Customer Reviews

Musical Form

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I just discovered this book while browsing out-of-copyright theory books at Google Books. I was aware of Prout's orchestration books, but nothing beyond that. After downloading a pdf of 'Musical Form' and reading the first few pages, I got sucked in and hoped to find a used, hard copy for cheap (a la the Percy Goetschius titles). Alas, I found this reprint here!

This is a good reprint. There are only a few small scanning errors throughout, in the form of blank patches covering a few letters along some margins. Again, these are very few, and excusable - the original preface is dated 1893, after all. All notated examples are present and legible.

The presentation of the material is refreshing, with emphasis on smaller-level form (cadences, phrases, sentences, periods, modulation, and simple binary and ternary form). Given the era it was written and the subject matter, it may not be bathroom reading for some. But for those with decent theory knowledge, there is plenty of insight to be gained.

This book is comparable to the first few chapters of Form in Tonal Music: An Introduction to Analysis, Second Edition, but with greater detail in areas. It overlaps other form-related books nicely, and provides a deeper understanding of smaller-scale forms while sparing the complexities of larger forms, which are dealt with in its sequel - Applied Forms: A Sequel to "Musical Form" [Pref 1895 ].