A Concise History of Western Music [Paperback]

Paul Griffiths (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: December 14, 2009

Engaging, clear and informative, this is the story of western music - of its great composers and also of its performers and listeners, of changing ideas of what music is and what it is for. Paul Griffiths shows how music has evolved through the centuries, and suggests how its evolution has mirrored developments in the human notion of time, from the eternity of heaven to the computer's microsecond. The book provides an enticing introduction for students and beginners, using the minimum of technical terms, all straightforwardly defined in the glossary. Its perspective and its insights will also make it illuminating for teachers, musicians and music lovers. Suggestions for further reading and recommended recordings are given for each of the 24 short chapters.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

Cambridge's target audience for its new book is "students and beginners," and this may explain why the book, unlike other single-volume music histories, is devoid of demonstrative score samples. It does not, however, explain the book's spotty approach, which may confuse those same beginners. After a brief mention of music in the ancient world, Griffiths jumps to the early Middle Ages in Europe, addressing the fundamental importance of music notation. From this point, Griffiths leads a tour through 1100 years of music-making, addressing simultaneous developments in many areas of Western culture, including politics, literature and mathematics. The effectiveness of this approach becomes questionable as the volume enters the Baroque era, when the number of composers and the variety of styles expand rapidly. Though the text is filled with Griffith's typically excellent, thought-provoking observations-he's written for The New Yorker and The New York Times-his writing from this point meanders, like a casual conversation. One can learn about trends and ground-breaking works here, but trying to get a picture of Schoenberg's career and development, for instance, is difficult. The method also leads to some chapter misnomers: the author's discussions of Verdi, Bizet and 19th-century Russian Nationalists are in the chapter, "New Germans and Old Vienna." For these reasons, the volume will be more useful to seasoned readers than to novices. A glossary is welcome and helpful, as is a list of recommended readings and recordings.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

From Booklist

Centered on the conceptualization of time in music, Griffiths' precis traces a course of development from ancient Greece and Babylonia to the present. Western music began with single-part chants, to which multiple lines (polyphony), instruments, and rhythms were quickly introduced. Time in music changed from the even-valued pitches of chant to complex rhythmic patterns, from the unmeasured to the finely divided line. By the sixteenth century, ensembles of performers were the norm. Griffiths cites most major composers in each of the commonly accepted musical periods (baroque, classical, romantic, etc.), describing their contribution to the advancement of musical concepts and how the culture influenced their creativity, and also how composers experimented to progress from humanistic motivation to the complex use of technology to create music. Concluding with the ups and downs of the last 40 years, Griffiths suggests that to survive, music of the future will continue to depend on composition, performance, and listening. A well-written must for classical-music listeners and teachers. Alan Hirsch
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved --This text refers to the Hardcover edition.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 358 pages
• Publisher: Cambridge University Press; 1 edition (December 14, 2009)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0521133661
• ISBN-13: 978-0521133661
• Product Dimensions: 8.4 x 5.5 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (1 customer review)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #788,305 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

20 of 20 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Succinct Summary, May 28, 2007

By 

Susan R. Grant (Texas) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: A Concise History of Western Music (Hardcover)

This book, at 316 pages of text, is about as concise as one can be about western music and still cover it reasonably well. This is not a "Music History 101" sort of book, but a reflective discussion of music in the west over centuries. I liked the chapters on modern and postmodern music composers, which I have always regarded with some impatience, (as in,"when are you people going to get a grip..."), but Griffiths writes with real appreciation. The editorial description is very accurate- the book is better read by musicians with some background than people first dipping into music history, but I found it an enjoyable refresher, and it was short enough for one to see the forest rather than be overwhelmed by trees, as in the bulky volumes I remember from college.