8 of 9 people found the following review helpful:
1.0 out of 5 stars
Ignorance, stupidity, incompetence... somebody screwed up on this one, January 20, 2006
This review is from: Great Composers Knowledge Cards™ (Cards)
The individual(s) that came up with the idea for these knowledge cards can be applauded. The individual(s) that decided on which composers to include is grossly uninformed and quite idiotic.
What am I talking about? I'll explain: This card set has some nice glossy-textured cards of composers (their picture and brief bio), but the choice of composers is astoundingly moronic and ridiculous. The fact that Liszt and Schubert are not included should be all the confirmation you need that this card set is below respect. But Liszt and Schubert is just the beginning... There's a whole band of important composers acknowledged in the pantheon of music who are conspicuously absent from the card set. Here's a list, if you can believe it: Rachmaninoff, Mussorgsky, Monteverdi, Rossini, Weber, Meyerbeer, Bizet, Mahler and Vivaldi are all missing! And for Gluck's sakes (he's missing too), even Haydn isn't featured. Haydn! The father of the symphony! I would call this entire project a disaster and a really infuriating one at that.
Instead of the great immortal masters and skilled composers of old like Haydn and Scarlatti, there is a blatant and totally sad example of bias exhibited here for the modern, women, and American (and also obscure) composers. Here's an example of the composers they DO include: Edward MacDowell (good, but enough to replace Liszt? Hello?), Richard Rodgers (you gotta be kidding me), John Philip Sousa (uh... yeah), Ethel Smyth (oh please), Irving Berlin, Carlos Chavez (huh?), Virgil Thomson, Nadia Boulanger (not a "great composer") and Amy Beach (there is a trend of favoritism for female composers here that is too politically correct for my tastes).
I think I can speak for art music in general when I declare that those composers above, who are not even close to being established as great, do not deserve to replace Haydn and Liszt. I really don't understand this. Is this just an example of political correctness infecting music history? Is there some hidden agenda? I would be supportive of these composers having their own card if other minor but excellent composers were included too: Busoni, Godowsky, Scriabin anyone?
Once again, I must rhetorically vent: how can you have Berlioz, Wagner, Brahms, Schumann, but no Liszt and Schubert?
Well, I don't get it. This is an unresearched project brimming with complete moronic incompetence. Snubbing the old masters for minor 20th century ones is offensive and contradictory to what these cards should be intended to do: teach about the "great composers" as this card set masquerades as.
Anyway, I don't recommend getting this as any kind of teaching tool, because the absence of paramount composers that paved the way for all art music is inexcusable.
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1 of 2 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
From the Publisher, December 2, 2005
This review is from: Great Composers Knowledge Cards™ (Cards)
"Drawn from the collections of the Library of Congress, this compilation of illustrations, photographs and biographical essays examines the lives and works of some of the world's most influential composers, from the towering genius of Bach and Beethoven to the inspired innovation of George Gershwin, Duke Ellington, and John Cage. Profiled here are Bela Bartok, Amy Beach, Johannes Brahms, Carlos Chavez, Claude Debussy, Robert Schumann, Andres Segovia, Jean Sibelius, Ethel Smyth, Piotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky, and many other great composers-forty-eight in all. Click on the small picture for a sample card for the cover image.
"With portraits on one side and profiles on the other, these 48 fact-filled Knowledge Cards are a great source of condensed information--all in a deck the size of a pack of playing cards! Discover the most important and interesting facts about these influential people in a concise, stress-free compilation. A quick and stimulating supply of information, perfect for students, teachers, history buffs, and the purely inquisitive, this deck is sure to spark your curiosity and encourage you to delve deeper into this compelling subject. ISBN: 0-7649-0033-1; size: 3 1/4 x 4". $9.95"--© Pomegranate
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