Review: The Classical Music Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained

The Classical Music Book: Big Ideas Simply Explained by Katie Derham
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I cannot for the life of me fathom why they would release an audiobook about classical music without any music. I understand this was originally a print book, but if they went through the trouble of professionally narrating it, and as far as I can tell pretty much every piece of music discussed is in the public domain, I don't understand why they wouldn't add the music. Especially given that there are certain lines like these: 

"The apparently unrelated chords of F, B, D# and G# form the basis for the work's harmonic instability." 

"...landing not merely in a key (E major) unrelated to the first chord (B flat), but a diminished 5th (a semitone less than a 5th) below it, resulting in a tri-tone, an interval in 3 tones"

"each chord is to be appreciated for the sensuality of its sound"

One can only really follow if they know the pieces by heart, or if they can listen to them. Granted, I can go online and find these (and I did for several), but I often cannot, like when I'm driving, etc. I can't help thinking it was just laziness. 

So, aside from this the book was very interesting, although much of it seemed to be over my head. 

Some of my notes:

Jacopo Peri apparently created the first opera (Dafne, and the first that still exists, Euripide). He worked for the De Medici family, which means the De Medici brought us the first opera, as well as, you know, the renaissance. 

Henry Purcell probably would have started opera in England had he not died early. In the end it was the german Handel (who performed for King George on a boat in the Thames). 

I want to read more about Stravinsky and the first performance of Le Sacre du printemps

"1912: Igor Stravinsky pastes a cord of a dominant 7th on E flat over a cord of F flat major and causes an outrage"

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Review: Music as a Mirror of History

Music as a Mirror of History by Robert Greenberg
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

I learned a lot from this course. On the other hand it wasn't what I purchased it for. This was a random history lesson, mostly about Europe, with more of a concentration on Russia. Some music was thrown in here and there.

I'm not sure how I feel about a musicologist teaching me history. I'm sure he didn't make any facts up or anything, but who knows what biases he may have.

Regardless, maybe I'm too much of a newbie to music, but I was hoping for more of the basics. Maybe concentrating on the top 5 or 10 main composers and discussing how their works were a reflection of their life and times, or something along those lines.

Mainly, however, I was hoping I'd be able to hear more music. For every 40 minutes of talk there will be one or two short excerpts of a minute or two each.

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Review: Jingle Bell Pop

Jingle Bell Pop by John Seabrook
My rating: 3 of 5 stars

Pretty interesting. Would have been better if they had some of the rights to play the songs, since it's an audio program about songs. I didn't recognize half the ones they mentioned.

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