[Luchesi]

I downloaded this and gave them a donation.

https://kupdf.net/download/ludmila-ulehla-contemporary-harmony_590de3e0dc0d60802f959eaa_pdfLudmila Ulehla - Contemporary Harmony

 

[Andrew Kenneth]

Just received this =>

Gegenwärtig - 100 Jahre Neue Musik - Die Donaueschinger Musiktage
(216 page fully illustrated history of the Donaueschinger Musiktage)

 

[Jay]

Music In the Western World: A History In Documents -- Piero Weiss/Richard Taruskin
Contemplating Music: Challenges To Musicology -- Joseph Kerman
Music and Marx: Ideas, Practice, Politics -- Regula Qureshi
Music As Cultural Practice, 1800-1900 -- Lawrence Kramer

 

[juliante]

Anyone know if a good overview of chamber music - history, discussions on 'greatest' works?

 

[Xenophiliu]

Anyone know if a good overview of chamber music - history, discussions on 'greatest' works?

I don't know how in depth you are looking, but these are general surveys that aren't comprehensive. I find a lot of these overview books tend to be along the lines of recording liner notes, which is fine if you don't want a lot of depth and would rather have a companion or a starter guide.

I really only know Mark Radice's well, as it is a textbook and have come across it from time to time.

Chamber Music: An Essential History, Radice
Guide to Chamber Music, Dover
Chamber Music: A Listener's Guide, Keller
A Friend's Guide to Chamber Music: European Trends from Haydn to Shostakovich, Monsman

 

[larold]

Just started this, a new examination of Liszt's symphonic poems from Joanne Cormac at University of Nottingham (England.) She details Liszt's years in Weimar, his ideas on music and art, motivation and premieres, and repositions the composer as a dramatist. whose symphonic oeuvre should be placed alongside dramatic works of Mendelssohn, Berlioz and Wagner. Eminently readable and not at all didactic this is an exciting venture into an area that, unlike the worlds of Beethoven, Bach or even Bruckner, has not been particularly explored. Fun so far.

 

[Hogwash]

Anyone know if a good overview of chamber music - history, discussions on 'greatest' works?

Here's a couple I found at the library:

 

[Cheyenne]

Anyone know if a good overview of chamber music - history, discussions on 'greatest' works?

The reference work on Chamber Music has always been Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, with the caveat that it is by now outdated and old-fashioned. Still very fun and exactly what you're looking for!

 

[juliante]

The reference work on Chamber Music has always been Cobbett's Cyclopedic Survey of Chamber Music, with the caveat that it is by now outdated and old-fashioned. Still very fun and exactly what you're looking for!

Excllent thanks. I will look for it online and hope it is not exuberantly priced.

 

[fluteman]

Worlds of Music: An Introduction to the Music of the World's Peoples 6th Edition, Jeff Todd Titon, gen. ed., often used as a college textbook, is a good introduction to the subject of non-western classical music, in other words the other side of the coin of most of what is discussed here. IMO it helps put the whole subject of western classical music in its cultural context. It is readable with lots of neat photos and illustrations.

 

[MartinDB]

In case anyone is interested, I stumbled across this copy of "The operas of Benjamin Britten" at the UK Oxfam online shop. I already have a copy of it, which I find helpful for Britten operas for which I don't have a libretto. At £8.99 it is an incredible bargain. I know I paid far more for it.

https://onlineshop.oxfam.org.uk/the-operas-of-benjamin-britten/product/HD_300819483?pscid=ps_ggl_OOS+-+Performance+Max+BOOKS+-+2022_&crm_event_code=20REUWWS08&gclid=Cj0KCQiAg_KbBhDLARIsANx7wAwtthpQcJ2UjUE7bzW_t2YO-Gusu35zw5IA6voFa6aM1gPyZv7Gl5EaAjb6EALw_wcB&gclsrc=aw.ds

 

[partisan]

It is possible that this has been answered numerous times throughout this thread's 17 pages, but perhaps there are better answers to this question now: what is the most enjoyable and enlightening book to learn reading music?

I've long forgotten even the basics since after grade school!

 

[Viajero]

"Casals and the Art of Interpretation" . . . an indispensable primer with excellent written musical examples for any serious musician. Highly recommended.
Viajero

 

[Andrew Kenneth]

now available:

Stockhausen, Der Mann, der vom Sirius kam (Stockhausen, the man who came from Sirius)

396 page Stockhausen biography in graphic novel form.
written by Thomas von Steinaecker - drawings by David von Bassewitz

 

[Simplicissimus]

I recently read:

Lebrecht, Norman (2007) The Life and Death of Classical Music - Featuring the 100 Best and 20 Worst Recordings Ever Made. New York: Anchor Books.
- Very enjoyable, amusing read that includes a lot of inside stories about musicians, conductors, and authors as well as detailed accounts of the rise (and sometimes fall) of DGG, RCA, Decca, and many other labels.

Currently reading:

Sachs, Harvey (2021) Ten Masterpieces of Music. New York: Liveright Publishing.
- Well written short biographies of Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Schumann, Berlioz, Verdi, Brahms, Sibelius, Prokofiev, and Stravinsky; with detailed and sophisticated analysis of one of their signal works.

Mannes, Elena (2011) The Power of Music: Pioneering Discoveries in the New Science of Song. New York: Walker Publishing.
- Readable treatment of the psychology, neuropsychology, and anthropology of music.