George Perle has divided this collection into four parts Composers and Works (Bartïk Berg Schoenberg Scriabin and Webern Towards a New Musical Language Some Critical Appraisals of Contemporary Music Theory and On Listening to Modern Music. These 23 articles reviews lectures and speeches represent the best of 50 years of musical thought and insight by one of the keenest musical minds of this century. Sharing this particular composer's point of view leads the reader to an understanding of the linear progression(not easily apparent) from the last century to the next.

This volume invites to bridge the traditional gap between the author and the scribes, which means between the "original text" and the “copies” in order deal with more complex situations, in which the performer, the screenwriter, or the director...

This is the first comprehensive overview of instrumental chamber music from the 16th century to the present. There are comparisons of different genres, composers, and periods. Situations for chamber music at different moments in history are brought into a continuum, and all aspects of chamber music are placed into perspective. A History of the Idea of Chamber Music is chronologically organized at the most general level. Beyond that, national schools figure prominently, as well as genres and personalities. Throughout this book the composition of chamber music, the performance of chamber music, and the social, economic, political, and aesthetic conditions for chamber music have been considered per se and as they interact. (From the Introduction)

Opera has been around ever since the late 16th century, and it is still going strong in the sense that operas are performed around the world at present, and known by infinitely more persons than just those who attend performances. On the other hand, it has enjoyed periods in the past when more operas were produced to greater acclaim. Those periods inevitably have pride of place in this Historical Dictionary of Opera, as do exceptional singers, and others who combine to fashion the opera, whether or not they appear on stage. But this volume looks even further afield, considering the cities which were and still are opera centers, literary works which were turned into librettos, and types of pieces and genres. While some of the former can be found on the web or in other sources, most of the latter cannot and it is impossible to have the whole picture without them. Indeed, this book has an amazingly broad scope. The dictionary section, with about 340 entries, covers the topics mentioned above but obviously focuses most on composers, not just the likes of Mozart, Verdi and Wagner, but others who are scarcely remembered but made notable contributions. Of course, there are the divas, but others singers as well, and some of the most familiar operas, Don Giovanni, Tosca and more. Technical terms also abound, and reference to different genres, from antimasque to zarzuela. Since opera has been around so long, the chronology is rather lengthy, since it has a lot of ground to cover, and the introduction sets the scene for the rest. This book should not be an end but rather a beginning, so it has a substantial bibliography for readers seeking more specific or specialized works. It is an excellent access point for readers interested in opera.

This is the first and only scholarly book to date on George Rochberg (b. 1918), the pre-eminent post-WWII American composer and essayist. It was compiled with his assistance and gathers into one volume previously scattered and hard-to-find material by and about the composer. Included are traditional types of scholarly information on Rochberg, e.g., his WORKS (date of composition, publisher, timing, commission, premiere, instrumentation, program notes by the composer, etc.), DISCOGRAPHY, BIOGRAPHY (a chronological listing of his compositions and the major events of his life), AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPTS & DOCUMENTS (housed in public collections/libraries), TEXTS (used in the works with voice), and BIBLIOGRAPHY (books, articles, and reviews by and a bout Rochberg). This is an essential guide for any performer, scholar, critic, or student of George Rochberg's music.

"Wallin's discourse encompasses: 1) the musical consequences of cerebral functional asymmetry; 2) the hierarchic and selective organization of perceptual-cognitive auditory processes; 3) reticular-limbic responses to musical stimuli interpreted as synapse-modifying mechanisms for long-term motivation and learning, as well as for phylogenetical "learning"; 4) the question of remnants or retentions with roots in the sound-gestures of other vertebrates of a higher order (and not solely the non-human primates) being active in the innermost structure of music; 5) vocalization techniques, e.g., the "kolning" technique of the late Paleolithic herding culture of Europe, as paleobiological retention; 6) the epistemological perspective of models of life-processes as discussed in recent scientific research."--BOOK JACKET.

This volume explores the dense networks created by diplomatic relationships between European courts and aristocratic households in the early modern age, with the emphasis on celebratory events and the circulation of theatrical plots and practitioners promoted by political and diplomatic connections. The offices of plenipotentiary ministers were often outposts providing useful information about cultural life in foreign countries. Sometimes the artistic strategies defined through the exchanges of couriers were destined to leave a legacy in the history of arts, especially of music and theatre. Ministers favored or promoted careers, described or made pieces of repertoire available to new audiences, and even supported practitioners in their difficult travels by planning profitable tours. They stood behind extraordinary artists and protected many stage performers with their authority, while carefully observing and transmitting precious information about the cultural and musical life of the countries where they resided.

Opera in the first half of the eighteenth century saw the rise of the memorable composer and the memorable work. Recent research on this period has been especially fruitful, showing renewed interest in how opera operated within its local cultures, what audience members felt was at stake in opera performances, who the people-composers and performers-were who made opera possible. The essays for this volume capture the principal themes of current research: the "idea" of opera, opera criticism, the people of opera, and the emerging technologies of opera.

This book demonstrates the cultivation of instrumental genres by Neapolitan musicians and its significant stature at the royal court. Drawing on archival documents and musical sources, it paints a compelling history of local instrumental music culture and contributes to a wider ethnographic portrait of Naples in the late eighteenth-century.

Early modern Naples has been characterized as a marginal, wild and exotic place on the fringes of the European world, and as such an appropriate target of attempts, by Catholic missionaries and others, to ’civilize’ the city. Historiographically bypassed in favour of Venice, Florence and Rome, Naples is frequently seen as emblematic of the cultural and political decline in the Italian peninsula and as epitomizing the problems of southern Italy. Yet, as this volume makes plain, such views blind us to some of its most extraordinary qualities, and limit our understanding, not only of one of the world's great capital cities, but also of the wider social, cultural and political dynamics of early modern Europe. As the centre of Spanish colonial power within Europe during the vicerealty, and with a population second only to Paris in early modern Europe, Naples is a city that deserves serious study. Further, as a Habsburg dominion, it offers vital points of comparison with non-European sites which were subject to European colonialism. While European colonization outside Europe has received intense scholarly attention, its cultural impact and representation within Europe remain under-explored. Too much has been taken for granted. Too few questions have been posed. In the sphere of the visual arts, investigation reveals that Neapolitan urbanism, architecture, painting and sculpture were of the highest quality during this period, while differing significantly from those of other Italian cities. For long ignored or treated as the subaltern sister of Rome, this urban treasure house is only now receiving the attention from scholars that it has so long deserved. This volume addresses the central paradoxes operating in early modern Italian scholarship. It seeks to illuminate both the historiographical pressures that have marginalized Naples and to showcase important new developments in Neapolitan cultural history and art history. Those developments showcased here include bot