The Essential Canon of Classical Music

Features

• Cover Type: Hard Cover with 512 pages
• Published by: North Point Press
• Edition: 1st Edition October 10, 2001
• Written in: English
• ISBN 10 Number: 086547608X
• ASIN: B0000BYPNH

From Publishers Weekly
To attempt to cover the range of serious music is a herculean task from medieval polyphony to the minimalism of Arvo P„rt and Philip Glass, offering insights, biographical information on dozens of major and minor figures, and even finding room for moderately useful, if necessarily incomplete, discographies, Dubal has brought it off better than might have been expected. As a teacher at the Juilliard School and with twenty years as a classical program director at New York's WNCN radio station, he brings strong qualifications to the job, and since he writes decently, if sometimes rather bluntly, and has thought through his organization clearly, the book is probably the most useful of its kind now available. He divides music into the traditional five periods, and lists the significant composers as well as a host of lesser figures chronologically within those. In each case, he offers a few biographical snippets (more extended portraits for the great figures), provides a sense of where the composer fits into the scheme of things, then lists significant works and some chosen recordings. These are likely to be the most controversial aspects of the book, though Dubal is careful to point out that his choices offer a range of approaches to the seminal works. He does seem to have vast affection for the recordings of Sir Thomas Beecham and, more recently, for the work of Charles Dutoit; and inevitably some will question his priorities: nearly twice as much space for Richard Strauss as for, say, Sibelius? For Paul Dukas over Carl Nielsen? But the book's usefulness and comprehensiveness cannot be denied.

Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Library Journal
In this entertaining and informative book, Dubal gives himself the difficult challenge of addressing two audiences simultaneously: listeners new to classical music and more experienced listeners who would like a guide to creating a "lifetime listening plan." A professor of piano literature at Juilliard and a former, longtime classical music programmer for WNCN in New York, he brings strong credentials to the taskAand, for the most part, he succeeds. The scope and attention to detail are very impressive, and the engaging writing style makes for pleasurable browsing. Dubal includes 240 composers in five chronological sections and categorizes them by date of birth within each grouping. He considers sixty to be major and, therefore, worthy of lengthy biographical entries and substantial listening lists. The remaining 180 receive about a page or less of prose, with only a handful of recordings listed. While he is relatively generous to the 20th century (more composers are included in this section than in any other), he ends his survey with William Bolcom (born in 1938), thus ignoring the many significant composers younger than 62. On the other end of the chronological spectrum, Dubal's pre-Baroque listings include only 13 composers, represented by a mere 14 recordingsAa woefully inadequate representation, given the explosion of early music recordings in the last quarter century. Despite these flaws, the book is a valuable resource for those interested in expanding their collections of classical music recordings. Recommended for all public libraries.ALarry Lipkis, Moravian Coll., Bethlehem, PA
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

Reader Reviews
A brilliant and fascinating book. This is a comprehensive yet manageable-size history of classical music from medieval times through the present. There is a section for each era with biographies of the major composers, each section prefaced by an excellent framing summary of the general history and cultural context of the period. The knowledge shown by the author, not only on the wide range of music but also on the general historical and cultural aspects, is truly awesome. And unlike many such books, this one pulls no punches. If a composer was an S.O.B., the book tells you about that. If he murdered people in his spare time (e.g. Gesualdo), the book tells you about that. What I find most fascinating and special about this book is the persistent focus on correlating the composers' achievements with their relationship histories. Again and again, mostly almost in passing, composers' productivity (or lack thereof) is expressed in the context of relationships, marriages, separations, or widowhoods. I am not aware of any other source with such an emphasis. To me, it adds enormously to the narratives and it is the most significant aspect of the book. Each section is broken down into two portions: First, a succession of chapters on each of the most important composers, then a series of shorter write-ups on "other" composers of the period. The author does a great job of this. A key aspect of such a book is the relative amount of space each thing is given, totally aside from the actual content; this is perhaps the main factor that conveys a thing's importance and interest. Think about it: When we pick up a book like this, what's the first thing we do? Usually, we thumb through it to see just basically what's in there, rather than exactly what it says. Thus, if such a book is well done, a novice can thumb through it and, within a few minutes, know the major composers and roughly where they stand, just from who's in there and how much space they get. And I believe it would be hard to do a better job of this than Mr. Dubal did. We can always quibble, and indeed there was one particular instance where I wondered why a composer wasn't included: Orlando Gibbons. Obviously not a major thing -- I mention it only to show how deep you might have to dig to find a quibble. Actually, one quibble that might be more substantial.......Unless I'm missing something, no female composers at all are featured. I don't know enough to be sure if this is a significant omission, but it would appear to be. Cecile Chaminade, Amy Beach, and Ellen Taaffe Zwilich are examples of composers who might have been included. The author doesn't hesitate to reveal his biases, although it's not clear if he recognizes them as such. For example, in the Borodin chapter, he says it's "unfortunate" that Borodin's themes were used in "Kismet." But, rip-offs like that were how many of us got introduced to classical music! (Me for example.) And how about this quote from the chapter on Modernism: "In the last 50 years, the young have had an unprecedented amount of money to spend, and they have been taught to spend it on bad music....." Many of us probably agree with that, but it certainly shows a bias. An interesting additional wrinkle (easily overlooked!) is that the illustrations of the composers were done by the author himself. Most highly recommended for people of all levels. Comment | Permalink | (Report this)