Table of Contents

Introduction; 1. Function to origin: national identity and national genius emerge, c.1700–80; 2. From pastoral to picturesque: nature, art, and genre in the later eighteenth century; 3. Genius versus Art in the creative process: 'national' and 'cultivated' music as categories, 1760–1800; 4. The invention of folk modality, 1775–1840; 5. 'Folk' and 'tradition': authenticity as musical idiom from the late eighteenth century onward; 6. Organic 'art music' and individual original genius: aestheticizing the folk collective; 7. Local nation and universal folk: the legacy of geography in musical categories; 8. Folk and art music in the modern western world.

Promotional Information

A study tracing the origins and implications of the categories 'folk music' and 'art music'.

Reviews

Review of the hardback: 'The Invention of 'Folk Music' and 'Art Music' is an important work with a wealth of interesting things to say to students of the Enlightenment and the Romantic Revival. It represents a major contribution to the field.' William Donaldson, author of The Highland Pipe and Scottish Society, 1750–1950, Eighteenth-Century Scotland

Review of the hardback: 'In the enormity of its subject matter and breadth of its learning - delightfully leavened by and almost colloquial writing style that somehow manages to combine informality with precision - The Invention of 'Folk Music' and 'Art Music' is an indispensable addition to the general history of Western musical culture.' Julian Onderdonk, Current Musicology

Review of the hardback: 'This excellent book is part of a series entitled 'New Perspectives in Music History and Criticism' dedicated to creating 'a greater space for music in the ongoing discourse among the human sciences … Reading such sound scholarship was a great pleasure. Gilbert has used a wide range of sources judiciously and intelligently. His rational and humane approach allows him to draw out what is best in the work of even some contentious scholars … this rich and suggestive book should benefit anyone who wishes to understand the intellectual background to studies of tradition, and I highly recommend it.' Paul Cowdell, Folklore

Review of the hardback: '… crammed Russian doll-like with information … an important contribution to understanding how national doctrines become international paradigms, how the 'origins of music' originated, and how we as musicologists originated, too.' Music and Letters

Review of the hardback: '… this thoughtful and important book … brings forward a vital development in the history of European musical thought which should be of abiding interest to scholars everywhere …' Journal for the Society of Musicology in Ireland

'… a very fine book that wants to be widely read - by musicologists, ethnomusicologists, and literary scholars interested in pursuing the historical interconnections between their fields.' Journal of the American Musicological Society