Wendelin Bitzan
Music by Music Theorists

Music by Music Theorists

The following playlist was created in 2020 after I taught a seminar on the history of music theory. Most theorists were prolific composers as well, and their musical works are worth being discovered or rediscovered so we can value them alongside their authors’ well-known treatises and textbooks. Let me know if you think something is missing or should be included for whatever reason.

15th and 16th Centuries

  • Johannes Tinctoris (c1435–1511): Missa L’homme armé for four voices (before 1488), Credo
    recording | sheet music
  • Franchino Gaffurio (1451–1522): Four-part motet O sacrum convivium (undated)
    recording | sheet music
  • Gioseffo Zarlino (1517–1590): Modulationes sex vocum (1566)
    Six-part motet Misereris omnium Domine
    recording | sheet music

17th Century

  • Michael Praetorius (1571–1621): Terpsichore. Musarum Aoniarum (1612), Bransle simple 1
    recording | sheet music
  • Athanasius Kircher (1602–1680): Tarantella napoletana modo hypodorico (1641)
    recording | sheet music
  • Christoph Bernhard (1628–1692): Geistliche Harmonien (1665)
    Concerto No. 6: Aus der Tieffen ruff ich Herr zu Dihr for chant, two violins, and continuo
    recording | sheet music

18th Century

  • Johann Joseph Fux (c1660–1741): Concentus musico-instrumentalis (1701)
    Overture in G minor, K 355
    recording | sheet music
  • Johann Mattheson (1681–1764): Der brauchbare Virtuoso. Zwölff Kammer-Sonaten (1720)
    Sonata No. 1 in C major for traverso and continuo
    recording | sheet music
  • Joseph Riepel (1709–1782): Trumpet Concerto in D major (undated), 1st mvt
    recording | sheet music
  • Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (1714–1788): Versuch über die wahre Art das Clavier zu spielen
    Vol. II (1762), Freye Fantasie in D major
    recording | sheet music
  • Johann Philipp Kirnberger (1721–1783): Vermischte Musikalien (1769)
    Sonata in C major for cello and continuo, 1st mvt
    recording | sheet music
  • Heinrich Christoph Koch (1749–1816): Symphony in A major (before 1793), 1st mvt
    recording

19th and 20th Centuries

  • Jacob Gottfried Weber (1779–1839): Gravicembalo Sonata in C major, Op. 15 (1810)
    recording | sheet music
  • Anton Reicha (1770–1836): Wind Quintet in G major, Op. 88 No. 3, 1st mvt (1818)
    recording | sheet music
  • Simon Sechter (1788–1867): Three Fugues, Op. 44 (undated)
    No. 2: In memory of Franz Schubert
    recording | sheet music
  • Adolf Bernhard Marx (1795–1866): Moses. Oratorio from the Holy Script (1841)
    recordingsheet music
  • Moritz Hauptmann (1792–1868): Three Motets, Op. 36 (1851)
    No. 3: Ehre sei Gott in der Höhe
    recording | sheet music
  • François-Joseph Fétis (1784–1871): Concert Ouverture in A major (1854)
    recording | sheet music
  • Hugo Riemann (1849–1919): Piano Trio in E major, Op. 47 (1888)
    sheet music
  • Heinrich Schenker (1868–1935): Five Piano Pieces, Op. 4 (1898), No. 1 in C minor
    recording | sheet music
  • Sergei Taneyev (1856–1915): Piano Quartet in G minor, Op. 30 (1911)
    recording | sheet music
  • Arnold Schoenberg (1874–1951): Four-part canon for Thomas Mann (1945)
    recording | sheet music