Title: Music, the listener's art /
Authors: Ratner, Leonard G.
Date: 1957
Publisher: McGraw-Hill,
Physical description: ix, 375 pages : il. ; 24 cm.
Language: English
LC classification: M
Abstract: For the layman or student of a university survey course.
Contents: 1. The musical experience : The first criteria of analysis ; The point of departure ; Qualities of sound ; Qualities of movement ; Points of arrival ; Interaction of movement and arrival ; Summary ; Musical expression. 2. Musical elements and their relationships : The phrase ; Melody : Melodic line ; Melodic motives ; Melodic intervals. Rhythm : Beat ; Pace ; Tempo ; Meter and measure ; Note values ; Rhythmic motives ; Texture ; Dynamics. Harmony : Stability and instability ; Chords ; Cadences ; Distribution of tonal centers ; Scale and mode ; Perceiving musical form. 3. Medieval music : Plain song ; The evolution of polyphony : Parallel Organum ; Free organum ; Melismatic organum ; Measured Organum ; Ars antiqua ; Ars nova ; Secular music ; Summary. 4. Renaissance music : Qualities of sound : Triads ; The authentic cadence ; Dissonance treatment ; Chromaticism ; Range of sound ; Summary ; Qualities of movement ; Form-building factors : Addition, elaboration, improvisation ; Imitation ; Repetition and contrast ; Familiar style ; Dance music ; National styles in Renaissance music ; Historical survey and summary. 5. Baroque music : Early Baroque ; Middle Baroque ; Late Baroque ; Performance of Baroque music : Theater music ; Church music ; Chamber music ; Summary. 6. Classic music : Stylistic sources of classic music : Types ; Style ; Forms in classic music : Small forms ; Broader phases of movement ; Treatment of motives ; Classic harmony ; Large forms ; Sonata form ; Rondo forms ; Variation form ; Three-part forms ; The introduction ; The concerto ; The fantasia ; Summary of classic forms ; Media of performance in classic music : The orchestra ; Chamber music ; Solo keyboard music ; Opera ; Choral music ; Summary. 7. Romantic music : Qualities of sound : Harmonic tension ; Harmonic color ; Expressive values : Emotional intensity ; Good versus evil ; Nature: descriptive music ; Nationalism ; Music and language ; Instruments and performance : The orchestra ; Virtuosity ; The piano ; Form in Romantic music : The dynamic curve ; Weakening of cadences ; The short piece ; Large-scale form ; Thematic role in romantic form ; Thematic transformation ; Leitmotif ; Summary ; Opera ; Summary. 8. Modern music : Impressionism : Expressive values ; Techniques ; Form in in musical impressionism ; Historical antecedents ; Impressionist painting and symbolist poetry ; Expressionism and tone-row music : Expressive values ; Techniques ; Form in musical expressionism ; Historical antecedents ; Relationships with art and literature ; Folkloric music : Expressive values ; Techniques ; Form in folkloric music ; Historical position of folkloric music ; Parody and satire ; Neoromanticism ; Experiments in new kinds of sound ; Neoclassicism : Expressive values ; Techniques ; Form in neoclassic music ; Summary.
Subject headings (LCSH): Music appreciation.