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<div class="moz-cite-prefix">Rick et al: Certainly a sign of the
times . . . let's see . . . <br>
<br>
A History of Dance . . . no description of body motions<br>
A History of Painting . . . no mention of color / shape
relationships<br>
A History of the Theater . . . no discussion of language<br>
A History of the Movies . . . no analysis of scene direction<br>
A History of X . . . no mention of technique of any kind<br>
<br>
It's "relatively easy" -- even without training -- to find such
books -- our local Barnes and Noble has a discount room full of
them -- at great prices!!<br>
<br>
Dave Headlam<br>
<br>
<br>
On 10/31/12 4:04 PM, Richard Cohn wrote:<br>
</div>
<blockquote
cite="mid:CAMx_96HX6zi1SCtAPOTOF1wMTFKkx7N50RxvbTcXAM-cWChvYw@mail.gmail.com"
type="cite">I just received a copy of A History of Opera, a new
book co-authored by Carolyn Abbate and Roger Parker. In their
preface, they write that "at a very early stage... we we decided
that this history would contain no musical examples...we wanted to
write a book without reference to musical scores." After the usual
justification about not wanting to swamp readers with anything
that might be challenging to their technical facility, they write
the following: "Readers will look in vain for abstract structural
analyses of music, or extended descriptions of notes interacting
with each other: that kind of information, although relatively
easy --- with training --- to extract from a score, is virtually
impossible to extract from listening to or attending an opera."
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<div>Without further comment on my part, I thought this was a
sufficiently provocative set of claims that I would just pass it
on to the community for savoring, in advance our congregation in
New Orleans. </div>
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</div>
<div>--Rick Cohn</div>
<br>
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<pre class="moz-signature" cols="72">--
Dave Headlam
Professor of Music Theory
Eastman School of Music 585-274-1568
Joint Professor of Electrical and Computer
Engineering University of Rochester
<a class="moz-txt-link-abbreviated" href="mailto:david.headlam@rochester.edu">david.headlam@rochester.edu</a>
<a class="moz-txt-link-freetext" href="http://theory.esm.rochester.edu/dave_headlam">http://theory.esm.rochester.edu/dave_headlam</a></pre>
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