In 1725, an Austrian composer named Johann Joseph Fux (rhymes with "books") wrote an important book about writing music, and he said (emphasis mine), "There have certainly been many authors famous for their teaching and competence, who have left an abundance of works on the theory of music; but on the practice of writing music they have said very little."
Johann Joseph Fux wrote his famous Gradus ad Parnassum, in which he says quite a lot about composing music.
Fux wasn't the first to write about music; Aristotle, Pythagoras, Socrates and Plato wrote about it. Pietro Cerone wrote a famous treatise, as did Philippe de Vitry, Jean Philippe Rameau - even Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov and Hector Berlioz wrote musical manuals.
On today's Learning to Listen, you'll hear about these treatises, and you'll hear music from the composers who wrote them.
Playlist
Johann Joseph Fux
Rondeau
Reinhard Goebel
Musica Antiqua Koln
Challenge 72032
Claude Debussy
Children's Corner: Doctor Gradus ad Parnassum
Jean-Yves Thibaudet, piano
London/Decca 460247
Philippe de Vitry
Cum statua
David Munrow
The Early Music Consort of London
Archiv 415292
Jean Philippe Rameau
The Paladins, suite
Gustav Leonhardt
Orchestra of the Age of Enlightenment
Philips 432968
Hector Berlioz
Corsair Overture
Colin Davis
London Symphony Orchestra
Philips 416430
Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov
Scheherazade: The Story of the Kalendar Prince
Valery Gergiev
Kirov Orchestra
Kent Kennan
Trumpet Sonata, 3rd movement
Raymond Mase, trumpet
David Pearl, piano
Summit 148
Johann Sebastian Bach
selections from Inventions & Sinfonias
Simone Dinnerstein, piano
Sony 79597
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