John Spitzer studied with Reuben Brower and Barrington Moore at Harvard, where he received his first degree. He studied musicology and ethnomusicology at Cornell University with William Austin, James Webster, Sotiros Chianis, and Bell Yung. He held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the university of Pittsburgh (1983-84), then taught at the University of Michigan (1984-87). In 1987 he joined the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. He has published scholarly articles on the history of the orchestra, American song, authorship and authenticity, and the relations between Western and non-Western music, as well as music reviews and articles in newspapers, magazines, dictionaries, and encyclopedias.Neal Zaslaw holds degrees from Harvard, the Juilliard School, and Columbia University. He is the author of more than 65 articles on baroque music, historical performance practices, Mozart, and the early history of the orchestra, as well as numerous books, including Mozart's Symphonies: Context, Performance Practice, Reception (Oxford, 1989), The Classical Era from the 1740s to the End of the 18th Century (Macmillan, 1989), and, most recently, Mozart's Piano Concertos: Text, Context, Interpretation (University of Michigan Press, 1995). A member of the Zentralinstitut der Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Zaslaw has taught at Cornell University since 1970.

This is a most substantial book, with a long detailed text, massive bibliography and references, generous illustrations, copious tables, graphs and backup statistics, interesting music examples in the penultimate chapter, full index, and appendices centering on the second half of the 18th century. It will remain a major work on its subject.

• 1. Introduction ; 2. Pre-orchestral Ensembles ; 3. Lully's Orchestra ; 4. Corelli's Orchestra ; 5. The Orchestra in Italy ; 6. The Orchestra in France ; 7. The Orchestra in Germany ; 8. The Orchestra in England ; 9. The Classical Orchestra ; 10. Placement, Seating, and Acoustics ; 11. Orchestral Performance Practices ; 12. Life and Times of the Orchestra Musician ; 13. The Birth of Orchestration ; 14. The Meaning of the Orchestra

John Spitzer studied with Reuben Brower and Barrington Moore at Harvard, where he received his first degree. He studied musicology and ethnomusicology at Cornell University with William Austin, James Webster, Sotiros Chianis, and Bell Yung. He held a Postdoctoral Fellowship at the university of Pittsburgh (1983-84), then taught at the University of Michigan (1984-87). In 1987 he joined the faculty of the Peabody Conservatory of the Johns Hopkins University in Baltimore, MD. He has published scholarly articles on the history of the orchestra, American song, authorship and authenticity, and the relations between Western and non-Western music, as well as music reviews and articles in newspapers, magazines, dictionaries, and encyclopedias.Neal Zaslaw holds degrees from Harvard, the Juilliard School, and Columbia University. He is the author of more than 65 articles on baroque music, historical performance practices, Mozart, and the early history of the orchestra, as well as numerous books, including Mozart's Symphonies: Context, Performance Practice, Reception (Oxford, 1989), The Classical Era from the 1740s to the End of the 18th Century (Macmillan, 1989), and, most recently, Mozart's Piano Concertos: Text, Context, Interpretation (University of Michigan Press, 1995). A member of the Zentralinstitut der Internationale Stiftung Mozarteum and the American Academy of Arts & Sciences, Zaslaw has taught at Cornell University since 1970.

This is a most substantial book, with a long detailed text, massive bibliography and references, generous illustrations, copious tables, graphs and backup statistics, interesting music examples in the penultimate chapter, full index, and appendices centering on the second half of the 18th century. It will remain a major work on its subject.

• 1. Introduction ; 2. Pre-orchestral Ensembles ; 3. Lully's Orchestra ; 4. Corelli's Orchestra ; 5. The Orchestra in Italy ; 6. The Orchestra in France ; 7. The Orchestra in Germany ; 8. The Orchestra in England ; 9. The Classical Orchestra ; 10. Placement, Seating, and Acoustics ; 11. Orchestral Performance Practices ; 12. Life and Times of the Orchestra Musician ; 13. The Birth of Orchestration ; 14. The Meaning of the Orchestra