by Nancy Monsman (Author)
A Friend's Guide to Chamber Music: World Trends Since 1900, a companion to the earlier guide European Trends From Haydn to Shostakovich, explores international developments of this unique collaborative form. Organized chronologically and by geographical regions, World Trends offers a survey of significant works written for a small group of concert instruments. The book opens at 1900, the approximate moment when musical concepts began to change rapidly during the eventful years before World War 1, and progresses into the post-modernist decades of the early twenty-first century. Intended for performers, listeners, students, and chamber programmers, the guide can be used either as a reference or as a glimpse of cultural history -- which can effectively be viewed through the lens of chamber music, a multi-faceted genre with many fascinating narratives.