false http://photo.goodreads.com/books/1179708986m/947805.jpg 947805 1 In a time when school music classes (if they exist at all) teach their students the finer points of the themes from <i>The Twilight Zone</i> and <i>Jaws</i> instead of real music; when classical radio stations are converted to Lite Rock or switched to a "top 100" classical jukebox format; and when even churches increasingly favor banal "Jesus Is My Boyfriend"-style slop instead of Bach, Mozart, and Vaughn Williams, classical music may legitimately be seen as an endangered cultural species. Enter Scott Speck and David Pogue, who take out the unnecessary mystery, and offer an easy-to-swallow quickie education, ranging from Gregorian chants to contemporary composers such as John Adams and John Corigliano. If you can't tell an oboe from a bassoon, there's also a dandy guide to the instruments of the orchestra, and once you're through that information you'll know the difference between a concerto and a sonata. Best of all is the introduction to music theory, which actually makes a daunting subject seem easy. It's all supported by a helpful enhanced compact disc (it works in your CD-ROM drive; it plays on your stereo's CD player) containing more than an hour of representative musical tidbits from good EMI recordings. Although the tone is unremittingly flippant and the jokes are, for the most part, pretty bad, <i>Classical Music for Dummies</i> is one of the better works in this series, and really does provide a useful reference for a subject too often seen as arcane. 932730 21 8 1997 Classical Music for Dummies total:23|5:6|4:6|3:8|2:1|1:2| 23 82 50 4 4 0 false false Thu Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2004 Sat Mar 08 11:07:04 -0800 2008 Sat Mar 08 11:07:12 -0800 2008 more...]]> 1 0 false false Sat Dec 01 00:00:00 -0800 2007 Fri Jan 25 11:10:57 -0800 2008 Fri Jan 25 11:15:35 -0800 2008 more...]]> 4 0 false false Mon Jan 01 00:00:00 -0800 2001 Thu Sep 04 08:38:03 -0700 2008 Thu Sep 04 09:14:51 -0700 2008 1 0 false false Wed Apr 30 08:45:08 -0700 2008 Wed Apr 30 08:45:59 -0700 2008 5 0 false false Mon Oct 05 16:30:10 -0700 2009 Mon Oct 05 16:30:10 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Oct 01 17:11:29 -0700 2009 Thu Oct 01 17:11:29 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue Jul 28 21:57:39 -0700 2009 Tue Jul 28 21:57:39 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Mon Jul 06 15:49:21 -0700 2009 Mon Jul 06 15:49:21 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Jun 07 13:36:22 -0700 2009 Sun Jun 07 13:36:22 -0700 2009 3 0 false false Sat Jun 06 15:17:46 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 15:17:46 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sat Jun 06 08:40:09 -0700 2009 Sat Jun 06 08:40:09 -0700 2009 5 0 false false Sun May 31 16:31:12 -0700 2009 Sun May 31 16:31:12 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue May 26 16:55:10 -0700 2009 Tue May 26 16:55:10 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Tue May 19 11:43:38 -0700 2009 Tue May 19 11:43:38 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Apr 23 20:08:39 -0700 2009 Thu Apr 23 20:08:54 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Sun Mar 29 23:54:38 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 29 23:54:38 -0700 2009 4 0 false false Fri May 26 00:00:00 -0700 2000 Wed Mar 18 10:32:22 -0700 2009 Wed Mar 18 10:33:16 -0700 2009 1 3 0 false false Sun Mar 15 11:13:40 -0700 2009 Sun Mar 15 11:13:40 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Thu Mar 12 20:21:37 -0700 2009 Thu Mar 12 20:21:44 -0700 2009 0 0 false false Wed Feb 11 11:44:08 -0800 2009 Wed Feb 11 11:44:08 -0800 2009 http://www.goodreads.com/book_link/follow/8?book_id=947805