Beethoven and his forerunners

By Daniel Gregory Mason

Book Overview

Before Beethoven, there was a world. Hear Beethoven with new ears. In this classical music history book, Daniel Gregory Mason brings together a music criticism essays collection that traces the roots of a revolutionary style. Mason follows the evolution of the symphony, the string quartet, and the piano sonata, showing how inherited conventions became a new language of urgency and depth. With the assurance of a practising musician and the clarity of a born critic, Mason offers composer analysis and biography in brisk, illuminating portraits of the classical era predecessors who shaped Beethoven musical influences. Expect the Haydn and Mozart influence set in context, and close, practical symphony and sonata analysis that helps you follow form, drama, and tonal argument as they unfold in sound. The result is a music students study guide that never forgets the sheer pleasure of listening. Written at a time when public music education was expanding, Mason's prose stands among the durable music appreciation classics: learned without being forbidding, alive to the concert hall as well as the study. These essays capture an era's ideal of attentive listening, still relevant in a distracted age. For anyone drawn to the Viennese classical period and the wider sweep of eighteenth century European music, it works equally well as a concertgoers listening companion and as a shelf-worthy critical landmark. Out of print for decades and now republished by Alpha Editions. Restored for today's and future generations. More than a reprint -- a collector's item and a cultural treasure.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 9353703735
• ISBN13: 9789353703738
• Release Date: May 2019
• Publisher: Alpha Edition
• Length: 358 Pages
• Weight: 1.00 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 5.5" x 8.5"