Historical Dictionary of Romantic Music - (Historical Dictionaries of Literature and the Arts) 2nd Edition by John Michael Cooper (Hardcover)

About the Book

Historical Dictionary of Romantic Music, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, and an extensive bibliography. The dictionary section has more than 600 cross-referenced entries on traditions, famous pieces, persons, places, technical terms, and institutions of Romantic music.

Book Synopsis

Library Journal praises the book as "an excellent one-volume ready reference resource for students, researchers, and others interested in music history."

Historical Dictionary of Romantic Music, Second Edition covers the persons, ideas, practices, and works that made up the worlds of Western music during the long 19th century (ca. 1780-1918). It's the first book to recognize that Romantic music was very nearly a global phenomenon. It includes more women, more Black musicians and other musicians of color, and more exponents of musical Romanticism from Central and South America as well as Central and Eastern Europe than any other single-volume study of Romantic music--thus challenging the conventional hegemony of musical Romanticisms by men and by Western European nations. This book includes entries on topics including anti-Semitism, sexism, and racism that were pervasive and defining to the worlds of musical Romanticism but are rarely addressed in general studies of that subject. It includes Romantic musicians who were not primarily composers, as well as topics such as the Haitian Revolution, spirituals, and ragtime that were more important for music in the long 19th century than is generally acknowledged. The result is an expansive, inclusive, diverse, and more richly textured portrayal of Romantic music than is elsewhere available.

Historical Dictionary of Romantic Music, Second Edition contains a chronology, an introduction, an extensive bibliography, and a dictionary section with more than 600 cross-referenced entries on traditions, famous pieces, persons, places, technical terms, and institutions of Romantic music. This book is an excellent resource for students, researchers, and anyone wanting to know more about Romantic music.

Review Quotes

In this new edition of his 2013 work, Cooper and independent scholars Randy Kinnett and Megan Marie McCarty update existing entries and add 132 more on women musicians, musicians of color, and exponents of musical Romanticism from Central and South America and Central and Eastern Europe. Also included are entries on performers, traditions, famous pieces, technical terms, institutions, places, and historical events that had an impact on music composition or performance, such as the Revolutions of 1848, the U.S. Civil War, the French Revolution, World War I, and much more. A detailed chronology helps place the "long 19th century" (roughly 1780-1918) into historical, literary, and fine arts contexts. The broad and extensive bibliography includes a selected source-critical series of editions of major Romantic composers' works. Meant as a complement to the New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians and Oxford Music Online, this is an excellent one-volume ready reference resource for students, researchers, and others interested in music history.

About the Author

John Michael Cooper is professor of Music at Southwestern University in Georgetown, Texas. He is the editor of numerous scholarly editions of music by Margaret Bonds, Felix Mendelssohn Bartholdy, and Florence B. Price, and author of books published by Rowman & Littlefield, Cambridge University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, and University of Rochester Press, as well as of articles on topics ranging from performance practice through sociology and aesthetics of music in the mid-twentieth century.