La generazione romantica

Charles Rosen's Romantic Generation Published in 1998, Charles Rosen's "The Romantic Generation" is an extraordinary erudite study of music, its performance, and its cultural history. The study was an outgrowth of lectures Rosen gave at Harvard in 1980-1981 and is a companion volume to Rosen's earlie Leggi tutto

The book's structure imitates the pieces it discusses: a string of fragments, self contained sections that nevertheless refer outside themselves, with themes recurring in different sections; as with many of the compositions, works of literature are frequently referred to. Insights on almost every pa Leggi tutto

From the Preface, one can gather that the book is going to be heavy on piano literature. Charles Rosen's, The Romantic Generation focuses almost solely on piano literature. There are passing mentions of Liszt's Faust Symphony, Schumann's Rhenish Symphony and a few others but that is it. Only one cha Leggi tutto

Still reading, but full of the most astute insights into music history, music theory, and the science and art of musicianship. For pianists especially, a really enlightened work on the major Romantic composers.

One of the best music books I've read, and I've read a lot. Erudite and deeply wise, this is someone writing about music from the inside. I particularly loved his chapters on Chopin.