This wonderful and much-needed monograph not only provides the essential information about Cousser’s life and career, but also allows us to examine the contents of a precious little book, pocket-sized, that Cousser kept and wrote in from the 1690s until his death.
The Eighteenth-Century Fortepiano Grand and Its Patrons from Scarlatti to Beethoven. Eva Badura-Skoda. Indiana University Press, 2017. 492 pages. By Peter Sykes BOOK REVIEW — What’s in a name? …
It is welcome news that David R. Godine has published Nym Cooke’s magisterial study of this repertoire, and in such an elegantly engraved and handsome boxed set.
In “Curious and Modern Inventions,” Rebecca Cypess takes a highly original approach to early modern Italian instrumental music, situating her study in the context of scientific curiosity in the early 17th century.
This new book by Remi Chiu, assistant professor of music at Loyola University Maryland, seeks to assess the intersections between music and the pestilential crisis of plague in these troubled societies.
Along the way, we encounter heated debates about HIP (Historically Informed Performance) in Baroque music, questionable student evaluations of a professor coming up for tenure, and a great deal of discussion about the interpretation of violin music, which proves important to our understanding of this mystery.
For all its scrupulous erudition and factual density, Talle’s writing is eminently readable: unpretentious, lively, and frequently humorous, as he reconstructs the routines and conventions his subjects observed in their musical pursuits.
The edition is clear, spacious, and handsome, as one has come to expect from Bärenreiter, and Siebe Henstra’s editorial practices are laudable.
Warsaw-based musicologist Szymon Paczkowski is uniquely qualified to undertake the first comprehensive study of this subject. The author first describes the characteristic rhythmic and structural features of the dance and the affects associated with it, and traces how it came to be introduced into Germany.
These richly resourced essays, organized in chronological order, convincingly re-evaluate the use of architectural space and the distinctions between nationalities, gender, professional status, and class distinctions to arrive at a deeper understanding of the musical practices of this era.