Music in the Galant Style

"Music in the Galant Style is the first book to examine the cognitive development of elite eighteenth-century musicians. Hundreds of musical examples from more than seventy composers illustrate the standard patterns that formed a core vocabulary for aspiring galant musicians. These patterns - schemata - provided an aural medium of exchange between a patron and his or her musicians. By providing a known context for most phrases and cadences, the galant schemata helped to foster a music culture in which the patron's public display of taste and discernment was a central feature." "In documenting the link between training in partimenti and the student musician's cognitive development of a repertory of preferred schemata, Music in the Galant Style pioneers a new approach to this centuries-old, but still living music tradition. By analogy to "historically informed" performance practice, the book suggests a new type of historically and cognitively informed music analysis. It offers a new set of tools to explore the very particular sense of musical etiquette that pervaded contemporary discourse on eighteenth-century music and its musicians." "The book will help students, scholars, performers, and all lovers of eighteenth-century music to develop a deeper understanding of eighteenth-century music and to broaden their view of the repertoire."--Jacket.