Product Description

A complete education in classical music, written with verve and wit. No music lover can pick up this one-volume compendium without becoming a more knowledgeable, discerning listener. • The sonata form revealed, and why it's been deeply satisfying for three centuries. • What to listen for in Brahms, a self-described Classicist who was one of music's great innovators. • Pizzicato, fioritura, parlando, glissando. • The transformative power of Toscanini–who earned more conducting the New York Philharmonic than his contemporary Babe Ruth made with the Yankees. • And throughout, more than 2,000 recommended recordings.

Log on and listen. Created with Naxos, the world's largest classical music label, the book includes a unique Web site featuring more than 500 examples cited in the text. Look up barcarolle. First read about its swaying 6/8 meter and Venetian origins; then log on to the music Web site and hear it performed in Act IV of Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann. If that whets your curiosity about Offenbach, click to hear the cancan in his La vie parisienne. All online samples are marked by an icon in the text.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #58323 in Books
• Published on: 2006-04-11
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 928 pages

From Publishers Weekly
"No one book can include everything that's important to everybody," notes music critic Libbey in his introduction, and the flawed work that follows confirms this. Limited space and Libbey's emphasis on popular performers reduces the volume's historical comprehensiveness (Hilary Hahn appears but not Reynaldo Hahn). The book targets the general public, which may explain its superficiality but not some of the chances it misses. And it doesn't explain numerous factual errors: among them, Libbey erroneously states Mahler was ousted from the Vienna Hofoper, when he resigned; he also neglects to note that the main Allegro theme of Saint-Saëns's Third Symphony ("Organ") is based on a melody associated with Liszt, the work's dedicatee. The misguided pop-culture tone of the tome is exemplified by photos of F. Murray Abraham as Salieri and Tom Hulce as Mozart in Amadeus in their respective entries-despite the fact that portraits of the actual men are available. Despite its faults, this is a good book for those curious about terminology and names they encounter in broadcasts or CD booklets. Some entries are gathered into thematic sections, such as "exotic instruments," "American Mavericks" and "New Voices" (i.e. young composers), that will help direct a reader's exploration of the repertoire. Additionally, a companion website has free audio links to over 500 pieces mentioned in the book. Hundreds of b&w photos.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From School Library Journal
Starred Review. Grade 8 Up–An outstanding classical music resource, worth every moment devoted to its 11-year creation. With 1500 entries on composers, performers, instruments, musical terms, compositions, and historical periods, this clearly written, witty overview accomplishes the author's stated intent: to connect with the broadest possible public, and to focus on those areas of the literature that are well represented on recordings and accessible to the general listener. The encyclopedia is a perfect general introduction for novices or casual listeners, as well as an informative review for more seasoned classical music fans. Almost every entry for a composer, performer, or composition includes a small text box of Recommended Recordings, most of which are reviewed in The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection (Workman, 1999). Many clear, captioned black-and-white photos, primarily portraits, are included. One unique and particularly useful feature is a series of links to more than 500 musical selections on a Web site created by Naxos, a large classical music label. Readers can access more than 75 hours of music using the log-in code to gain initial access and register as users. Every library will want this excellent book.–Ginny Gustin, Sonoma County Library System, Santa Rosa, CA
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist
Libbey spent 11 years working on this readable tome written for the casual classical music listener. The 1,500 alphabetically arranged entries cover composers, performers, topics, terms, named pieces, instruments, and institutions--all things musical. The length of the articles ranges from a sentence for Maestoso to four pages for Beethoven, Ludwig van. At the end of many of the entries is a list of recommended recordings. Some of these selections come from Libbey's earlier work, The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection (2d ed., 1999).

The author's writing may be subjective, but it is also entertaining. He describes the cellist Jacqueline du Pre as having "animal magnetism" with playing that was "impassioned . . . sometimes raw and reckless, but never reticent." There are multipage features on a variety of topics--"Countertenors," "Exotic Instruments," and "New Music Ensembles," to name a few. Many black-and-white photographs of composers, instruments, posters, and record jackets are scattered throughout the text. Entries are very current, including the death date of Birgit Nilsson (December 25, 2005).

The piece de resistance of the book is the 75 hours of sound files (more than 500 pieces of music) from the Naxos database that a reader may access on the Internet with a log-in and registration. The files are from 2 to more than 20 minutes in length and provide the listener with examples of compositions, terms, and techniques. Criticisms of this work are few. Additional cross-references or an index would have helped make it a more usable reference source. In describing older living artists, Libbey writes in the past tense, making one wonder if when an artist retires, he dies. John Rutter and Keith Lockhart do not have entries.

Libbey certainly complied with publisher Peter Workman's request that the encyclopedia be a comprehensive handbook that is "approachable, informative and fun." Where else can you find 75 hours of music and a book for less than $30? Recommended for most academic and public library reference collections. Buy additional copies for the circulating collection. Christine Bulson
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

Customer Reviews

An Excellent and Inspiring Guide
I hope that no potential readers were offput by the very silly and petty Publishers Weekly review. This is a very helpful and at times facinating guide to classical music and recorded music performance. Libbey's expertise and passion make for great reading. Very insightful and very helpful when searching for a good recording of a favorite piece.

A delightful experience for any classical music lover.
"The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music" is a delightful combination reference book and video game for all classical music buffs. Besides its nearly 1,000 pages of listings, from Claudio Abbado to Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the book gives you access to a page on the Naxos Music website which allows you to listen to more than 500 musical selections online. I just signed on to the page for the first time, and listened to the very first listed selection--John Adams' "Shaker Loops." I look forward to hours of fun with this wonderful new toy! I appreciate the breadth and depth of knowledge author Ted Libbey brings to the project, as well as his inclusion of favorites of mine who aren't necessarily well-known to today's listening public, such as the Danish tenor Aksel Schiotz. In his introduction, Libbey notes he tried to avoid the gaps and errors in such standard reference works as Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and adds, "Doubtless there will be errors still, and for these I accept full responsibility." Alas, I have already caught him in two. The first is the listing of Beethoven's birthday as December 17, 1770, when even "Peanuts'" Schroeder and Lucy know that Beethoven was born on December 16. Of course, that could have been a printer's or proofreader's error, but the second mistake is more serious--when Libbey states that Vladimir Horowitz withdrew from the concert stage in 1953 in a severe depression over the suicide of his only daughter. Actually, Horowitz's daughter, Sonia, did not commit suicide until the 1970s (which caused Horowitz a second bout of severe depression); I'm not sure exactly what caused Horowitz's 1953 breakdown, but I had always understood that an addiction to prescription drugs was at least partly to blame. Nevertheless, these are minor caveats to an otherwise enjoyable and informative volume. Any classical music lover with computer access would be happy to own it.

A handy reference
Don't get this if you are looking for an overview of music history, this is a reference book--exactly as advertised.

It comes with a login to naxos.com that allows you to listen to literally hundreds of hours of music from the naxos library for free! This is a tremendous value.

I was most impressed by the sheer amount of information--not just the historic information, even my favorite 20th and 21st century composers were given a fair amount of coverage.