Features
- Cover Type: Paperback with 320 pages
- Published by: Houghton Mifflin November 22, 2005
- Written in: English
- ISBN 10 Number: 0618619453
- ISBN 13 Number: 978-0618619450
-
Book Dimensions:
8.9 x 5.9 x 0.8 inches
- Weighs: 13.6 ounces
Product Review
Ever wondered what makes a conductor good or bad, or why a guitar has frets?
The NPR Classical Music Companion answers these questions and many more in its 130 entries, which tackle the complicated lexicon of classical music from
a capella all the way through
zarzuela. Author Miles Hoffman defines basic terms, forms, and concepts while tracing major movements, providing context, and offering illustrative examples from well-known composers and works. A commentator on NPR's popular classical music program
Performance Today, Miles Hoffman writes about music with clarity, humor, and grace. The result is a highly readable reference geared, as Hoffman writes, for the "ordinary listener."
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
From Library Journal
Hoffman, host of National Public Radio's Coming to Terms, attempts to make classical music terminology more accessible to the lay reader. This slim book of roughly 100 definitions speaks to the novice, simplifying to the point of irritation those terms one might find on the average compact disc or concert program. More advanced listeners will continually think "yes, but" while reading Hoffman. However, all readers will search in vain for substantive definitions. Although inexpensive, this work is available only in paperback and would probably have a short shelf life. Libraries would be better off purchasing the more scholarly general dictionaries, including Michael Kennedy's Oxford Dictionary of Music (Oxford Univ., 1994. 2d ed.) and Don M. Randel's New
Harvard Dictionary of Music (1986).?Anthony J. Adam, Prairie View A&M Univ. Lib., Tex.
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.
--This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.
Reader Reviews
This review is from: The NPR Classical Music Companion: Terms and Concepts from A to Z (Paperback)
This book is just what the doctor ordered for musical neophytes like myself who are looking for an accessible but authoritative crash course in basic musical terminology. If the difference between pizzicato and pianissimo continues to elude you, then read on. Two aspects of this book are particularly appealing. The first is Libbey's style, which is free-flowing and chatty, conveying often difficult ideas with impressive clarity (the articles on counterpoint and fugue are cases in point). Secondly, I was impressed by his essay-style approach to his various musical subjects; unlike a musical dictionary, which would be content to stop at mere definition, Libbey's book provides background, explanations, examples and opinions that do much to round out the material in the reader's mind. An impressive work indeed!
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