Chamber Music: An Essential History (Ann Arbor, Michigan: University of Michigan Press, 2012), written by Mark A. Radice, Professor in the School of Music, is an overview of music for intimate ensembles from Mediaeval times to the present. This book discusses both Western European classics and many less known but fascinating works—some of them as recent as 2009 are examined. Much of the information is from the composers themselves.
The cover is from a beautiful piece of artwork is by Dorothy Hoyt, wife of former Ithaca College President Howard Dillingham. The wax painting has been hanging in the School of Music faculty lounge for many years.
The book provides detailed and accurate data about particular composers, works, their compositional histories, and their impact on subsequent developments in musical styles. The text is designed to appeal both to the music lover, who can skip the notes, as well as to the professional performer or scholar, who will find a second and fascinating level of commentary in the critical and documentary information provided.
The fifteen chapters of the book make it suitable for use in a one-semester course, but it is written to appeal to general readers too. Discussions range from information about ancient instruments to the influence of tunings and temperaments on performance of the repertoire, even to the role of politics, nationalism, and censorship in shaping the repertoire. Eighteen musical examples show features that will be sure to fascinate both the professional and the amateur. The final chapter, “Benchmarks: Chamber Music Masterpieces since circa 1920” identifies some of the most important innovations of the last century and provides illuminating commentaries about the creators of these innovations. A table of Chamber Pieces According to Ensemble Size will be useful for practical musicians looking for interesting and new repertoire.
One striking feature of the book is its contextualization of the repertoire under consideration within the broad sweep not only of music history, but of world history in general. Radice examines the lives of composers often revered as monoliths, treating them as human beings living and working within society. In so doing, the author provides a fresh approach to the repertoire and insights to practical considerations that sculpted these pieces just as surely as glaciers sculpt gorges and river beds.
