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Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music
 
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Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music (Paperback)

by Tim Lihoreau (Author)
2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
RRP: Ł7.99
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Product details

  • Paperback: 320 pages
  • Publisher: Pan; New edition edition (2 Sep 2005)
  • Language English
  • ISBN-10: 0330438565
  • ISBN-13: 978-0330438568
  • Product Dimensions: 19.2 x 13 x 2.2 cm
  • Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (16 customer reviews)
  • Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 69,596 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

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    #37 in  Books > Fiction > Authors, A-Z > F > Fry, Stephen

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Product Description

Product Description

'Hello, I'm Stephen Fry. Now time for the first outing of a brand, spanking new feature here on The Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music... putting some unsuspecting figure in music under the spotlight.'

In his Incomplete & Utter History of Classical Music, Stephen Fry presents a potted and brilliantly rambling 700-year history of classical music and the world as we know it. Along this musical journey he casually throws in references to pretty much whatever takes his fancy, from the Mongol invasion of Russia and Mr Khan (Genghis to his friends), the founding of the MCC, the Black Death (which once again became the new black in England), to the heady revolutionary atmosphere of Mozart's Don Giovanni and the deep doo-doo that Louis XVI got into (or 'du-du' as the French would say).

It's all here - Ambrose and early English plainsong, Bach, Mozart (beloved of mobile phones everywhere), Beethoven, Debussy, Wagner (the old romantic), right up to the present day. Entertaining and brilliantly written, this is a pretty reckless romp of a history through classical music and much much more.

About the Author

Stephen Fry is a writer, comedian, presenter, actor, half-man, half-demi-god.

Tim Lihoreau regularly writes with Stephen Fry and is the muli-award winning scriptwriter for the Classic FM The Incomplete & Utter History of Classical Music. He is also Creative Director for Classic FM, and lives in Cambridge.

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Customer Reviews

16 Reviews
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Average Customer Review
2.8 out of 5 stars (16 customer reviews)
 
 
 
 
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

 
116 of 121 people found the following review helpful:
3.0 out of 5 stars Just like Classic FM..., 18 Oct 2004
By T. De Mulder (UK) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music (Hardcover)
Beware. This book isn't actually written by Stephen Fry, but by Tim Lihoreau of Classic FM. And, like Classic FM, it can be entertaining but also incredibly irritating. And, sadly, it tries to be funny in the wrong way, at the wrong moments.

However. It contains enough useful information to keep me hooked, and occasionally some of Stephen Fry's wit shines through.

Don't buy this book just because it's written by Stephen Fry - because it isn't. But if you have an interest in classical music and can live with Classic FM in book form, it's recommended.

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7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars unreadable, 10 Mar 2008
By J. Jenkins - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   
This review is from: Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music (Hardcover)
I felt as though I was being arched and punned and whimsied to death. An insult to any reader any age any amount of previous knowledge. Just awful.
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45 of 51 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars The worst kind of puerile excrement, 2 Aug 2006
This review is from: Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music (Hardcover)
I will start by echoing what has been mentioned already by at least one reviewer: this book was not written by Stephen Fry - I'm amazed he has allowed his name to be associated with such an amateurish, school-paper-like piece of work.

Mr Fry's own books have on the whole been well researched and written with deftly chosen words and a real knack for narrative. This book, on the other hand, reads like it was written by the protagonist Adrian Healey from Fry's The Liar - i.e. a pretentious adolescent with the gift of the gab but no fathomable intellectual substance. Indeed the book's author, a Mr Tim Lihoreau, has presented a poor impersonation of a fifteen year old Stephen Fry.

Examples of where stylistically this book is likely to irritate literate adults would include the joke about "Georges Bizet, whom my computer spell-check wants to call George's bidet", the interminable number of ways the author draws attention the fact that Richard Wagner wrote works that are around the four hour mark - not to mention the habit he has of following the title of any Wagner piece with tags like "The Ring, or to give it its full kennel name, The Ring of Lady Benedictine-Trixibelle, the Third." - and references to Donizetti's "Lucia di Ilkley Moor". One could forgive humour this crass if it were sporadically dotted throughout the text and the reader were allowed occasional respite from it, yet almost every paragraph is bursting at the seams with gags - most of which wouldn't sound out of place in an episode of Dick and Dom in Da Bungalow.

There are some redeeming features - the content seems mostly accurate and therefore informative to anyone unacquainted with certain dates/events etc and the structure is sound, though as the structure is chronological it would be pretty hard even for Mr Lihoreau to louse that up.

These points notwithstanding, my recommendation would be: To anyone wishing to read something written by Stephen Fry - choose any of The Liar, The Hippopotamus, or Moab is My Washpot. To anyone wishing to read a rough guide to classical music - read The Rough Guide to Classical Music and its sister work The Rough Guide to Opera. What's most awful about the Incomplete & Utter History. . . is that it is likely to dissuade the kind of people Classic FM hopes to attract to classical music from listening to anything of the kind; for fear that such people may miss out my final suggestion would be to turn on BBC Radio 3.
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Most Recent Customer Reviews

1.0 out of 5 stars Complete and utter rubbish!
The foreword is quite good as it actually is written by Stephen Fry. In fact he gives a quite amusing account of being pursued by Classic FM people with a microphone to get enough... Read more
Published 1 month ago by Malcolm Black

3.0 out of 5 stars boringly funny
I found the book well both informative and humorous at first but eventually i got bored with the ever increasing childlike anecdotes and lost interest around three quarters of the... Read more
Published 7 months ago by Adrian Moss

5.0 out of 5 stars Not even nearly full history
Stephen Fry seems to be also a writing genious: witty and fluent text with remarks for both ends of your torso, just hilarious. Also for friends of classical music...:-)
Published 9 months ago by Timoteus

1.0 out of 5 stars Incomplete and utter waste of time
I think the only thing that made me finish this book was that I wanted to be able to write a full review here on Amazon. Read more
Published 12 months ago by David

4.0 out of 5 stars Got to be British...
Fantastic book - interesting reading the reviews of some of the other people: It seems the positive reviews are mainly from British people, and this is probably because Stephen... Read more
Published 13 months ago by S. Anderson

4.0 out of 5 stars Funny, informative, different - know what you're getting...
I wonder what some people expect from this book. When I bought it I expected a light hearted trip through the history of classical music. That is what I got. Read more
Published 14 months ago by Dodster

5.0 out of 5 stars Amusing, refreshing and genuinely interesting read
I first borrowed this book a while ago from the library. I haven't read any other books by Stephen Fry, only seen and enjoyed him on the small and big screen. Read more
Published 19 months ago by giraffe123

3.0 out of 5 stars Does what it says on the tin
The thing to understand about this book, apart from the fact that it isn't really written by Fry himself, is that it is indeed incomplete, as it says in the title. Read more
Published on 27 Oct 2007 by Mrs. K. A. Wheatley

1.0 out of 5 stars Oh deary me...
I was so excited when I bought this book. I love classical music, I love Stephen Fry's wit and so I thought this happy union would have me wetting my pants with some Bach playing... Read more
Published on 12 July 2007 by Andrew Paul Sherwin

3.0 out of 5 stars Light and frothy entertainment
This book made me laugh a good deal and thus helped to pass the time in a long transatlantic flight. Read more
Published on 14 April 2007 by William D. Freeman

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