Cultural History of Western Music in Antiquity
Product details
- ISBN 9781350075511
- Weight: 610g
- Dimensions: 170 x 244mm
- Publication Date: 22 Jan 2026
- Publisher: Bloomsbury Publishing PLC
- Publication City/Country: GB
- Product Form: Hardback
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A CULTURAL HISTORY OF WESTERN MUSIC IN ANTIQUITY
A Cultural History of Western Music in Antiquity covers the period from 850 BCE to 500 CE, a time when multiple musics grew and spread in a glorious polyphony of styles. Music became the beneficiary of a wide variety of practices, from large-scale public patronage to sophisticated theorization, from the design of new instruments to the medical enhancement of the voice, from the invention of new scales and rhythms to the creation of a remarkably precise notation system. Though much of this polymetric and microtonal music was later lost, the innovations of the ancient Greeks and Romans established new ways of conceiving and practicing music.
The 6 volume set of the Cultural History of Western Music presents the first comprehensive history from classical antiquity to today, covering all forms and aspects of music and its ever-changing social context. The themes covered in each volume are society; philosophies; politics; exchange; education; popular culture; performance; and technologies.
The Cultural Histories Series
A Cultural History of Western Music is part of The Cultural Histories Series. Titles are available as hardcover sets for libraries needing just one subject or preferring a tangible reference for their shelves or as part of a fully-searchable digital library. The digital product is available to institutions by annual subscription or on perpetual access via www.bloomsburyculturalhistory.com . Individual volumes for academics and researchers interested in specific historical periods are also available in print or digitally via www.bloomsburycollections.com .
Pauline A. LeVen is Associate Professor in the Dept of Classics at Yale University. She is author of The Many-Headed Muse: Tradition and Innovation in Late Classical Greek Lyric Poetry (CUP, 2014) and her next book, The Music of Nature in Greek and Roman Myths will be published by CUP.
Sean A. Gurd is Professor ofClassical Studies at the University of Missouri. Hisbooks include Iphigenias at Aulis:Textual Multiplicity, Radical Philology (Cornell UP, 2006), Work in Progress: Literary Revision asSocial Performance in Ancient Rome (OUP, 2012), Dissonance: Auditory Aesthetics in Ancient Greece (Fordham UP,2016), and Philology and its Histories (OhioState UP, 2010).
