The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory

Front Cover
Thomas Christensen
Cambridge University Press, Apr 20, 2006 - Music
The Cambridge History of Western Music Theory is the first comprehensive history of Western music theory to be published in the English language. A collaborative project by leading music theorists and historians, the volume traces the rich panorama of music-theoretical thought from the Ancient Greeks to the present day. Recognizing the variety and complexity of music theory as an historical subject, the volume has been organized within a flexible framework. Some chapters are defined chronologically within a restricted historical domain, whilst others are defined conceptually and span longer historical periods. Together the thirty-one chapters present a synthetic overview of the fascinating and complex subject that is historical music theory. Richly enhanced with illustrations, graphics, examples and cross-citations as well as being thoroughly indexed and supplemented by comprehensive bibliographies of the most important primary and secondary literature, this book will be an invaluable resource for students and scholars alike.
 

Contents

List of figures
Mapping the terrain
music theory as pedagogy
Epistemologies of music theory
Greek music theory
The transmission of ancient music theory into the Middle Ages
Medieval canonics
PENELOPE GOUK
Performance theory
contrapuntal theory in 1725 precursors
Twelvetone theory
Time
Theories of musical rhythm in the eighteenth and nineteenth
Rhythm in twentiethcentury theory
Tonality
24 Rameau and eighteenthcentury harmonic theory

From acoustics to Tonpsychologie
Music theory and mathematics
A Mapping tonal spaces
Tonal organization in seventeenthcentury music theory
Dualist tonal space and transformation in nineteenthcentury
the AustroGerman legacy
A Models of music analysis
Thematic and motivic analysis
B Music psychology
The psychology of music

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About the author (2006)

Thomas Christensen is Professor of Music and the Humanities at the University of Chicago.

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