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The systematic academic study of music gave rise to works of description, analysis and criticism, by composers and performers, philosophers and anthropologists, historians and teachers and by a new kind of scholar - the musicologist. This series makes available a range of significant works encompassing all aspects of the developing discipline.

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178 results in Cambridge Library Collection - Music

Page 7 of 9

A General History of the Science and Practice of Music
  • Volume 2
  • John Hawkins
  • Published online:
    07 September 2011
    Print publication:
    30 June 2011
    First published in:
    1776
  • Sir John Hawkins (1719–1789), lawyer, friend of Samuel Johnson and member of the Academy of Ancient Music, published his pioneering five-volume history in 1776 just after the first volume of Burney's. Hawkins' work suffered badly in the resulting competition between the two, partly because of his difficult personality, partly because of the scholarly style of the writing contrasting with Burney's more engaging approach. However, it is Hawkins' accuracy and attention to detail, his appreciation of sixteenth- and seventeenth-century music and his account of London music society in the early eighteenth century, supported by his painstaking research, which makes the History of indispensable value to music scholars. Whilst there are neither contents list nor chapter headings, there is an index, and each volume includes generous illustrations and musical examples. Volume 2 includes music of the troubadours, measured notation, modes, organum, the rise of polyphony and Glarean's Dodecachordon.

Autobiography of Hector Berlioz
  • Member of the Institute of France, from 1803 to 1869; Comprising his Travels in Italy, Germany, Russia, and England
  • Volume 2
  • Hector Berlioz
  • Translated by Rachel Holmes
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    02 June 2011
    First published in:
    1884
  • Hector Berlioz (1803–69) was one of the most original and colourful composers of his generation whose music was in many ways ahead of its time. He was also a respected journalist and critic. Begun in 1848, his celebrated Mémoires were completed by 1865 but published posthumously in 1870. They are the best-known of his writings and reflect the man - passionate, imaginative, idealistic, opinionated and witty - and give a fascinating, first-hand, insight into his life. He shares his uncompromising thoughts on his contemporaries and the musical establishment in France, writes candidly about his love affairs and engagingly on his music and travels. This first English translation from the original French, published in 1884, will appeal to the music lover and the general reader. Volume 2 (1842–65) includes an engaging account, assembled from previously published material and presented as letters to friends, of travels to Germany and Russia.

A Treatise upon Modern Instrumentation and Orchestration
  • Hector Berlioz
  • Translated by Mary Cowden Clarke
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    28 October 2010
    First published in:
    1858
  • This is a translation of the second (1858) edition of Berlioz's landmark treatise by Mary Cowden Clarke, daughter of music publisher Vincent Novello. The book was quick to establish itself as a standard work, reflecting Berlioz's keen understanding of the orchestra as both composer and conductor. It is intended as a textbook on the craft of orchestration and to promote better understanding of the essential character of each instrument. Technical details and sonorities are discussed and illustrated with musical examples from composers Berlioz admired, including Gluck and Beethoven, and from his own compositions. This edition includes a section on new instruments, such as the saxophone and concertina, and on the orchestra, and a discussion on the art of conducting. Today the treatise is an important source of information on musical practices of the time and provides us with valuable insight into Berlioz's imaginative and original thinking as a musician.

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Abate Metastasio
  • In which are Incorporated, Translations of his Principal Letters
  • Volume 1
  • Charles Burney, Pietro Metastasio
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1796
  • This three-volume biography, first published in 1796, recounts the colourful life of the popular Italian poet and librettist Pietro Trapassi (1698–1782), better known by his pseudonym Metastasio. Charles Burney (1726–1814), a British composer and the author of a celebrated four-volume History of Music published between 1776 and 1789, interweaves his own accounts of the poet's life with Metastasio's original letters translated into English. Metastasio's posthumously published correspondence with his friends and patrons provides the essential thread to understanding his complex life and affairs. The son of a shopkeeper, Metastasio was adopted as a young boy by the director of the Arcadian Academy, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, who was charmed by the child's extraordinary talent for improvising poetry. Volume 1 covers Metastasio's life from his early childhood until 1751, including his musical debut in Rome after his tutor's death, and the beginning of his career in Vienna.

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Abate Metastasio
  • In which are Incorporated, Translations of his Principal Letters
  • Volume 3
  • Charles Burney, Pietro Metastasio
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1796
  • This three-volume biography, first published in 1796, recounts the colourful life of the popular Italian poet and librettist Pietro Trapassi (1698–1782), better known by his pseudonym Metastasio. Charles Burney (1726–1814), a British composer and the author of a celebrated four-volume History of Music published between 1776 and 1789, interweaves his own accounts of the poet's life with Metastasio's original letters translated into English. Metastasio's posthumously published correspondence with his friends and patrons provides the essential thread to understanding his complex life and affairs. The son of a shopkeeper, Metastasio was adopted as a young boy by the director of the Arcadian Academy, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, who was charmed by the child's extraordinary talent for improvising poetry. Volume 3 covers Metastasio's life and correspondence from 1770 until his death. It includes notes on Metastasio's style as well as separate chronologies of his secular dramas and oratorios.

