"Learning to read music, and learning its grammar, need not be dull or too much trouble," writes Benjamin Britten in his Foreword to this book. An introduction to the language of music, designed for the amateur musician, An ABC of Music surveys all the musical terms and ideas likely to be met in the beginning stages of learning to play an instrument. A short, practical guide to the essentials of rudiments, harmony, and form, it is capable of being read straight through with pleasure and understanding, but may also be used as a sort of cumulative dictionary, with each definition leading on to the next.
| ||||||||||||
Book Description
Editorial Reviews
About the Author
Imogen Holst (d. 1984), daughter of Gustav Holst, was a composer, musical assistant to Benjamin Britten and director of the Aldeburgh Festival for many years.
Product Details
Would you like to update product info or give feedback on images?
|
More About the Author
Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.
Customer Reviews
|
Share your thoughts with other customers:
|
||||||||||||||||||||||
|
Most Helpful Customer Reviews
78 of 81 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
recommended,
By A Customer
This review is from: An ABC of Music (Oxford Paperback Reference) (Paperback)
This is a gloss that moves very quickly from elementary notation to dodecaphony. It is moderately pleasant to read and fairly clear for the novice. But beware: It is British, so it speaks of crotchets and quavers, rather than of quarter notes and eighth notes. It discusses dissonance in terms of Helmholtz's discredited beat theory. Also recommended (very much): PENTATONIC SCALES FOR THE JAZZ-ROCK KEYBOARDIST by Jeff Burns.
43 of 47 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A time-honored classic, the best of its kind ever.,
By A Customer
This review is from: An ABC of Music (Oxford Paperback Reference) (Paperback)
I came across Holst's ABC's 35 years ago as a teen and it gave me endless delight, fascination, inspiration and motivation. The explanations are clear and direct, classic in their simplicity. I rate this book as one of the keys to my becoming a professional musician.
14 of 19 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
THE place to start,
By A Customer
This review is from: An ABC of Music (Oxford Paperback Reference) (Paperback)
It's very sad to find so many people systematically brainwashed into believing everything a few decades old is "outdated"--this belief is pure superstition. It's very sad to feel constrained to point out the bleedingly obvious (as comedian John Cleese would put it): 1) the fundamentals of music HAVE NOT CHANGED since this book was first published. 2) What is good is what ENDURES.
Share your thoughts with other customers: Create your own review
|
|
Inside This Book
(learn more)
First Sentence:
SOUND is everything that we hear : a clock ticking, a door slamming, a dog barking, a car changing gcar on the hill, the wind in the tress, a voice speaking in the next room and another voice singing in the house across the road. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
ist voice, musical sentence, leading note, modal scales, leger lines, notes arc, perfect consonances, perfect cadence, seventh notes, dominant seventh chord, melodic interval Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Trio Sonatas, Good King Wen New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
SOUND is everything that we hear : a clock ticking, a door slamming, a dog barking, a car changing gcar on the hill, the wind in the tress, a voice speaking in the next room and another voice singing in the house across the road. Read the first page Key Phrases - Statistically Improbable Phrases (SIPs): (learn more)
ist voice, musical sentence, leading note, modal scales, leger lines, notes arc, perfect consonances, perfect cadence, seventh notes, dominant seventh chord, melodic interval Key Phrases - Capitalized Phrases (CAPs): (learn more)
Trio Sonatas, Good King Wen New!
Books on Related Topics | Concordance | Text Stats Browse Sample Pages:
Front Cover | Table of Contents | First Pages | Index | Back Cover | Surprise Me!
Citations (learn more)
This book cites 17
books:
See all 17 books this book cites
- The Oxford Dictionary of Art by Ian Chilvers in Back Matter (1), and Back Matter (2)
- Swan Lake by Margot Fonteyn on page 155
- The Concise Oxford Dictionary of Art Terms (Oxford Paperback Reference) by Michael Clarke in Back Matter
- A Dictionary of Architecture by James Stevens Curl in Back Matter
- The Oxford Dictionary of Dance (Oxford Paperback Reference) by Debra Craine in Back Matter
See all 17 books this book cites
Books on Related Topics
(learn more)
|
|
What Other Items Do Customers Buy After Viewing This Item?
Suggested Tags from Similar Products(What's this?)Be the first one to add a relevant tag (keyword that's strongly related to this product).
|
Sell a Digital Version of This Book in the Kindle Store
If you are a publisher or author and hold the digital rights to a book, you can sell a digital version of it in our Kindle Store.
Learn more
