Michael Hicks

Author of New Musical Resources and a teacher of John Cage, Lou Harrison, and Burt Bacharach, Henry Cowell is regarded as an innovator, rebel, and genius. Celebrated for the novelty of his playing, Cowell popularized a series of experimental piano-playing techniques that included pounding his fists and forearms on the keys and plucking the piano strings directly to achieve the exotic, dissonant sounds he desired. Michael Hicks shows how the maverick composer, writer, teacher, and performer built his career on the intellectual and aesthetic foundations of his parents, community, and teachers--and exemplified the essence of bohemian California. Hicks traces Cowell's radical ideas to teachers like Charles Seeger, Samuel Seward, and E. G. Stricklen, his childhood in the tightknit artistic communities in the San Francisco Bay area, and the immeasurable influence of his parents. Focusing on Cowell's formative and most prolific years, Hicks examines the philosophical fervor that fueled the artist's whirlwind compositions and the ways his irrepressible spirit helped foster an appreciation in the United States and Europe for a new brand of American music.

An "excellent new biography" (Keith Thomas, New York Review of Books) of the wily and formidable prince who unexpectedly became monarch—the most infamous king in British history“An intricately detailed account of Richard’s every recorded move on his journey from younger son of the powerful Duke of York to the last of England’s mediaeval monarchs.”—Mark Jones, Albion Magazine The reign of Richard III, the last Yorkist king and the final monarch of the Plantagenet dynasty, marked a turning point in British history. But despite his lasting legacy, Richard only ruled as king for the final two years of his life. While much attention has been given to his short reign, Michael Hicks explores the whole of Richard’s fascinating life and traces the unfolding of his character and career from his early years as the son of a duke to his violent death at the battle of Bosworth. Hicks explores how Richard—villainized for his imprisonment and probable killing of the princes—applied his experience to overcome numerous setbacks and adversaries. Richard proves a complex, conflicted individual whose Machiavellian tact and strategic foresight won him a kingdom. He was a reformer who planned big changes, but lost the opportunity to fulfill them and to retain his crown.

This was the story for Karen, a devout mother to her daughter, and a driven woman who sought some comfort in her love and family life without having the slightest clue on how fast the world could or would turn on her. All had come across as smooth and easy until the first-ever murder, a murder that would make her leave home, abandon her past and share a dreaded secret with one other person and an unknown figure. Follow the tale of betrayal, theft, secrets, and most importantly, the cunning and manipulating works of a being constantly lurking in the shadows. Double Dare tells the story as it unfolds for Karen, and ultimately stretches toward her daughter and college kids all around them. Having moved to a town named Ivy Waters, a city intended to become a fresh start, and the right place to root her family anew as she hoped to cast away the secret she held dangerously close in worry and fear to her heart, she had no idea just how many secrets the city of Ivy Waters held in its past.

A first-of-its-kind history, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir tells the epic story of how an all-volunteer group founded by persecuted religious outcasts grew into a multimedia powerhouse synonymous with the mainstream and with Mormonism itself. Drawing on decades of work observing and researching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Michael Hicks examines the personalities, decisions, and controversies that shaped "America's choir." Here is the miraculous story behind the Tabernacle's world-famous acoustics, the anti-Mormonism that greeted early tours, the clashes with Church leaders over repertoire and presentation, the radio-driven boom in popularity, the competing visions of rival conductors, and the Choir's aspiration to be accepted within classical music even as Mormons sought acceptance within American culture at large. Everything from Billboard hits to TV appearances to White House performances paved the way for Mormonism's crossover triumph. Yet, as Hicks shows, such success raised fundamental concerns regarding the Choir's mission, functions, and image.

Richard III has been written off in history as one of England’s evil kings. His usurpation of the throne from his nephew Edward V and then subsequent generations of pro-Tudor historians ensured his fame as the disfigured murderer portrayed by Shakespeare. In the twentieth century, Richard found his apologists, those who saw him as more sinned against than sinning.This biography – by the leading expert on Richard – strips away the propaganda of the centuries to rescue Richard from his critics and supporters alike, providing a balanced and compelling portrait of this most infamous of kings.

