This is a revised second edition of Dr. Steblin's important work on key characteristics, first published in 1983 by UMI Research Press and re-issued by the University of Rochester Press in 1996. The revision has been limited to a thorough correction and update of the material in the first edition, so as to not disrupt the content and organization, for which the book has been praised as a significant and noteworthy reference for both scholars and research students alike. The book discusses the extra-musical meanings associated with various musical keys by ancient Greek and medieval-renaissance theorists and inparticular composers and writers on music in the Baroque, Classical, and early Romantic periods. Chapters focus on Mattheson's extensive key descriptions from 1713, the Rameau-Rousseau and Marpurg-Kirnberger controversies regarding unequal versus equal temperaments, and C.F.D. Schubart's influential list based on the sharp-flat (bright-dark) principle of key-distinctions. Rita Katherine Steblin is a world-renowned music scholar, living and working in Vienna.
Details
First Published: 15 Jan 2002
13 Digit ISBN: 9781580460415
Pages: 420
Size: 9 x 6
Binding: Hardback
Imprint: University of Rochester Press
Subject:
MusicBIC Class: AV
Details updated on 23 May 2013
Contents
- 1 The Ancient Greeks and the Doctrine of Ethos
- 2 The Medieval-Renaissance Modes and Their Affects
- 3 The Transition from Modality to Tonality: Early French Key Characteristics
- 4 Johann Mattheson and the Early Eighteenth-Century German Approach to Key Characteristics
- 5 Rameau and Rousseau: Equal Temperament versus Unequal Temperament
- 6 Marpurg versus Kimberger: The Tuning Controversy in Germany
- 7 Psychological Factors: The Sharp-Flat Principle
- 8 Physical Factors: The Properties of Instruments
- 9 Tradition and Key Characteristics in the Early Nineteenth Century
