View source for Charles Rosen

{{Short description|American pianist and writer on music}}
{{other people}}
{{Use mdy dates|date=December 2015}}
[[File:Charles Rosen, 1973 touring Southern Africa.jpeg|thumb|Rosen in 1973 on a tour of Southern Africa{{efn|name=adler|group=notes|Photo dedicated to [[Hans G. Adler|Hans Adler]].<ref>{{Cite web |date=June 21, 2014 |title=1973 on - Charles Rosen, American Pianist. |url=http://classicalmusicianstoza.blogspot.ca/2014/06/charles-rosen-american-pianist.html |website=classicalmusicianstoza.blogspot.ca}}</ref>}}]]
'''Charles Welles Rosen''' (May 5, 1927{{spaced ndash}}December 9, 2012) was an American pianist and writer on music.<ref name="nytimes.com">{{Cite web |last=Fox |first=Margalit |date=December 10, 2012 |title=Charles Rosen, Scholar-Musician Who Untangled Classical Works, Dies at 85 |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2012/12/11/arts/music/charles-rosen-pianist-polymath-and-author-dies-at-85.html |website=The New York Times}}</ref> He is remembered for his career as a concert pianist, for his recordings, and for his many writings, notable among them the book ''[[The Classical Style]]''.

== Life and career ==
=== Youth and education ===
Charles Rosen was born in New York City on May 5, 1927, to a Russian-Jewish immigrant couple, Irwin Rosen, an architect, and Anita Rosen ({{nee}} Gerber), a semiprofessional actress and amateur pianist.<ref name="nytimes.com" /><ref name="Pianist">{{Cite news |date=December 10, 2012 |title=Charles Rosen, Pianist, Writer and Intellectual, Dies at 85 |work=WQXR |url=https://www.wqxr.org/story/256391-charles-rosen-pianist-writer-and-intellectual-dies-85/}}</ref>

Charles began his musical studies at age 4 and at age 6 enrolled in the [[Juilliard School]].<ref name="chic">{{Cite web |date=December 17, 2012 |title=Charles Rosen, music scholar and acclaimed pianist, 1927-2012 |url=https://news.uchicago.edu/article/2012/12/17/charles-rosen-music-scholar-and-acclaimed-pianist-1927-2012}}</ref> At age 11 he left Juilliard to study piano with [[Moriz Rosenthal]],<ref name="white">{{Cite web |date=February 11, 2005 |title=Charles Rosen – Pianist |url=http://www.owenwhitemanagement.com/pianists/Charles-Rosen/ |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050221095415/http://www.owenwhitemanagement.com/pianists/Charles-Rosen/ |archive-date=February 21, 2005 |access-date=June 21, 2015 |website=Owen White Management}}</ref> and with Rosenthal's wife, Hedwig Kanner.<ref name="lcweb2.loc.gov">{{Cite web |title=Charles Rosen, biography, discography |url=http://lcweb2.loc.gov/diglib/ihas/loc.natlib.ihas.200152723/default.html |website=Performing Arts Encyclopedia, Library of Congress}}</ref> Rosenthal, born in 1862, had been a student of [[Franz Liszt]]. Rosenthal's memories of the 19th century in classical music were communicated to his pupil and appear frequently in Rosen's later writings. (For instance, in ''Critical Entertainments'', Rosen offers a memory from Rosenthal concerning how [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]] performed on the piano; specifically that he "rolled" chords upward, starting with the bass note.) Every year from the ages of three to twelve, Rosen heard [[Josef Hofmann]] play, and he later suggested that Hofmann had a greater influence on him than Rosenthal.{{efn|name=godowsky|group=notes|In an interview published in the June 2007 edition of the ''[[BBC Music Magazine]]'', Rosen recalled having played for [[Leopold Godowsky]] at age seven; Godowsky asked Rosen what he would like to be when he grew up, and, to Godowsky's amusement, Rosen answered, "I want to be a pianist like Józef Hofmann." In the same interview Rosen named [[Arturo Toscanini]] as a great influence.}}

