Musicologists look at the theory and practice of improvisation in the 18th century then progress through keyboard instruments, bowed strings, and vocal music of the 19th century. Among their
topics are improvisations between imagination and oration in the 18th century, harmonic patterns and melodic paraphrases in 18th-century Portuguese music for the five-string guitar, Clara Wieck
Schumann's improvisations and her mosaics of small forms, how to face improvisatory elements in 19th-century Hungarian popular music, and 19th-century vocal improvisation and the
flute-accompanied cadenza in Gaetano Donizette's Lucia di Lammermoor. Six of the 20 chapters are in Italian. Only names are indexed. Distributed in North America by The David Brown Book Co.
Annotation 穢2012 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
