III. Histories
Music in General
Principal Reference Histories
58.The New Oxford History of Music. Ed. Jack A. Westrup et al. London:
Oxford U.P., 1954–1990. ML160 .N44. (Cited in this guide as NOHM.)
For full contents see Duckles2.26. Opera is well covered in these chapters:
V.4, The Age of Humanism, 1540–1630. “Music and Drama,” by Edward J.
Dent, rev. by F. W. Sternfeld; “Early Italian Opera,” by Simon Towneley.
V.5, Opera and Church Music, 1630–1750.“Italian Opera from the Later
Monteverdi to Scarlatti,” by Hellmuth Christian Wolff; “Italian Opera 1700–
1750,” also by Wolff; “The Origins of French Opera,” by Margaret M.
McGowan; “French Opera from Lully to Rameau,” by Paul-Marie Masson;
“Opera in England and Germany,” by Jack W. Westrup.
V.7, The Age of Enlightenment, 1745–1790. “Promotion and Patronage,”
“Italian Opera,” “German Opera,” and “The Operas of Mozart,” by Anna
Amalie Abert; “The Operas of Haydn,” by H. C. Robbins Landon; “Opera
in France,” by Martin Cooper; “English Opera,” by Roger Fiske; “The Rise
of Russian Opera,” by Gerald Seaman; and “Opera in Spain,” by Gerald
Abraham.
V.8, The Age of Beethoven, 1790–1830.“French Opera,” “Italian Opera,”
and “German Opera,” by Winton Dean; “Opera in Other Countries,” by Ger-
ald Abraham.
V.9, Romanticism, 1830–1890.On romantic opera (1830–1850): “Grand
Opera” and “Opéra-comique,” by David Charlton; “Italy,” by David Kimbell;
“Germany,” by Siegfried Goslich; “Russia and Eastern Europe,” by Gerald
Abraham; and “Great Britain and the United States,” by Nicholas Temperley.
“Wagner’s Later Stage Works,” by Arnold Whittall, is in a separate section. On
the period 1850–1890: “Germany,” by Gerald Abraham; “France,” by David
Charlton; “Italy,” by Julian Budden; “Russian and Eastern Europe,” by Gerald
Abraham; and “Great Britain and the United States,” by Nicholas Temperley.
13
