Image and Structure in Chamber Music

•
Author:

Donald N. Ferguson

Professor Ferguson discusses the important chamber music works, composer by composer, with separate chapters on Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms. There are also chapters on the intimacy of chamber music, on the antecedents of the above-named composers, on nationalistic chamber music, on twentieth-century chamber music, and on chamber music in the United States.

Professor Ferguson discusses the important chamber music works, composer by composer, with separate chapters on Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms. There are also chapters on the intimacy of chamber music, on the antecedents of the above-named composers, on nationalistic chamber music, on twentieth-century chamber music, and on chamber music in the United States.

“Till now we have lacked good writing [in the United States] on the subject of chamber music . . . The gap has now been filled with this excellent study by Donald N. Ferguson, former professor of music at the University of Minnesota. Professor Ferguson was one of this country’s foremost musical scholars, as readers of his earlier books are aware.”

—

John Barkham, Saturday Review Syndicate

The major portion of this book is devoted to descriptions of the most important chamber music works, taken up in separate chapters by composer in broadly chronological order - Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Mendelssohn, Schumann, and Brahms. There are also chapters on the intimacy of chamber music, on the antecedents of the above-named composers, on nationalistic chamber music, on twentieth-century chamber music, and on chamber music in the United States.

Donald N. Ferguson was a professor of music at the University of Minnesota and also the head of the department of music at Macalester College. For many years he wrote the program notes for the concerts of the Minneapolis Symphony Orchestra. He is the author of two other books published by the University of Minnesota Press, Music as Metaphor: The Elements of Expression and Masterworks of the Orchestral Repertoire: A Guide for Listeners.

“Till now we have lacked good writing [in the United States] on the subject of chamber music . . . The gap has now been filled with this excellent study by Donald N. Ferguson, former professor of music at the University of Minnesota. Professor Ferguson was one of this country’s foremost musical scholars, as readers of his earlier books are aware.”

—

John Barkham, Saturday Review Syndicate

“Here is a new and delightful approach to a broader understanding of one of the most significant phases of an art form that continues to grow more vigorous.”

—

Music Journal