Customer Reviews

A Student's Guide to Music History (Preston A. Wells Jr. Guide to the Major Disciplines)

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

 

 

Music is as old as humanity itself, and to some, just may be older than that. "A Student's Guide to Music History" covers from the early middle ages and onwards, focusing on classical music's development since then. Origins of the Plainchant, differences between secular and sacred music, and origins of opera are all covered, as are intriguing portraits of many famous composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, and Strauss among others. Any one with interest in the great strides of classical music over the centuries should look into "A Student's Guide to Music History", which should be in every community library music collection.

I've enjoyed this book so much, and give great credit to both the author and publisher. It is intelligent, charming, and incredibly informative given its size. I'm using it in a class with some young teens, and they have loved it -- even if it is a bit over their level.

Eurocentric it certainly is, but you will not read a more informative, judicious, concise, indeed subtly brilliant account of the masters of music than this. The publishing person who has slotted this into the 9-13 year-old age range needs to get into a different line of work. The young should certainly be encouraged to read it. But Stove weaves his most potent magic for grown-up minds. Stunning.

If I was rating this book for it's scholarship and style, as most other reviewers have done, it would get five stars. The term "student's" is used too broadly in the title. For high schoolers and even college students it proves to be a difficult read. Furthermore, the information presented doesn't underscore any of the major historical points most Music Appreciation textbooks emphasize. I might give this to a graduate student and ask them to elaborate on each chapter in preparation for their music history exams. If you are considering this book to supplement your Grout or Stolba textbooks, your students would do better to listen more to recordings of the music and not reading about it.

This book has a great width of history, relating mostly to prominent composers from the 17th to the 20th centuries. It gives just a bit of history on each composer, maybe a page or two for the most well-known.

The way it is written, though, makes me feel like I'm being bludgeoned by big words. I'll open to a random page and pick a random excerpt to show you what I mean - p. 44 "Suspected of revolutionary and freethinking sentiments, Schubert nevertheless stayed, at least formally, within the Catholic Church in which he had been nurtured." The author could have easily reduced his writing style to more simple terms, making them easier to understand and available to a wider audience. He chose to make this text extremely wordy and that just bothers me enough to give it a poor review.

In retrospect, had he elected to use less pretentious verbiage and constrained his overzealous visage of perspicacity, the volume would acquiesce to facility in lieu of its obviously pompous form. (see what I mean?)