XV. Critics and Criticism
General Works
- Goldschmidt, Hugo. Die Musikästhetik des 18. Jahrhundert und ihre Beziehung
zu seinen Kunstschaffen. Zurich: Rascher, 1915. 461p. Reprint, Hildesheim:
Olms, 1968. ML3845 .G65.
A narrative and analytic account of 18th-century criticism, based on theoreti-
cal writings. Opera is discussed extensively (p.263–450). Indexed. - Oliver, Alfred Richard. The Encylopedists as Critics of Music.New York:
Columbia U.P., 1947. viii, 227p. ML1727 .O4.
The role of the encyclopedists in the opera reform movement (they disagreed
with Rameau, agreed with Gluck) and their critical philosophy in general.
Music articles in the Encyclopédieare listed, along with sources cited in them.
Also covers French music criticism before the encyclopedists and their later
influence on European criticism. Bibliography of about 250 entries, general
index. - Cowart, Georgia. Origins of Modern Musical Criticism: French and Italian
Music, 1600–1750.Studies in Musicology, 38. Ann Arbor, Mich.: UMI
Research, 1981. xi, 215p. ISBN 0-83571-166-8. ML3916 .C7.
Based on the author’s Ph.D. dissertation, Rutgers U., 1980. Traces the emer-
gence of systematic music criticism, from the 17th-century disputes between
so-called ancients and moderns to the Quarrel of the Buffoons. British and
German contributions are noted, and the Lully-Rameau controversy is well
covered. Footnotes, bibliography, index. - Kirchmeyer, Helmut. Situatiionsgeschichte der Musik-kritik und des musikal-
ischen Pressewesens in Deutschland.Regensburg: Bosse, 1968–1972. 4v. ISBN
3-7649-2019-X. ML3915 .K57.
Considers methods and principles of musical criticism and studies applications
in 18th- and 19th-century Germany. The fourth volume deals with Wagner
criticism. Bio-bibliography of critics, long extracts from contemporary news-
paper and journal critiques, name index and list of source journals.
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