A General History of Music
From the Earliest Ages to the Present Period

Burney's most famous work, based on research during two European tours, providing valuable insight into musical tastes of the time.

Charles Burney (Author)

9781108016407, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 October 2010

610 pages
29.7 x 3.1 x 21 cm, 1.44 kg

Charles Burney (1726–1814), was the foremost music historian of his day. The General History, his most famous work, was published in four volumes between 1776 and 1789 and is still of great value today. Burney wanted to write something which would appeal to and inform the musician and the general reader. Research for the History was undertaken during two European tours, in 1770 and 1772, consulting original sources and meeting the great musicians of the time. The resultant work is engaging and elegantly written, offering the reader a fascinating view not only of Burney's own musical preferences and enthusiasms, but also a reflection of contemporary fashionable taste. All four volumes contain generous musical examples, quotations from original sources and an index. The second volume, published in 1782, covers the development of music from plainchant to the Reformation.

1. Of the introduction of music into the Church, and of its progress there, previous to the time of Guido
2. Of the invention of counterpoint, and state of music, from the time of Guido, to the formation of the timetable
3. Of the formation of the timetable, and state of music, from that discovery, till about the middle of the fourteenth century
4. Of the origin of modern languages, to which written melody and harmony were first applied
and general state of music, till the invention of printing, about the year 1450
5. Of the state of music, from the invention of printing, till the middle of the sixteenth century
including its cultivation in the masses, motets, and secular songs, of that period.

Subject Areas: Music [AV]