Musical Form in the Age of Beethoven: Selected Writings on Theory and Method (Cambridge Studies in Music Theory and Analysis, Series Number 12)

A. B. Marx was one of the most important German music theorists of his time. This volume offers a generous selection of the most salient of his writings, the majority presented in English for the first time. It features the oft-cited but little understood material on sonata form, his progressive program for compositional pedagogy and his detailed critical analysis of Beethoven's Eroica Symphony. These writings thus deal with issues that fall directly among the concerns of mainstream theory and analysis in the past two centuries. A. B. Marx was one of the most important German music theorists of his time. Drawing on idealist aesthetics and the ideology of Bildung, he developed a holistic pedagogical method as well as a theory of musical form that gives pride of place to Beethoven. This volume offers a generous selection of the most salient of his writings, the majority presented here in English for the first time. It features Marx's oft-cited but little understood material on sonata form, his progressive program for compositional pedagogy and his detailed critical analysis of Beethoven's 'Eroica' Symphony. These writings thus deal with issues that fall directly among the concerns of mainstream theory and analysis in the last two centuries: the relation of form and content, the analysis of instrumental music, the role of pedagogy in music theory, and the nature of musical understanding Frontmatter Foreword by Ian Bent (page xi) Preface (page xv) Introduction: Music and Spirit (page 1) PART I MUSIC THEORY AS EDUCATION OF THE SPIRIT (page 15) 1 The Old School of Music in Conflict with our Times: selected excerpts (page 17) 2 A Practical and Theoretical Method of Musical Composition, vol. I: selected excerpts (page 35) PART II MARX'S FORMENLEHRE IN THEORY AND APPLICATION (page 53) 3 "Form in music" (page 55) 4 A Practical and Theoretical Method of Musical Composition, vol. III: selected excerpts (page 91) PART III HERMENEUTIC ANALYSIS AND THE IDEE (page 155) 5 Ludwig van Beethoven: Life and Works: selected excerpts (page 157) Select bibliography (page 189) Index (page 192) Marx wrote his polemical monograph The Old School of Music in Conflict with our Times before all four volumes of his compositional method had yet appeared but after the first two volumes had been successful enough to warrant second editions.

a Selection Of The Writings Of A. B. Marx, One Of The Most Important German Music Theorists Of His Time.