# Anthology/analyisis books that trace evolution of forms through composers or periods?



## blakeklondike (Oct 28, 2020)

Looking for analysis or score books that trace the development of different forms over time-- E.G.: earliest type of string quartet --> its development w/ Haydn --> Mozart -->, etc. Can anyone recommend any resources for understanding the evolution of different forms (symphony, string quartet, sonata, etc.)? Thanks!


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## vtpoet (Jan 17, 2019)

blakeklondike said:


> Looking for analysis or score books that trace the development of different forms over time-- E.G.: earliest type of string quartet --> its development w/ Haydn --> Mozart -->, etc. Can anyone recommend any resources for understanding the evolution of different forms (symphony, string quartet, sonata, etc.)? Thanks!


The only book that I can think of that comes close to what you're describing is Charles Rosen's
book "The Classical Style".

https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Style-Mozart-Beethoven-Expanded/dp/0393317129


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## MarkW (Feb 16, 2015)

For a more general overview, Grout's History of Classical Music (shorter version) is ancient, but still good.


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## RICK RIEKERT (Oct 9, 2017)

Two texts you may find useful are _A History of Musical Style_ by Richard L. Crocker and William Caplin's _Classical Form: A Theory of Formal Functions for the Instrumental Music of Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven_.


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## EdwardBast (Nov 25, 2013)

vtpoet said:


> The only book that I can think of that comes close to what you're describing is Charles Rosen's
> book "The Classical Style".
> 
> https://www.amazon.com/Classical-Style-Mozart-Beethoven-Expanded/dp/0393317129


Rosen's book _Sonata Forms_ is a broader overview of that form. Then there are the old and sort of encyclopedic books by William S. Newman, _The Sonata in the Classical Era_ and _The Sonata since Beethoven_, but these aren't likely to be useful for your purposes - too much detail, to little overview of large issues, more historical than theoretical.

Another approach one might take is to pick a series of representative composers for a genre and then listen with scores to, for example, the first movements of their keyboard sonatas. (In that case maybe CPE Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, Liszt, and so on.) The problem here is you would have to do all of the work without guidance.


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## Coach G (Apr 22, 2020)

_Lives of the Great Composers_ by Harold Schonberg is the finest, most comprehensive, and most well-written book on classical music I ever read. My mother gave me a copy of the second edition for Christmas when I was sixteen years old back in the 1980s, and I've read it and reread it so many times that parts of it have been committed to memory, and the binding has long since been broken and patched with duct tape.

Schonberg is very opinionated and I don't agree with some of the harsh words he has to say about some of my favorites such as Richard Strauss, Jean Sibelius, Gustav Mahler, and Dmitry Shostakovich (although, Schonberg seems to have developed a kinder view regarding Shostakovich in the third edition). Even so, Schonberg's personal touch makes for much more interesting reading than a dryer more textbook approach.

Schonberg avoids deep musical analysis and can be understood even by someone who is musically illiterate. Chapters are arranged more-or-less in chronological order and can be read in sequence or also in random order.


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