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Book synopsis

The title of this book really does describe what McClary is writing about. It may sound overheated, but most of the music of the 17th century is quite charged; harmonically tense, virtuosic, lushly orchestrated, in a word, intense. What were the social and historical reasons that music of the period, sacred or secular, prized emotional intensity so highly? And how was this linked to the many technical innovations of the period? McClary starts with well-known genres like opera and secular vocal music, which have overtly erotic texts to focus on, and are ready examples of these tendencies. But the chapters on less-obviously emotionally charge music are equally convincing. Why did the Counter Reformation need to create a new emotional intensity in personal worship? How did the Sun King and other monarchs of the period made use of charged but controlled public display of physicality through court dance? Even the meditative, fantastic French harpsichord music of the period is convincingly woven into the narrative.

Book details

Book category Books in English The arts Music Music: styles & genres

• Full title: Desire and Pleasure in Seventeenth-Century Music
• Author: Susan McClary
• Language: English
• Binding: Hardback
• Number of pages: 360
• EAN: 9780520247345
• ISBN: 0520247345
• ID: 04459357
• Publisher: University of California Press
• Weight: 620 g
• Dimensions: 234 × 162 × 28 mm
• Date of publishing: 06. March 2012

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