Instrumental Music

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The book contains four papers, each presented by an outstanding authority at a conference held at Isham Memorial Library in May 1957. “Dance Tunes of the Fifteenth Century” by Otto Kinkeldey is a detailed study of music used in courtly dancing, with an appendix containing all the extant tunes. “Problems of Authenticity in Eighteenth-Century Music” by H. C. Bobbins Landon discusses the attribution of authentic and doubtful works of such composers as Haydn and Mozart. “Instrumental Music outside the Pale of Classicism and Romanticism” by Eric Werner discusses the significance of such composers as Cherubini, Dussek, and Clementi. “Problems of Intonation in the Performance of Contemporary Music” by Walter Piston is valuable in bringing the point of view of the composer to a discussion of difficulties created by contemporary techniques of composition, which assume “equal temperament” whereas musicians other than pianists are not equipped to play in equal temperament.