Twentieth-Century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America (The Norton Introduction to Music History) [Hardcover]

Robert P. Morgan (Author)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 039395272X | ISBN-13: 978-0393952728 | Publication Date: January 17, 1991 | Edition: 1st

Twentieth Century Music is the third volume to appear in this series.

Morgan divides his text into three chronological sections. Beginning with such giants as Mahler, Richard Strauss and Debussy, he discusses national movements, as represented by Charles Ives and Ralph Vaughan Williams; philosophical movements as various as the Schoenberg/Berg/Webern alliance or "les six"; and the giants who were "sui generis", such as Bartok and Stravinsky. The "isms" such as serialism, minimalism, indeterminism, the new romanticism and pluralism, are clearly delineated and the electronic boom of the last decades is defined.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Robert P. Morgan, historian, composer, and theorist, received his Ph.D. from Princeton University and is currently on the music faculty at Yale University.

Product Details

• Hardcover: 576 pages
• Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company; 1st edition (January 17, 1991)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 039395272X
• ISBN-13: 978-0393952728
• Product Dimensions: 9.6 x 6.3 x 1.3 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.3 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #49,812 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

28 of 28 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars best overview of the century, May 11, 2001

By 

R. Hutchinson "autonomeus" (a world ruled by fossil fuels and fossil minds) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Twentieth-Century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America (The Norton Introduction to Music History) (Hardcover)

Morgan's book is the best that I have found for an overview of the entire 20th century in "classical" music. He divides his analysis into 3 logical sections:

Part 1. Beyond Tonality: From 1900 to World War I

Part 2. Reconstruction and New Systems: Between the Wars

Part 3. Innovation and Fragmentation: From WWII to the Present

This allows for some nuance that a simple list of composers often misses. For instance, Schoenberg's "atonal revolution" is covered in Part 1, along with the "new tonalities" of Stravinsky and Bartok. Part 2 covers the origin of the "twelve-tone system," but makes clear that it did not become influential until years later with the "serial revolution" in France, led by Messiaen and Boulez, in Part 3.

As others have noted, Morgan is not as strong on the more recent period, partly because the book was published in 1991 and thus misses such phenomena as Schnittke's surge of popularity, especially in Russia and Europe, after the collapse of the Soviet regime. I recommend two other books along with Morgan: 1) Gann's "American Music in the Twentieth-Century," which covers developments in the U.S. in greater detail, thus including for instance one of my favorites, Roger Reynolds, and 2) Griffiths' masterful "Modern Music and After," which begins after the Second World War.

8 of 11 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The History of Modern Music for The Layman, March 15, 1997

By A Customer

This review is from: Twentieth-Century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America (The Norton Introduction to Music History) (Hardcover)

As we end the 20th century, we may not realize that 20th century music covers the same time span as the 19th century Romantic music period. Have we grasped the meaning of modern music. To do this one needs to understand the history as well as the dynamics of 20th century music. Here is a book that fills the bill. Not only does Mr. Morgan discuss the growth and change in 20th century music but he does it in it's historical context of our maturing as a world. For many the atonality of 20th century music is hard to grasp, especially when concert artists and orchestras continue to emphasize in their repatoire 19th century music. But as the world changes so will music. A book to awaken your interest in 20th century music and the composers who were the leaders of this period.

2 of 5 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Outdated, May 22, 2009

By 

Robert Davidson "Topology rob" (Brisbane, Australia) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Twentieth-Century Music: A History of Musical Style in Modern Europe and America (The Norton Introduction to Music History) (Hardcover)

Well written for what it is, but does it make sense to spend so little time on the last 55 years of the century? If anything, there should be more space as we get closer to the present, as there is more music being composed now than at any time in history.