Promotional Information

An invaluable interdisciplinary study that addresses three traditional topics in music

Table of Contents

Contents
List of Plates
Preface
Note on Titles of Musical Works
Part One: Topic Theory
1. Topic and Expression
2. The Literary Source of Topic Theory
3. Signifier and Signified in Music
Part Two: Huntsmen
4. Signifier: The Hunting Horn
5. Signified: Hunts Noble and Ignoble
6. Musical Hunts
7. The Topic Established
Part Three: Soldiers
8. The Military Signifier: 1. The March
9. The Military Signifier: 2. The Military Trumpet and Its Players
10. The Military Signified
11. The Soldier Represented
Part Four: Shepherds
12. The Pastoral Signified: The Myth
13. The Pastoral Signifier
14. The Pastoral in Music
15. New Pastorals
16. Epilogue
Appendix 1
Appendix 2
Bibliography
Index

About the Author

Raymond Monelle was formerly Reader in Music at the University of Edinburgh, Scotland, where he is now an Honorary Fellow. His work on music theory and semiotics is internationally known. His books include Linguistics and Semiotics in Music and The Sense of Music. He has been a composer, pianist, and conductor, and writes music criticism for The Independent, Opera magazine, and other publications.

Reviews

"In this persuasive, well-organized study, Monelle (Univ. of Edinburgh, Scotland) makes a significant contribution to understanding hunt, military, and pastoral music. . . . This clearly reasoned, charmingly written volume has the potential to change the way one hears, performs, and teaches significant portions of the musical canon from Haydn and Mozart through Debussy and Mahler. . . . Essential. Upper-division undergraduates through faculty and professionals; general readers."—Choice
"This book embarks on a cultural history of three tropes, or themes, that appear frequently in musical works. These topics convey meaning to the work by their perceived associations to literature, social history, or art. Listeners from Haydn and Beethoven's time may have immediately recognized the associations, but today we need critics and historians to return these contexts to the music.Vol. 22.1 Summer 2007"—Beethoven Journal
"The Musical Topic marks the culmination of Monelle's developing thought on the book's titular subject. . . . Monelle has drawn upon an impressive array of sources in a variety of fields, producing an interdisciplinary study of unusual scope. No. 89, Spring 2010"—Current Musicology