Customer Reviews

The Book of World-Famous Music: Classical, Popular, and Folk (Fifth Edition, Revised and Enlarged)

5 star:		(2)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

This book has been around for a while, and has lots of wonderful things in it. It does not, however, always represent the highest standards of scholarship. After all, how could it? He's discussing dozens of tunes and one can't be on top of all of them equally. This doesn't mean anything if you're reading for entertainment, but just don't believe everything you read. The entry on "Happy Birthday," for example relies on third hand testimony (referenced in the footnotes as if that made it authoritative) and unfortunately, the effect is to impugn Mildred Hill, composer of the original version, titled "Good Morning to All" by implying that she took it from earlier themes. Most weird is that the author mentions the tune Bishopsthorpe by Clarke, implying that it's opening measures are the basis for "Happy Birthday's" final four bars. Not only are there significant differences between the two, to confuse the four four bars of a hymn tune in 4/4 with the last bars of another song in 3/4 with any implication that they are related is just wrong.

In many ways Mr. Fuld has done a great thing with this book, and has pulled together lots of different kinds of work. But when suggesting that people have based their work on the work of others, as is clearly done in the "Happy Birthday" piece, one must really do the legwork oneself and look at all the antecedants first hand. The author has not done this, so each article should not be considered an end in itself--actually articles should never be--but really the beginning of digging.

I recently had an opportunity to glance at this book. The title makes it sound like a coffee-table book, but in fact it consists of hundereds of mini-investigations into the sources of very well-known pieces of music. Footnotes include references to other works and to primary sources. Recommend to anyone with an eclectic desire for information on music.

This is a scholarly book in a user-friendly disguise. If you've ever wondered about the origin of a song or some other music, rely on this book to give you the straight dope. So the Ingalls family sang "Jingle Bells" on an episode of "Little House on the Prairie?" Had it been written yet? This book will tell you.

Interesting, clear and in-depth - a truly terrific and handy book.