Douglas Moore

A Guide to Musical Styles

Revised Edition

This book transports the reader into the spirit of great musci, so that when he encounters an unfamiliar composition he will feel at home in its style and will have some idea of what to expect. It examines five great periods—the Renaissance, Broque, Classic, Romantic, and Modern—and teaches the technique of listening so as to be able to identify the style and form of the piece and place it in its proper period. For unless our ears can tell us the difference between a fugue and a sonata, the study of names, dates, and historical trends will be futile.

After a general introduction to each period, with lists of principal composers, the author selects at least one outstanding example of every important type of composition from that period, and examines it to see how it is put together and how it fits into the temper of the age. As far as possible each period is presented at its height, by the works performed most frequently today and most available on recordings. Typifying the Renaissance are its choral forms—masses, motets, and madrigals—and also its instrumental music. The Baroque introduces the fugue, the suite and the baroque sonata, as well as oratoria and opera. The Classic sonata, the great Classic symphony and the string quartet are in turn followed by the Romantic songs and piano music, and the varied modern forms of suites, symphonic poems, ballet-pantomime and contemporary expression of older types.

Douglas Moore, whose Listening to Music has made him known to a large audience of music lovers, has here written a book which will be welcomed by every ambitious listener who would develop his or her musical assurance and broaden his or her taste so as to achieve the greatest possible enjoyment from any musical experience.