A Survey of Choral Music

by Homer Ulrich

In this brief text, Homer Ulrich offers students a history of choral music that is as rich and fascinating as the genre itself. Emphasizing those works that represent historical or stylistic turning points, A SURVEY OF CHORAL MUSIC begins several centuries before the invention of the genre and takes students all the way into the twentieth century. Ulrich's descriptive discussions mix history and analysis with explication of musical structures, text sources and treatments, and kinds of texture. The text offers a useful glossary, bibliography, and list of music sources--as well as appendices that provide several principal types of sacred texts (including Requiem Mass, Te Deum, and Magnificat) for quick reference.

Genres: Music

256 pages, Paperback

First published April 10, 1973

Reviews

[Henry · Rating 3 out of 5]

I picked this up at the PTA (now CommunityWorx, but old habits die hard) when I was there helping my mom look for a toaster oven. It has very successfully piqued and retained my attention without ever quite satisfying it -- the book is just what it says on the cover, a survey. Starting with the medieval and progressing through the renaissance, baroque, classical, romantic, and modern periods, the main focus is on summary of a range of representative pieces. This was very interesting, and I have a great list of new music to listen to, but I am left wanting to know more about *how* all these changes in musical style eveolved, and what they were, and more about the people who wrote these pieces and the stories surrounding their composition. I also left with a newfound curiousity about the world of instrumental music. nonetheless very cool and informational!

[Dawn · Rating 3 out of 5]

A great starting point or supplement for deeper research. This was not a stand-alone book, by any means, but gives a fair overview.