Memoirs of the Life and Writings of the Abate Metastasio
  • In which are Incorporated, Translations of his Principal Letters
  • Volume 2
  • Charles Burney, Pietro Metastasio
  • Published online:
    05 August 2011
    Print publication:
    31 October 2010
    First published in:
    1796
  • This three-volume biography, first published in 1796, recounts the colourful life of the popular Italian poet and librettist Pietro Trapassi (1698–1782), better known by his pseudonym Metastasio. Charles Burney (1726–1814), a British composer and the author of a celebrated four-volume History of Music published between 1776 and 1789, interweaves his own accounts of the poet's life with Metastasio's original letters translated into English. Metastasio's posthumously published correspondence with his friends and patrons provides the essential thread to understanding his complex life and affairs. The son of a shopkeeper, Metastasio was adopted as a young boy by the director of the Arcadian Academy, Giovanni Vincenzo Gravina, who was charmed by the child's extraordinary talent for improvising poetry. Volume 2 covers Metastasio's successful Viennese career from 1751 to 1770, and includes the bulk of his correspondence with his friend the famous castrato Farinelli.

Memoirs of Doctor Burney
  • Arranged from His Own Manuscripts, from Family Papers, and from Personal Recollections
  • Volume 1
  • Edited by Fanny Burney
  • Published online:
    05 July 2011
    Print publication:
    03 June 2010
    First published in:
    1832
  • Charles Burney (1726–1814), the music historian, is best remembered for his General History of Music and the accounts of his musical tours in Europe. He was a friend of Samuel Johnson and David Garrick, corresponded with Diderot and Haydn and was made Fellow of the Royal Society in 1773. Although he was a music teacher by profession, it was his writings on music which brought him widespread recognition. Following publication of the General History, he began his memoirs but did not complete them. It is likely that he intended his daughter, the novelist Fanny Burney, to publish the memoirs after his death using his manuscript and other papers. Instead she created her own embellished version, adding stylised accounts of events emphasising the literary and social, rather than the musical aspects. Volume 1 takes us to the mid-1770s with the publication of the accounts of the two musical tours.

A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450–1880)
  • By Eminent Writers, English and Foreign
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by George Grove
  • Published online:
    05 July 2011
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1880
  • This is a reissue of the first edition of George Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which has since evolved to become the largest and most authoritative work of its kind in English. The project grew in the making: the title page of Volume 1 (1879) refers to 'two volumes', but by the time Volume 4 appeared in 1889 there was also a 300-page appendix and a separate index volume. The dictionary was an international undertaking, with contributors from Paris, Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna and Boston alongside those based in Britain. It was 'intended to supply a great and long acknowledged want' arising from the increased interest in all aspects of music, which was 'rapidly becoming an essential branch of education', and to cater for the professional while being accessible to the amateur. It is a fascinating document of musical tastes and values in the late Victorian period.

A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450–1880)
  • By Eminent Writers, English and Foreign
  • Volume 5
  • Edited by George Grove
  • Published online:
    05 July 2011
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1890
  • This is a reissue of the first edition of George Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which has since evolved to become the largest and most authoritative work of its kind in English. The project grew in the making: the title page of Volume 1 (1879) refers to 'two volumes', but by the time Volume 4 appeared in 1889 there was also a 300-page appendix and a separate index volume. The dictionary was an international undertaking, with contributors from Paris, Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna and Boston alongside those based in Britain. It was 'intended to supply a great and long acknowledged want' arising from the increased interest in all aspects of music, which was 'rapidly becoming an essential branch of education', and to cater for the professional while being accessible to the amateur. It is a fascinating document of musical tastes and values in the late Victorian period.

Händel und Shakespeare
  • Zur Ästhetik der Tonkunst
  • Georg Gottfried Gervinus
  • Published online:
    03 May 2011
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1868
  • Handel enjoyed considerable popularity at the end of the eighteenth century, when his music was performed in London, Berlin, Leipzig, Vienna and Breslau. However, interest in him had waned by the mid-nineteenth century, when it was rekindled by a small group of music-lovers including Georg Gervinus (1805–71), a historian of literature based in Heidelberg. Gervinus lobbied for a Handel memorial in Halle, was a founder of the first German Handel society in 1856, and in 1858 published Händel und Shakespeare, which drew parallels between his favourite writer and favourite composer. In it, after two long chapters on music history and aesthetics, he compared their intellectual development and attributed the similarities between them to their shared Germanic roots. Although the book was not a great success in its day, it marked an important turning point in European Handel studies, and is still referred to today.

