Gluck und die Oper

Adolf Bernhard Marx (1795-1866), the music critic and composer, spent much of his career as professor of music in Berlin and was a friend and mentor of Mendelssohn. His publications included an influential textbook on composition and a biography of Beethoven. The preface to this two-volume study, published in 1863, ranks Gluck (1714-87) wtih Handel, Mozart and Beethoven at the pinnacle of musical achievement. Marx describes Gluck’s radical innovations in operatic composition in the context of the wider European tradition, and sets them in a chronological account of the composer’s life. Volume 2 covers Gluck’s later life, including his residence in Paris during the 1770s, where he enjoyed the patronage of Marie-Antoinette but encountered controversies and intrigues. Marx discusses operas including Iphigenie en Aulide and Armide, illustrating his analyses with music examples. The substantial appendix contains longer music extracts, a facsimile manuscript page, and an index of works.