Fragments and wish lists

There is an important difference between the study of ancient and modern musics. In modern music, we generally know what the music sounds like and how it is made; consequently, research focuses on the music’s structure, effects, or contexts; we can use the sound to understand broader issues. In studying ancient music, on the other

African musics in colonial North America

Music history books are often silent on the topic of African music in the land that would eventually become the United States. Historians like evidence, after all, and although the scholars regularly acknowledge the significance of African music, there has always been a good deal of guesswork involved in sketching the history of an abused

Changes in instrumentation

Presentism is a constant risk for students of music history. For lack of imagination or knowledge, it’s easy enough to assume that the way that we do things now is the way they always were; in this way, the researcher can unintentionally impose their own worldview on the past. Musical instruments offer a great opportunity

Notation and performance

The academic study of music in the United States has traditionally been dominated by the use of notated scores. Undergraduate students, in particular, are often told that they must perform a score exactly as it is written, as the score reflects the composer’s intentions. This approach is very useful for students who are using scores

Nineteenth-century virtuosos

The nineteenth century was the first period in Western music history in which the virtuoso truly emerged. Virtuosos, as you may know, are performers with tremendous skill on their instruments (singers are not usually called virtuosos). Of course there had been skilled performers before, but the nineteenth century saw the virtuoso emerge as a pop

Music drama

Music drama Richard Wagner (1813–1883) is a complex figure. He wrote essays, poems, and music at a prodigious rate. His music has remained in the modern repertory, despite controversy and scandal (he was an ardent anti-Semite): his influence is too great to sidestep or ignore. In particular, he transformed the way that music and drama

Conventions in nineteenth-century century opera

In the modern American imagination, opera is separate from popular culture. Dominated by a repertory of works in foreign languages (especially French, Italian, and German), limited by expensive ticket prices, and often presenting historic works, opera seems elitist and rarified. However, for a lengthy period—at least 1810 to 1900—opera played an important role in Western

Domestic song traditions in the nineteenth century

Look over any standard history of music in the nineteenth century, and you’ll learn about a set of gifted songwriters who released published volumes of songs for solo voice and piano. These songs are often described as lieder (the German word for songs), simply because so many German-speaking musicians wrote them: Franz Schubert, Robert Schumann,

Program, characteristic, and absolute music

During the nineteenth century, musicians and critics began developing new ways of talking about and categorizing types of instrumental music. These new categories—which are now commonly described as program, characteristic, and absolute music—did not emerge overnight. They’re significant both through their relationship to modern musical practice, and because they reveal a major divide inside the

The Romantic aesthetic in Western music

This lesson is designed to introduce you to the “Romantic” movement. Standard histories of music often present the music of the Romantic movement as being the single, most important type of music that you should know about from the nineteenth century. It’s true that the music of Franz Schubert, Fryderyk Chopin, Robert Schumann, Felix Mendelssohn,