Foundations of Music History

by Carl Dahlhaus, J. B. Robinson (Translator)

This book is the first thoroughgoing study in any language of the philosophy of music history. Drawing on competing philosophies of history throughout the ages, from the Enlightenment to the French structuralists, from the German idealist tradition to Russian formalism, the late Carl Dahlhaus applies the thoughts of these various schools to the specialist requirements of music history and assesses their advantages and shortcomings. Special attention is given to an appraisal of whether Marxist critiques are still viable and where they stand in need of rethinking. For this English edition, the author provided an extensive annotated bibliography.

Genres: Music, Nonfiction

188 pages, Paperback

First published March 31, 1983

Reviews

[Lucien · Rating 4 out of 5]

Pedantic, at times unnecessarily technical and scholar-esque in the sense that makes this much less accessible for a wider public (as should be the point of any academic-divulgation work).

That said; still very, very well done, a work that I can never even begin to process, so I cannot be too harsh on it. It IS a necessary read for historians looking for a methodical and historiographic understanding of the topic.

[Leia Deva]

interessant

[Federica Malpasso · Rating 1 out of 5]

Libro che non mi ha davvero lasciato nulla sul tema che voleva proporre.
Con una scrittura pomposa e difficile da seguire, sembra che tale volume sia stato scritto da Dahlhaus solo per vantarsi delle proprie conoscenze e non per diffondere informazioni circa la storiografia della musica.
Più che invogliarmi a studiare e ad interessarmi a tale materia, mi ha invogliata a scapparmene a gambe levate. Pessimo.

[Bob Fakename · Rating 4 out of 5]

Difficult and pedantic; that said, interesting and ?useful? Written in a Hegelian-Adornian dialectical style; like you're reading and you understand, but you put it down and you're not sure what just happened.