Book Review

The Cambridge Companion to the Symphony
by Julian Horton

This volume was fairly dense, but often very interesting and enlightening. I do wish some of the authors had been a little less pre-occupied with the question of whether the symphony as a genre is moribuund or even completely played out or passe. I especially liked the analytical chapters on cyclic processes in the 19th century symphony and on formal strategies in 20th century works. I also really liked the chapters on the symphony in early Soviet Russia and on the classical symphony outside of Vienna.