Classical Music by Phil G. Goulding Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Classical Music
Book Review: Entertaining, Highly Informative Introduction
Summary: 4 Stars
This is a very informative book on the development of music, the orchestra, instruments, as well as on and about the music of 50 composers chosen by a self-professed amateur after careful review. It is a book to which millions could turn again and again, and is specifically helpful in suggesting particular recordings to buy, and why. The book is also VERY populist - that makes it fun, but it also forces composers into categories then into rankings. I'm sure there are those who would screech at the pinning down of a great composer (e.g., "Mr. X is 3rd best Austrian serialist" or "Mr. Y is France's third best composer in counterpoint"!). The book in that sense falls to a weakness to an award and ranking system that just seems inconsistent with art.
The book is however VERY informative, fun, and creates an enthusiastic appreciation for music.
Book Review: Excellent book for beginners
Summary: 5 Stars
You get a short history of the 50 greatest composers along with recommendations on which pieces of music to purchase. It is very well written. Also, at the beginning of the book the author explains things such as the difference between a sonata and a concerto and many other "basics". Highly recommended.Book Review: Excellent resource for starters but....
Summary: 3 Stars
I picked this book up a little over a year ago and it has served to open up a whole new world to me. The writing is unpretentious and accessible - unlike the NPR guide. My main criticism of the book is the absence of Sergei Rachmoninoff - this results in the book losing two stars in its rating.Book Review: Fantastic Intro to Classical Music
Summary: 5 Stars
A book for newcomers to Classical music, it acquaints you with the subject in several valuable ways. First, the different periods (Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, 20th Century) are defined and broken down. Then, significant artists of every period are defined. Then, the top 50 composers are listed, in order, beginning with Mr. Bach. Each of the 50 artists are then given a biographical sketch, an overview of their life's work, and their most significant works are highlighted. A Collecters Starter Kit follows for each of the 50, containing 5 works that provide good representation of their careers. Obviously, 5 works may seem laughable when considering Mozart, and may seem too much when considering Bizet, so expanded lists of works follow for those composers with a large body of work.Goulding treats this book as a research effort, but his personal views do come through at times (He makes it very clear that Georg Telemann and Antonio Vivaldi would NOT be among his top 50, but remain on list because they are historically important composers. In fact, in the description of Telemann you are greatly encouraged to substitute Sergei Rachmaninoff).
The book ends with suggested recordings of each Starter Kit selection. This is very valuable reading prior to taking your next trip to the record store. Whether or not you choose to buy the recommended recordings, this section of the book gives you a good idea of who are the Great conductors and Orchestras, and picking a CD is easier when names like Solti, Karajan, Rubenstein, and Ashkenazy are names familiar to you.
Enjoy the journey!
Book Review: Fun, informative, practical guide for the absolute beginner
Summary: 4 Stars
I echo pretty much all the good things said in the positive reviews. Especially Carl Nelson's review, I almost want to repeat that word for word. Note I'm not familiar with some of the other books with a similar purpose, like The NPR Guide or Swafford's Vintage Guide or The Rough Guide or Classical for Dummies or Dubal's Essential Canon, so I don't know if they're better. But I like this book.
How Goulding compiled his lists is interesting. He discusses this in early chapters. Basically he was facing retirement after a challenging and accomplished career, and wanted to undertake a project. Rather than take up golf, he decided to pursue his interest in "culture" and become educated in classical music. But it was difficult to figure out where to start. Since the book he wanted didn't exist, he set about to create it. He used playlists of classical music stations, and catalogs of classical recordings (and perhaps other sources), to determine who the most-played and most-recorded composers were, and which of their works were the most-loved. This method allowed him to produce a "ranking": almost exactly the way you would rank college basketball teams! It's a completely outside-in approach, and it's very appealing. He doesn't begin with a preconceived idea of who SHOULD be where: he lets broad listening patterns tell him who's where. This reduces the snootiness factor of the book to about zero. It's an incredibly practical approach to what is essentially an impossible task.
Of course that was just the starting point for his musical education. He clearly did a lot more research: there is a ton of biographical info on the composers, and anecdotes etc etc in the book; also sections on the instruments and the various genres and so forth. But the heart of the book is the listing (ranking) of composers and the selection of their key works.
So: who is this book NOT for?
Well, if you're already deeply immersed in the world of "permanent music", if you're a performer or music student or musicologist or reviewer or whatever, if you grew up with your parents playing opera on the stereo and you have some favorite conductors and violinists etc, this book will just annoy you. The forced ranking system will oppress you, and you'll miss the humor in Goulding's absolutism over his arbitrary divisions. Goulding uses little catch phrases to help "place" a composer, phrases which might be left over from his first learning efforts; and the way those catch phrases over-simplify will just drive you out of your mind. Frankly, you'll hate the book.
The book is for the neophyte who doesn't know much about classical music but would like to learn and start listening. It's designed to address the most basic questions. Where do you start? Who is important? What works of theirs should you look at first? And it does a very nice job of orientation.
I would completely ignore the recommended recordings. First, the book is over a decade old to begin with, so some of those recordings may not be available. More importantly, the book is focused on getting you acquainted with the basic repertoire, so it steers very middle-of-the-road in terms of performance and interpretation. It really has nothing to say about excellence in performance or recording. I would rely instead on the Penguin Guide. The two works really complement each other. This one is a "top down" approach, which places composers in their context and gives you a clue who to start with. The Penguin Guide is a "bottom up" approach, which discusses the merits of individual recordings and points out wonderful performances. Having two such completely opposite approaches to classical music is very helpful. The Penguin Guide is also a nice antidote to the notion of "rankings".
(Of course a trip to the local library to see check out the CDs they have is cheap & easy.)
Flaws?
The reviewers who point out that the 20th Century composers don't get enough coverage are completely right. This book will telescope your view a little, focusing almost completely on the 18th-19th centuries while leaving you a little high and dry when it comes to Modern music and Medieval/Renaissance music. It will also leave you with no information about great recitals and concerts etc (but here the Penguin Guide helps out a lot). There is very little about what to listen for in a given work, almost nothing on the author's personal responses to the works. That's a big lack: you'd like to know whether a recommended work sounds haunting or happy, or what makes it important & special. Of course there will always be information like that in the liner notes of whatever CDs you buy: but if you're going off of the author's recommendations, it would be nice to have a sense of what he thinks.
I also think the book might be something you'd grow out of. After you've hit Goulding's top 5 or 10 composers or so, you will have started to develop your own tastes and preferences: you'll have an idea what else you want to listen to, and may not need to plow thru the rest of his list. Of course, that's part of the point of an introductory work, to get you to an "intermediate" stage where you don't need the introduction anymore, so maybe that's not a criticism at all. I also find that even if I go a year or so without looking at the book, sometimes I'll have a question that will take me back to it ("Hmm, I wonder which Prokofiev I should check out?").
Where do you go after this book? Well, most obviously to the music itself! (Let The Penguin Guide help with that.) In terms of books, Swafford's Vintage Guide looks like an interesting next step (I haven't read it). There are also great books of music anecdotes, lives of the great composers, etc. And I have an unconventional recommendation as well: one terrific antidote to the idea of "best" works and "great recordings" etc is the work of writer Norman Lebrecht. Check out for example his books The Maestro Myth and Who Killed Classical Music. Fascinating.
But this book will definitely get you started, so you can go to the music.