Customer Reviews

Classic and Romantic Music: A Comprehensive Survey

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A very basic, but well-reasoned and politely argued, exposition to combat the usual divisions between classic and romantic music as they are passed down currently in musical education. The premise and main message of this book is, as usual, that everything you have learned is wrong. Don't be surprised by that. Classic or romantic? It's not so easy to tell, and the divisions between these two "movements" in aesthetics are not so finely drawn as educators would have you believe. Definitions are given, fragmented, pored over, analyzed, autopsied, and the end result is that even less is "known" than before when it comes to categorizing classical music. That's fine, as it takes us a little closer to historical fact, instead of the pedants' obsession with classifying beyond rhyme or reason. An important book, good to have for people who want to know the truth about classical music, and not just sound like they know it.

English is not my mother-tongue. Neither is the author's. He is obviously German, and the book is obviously a translation from German.

The factual content of the book is great of course, but I have a very hard time reading it. The sentences are very long and complex - typical of the German language, but not of English (or my original langauge, which is Hungarian). By the time I arrive to the end of some sentences I have to read it again to figure out what it is really about. I wish to have a book written in English of the same subject.