The Rough Guide To Classical Music (Rough Guide Music Reference) - 4th edition (Paperback)

~ Rough Guides (Author) "Like Philip Glass and the other minimalists with whom he is often bracketed, John Adams has set out to reverse the influence of modernist cerebralism,..." (more)
Key Phrases: complete symphonies, ondes martenot, viola concerto, Deutsche Grammophon, World War, London Symphony Orchestra (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Review

"No idiot's guide...well designed with plentiful illustrations...above all it's got character...and vents some refreshingly idiosyncratic views." -- BBC Music Magazine, UK

Product Description

Synopsis

This expanded and completely revised fourth edition is a unique handbook, spanning a thousand years of music from Gregorian chant via Bach and Beethoven to current leading lights such as Thomas Ades and Kaija Saariaho. There are concise biographical profiles of more than 200 composers and informative summaries of the major compositions in all genres, from chamber works to operatic epics. Topics such as the influence of jazz, notation, conducting, the madrigal, and why Stradivarius made such great violins are covered fully in feature boxes. The Rough Guide has been praised for its mix of well-known composers with more obscure, but interesting, figures (like Antoine Brumel and Barbara Strozzi), and for the way it takes contemporary music seriously.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 640 pages
• Publisher: Rough Guides; 4 Rev Exp edition (August 29, 2005)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 1843532476
• ISBN-13: 978-1843532477
• Product Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.6 x 1.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 2.2 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (6 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #379,638 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

63 of 63 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A superb guide , September 15, 2005

By	Alan Lekan (Boulder, CO) - See all my reviews (TOP 1000 REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)

The British seem to have a nack for classical music guides (Penguin, Gramophone) and here is another superb one from the Penguin people - albeit of a different breed. The BBC called this guide, "The perfect classical-music primer." I think the Rough Guide is one of the more compelling overviews of the world of classical music which gives some hand-picked recommendations to get a new listener started. David Dubal's "Cannon of Classical Music" is also a great intro guide to classical music (but not a recording guide).

This 2005 edition gives you three main things: engaging bio's on over 200 composers (a lot), a listing and short synopsis of their major works and then the editor's TOP one or two recording recommendations with some reasons for their choice. As such this book is more a guide to the repertoire of classical music and NOT a complete buying guide like The Penguin Guide. To give you an idea of the level of depth they cover, here's an example of the major compositions listed under "Franz Schubert":

Symphonies: No. 4, 5, 6, 8, 9
Chamber Music: "Trout" Quintet, Piano Trios No. 1/2, Arpeggione, Octet, Late Quartets, Last Quintet
Songs: "Winterreise," "Die Schone Mullerin"
Piano Music: Sonatas No. 14, 17, 18, 19-21; Impromptus, Moments Musicaux, Wanderer, Fantasie in F-minor

This is a well written and highly enjoyable book with much style and substance - but without being needlessly prosaic or overloaded with musical jargon - and should appeal to both the newcomer and classical veteran. The visual layout is effective and engaging with clearly bolded sections, color-enhanced highlights and many photos including recommended CD's. Additionally, the many "side bar" educational texts are highly interesting, such as the ones about the historical and scientific background on Bach's "Well-Tempered Clavier" or Antonio Stradivari's violins. I thoroughly enjoy reading through this book at random just for fun.

Good or bad .. the editors narrow the field of recordings down to one or two top picks per major work - which allows a quick selection to be made with a reasonable chance of satisfaction by the beginning classical music consumer. While such recommendations will always be subjective and somewhat limiting, the ones here are a decent starting place for newer listeners and explained as to why they were chosen. So, guides as this are ideal for listeners who just want a couple quick recommendations without a lot of analysis. Others more involved will want to have a look at Penguin, Gramophone or Third Ear guides.

34 of 34 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars A great place to start to explore classical music, April 19, 2006

By	Christopher J. Sharpe "Chris Sharpe" (Caracas, Venezuela) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

This book is invaluable for those who have a limited knowledge of classical music and want to expand their listening repertoire. It is a compendium of information on over two hundred classical composers and their works. In addition to the information presented by composer, a number of boxes explore themes as diverse as "What is a Fugue?" (under Bach), "The Cult of the Conductor" (under Mahler) and "The Crisis of Tonality" (under Schoenberg). The choice of composers is excellent - of course when the number is limited, one can always gripe about the favourites that have been left out. The accounts are written in a lively, up-beat style that does not compromise the fidelity of the information. Each composer is covered by an introductory section that is largely biographic, followed by a treatment of major works. Finally, a number (typically one to three) of key recordings are recommended - they tend towards the conservative, but pretty much ensure that the new listener will not be disappointed.

