New York cellist and composer Arthur Russell

Hold on to Your Dreams: Arthur Russell and the Downtown Music Scene, 1973–1992 by Tim Lawrence (Duke University Press) is the first biography of the cellist and composer Arthur Russell, one of the lesser known contributors to the downtown New York music scene during the 1970s and 80s. Russell’s music was largely forgotten until the release of two albums in 2004 triggered a revival of interest, which gained momentum with the issue of additional albums and the documentary film Wild Combination. ‘He was way ahead of other people in understanding that the walls between concert music and popular music and avant-garde music were illusory,’ comments the composer Philip Glass. ‘He lived in a world in which those walls weren’t there.’ www.dukeupress.edu

The Gesualdo Hex: Music, Myth and Memory by Glenn Watkins (W. W. Norton) is an investigation into of one of the most provocative musicians of the Renaissance, who continues to intrigue composers today. In this tale of adultery and intrigue, witchcraft and murder, Glenn Watkins explores the life of composer Carlo Gesualdo – a life suffused with scandal and bordering on the fantastical – as well as the impact of his music on twentieth-century artists such as Stravinsky and Schnittke. The Gesualdo Hex also considers how music takes on a new guise as it is revisited by subsequent generations, and asks us to grapple with our understanding not only of art and the artists who create it, but also of history itself. www.wwnorton.com

Going to the Well for Water: The Seamus Ennis Field Diary 1942–1946 by Ríonach uí Ógáin (Cork University Press) is a translation from Irish of the diaries of uilleann piper Seamus Ennis during his work as music collector with the Irish Folklore Commission. Covering a five-year period in which he visited Galway, Clare, Mayo, Donegal, Limerick and Cavan, the diary serves not only as a commentary on Irish rural life in the 1940s but also provides a picture of the day-to-day life of a gifted folklore collector when still in his mid-twenties. www.corkuniversitypress.com

Music’s Modern Muse: A Life of Winnaretta Singer by Sylvia Kahan (University of Rochester Press) tells the story of Winnaretta Singer (1865–1943), a millionaire at the age of eighteen due to her inheriting part of the Singer Sewing Machine fortune. Her marriage to Prince Edmond de Polignac, an amateur composer, brought her into contact with the elite of French society. After his death in 1901, she used her fortune to benefit music in particular. In addition to subsidising pianists Rubinstein and Horowitz, and organizations such as the Ballets Russes and l’Orchestre Symphonique de Paris, she made a lifelong project of commissioning new works, including Stravinsky’s Renard, Satie’s Socrate, Falla’s El retablo de Maese Pedro, and Poulenc’s piano and organ concertos. www.urpress.com

Best Music Writing 2009, edited by Greil Marcus and Daphne Carr (Da Capo Press), is a collection of essays, profiles, news articles, interviews, creative non-fiction, fiction, book reviews, long-format reviews and blog posts on music and music culture, from rock and hip-hop to R&B and jazz to pop, blues, and more. www.perseusbooksgroup.com/dacapo

The Concise Encyclopedia of American Radio, edited by Christopher H. Sterling and Cary O’Dell (Routledge) comprises more than 300 entries spanning the invention of radio to the internet, addressing personalities, music genres, regulations, technology, programming and stations, the ‘golden age’ of radio and other topics relating to radio broadcasting throughout its history. www.routledge.com