A Dictionary of Music and Musicians (A.D. 1450–1880)
  • By Eminent Writers, English and Foreign
  • Volume 3
  • Edited by George Grove
  • Published online:
    04 April 2011
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1883
  • This is a reissue of the first edition of George Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, which has since evolved to become the largest and most authoritative work of its kind in English. The project grew in the making: the title page of Volume 1 (1879) refers to 'two volumes', but by the time Volume 4 appeared in 1889 there was also a 300-page appendix and a separate index volume. The dictionary was an international undertaking, with contributors from Paris, Leipzig, Berlin, Vienna and Boston alongside those based in Britain. It was 'intended to supply a great and long acknowledged want' arising from the increased interest in all aspects of music, which was 'rapidly becoming an essential branch of education', and to cater for the professional while being accessible to the amateur. It is a fascinating document of musical tastes and values in the late Victorian period.

Memoirs of Musick
  • Now First Printed from the Original MS. and Edited, with Copious Notes
  • Roger North
  • Edited by Edward F. Rimbault
  • Published online:
    04 April 2011
    Print publication:
    17 June 2010
    First published in:
    1846
  • Roger North (1651?–1734) was a successful lawyer and skilled amateur musician who became Attorney General to James II. After the 1688 Revolution he retired from public life and devoted his time to writing on a wide range of topics. Memoirs of Musick originally formed the final section of North's 1728 treatise on music theory, The Musicall Grammarian. It covers aspects of music history (or 'historico-critcall scrapps' as North calls them) from Ancient Greece to Corelli, and includes a substantial account of John Jenkins, who taught North the viol. Charles Burney quoted from the Memoirs in his General History of Music (1776–1789), but this 1846 edition by the musicologist Edward Rimbault was the first time they appeared in print. The book includes an introduction on the manuscript of the Memoirs (now in Hereford Cathedral Library), a short biography of North and extensive explanatory notes to the text.

Life and Letters of Berlioz
  • Volume 2
  • Hector Berlioz, Daniel Bernard
  • Translated by H. Mainwaring Dunstan
  • Published online:
    01 March 2011
    Print publication:
    28 October 2010
    First published in:
    1882
  • Hector Berlioz (1803–1869) was one of the most original and colourful composers of his generation, whose music in many ways was ahead of its time. He was also a highly respected journalist and critic, producing monthly articles for the Journal des Débats for over thirty years, as well as other writings including his posthumously published autobiographical Mémoires. Unlike journalism, which he disliked, letter-writing was a task which he relished and at which he excelled, producing sometimes four or five in a day and more than 3,500 during his lifetime. The letters reflect the man - exuberant, imaginative, idealistic, opinionated and witty - and give us a fascinating, first-hand, insight into his life. This two-volume selection includes some 300 examples. Volume 2, with a preface by the composer Charles Gounod, is devoted to Berlioz's letters to his lifelong friend, the lawyer and writer Humbert Ferrand.

Louis Spohr’s Autobiography
  • Translated from the German
  • Louis Spohr
  • Published online:
    01 March 2011
    Print publication:
    22 April 2010
    First published in:
    1865
  • Louis Spohr (1784–1859) was one of the most popular musicians of the early Romantic period, but of his considerable output (including 10 symphonies, 15 violin concertos, nine operas and a large amount of chamber music), only the Octet op.32 and the Nonet op.31 are heard regularly today. Spohr established his name as a virtuoso violinist and completed his Violin method in 1831. As a conductor, he contributed to the increasing use of the baton to direct performances. He travelled widely in Europe, visiting London for the first time in 1820, when he directed a Philharmonic Society concert, and returning four times between 1843 and 1853. This autobiography, begun in 1847, gives a lively (but not necessarily always accurate) account of life as a professional musician. Spohr's own account ends at June 1838, and the book was completed by family members using materials provided by his wife.

Life and Letters of Berlioz
  • Volume 1
  • Hector Berlioz, Daniel Bernard
  • Translated by H. Mainwaring Dunstan
  • Published online:
    28 February 2011
    Print publication:
    28 October 2010
    First published in:
    1882
  • Hector Berlioz (1803–60189) was one of the most original and colourful composers of his generation, whose music in many ways was ahead of its time. He was also a highly respected journalist and critic, producing monthly articles for the Journal des Débats for over thirty years, as well as other writings including his posthumously published autobiographical Mémoires. Unlike journalism, which he disliked, letter-writing was a task which he relished and at which he excelled, producing sometimes four or five in a day and more than 3,500 during his lifetime. The letters reflect the man - exuberant, imaginative, idealistic, opinionated and witty - and give us a fascinating, first-hand, insight into his life. This two-volume selection includes some 300 examples. Volume 1 includes letters to family, fellow musicians such as Hiller, Lizst and Schumann, and friends such as Auguste Morel and fellow critic Joseph D'Ortigue.