The Wars of the Roses were quarrels within the Plantagenet family, of which Richard’s dynasty, the House of York, was one branch. They were about family trees – the capacity of family relationships both to unite and to divide – and notoriously about the slaughter of cousins, in-laws, brothers, and nephews. The House of York won the first war, with Richard’s elder brother becoming king as Edward IV. The 1460s are about the explosion of King Edward IV’s family – his brothers (including Richard), his wife and in-laws, and his own offspring – and end in a trial of strength between them. The 1470s are about a second explosion of the House of York, its division into separate nuclear families competing against each other, about the kings’ preferences, and in 1483 a sudden violent resolution following Edward IV’s death. Richard III claimed to be his brother’s heir. The Yorkist establishment refused and shared in Richard’s destruction. With the recent discovery of Richard III’s skeleton, Professor Michael Hicks, described by BBC HISTORY MAGAZINE as ‘the greatest living expert on Richard III’ reassesses the family ties and entrails of his wayward and violent family. Many thousands of descendants of Richard’s siblings survive, some more interested in their lineage than others, and the book will conclude with an analysis of Richard’s DNA and his ‘family’ as it exists today.

A first-of-its-kind history, The Mormon Tabernacle Choir tells the epic story of how an all-volunteer group founded by persecuted religious outcasts grew into a multimedia powerhouse synonymous with the mainstream and with Mormonism itself. Drawing on decades of work observing and researching the Mormon Tabernacle Choir, Michael Hicks examines the personalities, decisions, and controversies that shaped "America's choir." Here is the miraculous story behind the Tabernacle's world-famous acoustics, the anti-Mormonism that greeted early tours, the clashes with Church leaders over repertoire and presentation, the radio-driven boom in popularity, the competing visions of rival conductors, and the Choir's aspiration to be accepted within classical music even as Mormons sought acceptance within American culture at large. Everything from Billboard hits to TV appearances to White House performances paved the way for Mormonism's crossover triumph. Yet, as Hicks shows, such success raised fundamental concerns regarding the Choir's mission, functions, and image.

In this first interpretive narrative of the life and work of Christian Wolff, Michael Hicks and Christian Asplund trace the influences and sensibilities of a contemporary composer's atypical career path and restless imagination. Written in full cooperation with Wolff, including access to his papers, this volume is a much-needed introduction to a leading avant-garde composer still living, writing music, and speaking about his own work. Wolff has pioneered various compositional and notational idioms, including overtly political music, indeterminacy, graphic scores, and extreme virtuosity. Trained as a classicist rather than a musician, Wolff has never quite had both feet in the rarefied world of contemporary composition. Yet he's considered a "composer's composer," with a mind ensconced equally in ancient Greek tragedy and experimental music and an eccentric and impulsive compositional approach that eludes a fixed stylistic fingerprint. Hicks and Asplund cover Wolff's family life and formative years, his role as a founder of the New York School of composers, and the context of his life and work as part of the John Cage circle, as well as his departures from it. Critically assessing Wolff's place within the experimental musical field, this volume captures both his eloquence and reticence and provides insights into his broad interests and activities within music and beyond.

The Wars of the Roses (1455–85) were a major turning point in English history. But the underlying causes for the successive upheavals have been hotly contested by historians ever since. In this original and stimulating new synthesis, distinguished historian Michael Hicks examines the difficult economic, military, and financial crises and explains, for the first time, the real reasons why the Wars of the Roses began, why they kept recurring, and why, eventually, they ceased. Alongside fresh assessments of key personalities, Hicks sheds new light on the significance of the involvement of the people in politics, the intervention of foreign powers in English affairs, and a fifteenth-century credit crunch. Combining a meticulous dissection of competing dynamics with a clear account of the course of events, this is a definitive and indispensable history of a compelling, complex period.

