Dedicating Music, 1785-1850

A synchronic study that highlights the importance of printed packaging, rather than notes on the page, to the complex relationship between composers, publishers, and consumers of music.

Why dedicate music? What did dedications mean to their readers and writers, especially after 1785, when more works were offered to fellow composers as well as to patrons? Borrowing from book history and sociological theory, Dedicating Music, 1785-1850 is a large-scale study of patterns of dedications. Emily H...