Terpander; or, Music and the future by Edward J. Dent
"Terpander; or, Music and the future by Edward J. Dent" is a work of musical criticism and aesthetics written in the early 20th century. It examines how Western music evolved from antiquity to modern times and weighs anxieties about “the music of the future.” The likely topic is the changing language of music—melody, harmony, rhythm, and timbre—how listeners respond to it, and what those changes imply for the art’s future. The book
opens by confronting fear of new music, then defines three ways music appeals (sensuous, emotional, intellectual) and argues for music’s autonomy beyond literary “programs.” It traces the rise of tonality and notation, the Church’s role, the northern invention of harmony, Renaissance secular song, and the acceleration of style through the 17th and 18th centuries toward the symphony and domestic music-making. It portrays the 19th century’s ethical fervor, orchestral spectacle, pianoforte culture, and the spread of clichés and program-music, then critiques commercialization and overproduction. Turning to the present, it rebuts claims that modern music lacks melody or feeling, explaining its break with inherited tonal associations, its abrupt forms, and its experiments in counterpoint, dissonance, rhythm, and tone-color. It urges listeners to rediscover the primary pleasure of sound and accept artistic adventure, notes the impact of mechanical reproduction, and closes by reminding us that every age laments musical decline while the art continually renews itself. (This is an automatically generated summary.)
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About this eBook
| Author | Dent, Edward J. (Edward Joseph), 1876-1957 |
|---|---|
| LoC No. | 27026369 |
| Title | Terpander; or, Music and the future |
| Original Publication | New York: E. P. Dutton & Company, 1927. |
| Series Title | [To-day and to-morrow series] |
| Credits | Produced by Tim Lindell, Donald Cummings and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This book was produced from images made available by the HathiTrust Digital Library.) |
| Reading Level | Reading ease score: 45.9 (College-level). Difficult to read. |
| Language | English |
| LoC Class | ML: Music: Literature of music |
| Subject | Music -- Philosophy and aesthetics |
| Category | Text |
| EBook-No. | 76559 |
| Release Date | Jul 24, 2025 |
| Copyright Status | Public domain in the USA. |
| Downloads | 933 downloads in the last 30 days. |
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