Arriving in the United States at age twenty-seven, Hungarian-born Paul Henry Lang (1901-1991) went on to exert a powerful influence on musical life and scholarship in his adopted country for more than six decades. As professor of musicology at Columbia University, editor of the Musical Quarterly, a founder of the American Musicological Society, and chief music critic of the New York Herald Tribune, Lang became one of America's foremost musical scholars and commentators. This anthology of his previously uncollected writings includes essays written throughout his career on a full array of musical subjects, as well as unpublished chapters of the book on performance practice that he was writing at the time of his death. Lang was concerned above all with safeguarding the purity of musical knowledge as reflected in both scholarship and performance. Whether addressing his fellow musicologists or the general public, he expressed a broadly humanistic conception of musicology in his erudite and entertaining writings on such diverse subjects as Bach and Handel, the historical veracity of the film Amadeus, Marxist theory and music, and the controversial issue of "authenticity" in performance. "Lang applies to issues of music and musicology in the second half of the twentieth century a sweeping outlook and genius for remarkably durable generalizations that characterize his earlier Music in Western Civilization. His eloquent plea for compromise in performing early music may upset some enthusiasts of 'authenticity' but is backed by solid good sense and a firm command of the historical context". -- Claude V. Palisca, Henry L. and Lucy G. Moses Professor Emeritus of Music, Yale University

保罗·亨利·朗（Paul Henry Lang, 1901—1991）：美籍匈牙利音乐学家，音乐批评家。生于布达佩斯，曾就学于布达佩斯音乐学院，后赴海德堡大学和索邦大学攻读哲学、法语文学和音乐史。1933年起执教于哥伦比亚大学，享有“美国首位音乐学教授”之殊荣。其扛鼎之 作《西方文明中的音乐》被誉为“学养”与“文风”上的双重典范。朗是美国音乐学会的奠基人，曾担任国际音乐学会主席，《纽约先驱论坛报》专栏评论家，《音乐学季刊》主编等职。以其渊博的学识、开阔的视野、犀利的笔锋、卓越的文采，更兼近60年辉煌的学术生涯和丰富深远的学术影响，被公认为20世纪美国音乐学界的领军人物。

编者简介

乔治·比洛（George J. Buelow, 1929—2009）：美国音乐学家。印第安纳大学荣休教授，曾任美国巴赫协会主席。作为巴洛克音乐的专家，其研究涉及该时期的表演实践、理论文献和人物传记。代表性著作有《巴洛克音乐史》《晚期巴洛克歌剧》《海尼兴理论中的通奏低音伴奏》《马泰松新论》《许茨读本》等。曾为《新格罗夫音乐与音乐家大辞典》撰写多位巴洛克音乐家条目。

阿尔弗雷德·曼(Alfred Mann, 1917—2006)：美籍德裔音乐学家，音乐理论家，学者型指挥家。生于德国汉堡，先后就读于柏林、米兰、柯蒂斯三所音乐学院，修习中提琴、作曲、指挥和音乐学。“二战”间经历坎坷，战后于哥伦比亚大学获得哲学博士学位（师从保罗·亨利·朗）。1947年起执教于罗格斯大学，作为该校音乐系的奠基人，在此任教30余年。1980年退休后受聘于罗切斯特大学伊斯曼音乐学院，1987年荣休。曾担任纽约康塔塔歌友会乐团和伯利恒巴赫唱诗班指挥，是美国巴赫协会的创办人之一。以其学者、理论家和指挥家的多重身份，对巴洛克音乐的本真主义复兴、演奏教学和学术研究有重大影响。

译者简介

马艳艳（1983—）：女，博士，厦门大学嘉庚学院英语教师。本科毕业于厦门大学英语系，硕士研究生、博士研究生分别毕业于上海音乐学院音乐学系和厦门大学国际关系学院，获文学硕士学位、法学博士学位。长期从事音乐文献翻译工作，曾参与上海音乐学院国家重点学科建设项目，并在中文核心期刊上发表多篇学术论文。