Customer Reviews

Baroque Music Today: Music As Speech : Ways to a New Understanding of Music

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4 star:		(2)
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This review may be an exercise in futility, because this book is prohibitively expensive to purchase now. I got my copy from the library. I was looking for a book on the baroque that wasn't just another period-piece tell-all centering on the lives of baroque composers. This book was more than I bargained for. I didn't know that Harnoncourt was a pioneer of the "early music" movement, nor what such "movement" folks were on about, but what insights and reveleations! The idea that the "early" instruments weren't primitive precursors to "classical" versions, but blessed with virtues (overtones, timbres, attacks and decays) of their own; that baroque music was "conversation" while 19th-century music was "painting"; the differences between "even-tempered" and "well-tempered"; the awfulness of modern harpsichords; the specific interpretative notations found in baroque manuscripts, mostly ignored by modern ensembles who treat everything as Romantic pieces; well, he convinced me that something was afoot. I purchased a disc of Harnoncourt's performance of the Brandenburg Concertos, and, compared to the Neville Mariner version, it was like another world.

The only problem is that this is a collection of lectures, so there is quite a bit of repitition. What's a revelation on page 40 is a truism by page 50, 70, 120, etc.

Nevertheless, this is a significant, important book. But $77?? Maybe you should check your own local library for a copy.

This book is a great source for Baroque performers, and classic music students, who are interested in Baroque music.
However, the original price was $14.95. Now, sellers are selling over $70. My question is why the price is being changed?
I would recommend this great book, but the price is not reasonable.

This is a very easy to read and informative book. I highly reccomend it to any musician or music lover. He gives lots of interesting information and backs up his claims.