Classical Music for Dummies | 
 enlarge | Authors: David Pogue, Scott Speck
Creator: Glenn Dicterow
Publisher: For Dummies
Category: Book
List Price: $24.99
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Rating:  34 reviews
Sales Rank: 30395
Media: Paperback
Pages: 384
Number Of Items: 1
Shipping Weight (lbs): 1.3
Dimensions (in): 9.1 x 7.2 x 1
ISBN: 0764550098
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.68
UPC: 785555550094
EAN: 9780764550096
ASIN: 0764550098
Publication Date: August 21, 1997
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Amazon.com Review
In a time when school music classes (if they exist at all) teach their students the finer points of the themes from The Twilight Zone and Jaws instead of real music; when classical radio stations are converted to Lite Rock or switched to a "top 100" classical jukebox format; and when even churches increasingly favor banal "Jesus Is My Boyfriend"-style slop instead of Bach, Mozart, and Vaughn Williams, classical music may legitimately be seen as an endangered cultural species. Enter Scott Speck and David Pogue, who take out the unnecessary mystery, and offer an easy-to-swallow quickie education, ranging from Gregorian chants to contemporary composers such as John Adams and John Corigliano. If you can't tell an oboe from a bassoon, there's also a dandy guide to the instruments of the orchestra, and once you're through that information you'll know the difference between a concerto and a sonata. Best of all is the introduction to music theory, which actually makes a daunting subject seem easy. It's all supported by a helpful enhanced compact disc (it works in your CD-ROM drive; it plays on your stereo's CD player) containing more than an hour of representative musical tidbits from good EMI recordings. Although the tone is unremittingly flippant and the jokes are, for the most part, pretty bad, Classical Music for Dummies is one of the better works in this series, and really does provide a useful reference for a subject too often seen as arcane.
Product Description
The more you know about classical music, the more you love it. Now, thanks to Classical Music For Dummies, you can achieve a whole new level of insight into both the composers and the compositions that have made classical music one of the great accomplishments of humankind. Classical Music For Dummies doesn't assume that you have a degree in musicology -- or even that you took a course in music appreciation. Rather, the multimedially gifted David Pogue and renowned conductor Scott Speck explain classical music in terms you can understand, and they describe musical elements so that you can hear them for yourself. A reference you can dip into at any point, Classical Music For Dummies covers such topics as - The various forms that classical music takes -- from symphonies to string quartets
- What goes on behind the scenes and on stage to fill a concert hall with great classical music
- How to recognize, by sight and by sound, the many instruments that make up an orchestra
- The nuts and bolts of classical music -- from rhythm to harmonic progression
Plus, Classical Music For Dummies comes complete with a CD containing over 60 minutes of masterpieces compiled especially for the book. The CD also includes a demo version of the Angel/EMI Classics For DummiesTM multimedia interface to try out on your Windows-based PC or Macintosh computer.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 29 more reviews...
 A bit too sardonic??? July 6, 2008
The Counselor (Michigan)
I basically enjoy the "Dummies" books... I find the information often extremely insightful and helpful. It also is a great pleasure to order the books through amazon.com and be spared the 'embarrassment' of having to march up to the local bookstore counter with a "Dummies" book in tow. That being said, this book at times seems painfully silly. Although obviously now somewhat dated, comparing Paganini to "Saddam Hussein," Vivaldi to a "Xerox machine," and commenting that without Beethoven, "we'd have no Barry Manilow," are just a few examples of pithy comments from the authors. Of course, the basic aim of these books is to be entertaining and to reach out to individuals. The book is funny and perhaps needs to be given the fact that most people approach the subject with a lot of trepidation and a readiness to be bored out of their minds. However, fewer sarcastic remarks and far reaching attempts to be 'humorous' is something this book could do without.
 classical music appreciation and theory September 4, 2007
L. Osterweil (Jersey)
This book is incredibly well written. It was totally absorbing, entertaining and informative. By the time I finished it, I felt like I had earned a degree in classical music appreciation and another in music theory.
Great book August 23, 2007
Sandie Eckenrode (New Freedom, PS)
My husband had never been exposed to classical music and when we got married, he wanted to be able to carry on a conversation with the rest of my family. He has loved this book and it has really taught him a lot about classical music.
 humor overpowers the content August 9, 2007
C. Brown (Evanston, IL United States)
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
You have to be careful with the Dummies series. Some authors use humor with discretion, others, as in this case, lard on so much humor that it gets in the way of learning and turns what should be a pleasure into an ordeal of extracting the useful information from the attempt at clever wise-cracks, puns and general satire.
Yes, there is information here if you are willing to work to get it, but a good 50% of the text is gratuitous laughs. There are other books, such as "The Classical Music Experience" by Jacobson, that treat the reader as someone intelligent who seeks to know rather than to be entertained.
The best advice is to go to the library and look in the music appreciation section. You'll find many superior alternatives to this book.
Really gets you up to speed on classical music July 8, 2007
Robert L. Mckinney (Sugar Grove, VA USA)
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
If you love--or would like to at least understand--classical music, then this is the book to read. It is fun, quick and not so technical or snooty as many books on this subject. In fact, it's not snooty at all. I learned a bunch I had no idea of, reaffirmed things I did know, and corrected several misconceptions. Read this if you are going to be around "high-brow" snooty types and then just smile quietly as they rattle on and on. Little will they know that you "understand the language."
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