A general history of the science and practice of music
(Book)

Reprint of the 1853 edition.

In 1776, after sixteen years of painstaking research, the author published a detailed history of music that has long been accorded the status of a genuine classic of musicology. Beginning with earliest recorded evidence of music and continuing on up through the author's own time, his enormous work covers such matters as the origins and development of musical theory, harmonic and contrapuntal processes, polyphony, musical notation, orchestration, instruments, forms, and similar material. It deals with all the musical forms up to his time: plainsong, ballad, motet, canon, chant, madrigal, fugue, sonata, concerto, symphony, cantata, oratorio, opera. It takes into account the particular contributions of various peoples, notably the Greeks, Romans, Hebrews and Egyptians (in the earlier periods) and the Italians, French, Germans, and British in the later periods. We now know more about certain areas of musicology than was available in the author's time, of course, but his work still remains unsuperseded and highly valuable in certain fields of study. He is extremely strong in his consideration of musical theorists and their works, and he gives detailed summaries and many exact quotes from scores of historically important works that are now impossible to find except in the largest libraries; the material that he covers is still a necessary part of the background of any serious scholar. The author is also still a primary source for the biography and works of many contemporary and near-contemporary composers, theoreticians, performers, and other personalities associated with music. He provides biographical and critical information about hundreds of musicians who have been undeservedly forgotten, and are only now being rediscovered and reappreciated, and his work is a necessary part of every musical reference library.