A History of Key Characteristics in the 18th and Early 19th Centuries, Second Edition Review

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(More customer reviews)I find this a useful book in coming to conclusions about why 19th century composers made certain key as well as key related decisions, especially in regard to their piano works. A great deal of the book is bibliography, as well as German untranslated source material. But there is enough food for thought to enhance the premise that keys are indeed built on specific character, and that composers have gravitated to or away from them, basing choices on their individual and national "characteristics."

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This is a revised second edition of Dr. Steblin's important work on key characteristics, first published in 1983 by UMI Research Press and re-issued by the University of Rochester Press in 1996.The revision has been limited to a thorough correction and update of the material in the first edition, so as to not disrupt the content and organization, for which the book has been praised as a significant and noteworthy reference for both scholars and research students alike.The book discusses the extra-musical meanings associated with various musical keys by ancient Greek and medieval-renaissance theorists and inparticular composers and writers on music in the Baroque, Classical, and early Romantic periods.Chapters focus on Mattheson's extensive key descriptions from 1713, the Rameau-Rousseau and Marpurg-Kirnberger controversies regarding unequal versus equal temperaments, and C.F.D. Schubart's influential list based on the sharp-flat (bright-dark) principle of key-distinctions.Rita Katherine Steblin is a world-renowned music scholar, living and working in Vienna.