A new kind of music history:

It would be interesting to read a history of western music that focused only on the great masterpieces. Most of the survey-type books tend to discuss “representative” pieces of a certain composer, instead of that composer’s greatest works. This creates a skewed first impression for students unfamiliar with that composer’s output. In a survey class, where the goal should be to spark interest, it seems illogical to showcase only a composer’s mediocre pieces. For instance, why do so many music histories spend a page analyzing a Mozart piano sonata (even the greatest ones, like K. 310 or 533, are rather insignificant when compared to the rest of Mozart’s output), instead of discussing the Jupiter Symphony, the last ten quartets, the quintets, the piano concerti, etc.? These masterpieces are usually mentioned in passing, but are rarely analyzed in any detail. Perhaps the authors believe they’re helping students by focusing on simple, easily-understood pieces that are still “Mozartian.” In reality, they are perpetuating a false image of Mozart – that his music is completely void of any complexity.

This new music history would make a clear distinction between “influential” pieces, and “great” ones (clear, but subjective). For instance, the works of John Cage and some of his contemporaries were extremely influential, transforming the “art music” scene for the next fifty years into a radical, avant-garde wasteland of gimmicks. However, I don’t know many people who argue that any of Cage’s works are “masterpieces.” Certainly many of the most influential pieces have also been great masterpieces (the Eroica Symphony, or The Rite of Spring). However, consider a composer like Anton Bruckner – his output wasn’t very influential at all, yet it contains some of western music’s most valuable treasures. His fifth symphony is one of the most well-crafted, complex, and inspired compositions of all time, but most students will finish their music history class without ever having heard Bruckner (or of him). Instead, they’ll spend an entire day discussing the deep philosophical questions raised by 4’33’’.