A useful, refreshing, and original account of 18th-century compositional practice. I use it to enhance my own understanding and writing of music, and warmly recommend it to others. Still, four stars not five.
There are small errors that copyediting and checking should have picked up (Riepel appears as Reipel at least once, etc.). But that's common enough.
The general index would be better with more secondary entries and cross-referencing. Why not an entry for "hemiola cadence" (like the one for "Cudworth cadence"), which turns up only under "cadence"? The first occurrence of that recherché term occurs in analysis of a minuet by Somis on pages 74 and 76 – but that use is neither explained there nor indexed. Are there other occurrences, elsewhere? I don't know. The term is only indexed for page 168, where it is defined well enough. Why not a direct reference on page 74 to the explanation on page 168? Instead we are sent on one of too many goose chases that the book will impose on the diligent and attentive reader.
Not least among inconveniences is the small font chosen for the main text and all auxiliaries. Many will struggle to locate or identify the exiguous flyspeck endnote markers in particular. And then, where are those endnotes anyway? They begin, we find, on page 481 – sandwiched between two appendixes and two indexes. Fine, you say: keep a bookmark at the relevant point in the endnotes. Not fine, say I: what if I am merely consulting the book rather than reading it continuously? More generally, what's the POINT of such a cumbersome system? Here the notes are mainly just bibliographical. But I need to thumb through to check every time, so I can be sure of capturing what could turn out to be important even if I'm dipping into this book as an aside while reading another.
These and similar features of design mar the book, and make for inefficient transmission of knowledge. Publishers note: We want to take the fruit of your authors' labour seriously; but your designers are not immersed in that task as we are. More insight into our plight, please! As for endnotes, I advise against them in nearly all cases. If there must be notes, why not have footnotes (trivially easy to maintain as a book is evolved, these days)? We can then see immediately, at a glance to the bottom of the page, whether the addition is substantive or a mere reference. It should not be beyond the wit of publishers to help us like this, as Norton do in Daniel Heartz's huge Music in European Capitals: The Galant Style, 1720–1780 (recommended to be read along with this book).
I agree also with Olli Väisälä's reservations (Amazon review, 3 October 2012). Sometimes Gjerdingen's analysis seems forced and doctrinaire. A schema is sometimes "imposed" where another reading – even one using this author's own stock of resources – seems at least as viable.
If you love the 18th century and want deep insights into its music, buy this book. Patience gets rewarded.
ISBN-13:
978-0195313710
ISBN-10:
0195313712
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Reviewed in the United States on January 21, 2017
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Reviewed in the United States on January 4, 2015
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Reviewed in the United States on September 14, 2016
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Top reviews from other countries
G. Buschbeck
Great, informative read
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on March 4, 2018Verified Purchase
S W
worth it!
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 23, 2017Verified Purchase
basilvalentine
excellent book but beware of print-on-demand
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on October 20, 2019Verified Purchase
Peter Harrison
Becomes a bit of a catalogue
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on April 12, 2015Verified Purchase
Michael Rissling
A must read for those who wish to understand Baroque and early Classical music.
Reviewed in Canada on July 21, 2021Verified Purchase
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