The Rest Is Noise
by Alex Ross · Alex Ross
Alex Ross traces twentieth-century classical music from Strauss and Mahler through Schoenberg, Shostakovich, Britten and postwar experimentalism, tying each to its political moment. Readers gain a narrative map of why modern concert music sounds as it does.
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More resources on Music History
IMSLP
The Petrucci Music Library, a volunteer-run archive of public-domain scores and recordings covering most of the classical canon. Lets you locate historical editions of a work and compare engravings before deciding which edition to practise from.
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Open Yale Courses introductory course of 23 recorded lectures by Craig Wright on how Western classical music is built: rhythm, melody, harmony, texture and form, then genres such as fugue, sonata, symphony and opera. Learners can follow and describe what they hear.
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