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Orchestra and Image in the Late Eighteenth Century
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 01 January 1975
Extract
There seems to be evidence in German and French-language opera in the second half of the 18th century and beginning of the 19th, that certain musical phenomena could carry extra-musical connotations. Some work, for example, has been carried out on the significance of wind instruments, particularly in relation to Masonic ceremonies. The extension of the enquiry into purely instrumental music has also been pursued, both from the point of view of a single composer's oeuvre and that of the presence of folk material. On the whole, the expressive power of the Classical orchestra and the ubiquity of opera in the repertory under discussion provide a solid basis for the type of empirical enquiry necessary in this type of investigation.
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- Copyright © 1979 The Royal Musical Association and the Authors
References
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