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The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Bestsellers
by: Alex Ross

March 03, 2008
I was given this hefty book for Christmas. Five days later I have just finished it, and I've read one of my other Christmas presents in the meantime.

Alex Ross is one of the wisest music critics I have read. He appears to have listened to more or less everything and read more or less everything there is to read about the music - and "the music" in this instance consists not just of all the "serious" music composed in the last hundred years but also all of the popular stuff. He is as acute about Sonic Youth, Bjork or Public Enemy as he is about Benjamin Britten or Morton Feldman.

Modern music is not much listened to, and part of the virtue of this book is that it suggests a reason why that's so. Part of it has ... Read More:

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The Triumph of Music: Composers, Musicians and Their Audiences, 1700 to the Present

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Bestsellers
by: Tim Blanning

December 04, 2008
I was given this hefty book for Christmas. Five days later I have just finished it, and I've read one of my other Christmas presents in the meantime.

Alex Ross is one of the wisest music critics I have read. He appears to have listened to more or less everything and read more or less everything there is to read about the music - and "the music" in this instance consists not just of all the "serious" music composed in the last hundred years but also all of the popular stuff. He is as acute about Sonic Youth, Bjork or Public Enemy as he is about Benjamin Britten or Morton Feldman.

Modern music is not much listened to, and part of the virtue of this book is that it suggests a reason why that's so. Part of it has ... Read More:

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The Penguin Guide to Recorded Classical Music 2009

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Bestsellers
from: Penguin

September 25, 2008
I have to agree with the previous two reviewers. I have been buying the Penguin Guide since the early 1980s and have become increasingly disappointed. I also bought the 2008 edition and hoped that important recordings that had been omitted would be included. Abbados Mahler 6 and 7 recordings with the Berlin PO- surely among the primary recommendations and cornerstones of my collection- are omitted! And what about Simon Rattles recording of Szymanowskis Harnasie? And Chailly's wonderful Leipzig recordings of the Mahler editions of Schumann's symphonies- not everyone's taste I know- but perhaps the most frequently played of all my new CDs in the past year. I also wonder whether the reviewers hearing is quite what it used to be. I invested in ... Read More:

Average Rating:

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The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Bestsellers
by: Alex Ross

February 02, 2009
I was given this hefty book for Christmas. Five days later I have just finished it, and I've read one of my other Christmas presents in the meantime.

Alex Ross is one of the wisest music critics I have read. He appears to have listened to more or less everything and read more or less everything there is to read about the music - and "the music" in this instance consists not just of all the "serious" music composed in the last hundred years but also all of the popular stuff. He is as acute about Sonic Youth, Bjork or Public Enemy as he is about Benjamin Britten or Morton Feldman.

Modern music is not much listened to, and part of the virtue of this book is that it suggests a reason why that's so. Part of it has to do with ... Read More:

Average Rating:

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My First Book of Classical Music: 20 Themes by Beethoven, Mozart, Chopin and Other Great Composers in Easy Piano Arrangements

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Bestsellers
from: Dover Publications

September 08, 2000
This slim volume has a nice card cover so should stand quite happily on your music stand.

All the italian terms are listed and defined in a preface.

Each piece is preceded by a short paragraph giving a little history of the piece or composer.

There is plenty of space around the staves for your own notes.

Only one piece spans more than two pages (and is the only piece that requires a page to be turned whilst playing), and that is both a slow piece and has "turn" marked in the score to remind players.

Overall an ideal book for beginners, or for sight reading practice by intermediate students.

The only thing missing is an assessment of the difficulty of the pieces (or a list roughly ordered by ... Read More:

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The "Gramophone" Classical Music Guide 2009 (Gramophone Guides)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Bestsellers
from: Haymarket Publishing Ltd

September 01, 2008
This slim volume has a nice card cover so should stand quite happily on your music stand.

All the italian terms are listed and defined in a preface.

Each piece is preceded by a short paragraph giving a little history of the piece or composer.

There is plenty of space around the staves for your own notes.

Only one piece spans more than two pages (and is the only piece that requires a page to be turned whilst playing), and that is both a slow piece and has "turn" marked in the score to remind players.

Overall an ideal book for beginners, or for sight reading practice by intermediate students.

The only thing missing is an assessment of the difficulty of the pieces (or a list roughly ordered by ... Read More:

Average Rating:

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"Classic FM" The Incredible Story of Classical Music for Children (Classic FM)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Bestsellers
by: Darren Henley

August 29, 2008
This slim volume has a nice card cover so should stand quite happily on your music stand.

All the italian terms are listed and defined in a preface.

Each piece is preceded by a short paragraph giving a little history of the piece or composer.

There is plenty of space around the staves for your own notes.

Only one piece spans more than two pages (and is the only piece that requires a page to be turned whilst playing), and that is both a slow piece and has "turn" marked in the score to remind players.

Overall an ideal book for beginners, or for sight reading practice by intermediate students.

The only thing missing is an assessment of the difficulty of the pieces (or a list roughly ordered by ... Read More:

Average Rating:

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How Equal Temperament Ruined Harmony: And Why You Should Care

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Bestsellers
by: RW Duffin

October 31, 2008
Never judge a book by its cover, they say, and it must be even more true that you should never judge a book by its title. As soon as I saw the title of this book, however, I knew I would have to make an exception in this case and read it.

Ross Duffin has written an engaging, densely argued and robust demolition of the commonly held idea that equal temperament triumphed in the time of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and has been the one true tuning ever since. Drawing his evidence from documentary, instrumental and, for the 20th Century, recorded performances, Mr Duffin shows that the equal temperament (of 12 equally-spaced semitones to the octave) only became any form of standard much later than generally imagined, and is in many cases still more honoured in ... Read More:

Average Rating:

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Dancehall: The Story of Jamaican Dancehall Culture

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Bestsellers
by: Beth Lesser

November 17, 2008
Never judge a book by its cover, they say, and it must be even more true that you should never judge a book by its title. As soon as I saw the title of this book, however, I knew I would have to make an exception in this case and read it.

Ross Duffin has written an engaging, densely argued and robust demolition of the commonly held idea that equal temperament triumphed in the time of Bach's Well Tempered Clavier and has been the one true tuning ever since. Drawing his evidence from documentary, instrumental and, for the 20th Century, recorded performances, Mr Duffin shows that the equal temperament (of 12 equally-spaced semitones to the octave) only became any form of standard much later than generally imagined, and is in many cases still more honoured in ... Read More:

Average Rating:

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The Rough Guide to Classical Music (Rough Guide Music Guides)

Childrens Toy Shop > Books > Bestsellers
by: Joe (ed) Staines

July 28, 2005
What you get in this book is a thorough and inclusive guide to classical music, composers and recordings of their works that's tailored to the last millimetre for the beginner classical music lover. I really appreciate the passion that comes across in the writing. Other classical guides can be clinical, only liking music if it's well recorded or scrupulously performed. Here, the authors aren't afraid to say that the music simply moved them. This enthusiasm rubs off onto the reader.

I found the book summarises too much. Everything is a summary, in fact, and while there's sometimes a lot of depth (in the boxouts in particular), I found myself wishing the authors would spend just a few more lines discussing a particular piece. But I'll bet that the series editor ... Read More: