The Birth of the Orchestra : History of an Institution, 1650-1815

The Birth of the Orchestra : History of an Institution, 1650-1815
Title The Birth of the Orchestra : History of an Institution, 1650-1815 PDF eBook
Author Music History and Literature San Francisco Conservatory of Music John Spitzer Chair
Publisher Oxford University Press, USA
Pages 670
Release 2005-08-05
Genre Music
ISBN 9780199719914

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This is the story of the orchestra, from 16th-century string bands to the "classical" orchestra of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. Spitzer and Zaslaw document orchestral organization, instrumentation, social roles, repertories, and performance practices in Europe and the American colonies, concluding around 1800 with the widespread awareness of the orchestra as a central institution in European life.

The Birth of the Orchestra

The Birth of the Orchestra
Title The Birth of the Orchestra PDF eBook
Author John Spitzer
Publisher Oxford University Press, USA
Pages 614
Release 2005
Genre Music
ISBN 9780195189551

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Traces the emergence of the orchestra from 16th-century string bands to the "classical" orchestras of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and their contemporaries.

The Birth of the Orchestra

The Birth of the Orchestra
Title The Birth of the Orchestra PDF eBook
Author John Spitzer
Publisher Oxford University Press
Pages 635
Release 2004-04-29
Genre Music
ISBN 0198164343

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This book traces the emergence of the orchestra from 16th-century string bands to the 'classical' orchestra of Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, and their contemporaries. Ensembles of bowed stringed instruments, several players per part plus continuo and wind instruments, were organized in France in the mid-17th century and then in Rome at the end of the century. The prestige of these ensembles and of the music and performing styles of their leaders, Jean-Baptiste Lully and ArcangeloCorelli, caused them to be imitated elsewhere, until by the late 18th century, the orchestra had become a pan-European phenomenon.Spitzer and Zaslaw review previous accounts of these developments, then proceed to a thoroughgoing documentation and discussion of orchestral organization, instrumentation, and social roles in France, Italy, Germany, England, and the American colonies. They also examine the emergence of orchestra musicians, idiomatic music for orchestras, orchestral performance practices, and the awareness of the orchestra as a central institution in European life.

American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century

American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century
Title American Orchestras in the Nineteenth Century PDF eBook
Author John Spitzer
Publisher University of Chicago Press
Pages 504
Release 2012-04-09
Genre History
ISBN 0226769763

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Studies of concert life in nineteenth-century America have generally been limited to large orchestras and the programs we are familiar with today. But as this book reveals, audiences of that era enjoyed far more diverse musical experiences than this focus would suggest. To hear an orchestra, people were more likely to head to a beer garden, restaurant, or summer resort than to a concert hall. And what they heard weren’t just symphonic works—programs also included opera excerpts and arrangements, instrumental showpieces, comic numbers, and medleys of patriotic tunes. This book brings together musicologists and historians to investigate the many orchestras and programs that developed in nineteenth-century America. In addition to reflecting on the music that orchestras played and the socioeconomic aspects of building and maintaining orchestras, the book considers a wide range of topics, including audiences, entrepreneurs, concert arrangements, tours, and musicians’ unions. The authors also show that the period saw a massive influx of immigrant performers, the increasing ability of orchestras to travel across the nation, and the rising influence of women as listeners, patrons, and players. Painting a rich and detailed picture of nineteenth-century concert life, this collection will greatly broaden our understanding of America’s musical history.

The Symphonic Repertoire, Volume I

The Symphonic Repertoire, Volume I
Title The Symphonic Repertoire, Volume I PDF eBook
Author Mary Sue Morrow
Publisher Indiana University Press
Pages 946
Release 2024-03-29
Genre Music
ISBN 025307214X

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Central to the repertoire of Western art music since the 18th century, the symphony has come to be regarded as one of the ultimate compositional challenges. In his five-volume series The Symphonic Repertoire, the late A. Peter Brown explores the symphony from its 18th-century beginnings to the end of the 20th century. In Volume 1, The Eighteenth-Century Symphony, 22 of Brown's former students and colleagues collaborate to complete the work that he began on this critical period of development in symphonic history. The work follows Brown's outline, is organized by country, and focuses on major composers. It includes a four-chapter overview and concludes with a reframing of the symphonic narrative. Contributors address issues of historiography, the status of research, and questions of attribution and stylistic traits, and provide background material on the musical context of composition and early performances. The volume features a CD of recordings from the Bloomington Early Music Festival Orchestra, highlighting the largely unavailable repertoire discussed in the book.

The Orchestral Revolution

The Orchestral Revolution
Title The Orchestral Revolution PDF eBook
Author Emily I. Dolan
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 305
Release 2013-01-17
Genre Music
ISBN 1107028256

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This book explores the relationship between the history of orchestration and the development of modern musical aesthetics in the Enlightenment. Using Haydn as a focal point, it examines how the consolidation of the modern orchestra radically altered how people listened to and thought about the expressive capacity of instruments.

The Other Worlds of Hector Berlioz

The Other Worlds of Hector Berlioz
Title The Other Worlds of Hector Berlioz PDF eBook
Author Inge van Rij
Publisher Cambridge University Press
Pages 371
Release 2015-02-19
Genre Music
ISBN 1316239632

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Berlioz frequently explored other worlds in his writings, from the imagined exotic enchantments of New Zealand to the rings of Saturn where Beethoven's spirit was said to reside. The settings for his musical works are more conservative, and his adventurousness has instead been located in his mastery of the orchestra, as both orchestrator and conductor. Inge van Rij's book takes a new approach to Berlioz's treatment of the orchestra by exploring the relationship between these two forms of control – the orchestra as abstract sound, and the orchestra as collective labour and instrumental technology. Van Rij reveals that the negotiation between worlds characteristic of Berlioz's writings also plays out in his music: orchestral technology may be concealed or ostentatiously displayed; musical instruments might be industrialised or exoticised; and the orchestral musicians themselves move between being a society of distinctive individuals and being a machine played by Berlioz himself.