Music Criticism in Nineteenth-Century France
La Revue et gazette musicale de Paris 1834–80

This book focuses on the musical writings in the daily and periodical press in France during the nineteenth century.

Katharine Ellis (Author)

9780521035897, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 31 May 2007

316 pages
22.8 x 15 x 1.7 cm, 0.477 kg

"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

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, 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.

Acknowledgements
List of abbreviations
Introduction
1. Crosscurrents in early nineteenth-century criticism
2. The rise of the specialist press from 1827
3. Early music
4. The Austro-German tradition I: the reception of Gluck, Haydn and Mozart
5. The Austro-German tradition II: the reception of Beethoven
6. The Austro-German tradition III: Weber, Schubert and Mendelssohn
7. Contemporary music I: piano music
8. Contemporary music II: chamber and symphonic music
9. Contemporary music III: opera
10. Contemporary music IV: the music of the future
11. Contemporary music V: Berlioz
12. Conclusion
Appendix 1. Principal contributors to the Gazette
Appendix 2. Personalia
Appendix 3. Contes, nouvelles, dialogues and other short literature in Schlesinger's Gazette musicale, 1834–46
Appendix 4. Publishing history of the Gazette
Appendix 5. Pseudonyms and attributions
Bibliography
Index of musical works cited
General index.

Subject Areas: Romantic music [c 1830 to c 1900 AVGC5]