Rosen's family background was not a wealthy one. ''[[The Guardian]]'' editor Nicholas Wroe interviewed Rosen in his old age, and reported:
<blockquote>His father had lost his job during the depression and "things were pretty tough for a while". The family moved from [[Washington Heights, Manhattan|Washington Heights]] to a ho[me] in the then less fashionable [[Upper West Side]], where Rosen still lives. Because money was so short Rosen's parents arranged a contract with the Rosenthals not to pay them for Charles's tuition, but instead to give them 15% of his earnings as a pianist until the age of 21. "As I didn't make my debut in New York until I was 23, it was not a very satisfactory deal. But when I made my first recording I took some money to Hedwig [Kanner] Rosenthal, who was very surprised because she had been teaching me for 13 or 14 years at that stage."<ref name="guardian.co.uk">{{Cite news |last=Nicholas Wroe |date=9 April 2011 |title=Charles Rosen: A life in music |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2011/apr/09/charles-rosen-pianist-chopin-life}}</ref></blockquote>
At age 17, Rosen enrolled at [[Princeton University]], where he studied French, and also took courses in mathematics and philosophy.<ref name="Guardian_obit">{{Cite news |last=Ivan Hewett |author-link=Ivan Hewett |date=11 December 2012 |title=Charles Rosen obituary |work=[[The Guardian]] |location=London |url=https://www.theguardian.com/music/2012/dec/10/charles-rosen}}</ref> When he graduated in 1947, he was offered a fellowship of $2,000 to continue at Princeton in the French graduate program.<ref name="Guardian_obit" /> He completed a PhD in 1951 with a dissertation on the poetry of [[Jean de La Fontaine]] under E.B.O. Borgerhoff.<ref>{{Cite thesis |last=Rosen |first=Charles Wells |title=Style and Morality in La Fontaine |date=1951 |degree=PhD |publisher=Princeton University}} <!--ProQuest Dissertations no. 0011011 --></ref> While in graduate school he roomed with his fellow student [[Michael Steinberg (music critic)|Michael Steinberg]], who also went on to become a classical-music critic and renowned scholar in his own right. On a Fulbright fellowship, Rosen then went to Paris to continue to examine the relationship between poetry and music in sixteenth-century France.<ref>{{Cite journal |last=Callow |first=Simon |date=February 11, 2021 |title=A Taste for the Difficult |url=https://www.nybooks.com/articles/2021/02/11/charles-rosen-taste-for-difficult/ |journal=New York Review of Books |volume=68 |issue=2 |pages=10–13}}</ref>

Rosen attained his status as a musical scholar with very little classroom training. Although the ''[[Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians|New Grove Dictionary of Music and Musicians]]'' refers to him as a student of the musicologist [[Oliver Strunk]],<ref>{{Cite web |last=Levy |first=Kenneth |title=Strunk, Oliver |url=http://www.oxfordmusiconline.com/subscriber/article/grove/music/26999 |access-date=July 27, 2008 |website=Grove Music Online. Oxford Music Online}}</ref> Rosen never formally studied musicology with Strunk or anyone else.{{efn|Rosen, Charles, "Τα μόνα προβλήματα της μουσικής είναι ...όλα τα υπόλοιπα." (The only problems of music are... all the rest) Interview by Paris Konstantinidis. ''Highlights'', 35, Athens, July–August 2008, 152–154}} Rosen's extensive knowledge of music appears to have arisen partly from a culturally rich family background, and partly from reading. As Wroe reported:

<blockquote>Through the Rosenthals, Rosen was connected to the New York musical scene. ... [He] says that by the time he went to Princeton, he knew all the music department socially. "So that made me too proud to take a degree in music, which I thought would be too easy. I sound like a snotty bastard, which I might have been, but I really did know more music as an undergraduate than the postgraduate students."<ref name="guardian.co.uk" /></blockquote>

[[Ivan Hewett]] suggests that a major temptation of Rosen's 1947 fellowship offer was that it offered him time to practice and to read extensively in the Princeton library.<ref name="Guardian_obit" />

