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The Vintage Guide to Classical Music
by
Jan Swafford
The most readable and comprehensive guide to enjoying over five hundred years of classical music -- from Gregorian chants, Johann Sebastian Bach, and Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart to Johannes Brahms, Igor Stravinsky, John Cage, and beyond.
The Vintage Guide to Classical Music is a lively -- and opinionated -- musical history and an insider's key to the personalities, epochs, and...more
The Vintage Guide to Classical Music is a lively -- and opinionated -- musical history and an insider's key to the personalities, epochs, and...more
Paperback, 624 pages
Published
December 15th 1992
by Vintage
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My favourite introductory guide to classical music. I love Swafford's style - high-flown, personal, inspiring, sometimes touching, sometimes snarky. The little essays on technical subjects are clear but it's the historical overview that has been really helpful to me. I've got books on most of my favourites but it's nice to have my understanding of their works reinforced and, often, expanded. I also enjoyed seeing just where other composers I know little about, like Monteverdi and Domenico Scarla...more
This is a fantastic book. Jan Swafford is not only intelligent but approachable. His vocabulary astounds me, and the there is nothing to say about how enriching the biographies and "side-bars" are. This book is fantastic for every level of music lover - from performer to listener to historian to veteran to novice to beginner. Jan Swafford has done something special for the world in creating undersized-easy-to-use - guide to western "classical" music from circa. 1200-1992... there are endless thi...more
This serviceable overview of the history of classical music is primarily a collection of biographies of the lives of major composers. It gives short shrift to music before the classical period, which is a shame because the story of Medieval and Renaissance music is every bit as interesting and rather less well known than more recent developments. Swafford is a lively writer and the lives of composers are rarely dull.
His treatment of Wagner left me disgusted and bitter, but then many music histo...more
His treatment of Wagner left me disgusted and bitter, but then many music histo...more
An excellent, non-technical, guide that approaches its subject by discussing the lives of composers and their key compositions. It's a general book that covers half a millennium, a couple pages for each key composer. The twentieth century gets a disproportionately large treatment -- this happens to be the scholarly focus of the author. Key terms and concepts get more than a few sentences. By all means, an introductory work, and one I'd highly recommend.
A real pleasure to read. Because Swafford has a justified confidence that he isn't a snob, he doesn't need to engage in any knee-jerk populism when writing about this freighted subject. Writing fairly and engagingly about the relative strengths and weaknesses of several dozen individuals who are all gods among men--with fewer than 600 pages, there's no space for mere demigods--is a real achievement.
My favorite two lines are from the section on twentieth-century composers:
*"Based on a medieval co...more
My favorite two lines are from the section on twentieth-century composers:
*"Based on a medieval co...more
quite engaging and comprehensive - from musical terms to individual composers; a must for anyone building a classical music library.
the best music history overview book out there. Jan Swafford is nice and chatty.
A MUST OWN FOR ANY CLASSICAL MUSICIAN!
Very helpful suggestions on building a classical music library. Nice essays on tonal vs. atonal music, consonance and dissonance, etc. plus lots of little details about famous musicians. Did you know Beethoven was only 5'4" tall and had a 10th symphony in the works before he died?
Jan 21, 2008
Melissa
added it
This was required reading in my college music history courses, but has become one of my favorite music history reference books. It's concise, and it highlights interesting things about composers and pieces of music that help bring music history to life.
Excellent source of information, and surprisingly engaging and easy to read. Best book of music history I've read (though that's not really saying much).
May 18, 2013
Tam
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Sep 26, 2008 12:48pm