| Contents |
Volume 1: Western choral music: Medieval foundations. Liturgy ; Modality ; Polyphony -- Sacred choral music of the Renaissance, I (1425-1525). Motet and mass cycles ; Josquin des Prez -- Secular choral music of the Renaissance (1140-1625). Chanson, Lied, and psalter ; Italian madrigal ; English madrigal ; Madrigal comedy and intermedium -- Sacred choral music of the Renaissance, II (1525-1600). The rise of the parody mass ; Palestrina, Lassus, and Victoria ; Other choral genres -- Sacred choral music in England (1450-1650). Pre-Reformation England ; Tallis and Byrd ; Anglican Church music -- Choral music of the Italian Baroque (1600-1725). Gabrieli and the polychoral concerto ; Carissimi and the oratorio ; Claudio Monteverdi ; Italian sacred music after Monteverdi -- Choral music in Germany from Hassler to Buxtehude. Foundations of German Baroque choral style ; Heinrich Schütz ; Angst der Hellen und Friede der Seelen (1623) ; Evolution of the German church cantata -- French Baroque music (1650-1750). Lully and Louis XIV ; Charpentier and LaLande ; Couperin and Rameau -- Choral music in England from the Restoration to Handel. Henry Purcell ; George Frideric Handel -- The choral music of Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750). Motets ; Cantatas ; Masses ; Passions -- Aspects of classicism and romanticism in choral music. Transitions from Baroque to classicism ; Stile antico to stile moderno to Empfindsamkeit ; Enlightenment and Romanticism -- The mass (1750-1900). Symphonic mass from Haydn to Beethoven ; Nineteenth-century mass composers -- Romanticism and the requiems of Mozart, Berlioz, Verdi, and Brahms. Latin requiems: Mozart, Berlioz, and Verdi ; Ein Deutsches Requiem -- Sacred choral music from Mozart to Liszt. German Protestant composers ; Nineteenth-century Catholic composers ; Music in Victorian England. |
| Contents |
Volume 2: The oratorio from Haydn to Elgar. Haydn ; Mendelssohn ; Schumann ; Liszt -- Part song in nineteenth-century Germany and England. Schubert ; Schumann ; Mendelssohn ; Brahms ; Elgar -- Choral music in nineteenth-century drama. Choral music in nineteenth-century opera ; Settings of Goethe -- Choral symphony from Beethoven to Berio. Beethoven ; Mahler ; Twentieth-century choral symphonies -- French choral music from Debussy to Messiaen. Debussy and Fauré ; Les six ; Messiaen -- Serialism and choral music of the twentieth century. Schoenberg and Webern ; Stravinsky ; Dallapiccola ; Krenek -- Nationalism, folk song, and identity. Vaughan Williams and Holst ; Kodály and Bartók ; Tormis -- Neoclassicism. Stravinsky ; Hindemith -- The avant-garde aesthetic. Boulez and Cage ; Stockhausen ; Berio ; Ligeti ; Schnittke -- European centrism. Italy ; Eastern Europe ; Switzerland ; Scandinavia ; Baltic states -- The American experience. Ives ; Copland ; Thompson ; Barber ; Bernstein ; Spirituals ; Americanism -- The British isles. Delius ; Howells ; Britten ; Walton and Tippett ; Davies ; Tavener ; MacMillan -- The new simplicities. Lutosławski ; Penderecki ; Reich ; Pärt ; Adams. |
| Abstract |
These volumes explore the various genres, key composers, and influential works essential to the development of the western choral tradition. The author divides this exploration into two volumes which move from Medieval music and the Renaissance era up to the 21st century. Volume I surveys the choral music of composers including Josquin, Palestrina, Purcell, Handel, and J.S. Bach while detailing the stylistic, textual, and extramusical considerations unique to the topics covered. Consideration of Renaissance music includes both sacred and secular works, specifically addressing the growth of sacred music, the rise of secular music, and the proliferation of sacred polyphony from Josquin to Palestrina. Discussion of the Baroque era is organized by geographic location, exploring the spread of Baroque style from Italy to German, France, and England. Volume I concludes by examining the aesthetic underpinnings of the early Classical and Romantic eras. Framing discussion within the political, religious, cultural, philosophical, aesthetic, and technological contexts of each era, these volumes offer readers specialized insight into major composers and works while providing a cohesive understanding of choral music's place in Western history. Volume II begins at the transition from the Classical era to the Romantic, with an examination of the major genres common to both periods. Exploring the oratorio, part song, and dramatic music, it also offers a thorough discussion of the choral symphony from Beethoven to Mahler, through to the present day. It then delves into the choral music of the twentieth century through discussions of the major compositional approaches and philosophies that proliferated over the course of the century, from impressionism to serialism, neo-classicism to modernism, minimalism, and the avant-garde. It also considers the emerging tendency towards nationalistic composition amongst composers such as Bartók and Stravinsky, and discusses in great detail the contemporary music of the United States, and Great Britain. Framing discussion within the political, religious, cultural, philosophical, aesthetic, and technological contexts of each era, these volumes offer readers specialized insight into major composers and works while providing a cohesive understanding of choral music's place in Western history. |
| General note | Volume 1. From medieval foundations to the romantic age. |
| General note | Volume 2. Romanticism through the avant-garde. |
| Bibliography note | Includes bibliographical references (pages 467-476) and index. |
| Other title | From medieval foundations to the romantic age. |
| Other title | Romanticism through the avant-garde. |
| LCCN | 2013042784 |
| ISBN | 9780195177428 (volume 1, hardcover alkaline paper) |
| ISBN | 0195177428 |
| ISBN | 9780199361939 (volume 1, paperback alkaline paper) |
| ISBN | 0199361932 |
| ISBN | 9780199376995 (volume 2, hardcover alkaline paper) |
| ISBN | 0199376999 |
| ISBN | 9780199377008 (volume 2, paperback alkaline pape) |
| ISBN | 0199377006 |
