Richard Taruskin - Music in the Nineteenth Century

Praise for Richard Taruskins The Oxford History of Western Music

There is not a page without insight, and not a chapter that does not fundamentally change the readers perspective on its subject matter. It is a visionary addition to our understanding of our culture.Roger Scruton, Times Literary Supplement

Readable, provocative, endlessly challenging and informative, his narrative account of more than a millenniums worth of musical activity represents a virtuoso display of the historians craft.Joshua Kosman, San Francisco Chronicle

The most important publishing event in classical music since The New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians. The New York Times

Expresses the magnificence and melancholy of its age. Singular in every possible way.Paul Griffiths, The Nation

If you want to know how brilliant Richard Taruskins Oxford History of Western Music is, just open the first of its five long volumes and start reading right from page one. I found myself on the edge of my seat, as Mr. Taruskin begins his journey of a thousand years.Greg Sandow, The Wall Street Journal

Erudite, engaging, and suffused throughout with a mixture of brilliance and delirium a highly personal (and often delightfully prickly) take on musical history from an original and eccentric minda mind to which anybody interested in the art of music should be exposed.Tim Page, The Washington Post

[Taruskins] analyses are generally both cogent and entertaining, written in a rambunctious style that conveys technical information with great lucidity.Charles Rosen, The New York Review of Books

Taruskin has created a corpus of scholarship of breathtaking scope and crushing weight. Lingua Franca

[Taruskin is] one of the most fluent writers on music in modern scholarship. The Musical Times

Entertaining. Provocative. The New York Times Book Review

Taruskins magnum opus is a must-read, and in its way, a real page-turner of detective non-fiction. Its a cinch to become the most discussed music title of the year, if not of the decade.Robert Everett-Green, The Globe & Mail

Its a must-read for people who love or are curious about what we call western classical music. Suddenly there is a coherent, irresistible narrative, full of delightful, sometimes disturbing surprises that leave you thinking for days. Suddenly, music history lives and breathes.Tamara Bernstein, CBC Online

Erudite, biased and persuasive; an irresistible survey of a millennium of music. Its ideas, a brillliant distillation of contemporary cultural attitudes, will likely percolate across music studies and other cultural histories.Pierre Ruhe, Atlanta Journal-Constitution

He is an elegant storyteller whose gifts of explication lead the reader to new levels of understanding, if not always agreement his history is destined to remain intriguing and influential for years to come.Don Rosenberg, Cleveland Plain Dealer

It isnt likely that anyone, anytime soon, will challenge or replace this huge effort of Taruskins it is a staggering accomplishment.Alan Rich, LA Weekly

The book is nothing short of spectacular stellar, worthwhile reading.Daniel Felsenfeld, New Music Box

One of the liveliest and most remakable books about music. It will give real pleasures and revelations to any music lover, amateur or professional.Raphael Mostel, The Forward

It is difficult to arrive at a final opinion of so vast and multifarious a work other than to say that few people in the field could have encompassed it with the thoroughness and knowledge of Richard Taruskin.Patrick J. Smith, The New Criterion

Musicians, students, historians, and other readers wishing a detailed narrative about the career, patronage, musical influences, reception, and creative production of western composers, as well as the development of musical styles, will find this a fascinating and satisfying resource. Reference & Research Library Book News

Richard Taruskin, the most authoritative controversialist in modern musicology, has written an Oxford History of Western Music to rival Gibbons Decline and Fall in ambition, literary distinction and sheer bulk. David Gutman, The Independent

Theres no doubt that The Oxford History of Western Music is an important model of music historiography for some years to come.Rob Haskins, American Record Guide

Theres no place else to look for such a comprehensive, entertaining overview of this immense subject.John W. Freeman, Opera News

Its likely to be remembered as the magnum opus of the most stimulating and insightful English-languge writer on music at work today.Claude Bustard, Richmond Times-Dispatch

A towering achievement.Melinda Bargreen, The Seattle Times

Taruskin has suceeded in writing a stimulating overview of Western society, setting a standard that will not be surpassed for a very long time.Timothy J. McGee, Library Journal starred review

Wickedly brilliant. BBC Music Magazine

MUSIC IN THE
NINETEENTH CENTURY

THE OXFORD HISTORY OF
WESTERN MUSIC

The Oxford History of Western Music is a continuous narrative, in five volumes (originally
issued with a sixth containing indices and other back matter), covering the history of
literate music making in Europe and (eventually) North America from inception, with
the introduction of music notation in the ninth century CE, to the dawn of the third
millennium. This book, corresponding to Volume 3 of the whole, has been lightly
revised for the sake of greater accuracy and self-sufficiency. The indices and back
matter have been divided among the several volumes in this edition.

The Earliest Notations to the Sixteenth Century

The Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries

The Nineteenth Century

The Early Twentieth Century

The Late Twentieth Century

MUSIC IN THE

Richard Taruskin

THE OXFORD HISTORY OF WESTERN MUSIC

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Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Taruskin, Richard.
[Oxford history of western music. 3, Nineteenth century]
Music in the nineteenth century/by Richard Taruskin.
p. cm. (The Oxford history of western music; v. 3)
Originally published as: Oxford history of western music.
Vol. 3, The nineteenth century. Oxford; New York: Oxford University Press, 2005.
ISBN 978-0-19-538483-3 (alk. paper)
1. Music 19th centuryHistory and criticism. I. Title.
ML196.T27 2009
780.9 034dc22
2008045165
1 3 5 7 9 8 6 4 2
Printed in the United States of America