=== Launching his musical career ===
[[File:Charles Rosen.png|thumb|At the piano]]
The year 1951 was a busy one for Rosen: he completed his French Literature Ph.D., gave his first piano recital, and made his first recordings, of works by Martinu and [[Joseph Haydn|Haydn]].<ref name="lcweb2.loc.gov" /> His career as a pianist made progress only slowly at first, and he traveled to Paris on a [[Fulbright scholarship]] to study the relationship between poetry and music in 16th-century France.<ref>{{Cite web |last=McCarthy |first=James |date=December 10, 2012 |title=Charles Rosen (1927-2012) |url=http://www.gramophone.co.uk/features/focus/charles-rosen-1927-2012 |website=www.gramophone.co.uk}}</ref> In 1953 he moved to the [[Massachusetts Institute of Technology]] to teach French.<ref name="Guardian_obit" /> He described this period to Nicholas Wroe:
<blockquote>I suppose I could have stayed on as an academic, but I never intended to do anything but play the piano. The only time I taught was when my playing would only support me for half a year, but I could only get a full-time job. So I taught French at MIT Monday to Wednesday, but Thursday through Sunday I was a pianist. In 1955, after two years there, I got an offer from [[Columbia Artists Management]] and so I resigned.<ref name="guardian.co.uk" /></blockquote>

The Columbia offer initiated his successful career as a concert pianist: Rosen appeared in numerous recitals and orchestral engagements around the world. Musicologist [[Stanley Sadie]] reviewed his pianism as follows:
<blockquote>As a pianist, Rosen is intense, severe and intellectual. His playing of [[Johannes Brahms|Brahms]] and [[Robert Schumann|Schumann]] has been criticized for lack of expressive warmth; in music earlier and later he has won consistent praise. His performance of Bach's ''[[Goldberg Variations]]'' is remarkable for its clarity, its vitality and its structural grasp; he has also recorded ''[[The Art of Fugue]]'' in performances of exceptional lucidity of texture. His [[Ludwig van Beethoven|Beethoven]] playing (he specializes in the late sonatas, particularly the [[Piano Sonata No. 29 (Beethoven)|''Hammerklavier'']]) is notable for its powerful rhythms and its unremitting intellectual force. In [[Claude Debussy|Debussy]] his attention is focussed rather on structural detail than on sensuous beauty. He is a distinguished interpreter of [[Arnold Schoenberg|Schoenberg]] and [[Anton Webern|Webern]].<ref>{{Cite news |date=2012-12-10 |title=In memoriam: Charles Rosen {{!}} OUPblog |language=en-US |work=OUPblog |url=https://blog.oup.com/2012/12/in-memoriam-charles-rosen/ |access-date=2018-03-11}}</ref></blockquote>

Rosen made a large number of recordings, including recording various 20th century works at the invitation of their composers:<ref name=white />

* [[Igor Stravinsky]]: Movements for Piano and Orchestra
* [[Elliott Carter]]: [[Double Concerto (Carter)|Double Concerto for Harpsichord and Piano with Two Chamber Orchestras]]
* [[Pierre Boulez]]: complete works for piano

In 1955, he recorded six [[Domenico Scarlatti|Scarlatti]]'s sonatas and [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]]'s sonata [[Piano Sonata No. 13 (Mozart)|K. 333]] on the historical [[Siena Piano]].<ref name="lcweb2.loc.gov" />

His recordings include earlier literature such as Debussy's ''[[Études (Debussy)|Études]]'' (1958),<ref name=white /> Schumann's works for solo piano, [[Late piano sonatas (Beethoven)|Beethoven's late sonatas]] and ''[[Diabelli Variations]]'', and [[Johann Sebastian Bach|Bach]]'s ''[[The Art of Fugue|Art of Fugue]]'' and ''[[Goldberg Variations]]''.{{efn|name=BBC_iv|group=notes|In the cited BBC interview, Rosen noted that he refused to perform the last-named work complete in concert, expressing a belief that it was intended for home study and cannot be played as Bach would have intended except in solitude, for personal pleasure.}}

=== Career as a writer and teacher ===
Rosen's career as an author and scholar began only when he had passed the age of 40. Nicholas Wroe narrates how he started writing:
<blockquote>Rosen released his first Chopin recording in 1960. It included one of the late [[Nocturnes (Chopin)|nocturnes]], opus 62 no 1 ... Rosen says he wasn't entirely happy with the recording, but he was even more disappointed with the sleeve note, which described the nocturne as "staggering drunken with the odour of flowers". "I had many thoughts about the piece," he says. "That was not one of them. So I started writing the sleeve notes myself. People liked them and after a while a publisher took me to lunch. Before he even offered me a drink he said he would publish whatever I'd like to write. Eventually it led to many books and articles. But to begin with I wrote just to keep nonsense off my record sleeves."<ref name="guardian.co.uk" /></blockquote>

In 1970 Rosen wrote his first column for ''[[The New York Review of Books]]''—a scathing review of the then-current edition of the ''[[Harvard Dictionary of Music]]''.{{efn|name=reprinted|group=notes|Reprinted in ''Critical Entertainments''.}} His association with the magazine continued for the rest of his life.<ref name="nytimes.com" /> A number of his books collect essays and reviews he wrote for the ''Review''.

