Among the more striking developments in contemporary North American music theory is the renewed centrality of issues of musical form (Formenlehre). Formal Functions in Perspective presents thirteen studies that engage with musical form in a variety of ways. The essays, written by established and emerging scholars from the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, and the European continent, run the chronological gamut from Haydn and Clementi to Leibowitz and Adorno; they discuss Lieder, arias, and choral music as well as symphonies, concerti, and chamber works; they treat Haydn's humor and...

In this book Steven Vande Moortele offers a comprehensive account of operatic and concert overtures in continental Europe between 1815 and 1850. Discussing a broad range of works by German, French, and Italian composers, it is at once an investigation of the Romantic overture within the context of mid-nineteenth century musical culture and an analytical study that focuses on aspects of large-scale formal organization in the overture genre. While the book draws extensively upon the recent achievements of the 'new Formenlehre', it does not use the overture merely as a vehicle for a theory of...