It is worth pointing out that this book does not aspire to be a buyer's guide to CDs. That is the task of, for example, the Penguin and Gramophone guides (on Amazon: ISBN 0141022620 & 0860249727 respectively).

I would certainly recommend this book above the NPR guide and other "beginners guides" I have seen. Testimony to that is the fact that my copy has fallen apart from overuse over the years and is now held together with rubber bands. Enjoy!

23 of 31 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars It wasn't good in the first place and now it's noncompetitive, October 21, 2007

By	Larry VanDeSande (Mason, Michigan United States) - See all my reviews (TOP 500 REVIEWER)

Amazon Verified Purchase

For those that have never sampled one, the "rough guide" series is a group of books that pretend to be expert guides into something for newbies. This book is a guide to classical music. Its cover brags that it is, "The A-Z of composers, key works and top recordings."

Amazon's text says this, the 4th edition of the Rough Guide to Classical Music, is completely revised. I'm not sure what they mean by that since the contents are virtually the same as the third edition. Only the "feature boxes" section -- which includes one-page features on stuff like "What is a Fugue" and "The English Reformation" that appear during a composer section -- looks to be about twice as large. The third edition (with Kissin on the cover) totaled 610 pages; this edition (with Rattle on the cover) totals 642 pages. But, when placed on its side and measured with a ruler, the third edition is 1 1/2 inches thick and the new edition is 1/3/8 inches thick with equal type size. Furthermore, there is not a single new composer represented in the new edition.

I am very disappointed and disconcerted that my favorite little composer, Franz Krommer -- a 19th century composer of woodwind and harmoniemusik that was once a rival to Beethoven -- is not included. Neither is another of my recent discoveries, Richard Wetz, a late romantic that lived until 1935 whose three symphonies (reminiscent of Bruckner and Mahler), violin concerto and requiem have all been recorded in recent years. While neither is represented in the rough guide, obscure composers named Roberto Gebhard, Johnathan Harvey and Giacinto Scelsi each get a page or two. They were all included in the third edition, as well.

Maybe I'm wrong, you say, and these are important composers worthy of mention? The Rough Guide says Roberto Gebhard is, "One of the most important and distinctive Spanish composers of the 20th century." They list recordings of his Symphony No. 3 and string quartets to justify his inclusion. Yet there is not a mention in this guide about the British symphonist Robert Simpson, one of England's more important postwar symphonists who wrote 11 of them. They have all been recorded and a box of the 11 was released last year to great acclaim in certain quarters. He is not important enough to be mentioned in this book.

Not mentioning the low profile Simpson is one thing. The failure to include a profligate and popular crossover classic-to-romantic era composer like Krommer in a book that pretends to represent classical music is ridiculous. To ensure I wasn't being petty, I went to Arkiv Music to count recordings. There are 35 recordings by Franz Krommer listed at Arkiv Music while the trio of Gebhard, Harvey and Scelsi are represented by a big fat zero. This tells me the authors, or the corporation that publishes the rough guide series, doesn't know this industry and makes little attempt to improve its product from edition to edition.

Perhaps I am just being finicky about this? Maybe this is really a good guide that can do a lot for someone new to classical music and I am needlessly being critical of its obvious shortcomings? I admit certain of its feature boxes are helpful and there are a lot more of them this time than last. Brief features on "Postmodernism and After", "The Concerto", "The Leitmotiif" and "The Rise of the Virtuoso" will help someone just getting started in classical music come to know a bit about its historic intricacies.

I can't be very enthusiastic about the recordings recommended in this guide, however. There seems to be a marked step backward in the dozen or so I reviewed. Whom among you reading this review would accept a recommendation of the Harnoncourt-Berlin Philharmonic box as the best set of Brahms symphonies available? Or the same conductor and the Chamber Orchestra of Europe being the preferred set of Beethoven symphony recordings? Incredibly, these are the first sets listed under each composer.

Getting this version of the Rough Guide to Classical Music was, as you can tell, more of a disappointment for me than coming to know the earlier version of the book. Now, with the 1,500-page All Music Guide available for only a couple dollars more than this one -- a book that discusses every composer and most performers in more depth than this one and makes more judicious recommendations on recordings -- there is no need for people just coming to classical muisc to settle for this. There is just about nothing here of value to experienced collectors. I'd say avoid this if you know anything about classical music and spend your money on the All Music Guide if you're just getting started.