Tag Archives: History

This annotated chronology of western music from 313-1425 is the first in a series of outlines covering the history of music in western civilization. The present volume covers the background, philosophy, theory, notation, style, and forms or classes of music of the periods stated and also the works of theorists or composers. Sources, facsimiles, and transcriptions of musical manuscripts and sources of treatises by musical theorists, in the original language and in English translation, are indicated where possible.

The instruments of each historical period are listed and described. Musical terms are defined at the end of each chapter. Foreign words, parts of the liturgy of the Roman Catholic church, musical terms, titles of theoretical works and musical manuscripts, and names of composers, theorists, and places of interest are defined in the section entitled Definition and Pronunciation. This section also includes the translation and pronunciation of words in Classical and Ecclesiastical Latin, French, German, Italian, Spanish, Old English, and Old French. (mais…)

Generally acknowledged as the most important German musicologist of his age, Hugo Riemann (1849–1919) shaped the ideas of generations of music scholars, not least because his work coincided with the institutionalization of academic musicology around the turn of the last century. This influence, however, belies the contentious idea at the heart of his musical thought, an idea he defended for most of his career – harmonic dualism. By situating Riemann’s musical thought within turn-of-the-century discourses about the natural sciences, German nationhood and modern technology, this book reconstructs the cultural context in which Riemann’s ideas not only ‘made sense’ but advanced an understanding of the tonal tradition as both natural and German. Riemann’s musical thought – from his considerations of acoustical properties to his aesthetic and music-historical views – thus regains the coherence and cultural urgency that it once possessed. (mais…)