The Essential Canon of Classical Music

Dubal is a wonderful educator, and this book is rewarding no matter how much you know about classical music. Most of us who love classical music have particular preferences, and so tend to know more about one area than another. For example I know the Romantic period pretty thoroughly and have a clear idea about what composers and pieces I like, why I like them, and best performances on CD. Most of the time my point of view coincides with Dubal, though not always, but I like it that way. I enjoy immensely hearing what he has to say and then deciding for myself how much I agree with him. Thank god Dubal has a point of view! How dreary this book would be if it were a mere recitation of facts annotated with lists. It would be a daunting task keep a list of recommended CDs up to date, so instead Dubal recommends a few, definitive performances that have stood the test of time and remain in the record companies' catalogs -- which is to say, they are mostly old performances. They are a place to start, and I don't think one can go wrong starting there. A big part of the fun of classical music is comparing performances and discovering one's own favorite performers. Some of Dubal's picks ARE among my favorite performances, so I think, all things considered, he does a good job in making these recommendations. The book is perforce not exhaustive. It is Dubal's opinion as a music educator of what is "essential." He had to make some choices of who to emphasize, who not, who to include, who to leave out. For a one-volume guide to classical music, this book can't be beat!

If you are seriously beginning to get into classical music, this is a most fascinating and satisfying books for your journey. In this dense volume, pianist and Juilliard music scholar David Dubal gives a compelling overview of the major periods of classical music as well as the major composers and their major works in each period. For each composer, he tells their story and history in a very compelling way and then describes some background of the major works and their significance. His historical essays on the major music eras (Renaissance, Baroque, Classical, Romantic, Modern) are skilly written and make for very engaging reading. (I learned many fascinating tidbits on many a composer even after reading several books on each.) He gives some useful - but not too technical - descriptions of musical elements such the Classical-era "sonata form" and the Romantic-era "music drama." His discussion of the all-important sonata form is quite good and will deepen your music appreciation and ability to follow things when listening. Mr. Dubal also covers an impressive list of the "minor composers," their lives and their works (unlike NPR guide which lists only the major composers). Wisely, Dubal does not try to make this volume too comprehensive and rightfully stears away from being "Dubal's Punguin Guide" by not listing and comparing all the various choices of available recordings (like Penguin, Gramophone or Third Ear Guides which are more buying guides than an introduction to classical music). FOr each major work, Dubal lists a few recommended recordings and leaves it to you to explore the possibilities. This aspect is not a strength of this book and other guides to the repertoire (The Rough Guide, NPR Guide or All-Music-Guide) give decent commentary of their 1-2 recommendations. Last, a nice added bonus is the meaty glossary of musical terms in the Appendix - something every beginner needs to grasp the concepts. If you are fairly serious about getting into the depths of classical music, this guide is most superb from its depth of treatment, richness of musicology and especially the most engaging writing style of Mr. Dubal who effectively draws one into the vast world of classical music. It has more of a scholarly tone to it - but still quite friendly to the beginner. The more I read it, the more I appreciate its depth and useful guidance. Dubal's other book ('The Art of the Piano') makes for very compelling reading of the lives of the great pianists through history as well as contemporary if you are a piano fan.

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

Dubal is first and foremost a good writer. His biographical sketches of the major composers are short - about 3-5 pages each - but are compelling, elegantly written and packed with really useful information. He details composers' personal lives, historical contexts, relationships between composers and critical views (and popular views) of their works over time. After each biographical sketch he lists composer's major works, with a short discussion of the importance & influence of each piece as well as his critical opinion. Reading Dubal's book has enriched my appreciation of some really great music. It's also prompted me to try composers I'd barely heard of before. After reading Dubal's chapter on Paganini I immediately got into my car, headed for the music store & picked up a copy of his '24 Caprices for Violin'. And I'm so glad I did. I now have a huge "must-buy" list thanks to this book.I read this book along with Phil Goulding's "The 50 Greatest Composers and their 1000 Greatest Works". Both are worthwhile. Goulding's book is entertaining, but his ranking system & his concept of a "Starter Kit" for each composer are rather silly. Goulding's book is fun, especially for the absolute beginner. But for me, Dubal wins because of the quality of his writing and because he lists more major works to listen to and goes into detail describing each work. This is a book I'll come back to again and again. Criticisms: His section on the Baroque is smaller than I would like. I also wish he'd added a discussion of musical forms & went into a bit more technical detail about each musical work. But I suppose that's for another book. Dubal has included a lot of substantial and enjoyable detail into this book , and I'm satisfied with it enough to think it merits five stars.

My college Music Appreciation class became something of a joke when I discovered it was easier to pass the exam by NOT listening to the music at the listening lab. After all, a piano concerto is not the same thing as an operatic duet or a symphony piece. So while I have always enjoyed classical music, I could never really appreciate it in any meaningful way. So David Dubal's "The Essential Canon of Classical Music" is perfect for somebody like me who wants to know more about all those classical CDs in my collection without getting into major and minor keys and other fun stuff. For example, even I recognize "La Mareillaise" representing the French in Tchiakovsky's "Overture 1812," but find it interesting to learn that several folk tales such as "God Preserves Thy People" are used to represent the Russians. True, Dubal talks rather generally about specific works, but that is exactly what I need to advance to the next level.The Canon is divided into five ages: (I) The Medieval, Renaissance, and Elizabethan; (II) Baroque; (III) Classicism; (IV) Romantic and (V) Modern. For each Dubal first presents the defining composers of the age: Handel, Bach and Scarlatti for Baroque; Gluck, Hayden, Mozart and Beethoven for Classicism. For the last two ages things get more complex, but what the division between the main composers and the "others" is a question of degree: pages detailing specific works versus a paragraph or two. Again, this is quite useful for someone like me who is interested in not only learning more about what I already have but who is also open to suggestions as to what composer and/or works I should track down next. "The Essential Canon of Classical Music" is both informative and engaging. It sits on the shelf next to my classical musical collection and I do not grab something to listen to without taking it along to see what new things I can learn from Dubal.