The Romantic Overture and Musical Form from Rossini to Wagner

The first comprehensive study of musical form in operatic and concert overtures in continental Europe between 1815 and 1850.

Steven Vande Moortele (Author)

9781316615096, Cambridge University Press

Paperback / softback, published 23 May 2019

303 pages, 23 tables 64 music examples
19 x 24.5 x 1.5 cm, 0.59 kg

'This book is an important contribution to scholarship in its field. It combines an enviable command of the relevant musical sources and of developing social settings for overtures in the nineteenth century, painting a very broad picture of influence across musical Europe throughout an extended time period that is convincingly drawn and firmly located in up-to-date scholarship that has been perused with rigour. Balanced with this is an eye for analytical minutiae and an ability to establish musical procedures carefully and accurately. That the author manages this balancing act in English prose that is actually enjoyable to read is a testimony to his powers of communication.' John Irving, Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance

In this book Steven Vande Moortele offers a comprehensive account of operatic and concert overtures in continental Europe between 1815 and 1850. Discussing a broad range of works by German, French, and Italian composers, it is at once an investigation of the Romantic overture within the context of mid-nineteenth century musical culture and an analytical study that focuses on aspects of large-scale formal organization in the overture genre. While the book draws extensively upon the recent achievements of the 'new Formenlehre', it does not use the overture merely as a vehicle for a theory of romantic form, but rather takes an analytical approach that engages with individual works in their generic context.

Introduction
1. Making overtures
2. Form as formula
3. Potpourri overtures
4. Beginning before the beginning
5. Strong subordinate themes
6. Open-ended expositions
7. Recomposed recapitulations.

Subject Areas: Individual composers & musicians, specific bands & groups [AVH], Opera [AVGC9], Romantic music [c 1830 to c 1900 AVGC5], Classical music [c 1750 to c 1830 AVGC4], Theory of music & musicology [AVA]