In 1971, Rosen published his first and most famous book, ''The Classical Style''. This work was highly successful, winning a [[National Book Award]]; and initiated a long series of books.

At various points in his career Rosen took positions as a university professor. His early stint teaching French at MIT is mentioned above. His later teaching was in music, in part-time or visiting positions offered to Rosen after he had achieved fame in his scholarly work. At [[Harvard University]] he held the [[Charles Eliot Norton Lectures|Charles Eliot Norton Chair of Poetics]] in 1980/1981; the public lectures he gave there served as the basis of ''The Romantic Generation''.<ref name="lcweb2.loc.gov" /> He taught one academic quarter per year at the [[University of Chicago]] from 1985 to 1996.<ref name=chic /> He taught at [[Stony Brook University]] starting 1971,<ref name="lcweb2.loc.gov" /> the [[University of Oxford]] (1988)<ref name="lcweb2.loc.gov" /> and the [[Royal Northern College of Music]].

Even after the scholarly phase of his career had set in, Rosen continued to perform as a pianist for the rest of his life.

He gave his last lecture on April 18, 2012 in the series Music in 21st-Century Society, at the Barry S. Brook Center for Music Research and Documentation of the CUNY Graduate Center.<ref>{{Vimeo|id=55583114|title=Charles Rosen Speaks at CUNY Graduate Center}}</ref>

Rosen died of cancer on December 9, 2012, in New York City, aged 85.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Arts Journal |url=http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/12/death-of-a-great-musical-mind.html |url-status=dead |archiveurl=https://web.archive.org/web/20121212175956/http://www.artsjournal.com/slippeddisc/2012/12/death-of-a-great-musical-mind.html |archivedate=December 12, 2012}}</ref> His collection of scores and manuscripts was donated to the Music Department of the [[CUNY Graduate Center|Graduate Center]], [[City University of New York]].

== Books and other writings ==
Rosen was the author of many acclaimed books about music, among them:

* ''[[The Classical Style]]'' (1971), his most famous work, which analyzes the nature and evolution of the style of the [[Classical period (music)|Classical period]] as it was developed by Haydn, [[Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart|Mozart]] and Beethoven. Rosen revised the work in 1997, leaving most of the text intact but adding a second chapter on Beethoven and a preface addressing comments on the first edition.
* ''Sonata Forms'' (1980), which is in some ways a follow-up to ''The Classical Style'', is an intensive analysis of the primary musical form used in the classical era. Rosen wrote the work when his intended contribution to the [[New Grove]] on [[sonata form]] was rejected by the editors; he enlarged the article he had written into book form.
* ''[[The Romantic Generation]]'' (1995), which is centered on the early generation of Romantic composers, including [[Frédéric Chopin|Chopin]], Liszt, Schumann, [[Felix Mendelssohn|Mendelssohn]], and [[Hector Berlioz|Berlioz]].
* ''Beethoven's Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion'' (2001), which gives general background on these famous works as well as sonata-by-sonata advice for performers.
* ''Critical Entertainments: Music Old and New'' (2001), a compilation of essays originally published in magazines and scholarly journals, mostly ''[[The New York Review of Books]]''. It covers a variety of topics, including [[Oliver Strunk]]; the work of various composers; the status of contemporary music, and the "New Musicology".
* ''Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist'' (2002), an account of the concert pianist's world, addressed to the general reader. It covers piano technique, the instrument itself, the culture of piano performance, and the repertoire for the instrument.
* "Schubert's inflections of Classical form", a chapter of the ''[[List of Cambridge Companions to Music|Cambridge Companion to Schubert]].''

Rosen also published in other areas of the humanities: ''Romanticism and Realism: The Mythology of Nineteenth-Century Art'', and ''Romantic Poets, Critics, and Other Madmen''.

