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The Musical Companion
A thorough exposition of the general elements of music precedes essays on virtually every form of classical music, from extinct instruments and ancient vocal patterns through the immense variety of music available today
800 pages, Paperback
First published January 1, 1934
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Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews
May 24, 2023
What a beautiful old treasury. This big, fat book is an attempt to give a broad overview of what we would now call classical music. There's everything from opera to details of forgotten instruments and how current instruments are arranged on the stage, from the mechanics of singing to a history of most European countries from a musical perspective.
The volume is dated in many ways, including the decision for much of the content to have a slightly opinionated air. This is not a problem, and certainly wasn't in 1934, but 90 years later one must read this with a grain of salt, and an understanding that some things have just changed.
Still, I'm delighted by this.
The volume is dated in many ways, including the decision for much of the content to have a slightly opinionated air. This is not a problem, and certainly wasn't in 1934, but 90 years later one must read this with a grain of salt, and an understanding that some things have just changed.
Still, I'm delighted by this.
May 31, 2021
This is an old music textbook, from 1934.
It is divided into sections written by different people - an introduction, on the orchestra, on opera, then sections on vocal music, chamber music and solo instrumental music.
The introduction discussed the orchestral instruments quite a bit, which seemed redundant considering that the second section also discussed that.
The person they got to write the section on opera didn’t even seem to like opera, so I wondered why they chose that author. Here is an actual quote from the beginning section on opera:
“Opera plots are so fatuous; besides most of them are in Italian. Opera singers never act; if they are not ludicrously corpulent they at any rate never look in the least like the sort of people they are pretending to be. The whole of opera, be it Mozart, Verdi or Wagner, is a mass of absurd conventions, and there can be only one motive that leads people to pretend that they enjoy it - pure snobbery.” Was he serious, or just teasing? I couldn’t tell.
The sections on vocal/chamber/solo instrumental music at times felt too much like just listing well-known or worthy pieces without much analysis or explanation.
The book was interesting to read as a product of its time, for example when it would mention pieces that they thought would become classics, but which are completely unknown now.
It is divided into sections written by different people - an introduction, on the orchestra, on opera, then sections on vocal music, chamber music and solo instrumental music.
The introduction discussed the orchestral instruments quite a bit, which seemed redundant considering that the second section also discussed that.
The person they got to write the section on opera didn’t even seem to like opera, so I wondered why they chose that author. Here is an actual quote from the beginning section on opera:
“Opera plots are so fatuous; besides most of them are in Italian. Opera singers never act; if they are not ludicrously corpulent they at any rate never look in the least like the sort of people they are pretending to be. The whole of opera, be it Mozart, Verdi or Wagner, is a mass of absurd conventions, and there can be only one motive that leads people to pretend that they enjoy it - pure snobbery.” Was he serious, or just teasing? I couldn’t tell.
The sections on vocal/chamber/solo instrumental music at times felt too much like just listing well-known or worthy pieces without much analysis or explanation.
The book was interesting to read as a product of its time, for example when it would mention pieces that they thought would become classics, but which are completely unknown now.
Displaying 1 - 2 of 2 reviews