Eighteenth Century Keyboard Music

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

Although eighteenth-century Viennese keyboard music, especially by such composers as Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven, is among the most popular ever written, there has been surprisingly little serious research into the instruments for which it was composed. This book fills that gap. Based on evidence from primary source material, much of it previously undiscovered or neglected, Maunder traces the history and development of the various keyboard instruments available in Vienna throughout the eighteenth century--harpsichords, clavichords, and pianos--and their use by composers and performers.

First published in 2004. Routledge is an imprint of Taylor & Francis, an informa company.

English keyboard art from Robertsbridge Codex (c. 1325) to John Field. Illuminating coverage of organ, harpsichord, pianoforte, other instruments; works of Tallis, Byrd, Gibbons, Tomkins, many others. Bibliography.

W. Dean Sutcliffe investigates one of the greatest yet least understood repertories of Western keyboard music: the 555 keyboard sonatas of Domenico Scarlatti. Scarlatti occupies a position of solitary splendour in musical history. The sources of his style are often obscure and his immediate influence is difficult to discern. Further, the lack of hard documentary evidence has hindered musicological activity. Dr Sutcliffe offers not just a thorough reconsideration of the historical factors that have contributed to Scarlatti's position, but also sustained engagement with the music, offering both individual readings and broader commentary of an unprecedented kind. A principal task of this book is to remove the composer from his critical ghetto (however honourable) and redefine his image. In so doing it will reflect on the historiographical difficulties involved in understanding eighteenth-century musical style.

Table of contents

[This book] attempts to deal with the whole repertory of solo keyboard music from the historical point of view, with musical examples. The larger proportion of works covered are those after 1750. -- cf. Preface.

"Few musical repertoires have attracted such a convenient and thorough compendium of knowledge." —Early Music News "A. Peter Brown has performed an excellent service for devotees of early keyboard music, and for all students of eighteenth-century music . . . " —Early Keyboard Journal "A. Peter Brown has created a unique compendium, discussing all of Haydn's works with keyboard, comparing them and placing them in a variety of contexts, historical, social and scholarly." —Journal of the American Musicological Society " . . . stimulating . . . a book for which pianists . . . must be thankful." —Journal of the American Liszt Society Haydn scholar A. Peter Brown offers the first detailed and comprehensive study of the composer's keyboard works, encompassing the solo sonatas, keyboard trios, accompanied divertimentos, concertos, concertinos, and Klavierstücke.