line Sheet music is great to have if your like me and love the show, and love to sing. I love all the music in the show and it's fun to sing out of. And if you don't like to sing but like to play an instrument, get this music! You won't be upset you did!

As arrangements of Broadway shows go, this book is pretty good. All pieces are in the correct key (far too often, popular sheet msuic is deliberately transposed into the wrong key to prevent people from singing them properly), and the arrangements are a good take on the actual orchestral score. It's a fairly challenging arrangement; beginners should NOT buy this music as they will be extremely frustrated.

However, I cannot give this book 5 stars since several songs are truncated. Only one version of "One" is included, it is not the "rehearsal" version (where the actors recite dance steps and count the beat as they learn the song) but the finale, yet verse 4, with the fantastic 4-part harmony, is not included. "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen" was cut down to only the introduction, leaving out the fantastic montage of character stories sung through this four-part number. (The new Chorus Line cast CD, from the 1975 version, has almost 15 minutes of material from this recurring song.) "The Music and the Mirror" omits the extended music for Cassie's mirror dance, only including the singing.

If you want absolutely every shred of music from the show, you should look at the Vocal Score instead. That book is 224 pages of every bit incidental music, lead-ins, all verses, and codas. If you just want to play or sing a few of the songs for the show and you are comfortable with a moderately difficult arrangement, this is the right book to buy.

NOTE: There is something wrong with Amazon's handing of this product. This review is appearing for both the VOCAL SCORE product and the PIANO/VOCAL/GUITAR product. This is probably the same bug giving the wrong "Look Inside" information for the vocal score. However, if you buy the piano/vocal/guitar version, they will ship you the correct product.

This isn't "sheet music" for the songs on the cast album, this is the ENTIRE vocal score. This is a reduction rather than an arrangement; the full orchestral score was reduced to one piano with a number of extra notes added showing where you would throw in other instruments. This is more difficult and comprehensive than the "Piano/Vocal/Guitar" arrangement, also sold by the same publisher. But go ahead and try those challenging notes, because look what you get!

*Every* piece of incidental music in the show is included here. That means all the lead-ins to songs, not just the songs themselves. That means all the spoken cues to start the music. The filler songs "And" and "The Tap Combination" are included. The full version of "Hello Twelve, Hello Thirteen" is here. Both versions of "One" are here for your enjoyment; the "rehearsal" version (where the actors recite the dance steps, count the beat, and sing the song in a brilliant 4-part arrangement) and the finale used for curtain calls (which includes the countermelody "She walks into a room..." that turns into a terrific interwoven melody for verse 3, followed by fantastic 4-part harmony reprise in verse 4).

The 96-page "sheet music" (Hal Leonard SBN: 088188068X) does not have any of this detail. It features the same pieces in the cast album but only one version of One, which skips both the rehearsal thoughts and the final verse with harmony. It also severely truncates such great hits such as Hello Twelve (which has four parts) and "The Music and the Mirror" (which has an extended musical section where Cassie does her mirror dance). The Vocal Score, this product right here, has ALL that detail.

Don't be confused by the incorrect "look inside" for this product. It shows the identical contents of the Piano/Vocal/Guitar version I mentioned above, and that is NOT what you get with the Vocal Score. It really is over 200 pages of material, and that's why it costs so much more. And it is WORTH IT.

If you just want to play a few of your favorite songs from the show, buy the shorter, easier, and less expensive version. But if you want to capture every element of Marvin Hamlisch's score, if you just love everything about this show and want to recapture the music, THIS is the one to buy.

NOTE: There is something wrong with Amazon's handing of this product. This review is appearing for both the VOCAL SCORE product and the PIANO/VOCAL/GUITAR product. This is probably the same bug giving the wrong "Look Inside" information for the vocal score. However, if you buy the vocal score, they will ship you the correct product.

I've recently purchased and read the 2007 edition of this book, although I also own the 2001 edition as well, and I intend to keep buying future editions as they are released. This book about Bon's life and death, written by Clinton Walker is absolutely brilliant!!! As a 47 year old Australian who bought all of AC/DC's albums on vinyl at the time they were released, back in the 1970s when Bon was the lead singer, (and which I now own on C.D.), I can assure you that Clinton Walker really knows what he's talking about when he talks, not just about Bon, but the whole Australian music scene back then, in general. Quite honestly, you will not find a more compassionate and more accurate book about Bon's life and Australian Rock and Roll, than this one. I really can't understand the very small number of reviewers who didn't give this book a favourable review: If I could give the book six stars out of five, I would. Clinton Walker's style of writing and story telling is so infectious that I just couldn't put the book down. He paints a beautiful picture of Bon Scott, who was obviously one of the kindest, warmest, funniest and honest blokes who ever lived on this planet. Bon was the greatest singer and songwriter and front man of all time, and Clinton Walker must be one of the best music journalists this country has ever seen. Congatulations Clinton Walker!!!!!!!!!! Please note that this particular review was written on the 2nd of August, 2008.

Five stars for this book on AC/DC legend Bon Scott for a whole stack of reasons.

Firstly even though I'm neither a Bon fan nor an AC/DC acolyte this book is about a guy who really lived the life, walked the talk, did the hard yards - whatever cliche you want to use. For that reason along it makes interesting reading.

Secondly it's so darn readable, you just chew it up. It's a real page turner and given it's got a stack of info about AC/DC as well as the Australian rock scene in the 70's it probably appeals to a broader audience than those beer swilling types that just wnat to hear about drunken exploits.

