- Mass Market Paperback: 265 pages
- Publisher: Penguin USA (P); Reprint edition (Nov 1988)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 014011338X
- ISBN-13: 978-0140113389
- Product Dimensions: 19 x 12.7 x 1.3 cm
- Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (1 customer review)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 2,014,782 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
Did you know you can trade in your old books for an Amazon.co.uk Gift Card to spend on the things you want? Plus, get an extra £5 Gift Certificate when you trade in books worth £10 or more before June 30, 2012. Visit the Books Trade-In Store for more details. |
Product details |
More About the Author
Inside This Book
(Learn More)
Browse and search another edition of this book.
Browse and search another edition of this book.
First Sentence
From the outside Clarence's house looks like the others in this part of Bellmore, Long Island. Read the first page
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
From the outside Clarence's house looks like the others in this part of Bellmore, Long Island. Read the first page
Explore More
Concordance
Browse Sample PagesConcordance
Front Cover | Table of Contents | Excerpt | Index | Back Cover
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product)
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Customer Reviews
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book is incredibly captivating and thought-provoking, taking as its central premise the idea that recorded music is a totally new type of entertainment, one that has wrought many changes. Prior to the twentieth century, the idea of hearing the exact same rendition of a piece of music twice was unheard of. By the end of the century, the idea of hearing a performance that diverges from the "correct" recorded version had become the norm. This book charts the change, and the psychological and musical changes that have accompanied it.
The book gets slightly hard-reading after a while: although it is fairly well written, ideas are sometimes hammered home repeatedly and this makes it drag a little. This is the only slight criticism I have, which prevents this from being a five-star read, but otherwise the book is top-notch, and the originality and clarity of thinking behind it are enough to make it a must-read.
Most Helpful Customer Reviews on Amazon.com (beta)
Amazon.com:
5 reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful
The Recording Angel b Evan Eisenberg
24 Jan 1998
Format:Mass Market Paperback
This book is really an anthropological analysis of music in our culture, and how the documentation of music through recording has changed music's role. It also esxpresses the idea that recorded music (which Eisenberg calls "Phonography") is to live music as film is to theatre. Told from the perspective of someone who has equal admiration and recognition to Caruso, Mozart, Elvis Costello, Frank Zappa and Aristiotle, this music-philosophy book is remarkabl;y readable and quite profound. written before "sampling" of music was a popular artform. Really Great Stuff.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
This book explores music and its meaning in peoples' lives.
2 Oct 1997
Format:Mass Market Paperback
If you ever wanted to know if someone else really loves music and atributes their life blood to it, this is the book for you. Eisenfeld portrays the role music plays in several distinctly eccentric individuals' lives throughout the chapter, giving the reader not only a beautiful portrait of the characters, but of the universality of music as well.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful
ruminations on recorded music
29 Aug 2007
Format:Paperback
I'm amazed to see that no one has reviewed this book, not even in its earlier edition. That edition was written in 1987. The new edition came out a couple of years ago, but it's basically the same book.
Overall it is very intelligent, thought provoking, and witty. Eisenberg wrestles with the experience of listening to recorded music. What does listening to recorded music do to us, and what does the process of recording do to music?
It's a collection of twelve essays that can be read in any order. Eisenberg is very well read. He seems to have read everything anybody has ever said about music and recorded music. So it's like a crash course in the aesthetics of music.
Eisenberg studied philosophy, and he veers between the personal and the very philosophical. From time to time he throws in a word that seems to be there solely to make you consult a dictionary. "... we can hear Vaughan William's Sixth Symphony as a peroration on the absolutely empty field of a future war." At this point I bet that most of us need to look up "peroration."
Overall it is very intelligent, thought provoking, and witty. Eisenberg wrestles with the experience of listening to recorded music. What does listening to recorded music do to us, and what does the process of recording do to music?
It's a collection of twelve essays that can be read in any order. Eisenberg is very well read. He seems to have read everything anybody has ever said about music and recorded music. So it's like a crash course in the aesthetics of music.
Eisenberg studied philosophy, and he veers between the personal and the very philosophical. From time to time he throws in a word that seems to be there solely to make you consult a dictionary. "... we can hear Vaughan William's Sixth Symphony as a peroration on the absolutely empty field of a future war." At this point I bet that most of us need to look up "peroration."
Were these reviews helpful?
Let us know
Listmania!
|
|
Look for similar items by category
Look for similar items by subject
Feedback
- Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
- I am the Author, and I want to comment on my book.
- I am the Publisher, and I want to comment on this book.
