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

by Rough Guides (Author) "Like Philip Glass and the other minimalists with whom he is often bracketed, John Adams has set out to reverse the influence of modernist cerebralism,..." (more)

5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

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Product details

Paperback: 640 pages
Publisher: Rough Guides; 4 edition (28 Jul 2005)
Language English
ISBN-10: 1843532476
ISBN-13: 978-1843532477
Product Dimensions: 23.2 x 16.8 x 3.8 cm

Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (2 customer reviews)

Amazon.co.uk Sales Rank: 41,588 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Popular in these categories:

#6 in	Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Guides to Music > Classical Music
#6 in	Books > Music, Stage & Screen > Music > Styles > Classical Music > Guides to Classical Music
#7 in	Books > Reference > Consumer Guides > Music

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Product Description

BBC Music Magazine, UK
"No idiot's guide...well designed with plentiful illustrations...above all it's got character...and vents some refreshingly idiosyncratic views."

Product Description
This expanded and completely revised fourth edition is a unique handbook, spanning a thousand years of music from Gregorian chant via Bach and Beethoven to current leading lights such as Thomas Adès and Kaija Saariaho. There are concise biographical profiles of more than 200 composers and informative summaries of the major compositions in all genres, from chamber works to operatic epics. Topics such as the influence of jazz, notation, conducting, the madrigal, and why Stradivarius made such great violins are covered fully in feature boxes. The Rough Guide has been praised for its mix of well-known composers with more obscure, but interesting, figures (like Antoine Brumel and Barbara Strozzi), and for the way it takes contemporary music seriously.

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Inside This Book (Learn More)

First Sentence
Like Philip Glass and the other minimalists with whom he is often bracketed, John Adams has set out to reverse the influence of modernist cerebralism, to make it OK for composers to write unashamedly tonal music again. Read the first page

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	75% buy the item featured on this page: The Rough Guide to Classical Music (Rough Guide Music Guides) 5.0 out of 5 stars (2) �11.04
	9% buy Classical Music for Dummies 4.3 out of 5 stars (10) �7.49
	6% buy Classical Music (Eyewitness Companions) 5.0 out of 5 stars (1) �12.99
	6% buy 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear Before You Die (1001 Must Before You Die) 4.6 out of 5 stars (5) �13.00

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5.0 out of 5 stars (2 customer reviews)

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48 of 48 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The best place to start to explore classical music, 8 Nov 2005

By	Christopher J. Sharpe "Chris Sharpe" (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is invaluable for those who have a limited knowledge of classical music and want to expand their listening repertoire. It is a compendium of information on over two hundred classical composers and their works. In addition to the information presented by composer, a number of boxes explore themes as diverse as "What is a Fugue?" (under Bach), "The Cult of the Conductor" (under Mahler) and "The Crisis of Tonality" (under Schoenberg). The choice of composers is excellent - of course when the number is limited, one can always gripe about the favourites that have been left out. The accounts are written in a lively, up-beat style that does not compromise the fidelity of the information. Each composer is covered by an introductory section that is largely biographic, followed by a treatment of major works. Finally, a number (typically one to three) of key recordings are recommended - they tend towards the conservative, but pretty much ensure that the new listener will not be disappointed.

It is worth pointing out that this book does not aspire to be a buyer's guide to CDs. That is the task of, for example, the Penguin and Gramophone guides (on Amazon: ISBN 0141022620 & 0860249727).

I would certainly recommend this book above the NPR guide and other "beginners guides" I have seen. Testimony to that is the fact that my copy has fallen apart from overuse over the years and is now held together with rubber bands. Enjoy!

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37 of 41 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Informative, exciting, and positively opinionated, 28 Nov 2005

By	Budge Burgess (Kilmarnock, Scotland) - See all my reviews (TOP 50 REVIEWER)

The fourth edition of this invaluable guide is packed with information on classical music and should appeal to the novice and the longtime enthusiast - fact, anecdote, explanations of musical styles, explorations of musical forms, biographies and assessments of leading composers and musicians. It's an exciting, entertaining, informative, stimulating smorgasbord of a book which you can browse, read, use as reference material, or employ to settle arguments.

It may, however, start as many arguments as it settles, for the material here does not sit on the fence. The assessments of various composers will fuel the ire of some fans … and bring a smile to the faces of others. This is information and professional opinion, not gospel. This is a reference book with presence, personality, and little pretension - it's never glib or trite. A book to stimulate those little grey cells, not one which will gather much dust.

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