Yma Sumac: The Art Behind the Legend
by Nicholas E. Limansky
List Price:
Our Price: $29.94
You Save: $0.01 (0%)
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Buy Used: from $25.00 (click here)
Category: Book
See more book details and other editions
Book Summary Information
Author: Nicholas E. LimanskyEdition: Paperback
Audio: English (Unknown); English (Original Language); English (Published)
Published: 2008-04-15
ISBN: 0979097290
Number of pages: 294
Publisher: YBK Publishers, Inc.
Product features:
- ISBN13: 9780979097294
- Condition: New
- Notes: BRAND NEW FROM PUBLISHER! 100% Satisfaction Guarantee. Tracking provided on most orders. Buy with Confidence! Millions of books sold!
Book Reviews of Yma Sumac: The Art Behind the Legend
Book Review: Outstanding biography of a difficult subject.
Summary: 5 Stars
As she was often wont to say herself, there were many opera singers, but there was only one Yma Sumac. The trouble being, nobody knew who she was. Including, after many years, Ms. Sumac herself. Like other artists who deliberately wrapped themselves in mystery and enigma the better to heighten their appeal to the public, she came (one might almost say was forced) to believe much of the myth that was spun around her. At the height of her fame, in the 1950's, the public was happy to lap it all up. In the twilight of her career, such tall tales would come to haunt her reputation as a singer, if not as a performer.
Nicholas Limansky has managed the difficult job of writing a detailed and exhaustive biography of someone who declined to cooperate in the telling of her own life story. That it reads as if Ms. Sumac, or at least her amaneuensis, is sitting by his side providing the necessary details is a credit to someone for whom such a project is plainly far more than an academic exercise. A professional singer himself, Limansky supplies the kind of insight into Sumac's unique vocal abilities that a non-musician would have had to hire outside help to explain. Clear and concise, his writing flows effortlessly from chapter to chapter, knitting together often obscure and sparse material. It is an altogether admirable piece of work.
The book is replete with the kind of detail that comes from years and not months of research. A supplementary CD contains much additional written and photographic material. Leaving it out of the printed edition was clearly a financial decision, as those involved were probably unsure of the book's reception and including such items as color photos would have driven up the project's costs. In this age of eBooks, an updated electronic edition could easily incorporate all the supplementary material at little additional production expense. Ideally, such a release would also include at least excerpts from Sumac's recordings, which in turn would help to drive sales of her music.
Reading Limansky's book, it is a wonder that Sumac achieved the kind of world-beating success that eventually came her way. Her relationship with her husband and manager, Moises Vivanco, was as tempestuous as it was successful. One cringes at the Svengali-like hold he had over her, yet at the same time realizes he knew well how to promote her unique talent and was not afraid to adapt his own musical leanings the better to feature her abilities. It's debatable which of them became the bigger egotist.
No matter. As is ever the case with artists, what matters in the end is the art itself. With this book Limansky does fans of Yma Sumac (and they remain legion) an enormous favor by clearing away the layers of nonsense piled on by her publicists and giving us a look at the real woman herself, as well as her music. I wish only that something had been said about the making of the several black and white shorts (early music videos) of her singing some of her most famous songs. Sumac was not a great mime (see her in the pre-Indiana Jonesish film Secret of the Incas), but in these shorts (viewable on YouTube) she appears to be, if not actually singing, at least lip-synching far better than in later years. From a singing standpoint, it's fascinating to watch her throat and mouth at work as she produces vocal effects that at times verge on the inhuman.
Summary of Yma Sumac: The Art Behind the Legend
Half the range of the piano keyboard!At last a serious critical examination of the utterly unique vocalist celebrated for her "four-octave voice," Yma Sumac! A confounding, sometimes heartbreaking, mixture of absurd show-biz hype, stunning virtuosity, and sometimes ravishing artistry, Yma Sumac was a firmly established recording artist of the folk music of her native Peru when she came to America to be "discovered." And discovered she was-by the publicity department of Capitol Records and the "Exotica" pop music maestro Les Baxter.
From there her story becomes ever more tangled and weird-and deeply interesting. Yma herself is an amazingly contradictory mix. Nicholas Limansky (a formally trained professional singer) is able to demonstrate that she was startlingly sophisticated technically even though almost entirely self-taught. What is perhaps even more astonishing than the celebrated 4-octave range of her voice-and its effortless clarity and sweetness-was the nearly incredible longevity-fully 4 decades!-of her ability to command it.
