Brief Description
This book focuses on the musical writings in the daily and periodical press in France during the nineteenth century.
Learn More about the Book
This book focuses on the musical writings in the daily and periodical press in France during the nineteenth century. It covers the criticism of a wide range of Western music explaining how composers such as Bach and Beethoven secured a permanent place in the repertory. Dr Ellis analyses the process of canon formation, the development of French musicology and the increasing sensitivity of critics to questions of performance practice. She also examines the inevitable conflict between commercial interest and aesthetic integrity.
On the Back Cover
This book focuses on musical writings in the daily and periodical press in France during the nineteenth century. It covers the criticism of a wide range of Western music, from c. 1580 to 1880, explaining how composers such as Bach and Beethoven secured a permanent place in the repertory. In particular, Dr Ellis considers the music journalism of the Revue et Gazette musicale de Paris, the single most important specialist periodical of the mid nineteenth century, explaining how French music criticism was influenced by aesthetic and philosophical movements. Dr Ellis analyses the process of canon formation, the development of French musicology and the increasing sensitivity of critics to questions of performance practice. Chapters on new music examine the conflict, inevitable in publishers' journals, between commercial interest and aesthetic integrity.
Review Quotes
1. "Vital, stimulating, well-argued, and insightful engagement with such matters is what makes Ellis's book an important contribution to the history of canon formation, and to any number of other issues as well...." Steven Huebner, JAMS
