# Musicological books



## AlexanderPiano

Hello!

Sorry if I write to unfit board section. Please tell me what is the right one.

I'm looking for books in English on classical music subject: for example, about great composers or musicological works etc.
Preferably 240+ pages, but not necessarily.

The only interest are books in the public domain: free libraries and other resources, or maybe somebody have cloud based books and I should be infinitely grateful for these links.

Thanks a lot in advance!


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## bharbeke

There is a Beethoven biography by George Alexander Fischer that I found for $0 on Kindle. From what I have skimmed, it is not great, but it covers some basics.

How is the library system where you live? A lot of great books can be found in print or as ebooks there in a large metro area.


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## VishnuB

These two books are the most pellucid music-theoretical monographs I have ever come across-I cannot recommend them highly enough:

_Musical Structures in Wagnerian Opera_

_Hanbdook of Harmonic Analysis_

Leland Smith's book (_Handbook of Harmonic Analysis_) covers tonal harmony all the way through to its dissolution whereas Marshall Tuttle's book (_Musical Structures in Wagnerian Opera_) focuses on Wagner but reveals a great deal about the tonal system that is not talked about elsewhere as far as I know. PM me for a PDF of Tuttle's book-the Smith book is out of print so I have linked to a PDF above.


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## millionrainbows

I saw a copy of Schenker's Theory of Harmony, and wondered if I should get it. Probably will.


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## Nate Miller

millionrainbows said:


> I saw a copy of Schenker's Theory of Harmony, and wondered if I should get it. Probably will.


I picked up a paperback copy of that a few years ago. Found it used on Amazon for a song

now an English translation of Kontrapunkt....that was pretty expensive last time I looked


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## RICK RIEKERT

Here's a book that according to Rachmaninoff, who helped get it published, has "a lot of interesting, witty, profound-and opportune- things in it". Written by the Russian composer Nicolas Medtner, the first part explores the nature of music and the basic elements of its language, and then considers modernism (1935) as an aberrant development. The second part is a collection of wide-ranging thoughts on a number of related aesthetic questions. Howard Goodall calls the book "magnificent" and according to Medtner biographer Barrie Martyn "it is a deeply considered and stimulating statement of one man's musical philosophy." Though unfortunately it violates the '240+ pages' criterion.

http://www.medtner.org.uk/The Muse and the Fashion.pdf


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