=== Aspects of Rosen's writing ===
In the introduction to ''Critical Entertainments'', Rosen stated that his main goal in writing about music was "to increase the listener's engagement with the music". Alluding to the unhappy sleeve note for Chopin's nocturne opus 62 no 1 mentioned above, he wrote:
<blockquote>A Chopin recording I made ... had some notes that quoted [[James Huneker]] on one of the late nocturnes, which claimed that it "staggered drunken with the odor of flowers." This was not my view of the work ... Huneker's style is an invitation to the listener to dream, to dissipate attention into reverie. The writing about music that I prefer – and the performances of it, as well – fix and intensify the listener's attention. When I hear music, I prefer to lose myself in it, not drift outside in my own personal world with the music as a decorative and distant background.{{efn|Critical Entertainments pp. 1–2}}</blockquote>

In pursuing this goal, Rosen often appealed to technical aspects of musical description, including the theories of [[harmony]] and [[musical form]]. In a ''[[The New Yorker|New Yorker]]'' blog post, [[Jeremy Denk]] rhapsodically describes this aspect of Rosen's work:
<blockquote>My favorite, life-changing parts of ''The Classical Style'' are the blow-by-blow accounts of great passages of music in the wonkiest of terms. He delves into the exposition of Mozart's [[Piano Concerto No. 9 (Mozart)|piano concerto in E-flat, K. 271]], showing how each new idea fulfills various needs raised by the last, while leaving others still open: a continuous game of symmetry and asymmetry, expectation and fulfillment, hiding beneath the innocent surface. ... Charles insists on addressing the notes; but he shows us how behind the notes are felt needs, requirements, laws of how things ought to be—a whole system of judgment, of taste, of meaning. ... The book ... occasionally feels like a page-turner, a thriller: these three geniuses—Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven—building on each other's discoveries, like scientists almost, creating unprecedented inventions, invoking a golden era of form meeting content.<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Denk |first=Jeremy |date=18 December 2012 |title=Postscript: Charles Rosen |url=http://www.newyorker.com/online/blogs/culture/2012/12/postscript-charles-rosen.html |magazine=The New Yorker}}</ref></blockquote>

Another goal of the work is to set each composer's work in its historical and cultural background, describing the forms of composition that served as a musical background for a composer in his formative years and then illuminating his contributions. For example, Rosen largely sees Beethoven in the context of the Classical-period tradition from which he emerged, rather than anachronistically as a forerunner of the later [[Romantic movement]]. Indeed, Rosen makes a strong case that the Romantic movement in music emerged from a ''rejection'' of the principles on which Beethoven composed; and that the veneration the Romantics held for Beethoven was in some ways an impediment to their best work.

Rosen was unafraid to make strong generalizations about the music he studied; i.e. he frequently pointed out aspects of the music claimed to be invariably or almost invariably present. Here are examples.
<blockquote>The first section of a [[Sonata form|sonata exposition]] always has an increasingly animated texture. (''Sonata Forms'', p. 238)

The opening of a work by Mozart is always solidly based [i.e., in the tonic key], no matter how ambiguous and disturbing its expressive significance, while the most unassuming first measures of a quartet by Haydn are far more unstable, more immediately charged with a dynamic movement away from the tonic. (''The Classical Style'', 186)

In this respect Chopin is one of the least pianistic of composers: a change of harmony [= a passage repeated later in a piece in a different key] that makes the original figuration exceedingly awkward does not lead him to change the figuration, and he always refuses to adapt his musical thought to the convenience of the hand. (''The Romantic Generation'', p. 364)</blockquote>

From time to time Rosen wielded his pen as a rapier, skewering other authors. He generally expressed his criticisms with a dose of wit, mixing damnation with faint praise,{{efn|name=denk|group=notes|[[Jeremy Denk]] makes this point (as well as the one in the previous paragraph) thus: "He is rarely shy about the broad assertion, or about the perfect poison insult, delivered with a smile."<ref>{{Cite magazine |last=Denk |first=Jeremy |author-link=Jeremy Denk |date=2012-12-13 |title=Best Books of 2012 |language=en |magazine=[[The New Yorker]] |url=https://www.newyorker.com/books/page-turner/best-books-of-2012 |access-date=2018-03-11 |issn=0028-792X}}</ref>}} as in the following discussion of a contribution by [[Richard Taruskin]] to a volume on [[historically informed performance]]:
<blockquote>Taruskin writes brilliantly and at the top of his voice, and his most crushing arguments are often reserved for opinions that no one really holds. He asserts: "To presume that the use of historical instruments guarantees a historical result is simply preposterous." No doubt. Still, Taruskin beats his dead horses with infectious enthusiasm, and some of them have occasional twitches of life.{{efn|Critical Entertainments p. 204}}</blockquote>

Such passages were balanced by a fair amount of praise and appreciation (if not systematic citation) of others' work.

