Comedy in Music: A Historical Bibliographical Resource Guide

Providing a general overview of comic music, this reference outlines the history of important comic musical genres, considers interconnections among seemingly disparate humor repertory, and includes an extensive bibliography and selected discography. The narrative challenges the notion that serious works are more important than comic works.

Many supposed tragic works include comic elements and abstract genres, such as the symphony or string quartet. The narrative discusses almost 1,000 works, each cross referenced to publication information. The bibliography includes over 800 books, dissertations, reference sources, and articles. By tracing the development of major comic genres, this unique guide to comic music also examines how absurdity influenced the avant-garde developments of the 20th century.