Anne Neville was queen to England’s most notorious king, Richard III. She was immortalised by Shakespeare for the remarkable nature of her marriage, a union which brought together a sorrowing widow with her husband’s murderer. Anne’s misfortune did not end there. In addition to killing her first husband, Richard also helped kill her father, father-in-law and brother-in-law, imprisoned her mother, and was suspected of poisoning Anne herself. Dying before the age of thirty, Anne Neville packed into her short life incident enough for many adventurous careers, but was often, apparently, the passive instrument of others’ evil intentions. This fascinating new biography seeks to tell the story of Anne’s life in her own right, and uncovers the real wife of Richard III by charting the remarkable twists and turns of her fraught and ultimately tragic life.

Memorable not for his life but his death, Edward V is probably better known as one of the Princes in the Tower, the supposed victim of his uncle, Richard III. This work presents to us the backdrop to this tragically short life - and reveals how he was both the hope of a dynasty and an integral cause of that dynasty's collapse.

Anne Neville was the queen to England's most notorious kings, Richard III. Shakespeare made her marriage truly remarkable - 'Was ever woman wooed thus?' - as her husband's killer allured the sorrowing widow. In addition to killing her first husband Richard also helped kill her father, father-in-law, and brother-in-law, imprisoned her mother, and was suspected of poisoning Anne herself. Living less than thirty years, she packed into her short life incident enough for many adventurous careers, but always, apparently, as a passive instrument of a succession of others. This biography seeks to tell the story of her life properly, to uncover the real Anne Neville and the remarkable twists and turns of her fraught and ultimately tragic life.

Edward IV was the first Yorkist king. He ruled (with only a brief hiatus) for 22 years, ended the Wars of the Roses triumphantly in 1471, and died in his bed not invariably the place of death for a medieval monarch. The best general of his day, he destroyed the House of Lancaster. At a very difficult time, he redeemed royal prestige at home and abroad, restored order and public finances, and crushed all his opponents, including his brother Clarence. His son Edward V, still a minor, succeeded him peacefully. Yet within months Edward was deposed in favour of Richard III, his uncle. The Wars of the Roses resumed, Edward IV's sons met violent deaths, and so at Bosworth Field did the usurping Richard III. Assessment of Edward IV is inextricably bound up not only in the record of his reign, itself much disputed, but also with what turned out to be his baleful legacy. This book explores how his reputation has changed and analyses the major issues in light of contemporary and later perceptions of this controversial king

Change and uncertainty have become an inevitable part of life, the world is more turbulent than it used to be, and is susceptible to rapid and often unpredictable change, creating the need for more creative problem solving than ever in order to survive in these conditions. In this new edition Mick Hicks addresses the need for a new range of problem solving and decision making strategies for dealing with the problems of the modern business environment. He identifies that there is no one problem solving process or technique that is universally applicable to all the types of problem situation, and presents the processes which have had the most impact on improving our problem solving abilities, provides detailed background information about them (including illustrative case studies) to give a practical guide for their use and shows how the different approaches complement each other, thus providing a complete problem solving system to tackle almost all types of problem situation.

Memorable not for his life but his death, Edward V is probably better known as one of the Princes in the Tower, the supposed victim of his uncle, Richard III. Though he was never crowned, Edward reigned for 77 days until Richard made himself his nephew's Lord Protector before imprisoning him and his younger brother Richard in the Tower of London. Michael Hicks presents to us the backdrop to this tragically short life--Edward's parents, the contemporary political scenery, his own remarkable achievements--and reveals how he was both the hope of a dynasty and an integral cause of that dynasty's collapse.

Music has flourished in the Mormon church since its beginning. Michael Hicks examines the direction that music's growth has taken since 1830. He looks closely at topics including the denomination's first official hymnals; the views of Joseph Smith and Brigham Young on singing; the Mormon Tabernacle Choir; and the changing attitudes of church officialdom and laity toward popular and non-Western music styles.