Sir

Donald Tovey Sir Donald Francis Tovey (17 July 187510 July 1940) was a British musical analyst, musicologist, writer on music, composer, conductor and pianist. He had been best known for his ''Essays in Musical Analysis'' and his editions of works by Bach a ...

's ''Essays in Musical Analysis'' are a series of analytical essays on classical music. The essays came into existence as programme notes, written by Tovey, to accompany concerts given (mostly under his own baton) by the Reid Orchestra in

Edinburgh Edinburgh ( ; gd, Dùn Èideann ) is the capital city of Scotland and one of its 32 Council areas of Scotland, council areas. Historically part of the county of Midlothian (interchangeably Edinburghshire before 1921), it is located in Lothian ...

. Between 1935 and 1939, they were published in six volumes as ''Essays in Musical Analysis''. Each volume focused on a certain genre of

orchestra An orchestra (; ) is a large instrumental ensemble typical of classical music, which combines instruments from different families. There are typically four main sections of instruments: * bowed string instruments, such as the violin, viola, c ...

l or

choral music A choir ( ; also known as a chorale or chorus) is a musical ensemble of singers. Choral music, in turn, is the music written specifically for such an ensemble to perform. Choirs may perform music from the classical music repertoire, which ...

(for example, Volumes I and II were devoted to Symphonies; Volume III to Concertos), with many of the works discussed with the help of music examples. In 1944, a posthumous seventh volume appeared on

chamber music Chamber music is a form of classical music that is composed for a small group of instruments—traditionally a group that could fit in a palace chamber or a large room. Most broadly, it includes any art music that is performed by a small num ...

. In 1989, a new version was published with some essays omitted and the remainder of Volumes I-VI consolidated into two volumes. Tovey's ''Essays'' were written as introductory notes for the concert-going public and are occasionally light-hearted in tone. Nevertheless, they analyse the pieces and describe their structure in much more depth than standard programme notes, even in a few pages each. Tovey saw his role as being "counsel for the defence" (Introduction to Volume I): in speaking up on behalf of the work about to be performed, he was seeking to facilitate the listener's appreciation of its artistic content and technical merits. As a result, his approach tends to 'track' the structure of a work as it unfolds through time before the ear of his imaginary 'naive listener'. * Volume 1: ''Symphonies''. Includes essays on Beethoven's overtures and symphonies, including the author's famous study of the Ninth Symphony; all Brahms's overtures and symphonies; 11 symphonies by Haydn; six by Mozart; three by Schubert, three by Sibelius; four by Dvorak. * Volume 2: ''Symphonies (II), variations, and orchestral polyphony''. Schumann, Bruckner, Tchaikovsky, Julius Rontgen, Bach Orchestral Suites and Concertos, Vaughan Williams, Holst. * Volume 3: ''Concertos''. Analysis of concertos by Mozart, Haydn, Beethoven, Chopin, Joachim, Brahms, Dvorak, Elgar, Somervell, Franck, Dohnanyi, Spohr, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Saint-Saens, Bruch, Stanford, Delius, R. Strauss, Glazounov, Sibelius, Schmidt, Respighi and Walton. * Volume 4: ''Illustrative music''. Essays on works by Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Berlioz, Mendelssohn, Schumann, Wagner, Dvorak, Parry, Elgar (''Falstaff''), J B McEwen and Holst. * Volume 5: ''Vocal music''. Includes long essays on Bach's B minor Mass, Beethoven's Mass in D, Haydn's ''The Creation'' and Verdi's Requiem. * Volume 6: ''Supplementary essays, glossary and index''. CPE Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Mendelssohn, Brahms, Reger, Mahler, Elgar, Sibelius, Havergal Brian. * Volume 7: ''Chamber music''. Essays on Bach's ''Goldberg Variations'' and ''The Art of Fugue'' as well as key works by Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann, Chopin, and Brahms.

References

External links

Essays In Musical Analysis Vol-vi
- digital copy at the Internet Archive {{Musical analysis Music books 1935 non-fiction books 1936 non-fiction books 1937 non-fiction books 1938 non-fiction books 1939 non-fiction books 1944 non-fiction books British non-fiction books Oxford University Press books Classical music analysis