The Oxford Handbook of Topic Theory

Recipient of a Citation of Special Merit from the Society for Music Theory This latest addition to the Oxford Handbook Series refines and re-defines Leonard Ratner's concept of musical topics, addresses questions concerning their identification, organization and syntax, and distinguishes them from other uses of stylistic conventions in eighteenth-century music. The twenty-five contributors to the volume include theorists, musicologists and performers, who from multiple perspectives explore the historical origins of topics, their compatibility with other theories of musical structure, their utility to performers, and their reliance on listeners' expectations. At the same time, the volume as a whole is grounded in a theoretically consistent definition of topics as 'musical styles and genres taken out of their proper context and used in another one,' and lays the foundation for their further investigation as tools for analysis and interpretation. --Society for Music Theory This handbook contains contributions by twenty-five leading scholars and aims to clarify the concept of topic theory and develop it as 'an efficient tool of analysis and interpretation.' --The Beethoven Journal The [Oxford] Handbook [of Topic Theory] has all the hallmarks of a major reference work. . . . [It] aims to legitimize topic theory through a solid anchoring of topical expression in historical foundations and a demonstration of topics' analytical potential, largely succeeding in both endeavors. Moreover, the collection offers a critical assessment of the field's tradition and the first comprehensive treatment of the subject, especially praiseworthy for its multifaceted approach. This editorial enterprise signals a laudable pursuit of disciplinary rapprochement in current music scholarship-in this case integrating contextual musicology, structuralist music theory, and historically informed hermeneutics. --Notes As a collaboration among like-minded scholars, The Oxford Handbook of Topic Theory succeeds admirably. Original insights, detailed historical work, and pertinent musical examples abound. . . . It is a major achievement and will doubtless inspire fresh engagement with topic theory in the years to come. --Music and Letters The admirable ambitiousness of [its] aim gives Topic Theory a sense of excitement. Reading it, one repeatedly feels the energy of scholars working together on an intellectual mission. . . . the book . . . presents a marvellous cornucopia of insights and information that will certainly inspire and inform future work on topic theory. --Journal of the American Musicological Society