Product Description

From anonymous 10th century troubadours to world-renowned 20th century composers, A History of Music of the Western World explores the roots of the most influential music genres of our time. Essential listening for students and lovers of great music, the collection includes stimulating discussions by 15 prominent music authorities, including Christopher Hogwood and Dr. Wilfrid Mellers.

The collection includes

1) New Arts for Old: Medieval Music 1100-1480
2) Musick's Feaste: Music of the Renaissance 1480-1600
3) "A Pearl Distorted": the Baroque Period 1600-1750
4) Sonata and the Creative Ideal: The Classical Period 1750-1830
5) Expressions and Extravagance: The Romantic Period 1830-1900
6) Reaction and Revolution: The Modern Period 1900-1945
7) Contemporary Music 1945-1980
8) Approaches to Popular Music 1960-1980
9) From Cave to Cavern: The History of Percussion Instruments
10) Islands in the Sun: The Story of Reggae and Calypso
11) A Jug of This: An Introduction to English Folk Music
12) Instruments Around the World

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Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #1841246 in Books
• Published on: 1997-02-01
• Formats: Audiobook, Unabridged
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 12
• Binding: Audio CD

From Library Journal
HighBridge Audio here offers a comprehensive look at Western music from medieval Gregorian chant to jazz and rock of the 20th century. Eleven music authorities, including Hogwood (a primary force behind the period instrument revival), provide commentary interspersed with musical excerpts on the eight-cassette program. While there is something for everyone to learn and enjoy in this work, it is not very current and is in fact a repackaged British program some 18 years old. Rock listeners will become aware of this as commentators discuss the "new band: the Police." In addition, the voices of the British scholars, alternating between the extremely effete and the extraordinarily pompous, make the work unapproachable for much of an American audience. Still, their discussions can sometimes be spirited, as in the section wherein conductor Norman Del Mar and musician John Amis debate the musical firestorms of the 19th century. A History of Music in Western Civilization is recommended for public and academic libraries, but teachers can expect a difficult time with students brought up on the Monty Python show.?Ben O'Sickey, "Library Journal"
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Review
HighBridge Audio here offers a comprehensive look at Western music from medieval Gregorian chant to jazz and rock of the 20th century. Eleven music authorities, including Hogwood (a primary force behind the period instrument revival), provide commentary interspersed with musical excerpts on the eight-cassette program. While there is something for everyone to learn and enjoy in this work, it is not very current and is in fact a repackaged British program some 18 years old. Rock listeners will become aware of this as commentators discuss the "new band: the Police." In addition, the voices of the British scholars, alternating between the extremely effete and the extraordinarily pompous, make the work unapproachable for much of an American audience. Still, their discussions can sometimes be spirited, as in the section wherein conductor Norman Del Mar and musician John Amis debate the musical firestorms of the 19th century. A History of Music in Western Civilization is recommended for public and academic libraries, but teachers can expect a difficult time with students brought up on the Monty Python show. Ben O'Sickey
(Library Journal )

About the Author
HighBridge Company of Minneapolis, Minnesota, is a leading publisher of spoken word audio cassettes, CDs, and downloadable titles. Founded by Minnesota Public Radio to produce and distribute recordings of Garrison Keillor’s A Prairie Home Companion, HighBridge was incorporated in 1989. While we continue to publish a wide selection of Keillor and public radio-related titles, our catalog has expanded over the years to include New York Times best-selling fiction and nonfiction, Oprah’s Book Club® titles, and more. We publish approximately 45 titles each year. We produce unabridged and abridged book-based audios, as well as original radio broadcasts and dramas.
 

In April of 2007, HighBridge became part of the Workman family of publishers, and our titles are distributed through Workman's sales force. That sales force reaches out to independent bookstores, gift stores, chain stores, distributors, wholesale clubs, schools, libraries and special sales accounts.

HighBridge titles frequently win awards, including Grammy® Awards, Audie Awards from the Audio Publishers Association, and Listen Up Awards from Publishers Weekly. We consistently earn Earphone Awards from AudioFile magazine. HighBridge also has Pulitzer Prize-, Mann Booker Prize-, and Giller prize-winning authors on our list. Our audio titles receive national review attention in trade publications and in consumer publications, newspapers and journals.

Over the years HighBridge has built a reputation among booksellers and audiophiles as one of the highest quality audio publishers in the industry.

Born: Sepetember 10, 1941, Nottingham, England

The English conductor, Chistopher Hogwood, attended, during his study of Music, lectures in classical literature at Pembroke College, Cambridge, and he completed his studies with a bachelor's degree. Raymond Leppard and Thurston Dart influenced him; then he went to Rafael Puyana and Gustav Leonhardt as a pupil. The British Council enabled him to study in Prague for a year.

When he returned to Cambridge, Chistopher Hogwood got to know David Munrow, and until 1967 he played as a harpsichordist in Munrow's Early Music Consort of London. In 1973, he founded The Academy of Ancient Music, which devotes itself to Baroque and classical music, drawing on all know historical sources. Since 1981, he has regularly conducted the major American symphony orchestras. In 1983 he conducted his first opera in Saint Louis, Don Giovanni by Mozart. From 1983 to 1985 he was the artistic director of the Mostly Mozart Festival in the Barbican Centre in London. From 1987 to 1992 he was the musical director of the chamber orchestra of Saint Paul (Minnesota), which then appointed him as its principal guest conductor.

Since 1992 Chistopher Hogwood has been international professor of Early Music Performance at the Royal Academy in London, and a visiting professor at London's King's College. With the Australian Opera, he performed Idomeneo in 1994 and La Clemenza di Tito in 1997 by Mozart and Iphigenie auf Tauris by Gluck.

Publications: Music at Court (London 1977); The Trio Sonata (London 1979; Haydn's Visits to England (London 1980); Handel (London 1985).

 

Wilfrid Howard Mellers OBE (26 April 1914 — 17 May 2008) was an English music critic, musicologist and composer.

After writing many articles for Scrutiny since the September 1936 issue, he appeared on the editorial board of the January 1942 issue, and continued in that position until the December 1948 issue.

From 1964 until 1981 he was founding professor and head of the Music Department at the University of York; he remained emeritus professor of music there until his death. He was also an honorary fellow at Downing College, Cambridge. On July 12, 1981, he received an honorary degree of music from the City University, London.

The 2004 York Late Music Festival opened with a weekend tribute to Mellers. A 90th birthday tribute concert was held in October 2004 at Downing College, featuring music by Mellers as well as new pieces written for the occasion by Stephen Dodgson, David Matthews and Howard Skempton, among others.

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Customer Reviews

Good content, disappointing packaging
I have the compact disc version, which is longer than the cassette version. I really like the discussions, but the packaging is skimpy. There should be a detailed description and table of contents in each jewel case. A small timeline and glossary would be wonderful. But it has none of these, and for the price I expected better. But the recordings are well done, and although I would have liked more talk about musical forms, the set does live up to its title.

Optimistic title . . .
but I think this set delivers, especially upon repeated listenings. In my box set there is a seemingly insignificant little booklet that contains the Music Credits. If you order these cd's, do not discard that booklet!!! It's the very thing that the previous reviewer seems not to have held on to. What a difference it makes to know that the first piece you hear is La Bassa Castiglya, etc.