Music: A Very Short Introduction

Another book which i ordered as a text for my music degree and found to be a fascinating read. He sure packs a lot into a small parcel!

As a musician (and the book may cause you to rethink what that word actually means), this book revealed many ideas which had been festering in my subconscious without my ever really taking the time to think them through fully. This is not so much a history or introduction to music as it is a presentation of both recent thought in musicology and a framework in which to conceive and comprehend music as a human process in general and its relation to all of culture. Naturally the last several pages focus on particular "gender-related" issues because that is the recent thought in musicology, but the book does a good job of not presenting this recent view as definitive and of placing this view within a large historical context of thinking about music. The entire book is sharp, well-written, and articulate. It touches on the must fundamental questions of musical meaning in all its forms, yet it requires virtually no formal knowledge of music or an acquaintance with any particular body of music, classic, popular, or otherwise. Of course, the author assumes a general knowledge (you have heard of Beethoven, the Beatles, and so on...) and of course the more you know of music, the more you will take away from the book, but nothing in particular is assumed. The author does a good job of explaining the working myths most people have about music, without technical jargon. For instance, what does it really mean to say, "I just heard 'Beethoven's 9th?'"? Is Beethoven's 9th the sound waves I heard, (whether live or recorded), or is it the body of all past performances of the symphony, or is it the jumble of symbols and notation which Beethoven wrote down 200 years ago? Why does popular music often lack such a specific reference to "musical works" such as "Beethoven's 9th"? Why is popular music freer to deviate from notation, as opposed to classical music, which always insists on "adherence to the composer's original score"? Why is "authorship" and "authenticity" valued in both classical and popular music, although in different ways? Does music exist independently of humans and express eternal truths and beauties, or is music inextricably bound up with culture, commerce, society, and the world? How are the three commonly used categories of "composition, performance, and criticism" related, and are the boundaries between them really so clear? How do notation and symbolism affect the way music is constructed and experienced? How do we give meaning to music? Why is it that the "purest" of "pure music", is often surrounded by the most commentary, criticism, and words, those things whose very absense are said to give it its very "purity"? Why does music matter to us? Why do we care? If these questions sound interesting to you, you will like this book.

This book is a little gem. All music students should read it.

This book provided with a very useful insight into the world of music. When I read it I was relatively new to the subject of music and this explained the concepts of it simply and easily so that even I could understand it. A brilliant book to get you started in the world of music!

If you've wondered what Beethoven has to do with the Beatles or Bach with Bali then this little dandy is the book for you. Given the title of the Oxford series a Very Short Review would be "Get this book!".Written beautifully by a British musicologist it explains not some music but all music. More important it opens the windows so we can hear the beat for the first time. Even when we thought we never could, would or want to. Get this book.