A Dictionary of Musical Terms
  • Edited by John Stainer, William Barrett
  • Published online:
    10 November 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1876
  • This illustrated dictionary, written by the prolific Victorian composer Sir John Stainer (1840–1901) – best remembered today for his oratorio The Crucifixion – and W. A. Barrett, was first published by Novello in 1876. It provides definitions for 'the chief musical terms met with in scientific, theoretical, and practical treatises, and in the more common annotated programmes and newspaper criticisms', ranging from short explanations of the Italian words for tempi, through descriptions of ancient instruments to expansive articles on such topics as acoustics, copyright, hymn tunes, the larynx and temperament. That it subsequently ran to several further editions suggests that it provided welcome guidance for the concert-going public in the nineteenth century.

A Dictionary of Musicians, from the Earliest Ages to the Present Time
  • Volume 2
  • John Sainsbury
  • Published online:
    10 November 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1824
  • The publisher John Sainsbury produced this two-volume biographical dictionary of musicians in 1824. The book, as he acknowledges on his title page, borrows from the previously published works of Choron and Fayolle (in French), Gerber (in German), Orloff (Russian, writing in French), and his two notable English predecessors, Dr Burney and Sir John Hawkings. It contains a 'summary of the history of music', as well as biographies and memoirs of musicians. The range of the information provided is immense, including the most obscure as well as the most famous: fourteen pages on Mozart are followed by paragraphs on his wife Constanza and on the now completely forgotten B. F. Mozin, a French piano teacher and composer, while Beethoven is described when still living and composing, albeit afflicted by deafness. This work is a mine of information on musical life and perceptions of music history in the early nineteenth century.

Memoirs of Doctor Burney
  • Arranged from His Own Manuscripts, from Family Papers, and from Personal Recollections
  • Volume 3
  • Edited by Fanny Burney
  • Published online:
    05 October 2010
    Print publication:
    03 June 2010
    First published in:
    1832
  • Charles Burney (1726–1814), the music historian, is best remembered for his General History of Music and the accounts of his musical tours in Europe. He was a friend of Samuel Johnson and David Garrick, corresponded with Diderot and Haydn and was made Fellow of the Royal Society in 1773. Although he was a music teacher by profession, it was his writings on music which brought him widespread recognition. Following publication of the General History, he began his memoirs but did not complete them. It is likely that he intended his daughter, the novelist Fanny Burney, to publish the memoirs after his death using his manuscript and other papers. Instead she created her own embellished version, adding stylised accounts of events emphasising the literary and social, rather than the musical aspects. Volume 3 details the years from the death of Samuel Johnson in 1784 to Burney's own death in 1814.

Memoirs of Doctor Burney
  • Arranged from His Own Manuscripts, from Family Papers, and from Personal Recollections
  • Volume 2
  • Edited by Fanny Burney
  • Published online:
    05 October 2010
    Print publication:
    03 June 2010
    First published in:
    1832
  • Charles Burney (1726–1814), the music historian, is best remembered for his General History of Music and the accounts of his musical tours in Europe. He was a friend of Samuel Johnson and David Garrick, corresponded with Diderot and Haydn and was made Fellow of the Royal Society in 1773. Although he was a music teacher by profession, it was his writings on music which brought him widespread recognition. Following publication of the General History, he began his memoirs but did not complete them. It is likely that he intended his daughter, the novelist Fanny Burney, to publish the memoirs after his death using his manuscript and other papers. Instead she created her own embellished version, adding stylised accounts of events emphasising the literary and social, rather than the musical aspects. Volume 2 is concerned with events from the mid-1770s to mid-1780s, including the Handel commemoration concerts in 1784.

A Short Historical Account of the Degrees in Music at Oxford and Cambridge
  • With a Chronological List of Graduates in that Faculty from the Year 1463
  • C. F. Abdy Williams
  • Published online:
    05 October 2010
    Print publication:
    20 July 2009
    First published in:
    1893
  • C. F. Abdy Williams (1855–1923), a noted music scholar, traced the history of the discipline at Oxford and Cambridge from the fifteenth century to the late Victorian period in this 1894 book. He discusses the earliest records of degrees in the subject, the establishment of professorships, the requirements for degrees and the ceremonies associated with their conferral. He provides biographical information for graduates from as early as 1463, noting that English music of this early period was in a very advanced stage compared to that of the rest of Europe. He also includes, in an appendix, the names of those persons who are mentioned as graduates but whose names do not appear in the university records. His book reveals the importance attached to the cultivation of music at the ancient British universities and the prestige attached to their scholars over several centuries.

Page 7 of 9