Book Review: The Classical Music Book

The Classical Music Book

Authors: Steve Collisson was the consultant, Katie Derham wrote the Foreword, and many other musicians, composers, professors of music, and writers contributed to this volume.

Publisher: Penguin Random House, hardcover, 352 pages, including: 8 chapters, Foreword, Introduction, Directory, Glossary, Index, Quote Attributions, and Acknowledgments

The authors/contributors are primarily from Britain and America, coming from a variety of musical backgrounds, skills and academic and experiential qualifications. 

Contents

In addition to the Foreword, Introduction, etc., the main body of this volume consists of 8 chapters, which focus on specific periods of musical history, they are: Early Music 1000-1400, Renaissance 1400-1600, Baroque 1600-1750, Classical 1750-1820, Romantic 1810-1920, Nationalism 1830-1920, Modern 1900-1950, Contemporary post-1950. In each of these chapters the writers highlight several composers, sometimes providing brief biographical sketches, and they analyze their compositions.

Significant Quotations mostly by Composers

“Music is the social act of communication among people, a gesture of friendship, the strongest there is” -Malcolm Arnold (p. 14). 

“We should sing Psalms on a ten-string psaltery” Ordo Virtutum (c. 1151), Hildegard of Bingen (p. 26).

“That is the nature of hymns—they make us want to repeat them” -Great Service (c. 1580/1590), William Byrd (p. 52).

“The end of all good music is to affect the soul” -Claudio Monteverdi (p. 67). 

“What the English like is something they can beat time to” Water Music, HWV 348-350 (1717), George Frideric Handel (p. 84).

“Handel is the greatest composer that ever lived...I would uncover my head and kneel down on his tomb” -Ludwig van Beethoven (p. 86). 

“Handel understands effect better than any of us—when he chooses, he strikes like a thunderbolt” -Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (p. 88). 

“The end and final aim of all music should be none other than the glory of God” St. Matthew Passion(1727), -Johann Sebastian Bach (p. 98). 

“Not “brook” [in German: Bach], but “sea” should he be called because of his infinite, inexhaustible richness in tone combinations and harmonies” -Ludwig van Beethoven (p. 101).

“One who has completely forgotten Christianity truly hears it here as Gospel” -Friedrich Nietzsche, commenting on J.S. Bach’s St. Matthew Passion (p. 103). 

“Ceaseless work, analysis, reflection, writing much, endless self-correction, that is my secret” -Johann Sebastian Bach (p. 110). 

“We must play from the soul, not like trained birds” Flute concerto in A major, WQ 168 (1753), Carl Philipp Emanuel Bach (p. 120).

“A musician...must feel all the emotions that (s)he hopes to arouse in his (or her) audience” -C.P.E. Bach (p. 121). 

“Mozart’s music is so pure and beautiful that I see it as a reflection of the inner workings of the universe” -Albert Einstein (p. 131).

“We walk, by the power of music, in joy through death’s dark night” The Magic Flute (1791), Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (p. 134). 

“I live only in my notes” Symphony No. 3 in E-Flat Major, “Eroica,” OP 55 (1804), Ludwig van Beethoven (p. 138). 

“Music is truly love itself” Der Freischütz (1821), Carl Maria von Weber (p. 149). 

“My compositions spring from my sorrows. Those that give the world the greatest delight were born of my deepest griefs” -Franz Schubert (p. 153).

“To play a wrong note is insignificant. To play without passion is inexcusable” -Ludwig van Beethoven (p. 161). 

“To send light into the darkness of (wo)men’s hearts—such is the duty of the artist” -Robert Schumann (p. 168).

“I live in music like a fish in water” Piano Concerto No. 2 in G Minor (1868), Camille Saint-Saens (p. 179). 

“A symphony must be like the world, it must contain everything” Also Sprach Zarathustra (1896), Richard Strauss (p. 192). 

“If a composer could say what (s)he had to say in words, (s)he would not bother saying it in music”Das Lied Von Der Erde (1908-1909), Gustav Mahler (p. 198). 

“I am sure my music has a taste of cod fish in it” Peer Gynt (1875), Edvard Grieg (p. 208). 

“The more he saturated his mind with [Peer Gynt], the more clearly he saw that he was the right man for a work...so permeated with the Norwegian spirit” -Nina Hagerup, Grieg’s wife (p. 209). 

“The music of the people is like a rare and lovely flower” Symphony No. 9, “From The New World”(1893), Antonin Dvoṝák (p. 212).

“The art of music above all the other arts is expression of the soul” The Dream of Gerontius (1900), Edward Elgar (p. 218). 

“I want women to turn their minds to big and difficult jobs” The Wreckers (1904), Ethel Smyth (p. 231). 

“The whole English attitude toward women in fields of art is ludicrous....There is no sex in art. How you play the violin, paint, or compose is what matters” -Ethel Smyth (p. 237). 

“The expression “atonal music” is most unfortunate—it is on par with calling swimming “the art of not drowning” -Arnold Schoenberg (p. 243). 

“I haven’t understood a bar of music in my life, but I have felt it” Le Sacre Du Printemps (1913), Igor Stravinsky (p. 246).

“There is no difference in kind, but only in degree, between Beethoven and the humblest singer of a folk song” -Ralph Vaughan Williams (p. 253). 

“I have never written a note I didn’t mean” Parade (1917), Erik Satie (p. 256). 

“Life is a lot like Jazz...it’s better when you improvise” Rhapsody in Blue (1924), George Gershwin (p. 258). 

“Great music must come from the heart. Any music created by technique and brains alone is not worth the paper it is written on” -Maurice Ravel (p. 266). 

“If they cut off both hands, I will compose music anyway holding the pen in my teeth” -Dmitri Shostakovich (p. 277). 

“My faith is the grand drama of my life. I’m a believer, so I sing words of God...I give bird songs to those who dwell in cities...and paint colours for those who see none” -Olivier Messiaen (p. 282).

“So long as the human spirit thrives on this planet, music in some living form will accompany and sustain it and give it expressive meaning” -Aaron Copland (p. 286). 

“Composing is like driving down a foggy road” Peter Grimes (1945), Benjamin Britten (p. 288).

“I can’t understand why people are frightened of new ideas; I’m frightened of the old ones” 4’33”(1952), John Cage (p. 302).

“Repetition is based on body rhythms, so we identify with the heartbeat, or with walking, or with breathing” -Karlheinz Stockhausen (p. 306). 

“The role of the musician...is perpetual exploration” Pithoprakta (1955-1956), Iannis Xenakis (p. 308).

“Once you become an ism, what you’re doing is dead” In C (1964), Terry Riley (p. 312).

“A Western tone walks horizontally but a tone of the shakuhachi rises vertically like a tree” -Toru Takemitsu (p. 315). 

“I was in that generation of people who could look beyond the borders of Europe and North...and South America” -Philip Glass (p. 321). 

“This must be the first purpose of art...to change us” Apocalypsis (1977), R. Murray Schafer (p. 322). 

“My music is written for ears” L’Amour De Loin (2000), Kaija Saariaho (p. 325). 

“I don’t think you should have to know anything about my music, or anything about music in general, to enjoy it...I look at music as a mirror” – Jennifer Higdon (p. 326).

The only critique I have of this volume is that it should have included more female composers, and composers from other nations and continents of the world!