With the enthusiastic collaboration of her quixotic, charming, slightly rascally husband, she went along with the corruption of her artistic identity by the gleefully amoral record-company publicists, creators of her public persona-Inca Princess (sometimes Priestess!)-from a primitive mountain tribe (or, sometimes, descended from a line of kings that was said to go back several hundred years before there were any Incas)! Imperious as any diva with her intimates and musical collaborators, she maintained an unassailable dignity and unaffected graciousness as a performer and in relation to her fans.
All documented in this large, lavishly illustrated volume-an extensively researched biography (her birth date established once and for all!), many personal anecdotes of her intimates, technical discussions of her voice and her music, generous excerpts from reviews and priceless examples of publicity material.
About the author:
Nicholas E. Limansky studied voice at Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore and has a performance degree from the University of West Virginia. He has sung with The Bach Aria Group, Musica Sacra, New York Choral Artists (of the New York Philharmonic), and the Opera Orchestra of New York. He reviews new vocal releases of historical singers for Opera News, The Record Collector, Classical Singer and Opera Quarterly. His vocal specialty is the acuto-sfogato (extended-vocal-range) soprano. His work on Yma Sumac has covered nearly three decades.
Music Books
Book Subjects
- Arts & Photography
- Biographies & Memoirs
- Business & Investing
- Children's Books
- Comics & Graphic Novels
- Computers & Internet
- Cooking, Food & Wine
- Entertainment
- Gay & Lesbian
- Health, Mind & Body
- History
- Home & Garden
- Horror
- Law
- Literature & Fiction
- Mystery & Thrillers
- Nonfiction
- Outdoors & Nature
- Parenting & Families
- Professional & Technical
- Reference
- Religion & Spirituality
- Romance
- Science
- Science Fiction & Fantasy
- Sports
- Teens
- Travel
Most talked about in Music Books
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brainby Oliver Sacks
Knopf Publishing Group; Published: 2008; Paperback; Book
Best price: $5.17
Listenby Joseph Kerman, Gary Tomlinson
Bedford/St. Martin's; Published: 2007-02-21; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $23.00
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Centuryby Alex Ross
Picador; Published: 2008-10-14; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.94
Price in other shops:
Forever Young: Photographs of Bob Dylanby Douglas R. Gilbert, Dave Marsh
Da Capo Press; Published: 2006-10-24; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.55
Price in other shops:
Heroes And Villains: The True Story Of The Beach Boysby Steven Gaines
Da Capo Press; Published: 1995-08-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $9.15
Price in other shops:
Handbook for Sound Engineers, Third Editionby Glen Ballou
Focal Press; Published: 2002-01-21; Hardcover; Book
Price in other shops:
Jazz Anecdotesby Bill Crow
Oxford University Press, USA; Published: 1990-05-17; Hardcover; Book
Best price: $24.18
Lovesick Blues: The Life of Hank Williamsby Paul Hemphill
Penguin (Non-Classics); Published: 2006-08-29; Paperback; Book
Best price: $6.99
Price in other shops:
How to Train Singers/ Book and Tapeby Larra Browning Henderson
Parker; Published: 1991-06; Paperback; Book
Best price: $29.95
Price in other shops:
I, Tina: My Life Story (icon!t)by Tina Turner, Kurt Loder
It Books; Published: 2010-06-22; Paperback; Book
Best price: $4.00
Price in other shops:
Similar Books and other products
Yma Sumac - Queen of ExoticaRelease date: 2006-03-28; Music CD
Best price: $2.69
Price in other shops:
The Wild Wonderful Whites of West VirginiaNew Video; Release date: 2010-10-26; DVD
Best price: $10.99
Price in other shops:
Yma Sumac - Ultimate Yma Sumac CollectionRelease date: 2003-10-06; Music CD
Best price: $5.60
Price in other shops:
Yma Sumac - Voice of the XtabaySUMAC,YMA; Release date: 1996-03-05; Music CD
Best price: $6.04
Price in other shops:
Yma Sumac - MiraclesRelease date: 2011-04-19; Music CD
Best price: $13.03
Price in other shops: