Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music (Paperback)

~ Tim Lihoreau (Author)

Editorial Reviews

Product Description

'Hello, I'm Stephen Fry. Now time for the first outing of a brand, spanking new feature here on "The Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music"...putting some unsuspecting figure in music under the spotlight.' In his "Incomplete & Utter History of Classical Music", Stephen Fry presents a potted and brilliantly rambling 700-year history of classical music and the world as we know it. Along this musical journey he casually throws in references to pretty much whatever takes his fancy, from the Mongol invasion of Russia and Mr Khan (Genghis to his friends), the founding of the MCC, the Black Death (which once again became the new black in England), to the heady revolutionary atmosphere of Mozart's Don Giovanni and the deep doo-doo that Louis XVI got into (or 'du-du' as the French would say). It's all here - Ambrose and early English plainsong, Bach, Mozart (beloved of mobile phones everywhere), Beethoven, Debussy, Wagner (the old romantic), right up to the present day. Entertaining and brilliantly written, this is a pretty reckless romp of a history through classical music and much much more.

About the Author

Stephen Fry is a writer, comedian, presenter, actor, half-man, half-demi-god. Tim Lihoreau regularly writes with Stephen Fry and is the muli-award winning scriptwriter for the Classic FM The Incomplete & Utter History of Classical Music. He is also Creative Director for Classic FM, and lives in Cambridge.

Product Details

• Paperback: 320 pages
• Publisher: Pan Publishing (September 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0330438565
• ISBN-13: 978-0330438568
• Product Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.1 x 0.9 inches
• Shipping Weight: 7.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 2.2 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #232,609 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

7 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

1.0 out of 5 stars Drivel and Lies, March 14, 2008

By	A. Woolner "misanthrope" (Yokohama, Japan) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I will keep this short, as a previous reviewer has already aptly summed up how excruciatingly bad this book is. That's the drivel part of this review. On to the lies!

What pissed me off is actually the fact that the entry here gives no obvious indication that the book is actually NOT written by Stephen Fry. Some hack wrote it "as told by Stephen Fry" (take a close look at the front cover, if you can, and you'll see I tell the truth), which explains why although it bears the form of Fry's work, it rings hollow and, uh, well, bad.

Shame on Amazon for not mentioning this (or even alluding to it) in their so-called "Editorial Review", which sounds like it was copied directly from the book's press release.

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Just not good, July 11, 2009

By	J. Rogers (Northern California) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I have loved everything that Stephen Fry has written, and he has a mastery of language as well surprise insights in his storytelling that I count on bringing many hours of pleasurable reading. However, something is terribly wrong with this book, in that Fry's normal eloquence in appropriately weaving humor and anecdote into a story is just plain off. For some reason I had imagined that the history of classical music would have been an important topic to Fry, and I wasn't expecting a text this inane. Perhaps the second author wrote more of the text, and used Fry's name to sell it. I hope Fry's next books aren't like this one.

2.0 out of 5 stars Unedited ramblings of an interesting -- but not that interesting -- classical music fan, December 3, 2009

By	Thane Tierney "Cuchulainn1956" (Santa Monica, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

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Don't get me wrong; I love Stephen Fry's work. His The Ode Less Travelled: Unlocking the Poet Within is one of the best three books on poetry I've ever read. So my hopes for this were high. What I can't be sure of, but discerned by reading between the lines, is that this is essentially transcriptions from a series of radio shows that probably were tremendously entertaining listening, but don't really hang together as a book. Jokey devices that were funny once -- once -- pop up again and again, and there's a disjointedness to the entire work that is vaguely unsettling and largely unsatisfying. Allow me to distill from the book its one best bit, thereby not only saving you money and time, but turning you on to a terrific piece of music. When you're done with this review, go to the mp3 section and download Gavin Bryars' "Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet - 4. Tramp with Orchestra (full strings)," or better yet, get the full album. I hadn't known about the piece until reading about it in Fry's book and it *almost* redeemed what otherwise is a fairly forgettable bonbon of an "as told to" book.