Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

Wendy Heller's Music in the Baroque traces the production and consumption of music in the seventeenth and early eighteenth century. Going beyond a history of styles, the text explores patronage, education, religious and civic ritual, theater, and visual culture. Heller focuses not only on the nature of music in the Baroque period, but also on the very different ways in which men and women experienced music in their daily lives. Treating music as an expression of political and national identity, she examines it in the context of the era's art and literature, political and religious conflicts, and contentious issues of class and gender.



Western Music in Context: A Norton History comprises six volumes of moderate length, each written in an engaging style by a recognized expert. Authoritative and current, the series examines music in the broadest sense--as sounds notated, performed, and heard--focusing not only on composers and works, but also on broader social and intellectual currents.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• Anthology Repertoire (p. xii)
• Series Editor's Preface (p. xv)
• Author's Preface (p. xvii)
• Chapter 1 Baroque Music in Early Modern Europe (p. 1)
• Defining "Baroque" (p. 3)
• Humanism and Beyond (p. 6)
• Political and Religious Conflict (p. 10)
• Toward the Enlightenment (p. 13)
• Baroque Music and Style (p. 14)
• For Further Reading (p. 16)
• Part I Musical Expression and Innovation
• Chapter 2 Ancients and Moderns (p. 20)
• Theory and Practice in the Age of Humanism (p. 21)
• Inventing Opera Dramatizing the Madrigal: Il pastor fido (p. 28)
• Moving the Passions with Song (p. 30)
• From Performance to Print and Back Again (p. 34)
• For Further Reading (p. 37)
• Chapter 3 Theatrical Baroque (p. 39)
• Monteverdi's Mantua (p. 40)
• Opera in Italy and Beyond (p. 46)
• Other Varieties of Musical Theater (p. 48)
• Exoticism (p. 53)
• For Further Reading (p. 55)
• Chapter 4 The Art and Craft of Instrumental Music in the Early Seventeenth Century (p. 56)
• The Practical Musician (p. 58)
• Building Instruments for Sight and Sound (p. 59)
• Patrons, Audiences, and Performers (p. 61)
• Music, Rhetoric, and National Styles (p. 63)
• Genre and Style in Seventeenth-Century Instrumental Music (p. 65)
• For Further Reading (p. 73)
• Chapter 5 Music in Civic and Religious Ritual (p. 75)
• Music, Faith, and Ideology (p. 76)
• Religious Diversity and Stylistic Pluralism (p. 79)
• Music and Paraliturgical Practices (p. 88)
• For Further Reading (p. 92)
• Part II Musical Institutions
• Chapter 6 Opera in Venice and Beyond (p. 95)
• Opera and the Venetian Republic (p. 96)
• The Venetian Opera Industry (p. 97)
• The Anatomy of an Opera: Monteverdi's L'incoronazione di Poppea (p. 98)
• Staging Venetian Opera (p. 104)
• Cavalli's Giasone (p. 106)
• Beyond Giasone and Venice (p. 108)
• Operatic Conventions in the Late Seventeenth Century (p. 109)
• For Further Reading (p. 110)
• Chapter 7 Power and Pleasure at the Court of Louis XIV (p. 112)
• Centralization of the Arts under Bourbon Rule (p. 114)
• What Is So French about French Music? (p. 116)
• Staging the Monarchy (p. 121)
• The Burlesque as a Mirror of the Court: The Comédie-Ballet (p. 123)
• The Tragic Ideal (p. 124)
• The Power of the Sorceress: From Armide to Médée (p. 126)
• For Further Reading (p. 129)
• Chapter 8 Music in Seventeenth-Century England (p. 130)
• Music in the Jacobean and Caroline Ages (p. 131)
• Music for the Church of England (p. 135)
• The Interregnum (p. 136)
• John Playford: Music Publishing from the Interregnum to the Restoration (p. 137)
• Music during the Restoration (p. 141)
• Henry Purcell (p. 142)
• For Further Reading (p. 146)
• Chapter 9 Music and Education (p. 148)
• Choirboys (p. 149)
• Learning to Sing (p. 152)
• Convents (p. 154)
• Orphans and Foundlings (p. 158)
• For Further Reading (p. 162)
• Chapter 10 Academies, Salons, and Music Societies (p. 163)
• Singing at the Italian Academies (p. 164)
• Women Patrons: The Salons (p. 170)
• Professionalism: The Accademia Filarmonica of Bologna (p. 173)
• Musical Entrepreneurs and the Rise of Public Concerts (p. 176)
• For Further Reading (p. 179)
• Part III Musical Synthesis in the Capitals of Europe
• Chapter 11 Rome in the Age of the Arcadian Academy (p. 184)
• Patrons and Composers in Eighteenth-Century Rome (p. 185)
• Alternatives to Opera (p. 188)
• The Arcadian Academy (p. 191)
• Opera and the Arcadians (p. 195)
• Corelli and the Cult of Instrumental Music (p. 196)
• For Further Reading (p. 200)
• Chapter 12 Parisians and Their Music in the Eighteenth Century (p. 201)
• Resisting the Monarchy: The Politics of the Italian Style (p. 202)
• Pleasures in Paris (p. 204)
• François Couperin and Les gouts réunis (p. 208)
• The French Cantata (p. 212)
• Paris during the Regency (p. 213)
• For Further Reading (p. 217)
• Chapter 13 Music in City, Court, and Church in the Holy Roman Empire (p. 218)
• A Domestic Music Scene in North Germany (p. 219)
• Buxtehude in Lübeck (p. 221)
• Public Concerts in Hamburg and Lübeck (p. 224)
• Heinrich Biber in Salzburg (p. 226)
• Vienna and the Imperial Style (p. 230)
• For Further Reading (p. 233)
• Chapter 14 The London of Handel and Hogarth (p. 235)
• Commerce and Politics in Eighteenth-Century London (p. 237)
• Italian Music in London (p. 240)
• Oratorio and the Apotheosis of Handel (p. 248)
• For Further Reading (p. 251)
• Chapter 15 Postlude and Prelude: Bach and the Baroque (p. 252)
• The Road to Leipzig (p. 254)
• Music in Leipzig (p. 255)
• Music for the Church (p. 257)
• The Coffeehouse Composer (p. 263)
• Beyond Genre: The Universal Bach (p. 264)
• For Further Reading (p. 271)
• Glossary (p. A1)
• Endnotes (p. A10)
• Credits (p. A14)
• Index (p. A16)