Rosen's prodigious memory for facts occasionally failed him, letting elementary factual errors creep into his work. Sometimes he would apologize for the errors in reprinted editions, retaining them in the text as a sort of self-reprimand. Thus chapter 7 of ''Critical Entertainments'', a reprinted essay, begins with an appended comment:
<blockquote>At the opening of the following essay, the mistake of calling [[Joseph II, Holy Roman Emperor|Joseph II]] the emperor [[Franz Joseph I of Austria|Franz Joseph]] is so egregious that I have let it stand in the text in the hope that the public humiliation will make me more careful in the future. Several readers wrote to signal other mistakes…</blockquote>

=== Critical assessment ===
The musicologist [[Mark DeVoto]] has written of Rosen:
<blockquote>Charles Rosen was a comprehensive musician, an outstanding pianist and one of the best writers on music ever. The scope of his knowledge was immense, and its depth showed on every page of his many and various books and articles, from ''The Classical Style'' to ''The Romantic Generation'' to ''Sonata Forms'', and even to books on Schoenberg and Elliott Carter. Today's students and knowledgeable music lovers return to Rosen's writings again and again, not only to read about the great composers and their works, but to comprehend them historically and as components of the literary and dramatic traditions, which Rosen knew thoroughly.<ref>{{Cite web |last=DeVoto |first=Mark |date=December 11, 2012 |title=Eminent Pianist and Scholar Charles Rosen Has Died - The Boston Musical Intelligencer |url=http://classical-scene.com/2012/12/11/rosen-died/}}</ref></blockquote>

== Awards and honors ==
* For ''[[The Classical Style]]'': the U.S. [[National Book Award]] in [[List of winners of the National Book Award#Arts and Letters|category Arts and Letters]].<ref>{{Cite web |title=National Book Awards – 1972 |url=https://www.nationalbook.org/awards-prizes/national-book-awards-1972 |access-date=2012-03-10 |website=National Book Foundation |quote=Arts and Letters" was an award category from 1964 to 1976}}</ref>
*Elected to the [[American Academy of Arts and Sciences]] (1974).<ref>{{Cite web|title=Charles Rosen|url=https://www.amacad.org/person/charles-rosen|access-date=2021-12-21|website=American Academy of Arts & Sciences|language=en}}</ref>
*Elected to the [[American Philosophical Society]] (1995)<ref>{{Cite web|title=APS Member History|url=https://search.amphilsoc.org/memhist/search?creator=Charles+Rosen&title=&subject=&subdiv=&mem=&year=&year-max=&dead=&keyword=&smode=advanced|access-date=2021-12-21|website=search.amphilsoc.org}}</ref>
* For ''The Romantic Generation'': the Otto Kinkeldey award of the [[American Musicological Society]] (1996).
* Honorary doctorates from the [[University of Cambridge]] and [[Durham University]].<ref name=white />
* For his recording of the complete piano works of Boulez: the [[Edison Classical Music Awards|Edison Prize]] (Netherlands).<ref name=white />
* For his recordings of the [[Late piano sonatas (Beethoven)|late Beethoven piano sonatas]] and of the ''[[Diabelli Variations]]'': [[Grammy Award]] nominations.<ref name=white />
* A [[National Humanities Medal]], awarded by [[President Obama]] February 13, 2012, in a ceremony in the East Room of the White House.
* An opera entitled ''[[The Classical Style (opera)|The Classical Style]]'' was created in his honor by librettist [[Jeremy Denk]] and composer [[Steven Stucky]]. It was premiered at the [[Ojai Music Festival]], June 13, 2014.<ref>{{Cite news |last=Boehm |first=Mike |date=December 4, 2013 |title=Ojai Music Festival to premiere a comic opera by Denk and Stucky |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/la-xpm-2013-dec-04-la-et-cm-haydn-mozart-beethoven-opera-ojai-music-festival-jeremy-denk-20131203-story.html |access-date=May 20, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Tommasini |first=Anthony |author-link=Anthony Tommasini |date=December 5, 2014 |title=We're Nothing but Busts, Mozart. Busts! |work=[[The New York Times]] |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2014/12/06/arts/music/the-classical-style-an-opera-buffa-at-zankel-hall.html |access-date=May 20, 2015}}</ref><ref>{{Cite news |last=Swed |first=Mark |date=June 16, 2014 |title=Review ''Classical Style'' at Ojai Music Festival draws on wit, wisdom |work=[[Los Angeles Times]] |url=http://www.latimes.com/entertainment/arts/classical/la-et-cm-ojai-opera-review-20140616-column.html |access-date=May 20, 2015}}</ref>

