Product Description

Giorgio Pestelli examines one of the crucial periods of musical history, from the middle of the eighteenth century to the era of Beethoven. This was a time of great cultural, technical and social changes. The free professional composer, in direct contact with the wide musical public, replaced the dependent court musician. Instrumental music became the centre of new developments, and sonata form, the cornerstone of nineteenth-century musical architecture, dominated its language. With the decrease in private patronage came the birth of the public concert; there was a vast increase in music publishing, and important developments were made in instrumental techniques, the dominant feature being the rise of the piano. Standing out from this common background are three major figures; Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven, whose specific characteristics are discussed in detail, along with their links with many other musicians. Dr Pestelli also emphasizes general lines of development: the galant style, the passion for antiquity and curiosity for the exotic, the debate over 'literary' opera, the Sturm und Drang movement, the influence of the French Revolution and the Restoration, and the origins of romanticism. The originality of the book arises from the fact that it views the music against the background of social, political, philosophical and cultural trends of the time, rather than relying on detailed analyses of specific works.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #272625 in Books
• Published on: 1984-03-30
• Original language: Italian
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 336 pages

Review
"In every respect it is a brilliant achievement." Times Literary Supplement

"...Pestelli has managed to bring ideas back into our picture of the classical period without falling into distortion or oversimplification...admirable..." Atlantic Monthly

Language Notes
Text: English, Italian (translation)

Customer Reviews

Deeply informative/highly readable
Pestelli's book is a welcome addition to the musicological world; deeply informative and highly readable. The book is geared towards those with a comfortable familiarity of music history and was probably intended for music professionals and/or university-level music students. Appropriately titled (the AGE...) it focuses heavily on lesser known, yet influential, figures and trends that allowed the music of Mozart and Beethoven to become possible. Those with a lesser musical background are advised to have a good music dictionary on hand, as this writing does carry the informational weight of a university level text book.