And that brings me to my third reason for giving this the full five stars. The fact that the author doesn't talk down to his readers. Nor does he fall into the trap of lowering the tone to be inclusive - all up this is a well judged book in the writing department. And it's had a tone of accolades over the years - heck Classic Rock magazine even interviewed the author for a piece they were doing on Bon Scott.

From memory this book got up the noses of the AC/DC institution - more particularly the Young brothers - and at the time I got the impression that it was because the author got too close to the truth and essence of Bon. Having finally gotten the chance to own this book and read it in full has only affirmed my initial suspicion.

An excellent book for any fan of the band who isn't afraid to see one of their heroes look human, all too human.

Bon Scott is one of my heroes, and this book is a poor biography of his life. Although Bon's parents were involved in the book, the lack of other good sources is surprising and disappointing, and as a result this book is unsatisfying.

I guess we have to wait until the Young brothers write their book!

A fine body of work by Clinton Walker that gives a balanced insight into the world of Bon Scott. Walker presents Scott as a multi-dimensional person (& musician) and relays to the reader (through factual comment & interviews with Scott's family, friends & colleagues) the many & often contradictory aspects that made up Bon Scott. Buy it & read it in conjunction with "AC/DC Maximum Rock & Roll" by Murray Engleheart with Arnaud Durieux, both excellent value publications !

If you are going to read a biography about Bon Scott and/or AC/DC then THIS book is definately the one to read.

Very well written. Intelligent, detailed, honest and was definately written from the heart. A truly excellent piece of work.
The author had had encounters with Bon personally and seeked out Bons friends & family for information and had Bons parents consent and blessing to do so. Bons mother said, after Clinton Walker asked if it was ok to write a book about Ronald Belford Scott, "Bon would have liked that".
Alberts, who had the AC/DC rights were uncooperative. How absolutely arrogant of them.
In any case Clinton Walker did a brilliant job and this is definately a MUST READ for all Bon Scott lovers.
I was only 7 or 8 years old around the time AC/DC brought out "It's a long way to the top - if you wanna rock n roll", living in Fitzroy, Melbourne, and loved it instantly as I did every other song AC/DC brought out when Bon was singing with the band. Sorry Brian but there is just no comparison.
Bon has made a deep impact into so many millions of lives and the whole world, I'm sure, still mourns this brilliant artist and lover of music (and women).
Bon left us far too early but he will NEVER be forgotten. He will always be loved.

This is an amazing book to read after reading Barbara Tuchman's "The Guns of August." Both books deal with the psychology of war but Susan Griffin addresses modern war on the level of the individual; telling stories of both the victims and the perpetrators of war's atrocities. Susan attempts something new in her style that is very effective on one hand but difficult for the reader on the other. She asks "Who are we?" and then answers that there are so many strands to a story and one must trace every strand. She literally takes this idea as her form and weaves the threads of several stories together on the same page. I found each "thread" fascinating but ultimately I ended up reading each separately so that I would not lose my grasp on the story. I found Chapters 1 through 5 to be fascinating. The last chapter entitled, "Notes Toward A Sketch for A Work in Progress" is just that--an abrupt departure from the main body of the book. It's what's left over in her journal that she didn't quite fit into the book but still wanted to include anyway. It's interesting but not as engaging as the first 5 chapters. The book is gloomy and yes, Susan Griffin has a depressing outlook on life, but even doomsayers can be valuable soothsayers in our society.

So much of history is centered on warfare. And then, so much of warfare is historically rooted in a traditional perspective of leaders, politics, and other "big" events. Is there a deeper and more complex truth to all this?

Now, here comes Susan Griffin, and her ideas flow freely out of the conventional boxes of interpretation. In "Chorus of Stones," she examines "small" events, and especially the internal dynamics of family relationships, and then links them to the "big" events -- like the invention of the hydrogen bomb or the decision to fire-bomb Dresden. In the process, she shows the reader how such wide-sweeping historical catastrophes like wars are inextricably connected with small, often trivialized realities whose real significance can go unnoticed, or even be repressed. If you ever thought about the old adage that "we won't understand war until we understand why couples argue with each other," then this book will fascinate you. It's a real shame that it hasn't received more attention, for it challenges so many of our notions about the separation of "personal" and "public" lives. Fascinating through and through!

In this book, Griffin explores the connections between subtle violences and small denials, and horrible huge violences such as war, especially the second world war with the holocaust and the use of the atomic bomb as a weapon. One could say that this material has been covered before, but my description really does not do her work justice. The book is a highly imaginative meditation on the connections between events at different times and at different parts of the world, and between internal and external events. She traces the lives of a few historical figures including Gandhi, Himmler, and a British general, woven into the rest of the book. Also, there are some poetical descriptions of biological processes, mostly at the cellular level, and as a cell biologist, I must say that she has her facts straight, which gives me more confidence in the other parts of the book which I know less about (historical events). I feel Griffin does what an artist should do - put into words (or some form that we can understand) thoughts and feelings that are just beneath our own threshhold of consciousness.

I came across this book by chance - an obscure reference in a popular psychology book.Susan Griffin has captured the interconnectedness of life, war, relationships and evolution in a scope so vast, so all encompassing that it left me breathless. An amazingly successful synthesis of conveying the macrocosm by studying the microcosm. It had me scribbling down 'quotable quotes', until I soon realised that almost everything she says is profound, well thought out and corresponding to all my notions of truth. In a time when the USA is contemplating war, everyone would be well served by reading this book. Susan Griffin's work is one of startling intellectual scope written in a language that is as sparing as it is poetic. I am in awe of A Chorus of Stones and am saddened by the fact that it seems to be relatively unknown - particularly in Australia.

all i can say about this book is that at times it was so powerful i had to put it down, i just couldn't take it