== Bibliography ==
* ''[[The Classical Style]]'' (1971, 2nd expanded ed., 1997, New York: Norton): {{ISBN|0-393-31712-9}}
* ''Schoenberg'' (1976, [[Fontana Modern Masters]])
* ''The Musical Languages of Elliott Carter'' (1984, Washington, D.C.: Music Division, Research Services, Library of Congress)
* ''Romanticism and Realism: The Mythology of Nineteenth-Century Art'' (with Henri Zerner; 1985, New York: Norton): {{ISBN|0-393-30196-6}}
* ''Sonata Forms'' (2nd ed., 1988, New York: Norton): {{ISBN|0-393-30219-9}}
* ''The Frontiers of Meaning: Three Informal Lectures on Music'' (1994, New York: Hill and Wang): {{ISBN|1-871082-65-X}}
* ''Arnold Schoenberg'' (1996, Chicago: University of Chicago Press): {{ISBN|0-691-02706-4}}
* ''The Romantic Generation'' (1995, Cambridge: Harvard University Press): {{ISBN|0-674-77934-7}}
* ''Romantic Poets, Critics, and Other Madmen'' (2000, Cambridge: Harvard University Press): {{ISBN|0-674-77951-7}}
* ''Beethoven's Piano Sonatas: A Short Companion'' (2001, New Haven: Yale University Press): {{ISBN|0-300-09070-6}}
* ''Critical Entertainments: Music Old and New'' (2001, Cambridge: Harvard University Press): {{ISBN|0-674-00684-4}}
* ''Piano Notes: The World of the Pianist'' (2002, Free Press): {{ISBN|0-7432-4312-9}}
*  ''Variations on the Canon'', edited by Robert Curry et al. (2008, University of Rochester Press): a collection of essays by noted scholars and musicians, published on the occasion of Rosen's 80th birthday. It contains writings on Rosen's critical methods (and other topics), a previously unpublished essay by Rosen himself, and concludes with listings of all his recordings and published writings up to the date of publication.
* ''Music and Sentiment'' (2010, New Haven: Yale University Press): {{ISBN|0-300-12640-9}}
* ''Freedom and the Arts: Essays on Music and Literature'' (2012, Cambridge: Harvard University Press)
*''The Joy of Playing, the Joy of Thinking: Conversations About Art and Performance''. [Interviews with Catherine Temerson, translated from the French by Catherine Zerner.] (2020, Cambridge: Harvard University Press): {{ISBN|9780674988460|}}

== Notes ==
{{notelist|30em}}

== References ==
{{Reflist}}

== External links ==
{{wikiquote}}
* {{AllMusic|class=artist|id=q49400/biography}}
* [http://www.naxos.com/person/Charles_Rosen/10899.htm Biography of Rosen] on the [[Naxos Records|Naxos]] website
* [http://www.bach-cantatas.com/Bio/Rosen-Charles.htm Biography of Rosen] at "Bach Cantatas"
* [http://www.nybooks.com/contributors/charles-rosen/ Archive of Rosen's contributions] to ''[[The New York Review of Books]]''
* [http://www.denisdutton.com/rosen.htm Review by Denis Dutton of Rosen's book ''Piano Notes'']
* {{YouTube|bSrexRPwnwk|Interview with Charles Rosen (1 of 3)}}, [[David Dubal]], [[WNCN-FM]], October 17, 1980
* {{YouTube|8KTgtx6_a4Q|Interview with Charles Rosen (2 of 3)|link=no}}, David Dubal, WNCN-FM, January 15, 1982
* {{YouTube|rU3z_O8HG_E|Interview with Charles Rosen (3 of 3)|link=no}}, David Dubal, WNCN-FM, June 24, 1984

{{Portal bar|Biography|Classical music}}

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[[Category:1927 births]]
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