Awards
- Winner of Special Recognition Award, ASCAP Foundation Deems Taylor/Virgil Thomson Awards.
Overview
Though studying opera often requires attention to aesthetics, libretti, staging, singers, compositional history, and performance history, the music itself is central. This book examines operatic music by five Italian composersDLRossini, Bellini, Mercadante, Donizetti, and VerdiDLand one non-Italian, Meyerbeer, during the period from Rossini's first international successes to Italian unification. Detailed analyses of form, rhythm, melody, and harmony reveal concepts of musical structure different from those usually discussed by music theorists, calling into question the notion of a common practice. Taking an eclectic analytical approach, author William Rothstein uses ideas originating in several centuries, from the sixteenth to the twenty-first, to argue that operatic music can be heard not only as passionate vocality but also in terms of musical forms, pitch structures, and rhythmic patternsDLthat is, as carefully crafted music worth theoretical attention. Although no single theory accounts for everything, Rothstein's analysis shows how certain recurring principles define a distinctively Italian practice, one that left its mark on the German repertoire more familiar to music theorists.
Full Product Details
Author: William Rothstein (Professor of Music Theory, Professor of Music Theory, Queens College and The Graduate Center, City University of New York)
Publisher: Oxford University Press Inc
Imprint: Oxford University Press Inc
Dimensions:
Width: 23.70cm
, Height: 4.20cm
, Length: 16.30cm
Weight: 1.007kg
ISBN: 9780197609682
ISBN 10: 0197609686
Pages: 600
Publication Date: 22 December 2022
Audience:
Professional and scholarly
,
Professional & Vocational
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active
Availability: To order
Stock availability from the supplier is unknown. We will order it for you and ship this item to you once it is received by us.
Reviews
To say that this book is highly anticipated is an understatement. Rothstein, a brilliant music theorist, engages with a vast array of past and present scholars, providing historical research and context for his operatic investigations. There is a lot of variety in this scholarly buffet--something for everyone's taste. -- Deborah Burton, Associate Professor, Boston University
To say that this book is highly anticipated is an understatement. Rothstein, a brilliant music theorist, engages with a vast array of past and present scholars, providing historical research and context for his operatic investigations. There is a lot of variety in this scholarly buffet—something for everyone's taste. * Deborah Burton, Associate Professor, Boston University * REVIEW: Steven D. Mathews, Notes: the Quarterly Journal of the Music Library Association., May 2024. Quote loaded: 29/05/2024.
Author Information
William Rothstein is Professor of Music Theory at Queens College and The Graduate Center of the City University of New York. He previously taught at Amherst College, Oberlin College, and the University of Michigan. He is author of Phrase Rhythm in Tonal Music and co-author (with Charles Burkhart) of Anthology for Musical Analysis. He has written and lectured extensively on music of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, with special emphasis on musical rhythm, Schenkerian theory and analysis, and nineteenth-century Italian opera.
