Music History & Theory

Updated June 12, 2026
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Noise/music : a history
Hegarty, Paul
Paper Book
Noise/Music looks at the phenomenon of noise in music, from experimental music of the early 20th century to the Japanese noise music and glitch electronica of today. It situates different musics in their cultural and historical context, and analyses them in terms of cultural aesthetics....
Rock music styles : a history
Charlton, Katherine.
Paper Book
Rock Music Styles blends musical commentary into an historical framework as it traces the styles of Rock music from its roots in country and blues to the most contemporary trends.
The history of Texas music
Hartman, Gary.
Ebook
A history of baroque music
Buelow, George J.
Paper Book
A History of Baroque Music is an exhaustive study of the music of the Baroque period, with particular focus on the 17th century. Individual chapters consider the work of significant composers, including Monteverdi, Corelli, Scarlatti, Schütz, Purcell, Handel, Bach, and Telemann, as well as...
The Cambridge history of medieval music
Everist, Mark
Ebook
Spanning a millennium of musical history, this monumental volume brings together nearly forty leading authorities to survey the music of Western Europe in the Middle Ages. All of the major aspects of medieval music are considered, making use of the latest research and thinking to discuss everything...
Music theory : problems and practices in the Middle Ages and Renaissance
Ultan, Lloyd
Paper Book
Musical form in the age of Beethoven : selected writings on theory and method
Marx, Adolf Bernhard
Ebook
A. B. Marx was one of the most important German music theorists of his time. Drawing on idealist aesthetics and the ideology of Bildung, he developed a holistic pedagogical method as well as a theory of musical form that gives pride of place to Beethoven. This volume offers a generous selection of...
From scratch writings in music theory, James Tenney
Tenney, James.
Paper Book
One of the twentieth century's most important musical thinkers, James Tenney did pioneering work in multiple fields, including computer music, tuning theory, and algorithmic and computer-assisted composition. From Scratch arranges, edits, and revises Tenney's hard-to-find writings into one...
On music theory and making music more welcoming for everyone
Ewell, Philip
Paper Book
Since its inception in the mid-twentieth century, American music theory has been framed and taught almost exclusively by white men. As a result, whiteness and maleness are woven into the fabric of the field, and BIPOC music theorists face enormous hurdles due to their racial identities. In On...
Music theory through improvisation a new approach to musicianship training
Sarath, Ed.
Ebook
Designed for Music Theory courses, Music Theory Through Improvisation presents a unique approach to basic theory and musicianship training that examines the study of traditional theory through the art of improvisation. The book follows the same general progression of diatonic to non-diatonic...
Audacious euphony chromaticism and the consonant triad's second nature
Cohn, Richard Lawrence
Paper Book
Music theorists have long believed that 19th-century triadic progressions idiomatically extend the diatonic syntax of 18th-century classical tonality, and have accordingly unified the two repertories under a single mode of representation. Post-structuralist musicologists have challenged this belief,...
Music in early childhood [electronic resource] exploring the theories, philosophies and practices
Young, Susan, 1951- author.
Ebook
The Routledge companion to the contemporary musical
Sternfeld, Jessica
Ebook
The Routledge Companion to the Contemporary Musical is dedicated to the musical's evolving relationship to American culture in the late twentieth and early twenty-first centuries. In the past decade-and-a-half, international scholars from an ever-widening number of disciplines and specializations...
A history of American music education
Mark, Michael L.
Paper Book
A History of American Music Education covers the history of American music education, from its roots in Biblical times through recent historical events and trends. It describes the educational, philosophical, educational, and sociological aspects of the subject, always putting it in the context of...
Race music black cultures from bebop to hip-hop
Ramsey, Guthrie P.
Paper Book
This powerful book covers the vast and various terrain of African American music, from bebop to hip-hop. Guthrie P. Ramsey, Jr., begins with an absorbing account of his own musical experiences with family and friends on the South Side of Chicago, evoking Sunday-morning worship services, family...
Today's Sounds for Yesterday's Films Making Music for Silent Cinema
Donnelly, K. J.
Ebook
In recent years, there has been something of an explosion in the performance of live music to silent films. There is a wide range of films with live and new scores that run from the historically accurate orchestral scores to contemporary sounds by groups such as Pet Shop Boys or by experimental...
50 movie music moments [electronic resource]
Hexel, Vasco, 1980- author.
Ebook
Western music and its others [electronic resource] difference, representation, and appropriation in music
Born, Georgina.
Ebook
This innovative collection of articles offers a major comprehensive overview of new developments in cultural theory as applied to Western music. Addressing a broad range of primarily twentieth-century music, the authors examine two related phenomena: musical borrowings or appropriations, and how...
Interpreting music
Kramer, Lawrence
Paper Book
Interpreting Music is a comprehensive essay on understanding musical meaning and performing music meaningfully--"interpreting music" in both senses of the term. Synthesizing and advancing two decades of highly influential work, Lawrence Kramer fundamentally rethinks the concepts of work,...
Readings on music therapy theory [electronic resource]
Bruscia, Kenneth.
Ebook
From scratch [electronic resource] writings in music theory, James Tenney
Tenney, James.
Paper Book
One of the twentieth century's most important musical thinkers, James Tenney did pioneering work in multiple fields, including computer music, tuning theory, and algorithmic and computer-assisted composition. From Scratch arranges, edits, and revises Tenney's hard-to-find writings into one...
Reimagining music theory [electronic resource] contexts, communities, creativities
Stover, Chris
Ebook
Psychedelic popular music : a history through musical topic theory
Echard, William
Ebook
Recognized for its distinctive musical features and its connection to periods of social innovation and ferment, the genre of psychedelia has exerted long-term influence in many areas of cultural production, including music, visual art, graphic design, film, and literature. William Echard explores...
Music theory through musical theatre [electronic resource] putting it together
Franceschina, John Charles, 1947- author.
Ebook
Modern records, maverick methods : technology and process in popular music record production 1978-2000
Bennett, Samantha (Music professor)
Ebook
From the Fairlight CMI through MIDI to the digital audio workstations at the turn of the millennium, Modern Records, Maverick Methods examines a critical period in commercial popular music record production: the transformative digital age from the late 1970s until 2000. Drawing on a...

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