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The History of Classical Music (Non Fiction) | 
 enlarge | Author: Richard Fawkes
Creator: Robert Powell
Publisher: Naxos Audiobooks
Category: Book
List Price: $28.98
Buy New: $15.20
You Save: $13.78 (48%)
New (11) Used (6) from $13.00
Rating:  2 reviews
Sales Rank: 150913
Format: Audiobook, Box Set, Classical, Unabridged
Media: Audio CD
Edition: Unabridged
Discs: 4
Number Of Discs: 4
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 5.5 x 4.9 x 0.9
ISBN: 9626341408
Dewey Decimal Number: 781
UPC: 730099014021
EAN: 9789626341407
ASIN: 9626341408
Publication Date: August 1997
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Brand new Book, ALL days Low Price !
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Product Description
A superb crossover title of enormous appeal to the vast selection of the population that enjoys classical music, but would like to know more about it. From Gregorian Chant to Henryk Gorecki, the first living classical composer to get into the pop album charts, here is the fascinating story of over a thousand years of Western classical music and the composers who have sought to express in music the deepest of human feelings and emotions. Polyphony, sonata form, serial music - many musical expressions are also explained - with the text illustrated by performances from some of the most highly praised recordings of recent years (all but a few taken from the Naxos and Marco Polo catalogues).
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| Customer Reviews:
 A superbly recorded music history. February 3, 2000
Midwest Book Review (Oregon, WI USA)
27 out of 28 found this review helpful
From Gregorian Chant to Henryk Gorecki (the first living composer to get into the pop album charts), Richard Fawkes' The History Of Classical Music presents the fascinating and informative story of more than a thousand years of Western classical music and the composers who have sought to express in music the deepest human feelings and emotions. Welsh also explains polyphony, sonata form, serial music, and other musical expressions with a text that is illustrated by performances from some of the most highly praised recordings of recent years. Fawkes' superb text is ably narrated on in this four compact disc collection by Robert Powell (Running Time: 5 hours, 20 minutes). The History Of Classical Music is also available on audio cassette. Also highly recommended is the unabridged Naxos Audiobook edition of Richard Fawkes' The History Of Opera.
 A good quick survey September 1, 1999
F. Behrens (Keene, NH USA)
16 out of 20 found this review helpful
It seems the most popular budget classical music label, Naxos, not only makes most of the Western musical output available at very reasonable prices (no top stars who demand absurd fees make this possible), but it has also issued three very nice boxed sets of recordings on cassettes and CDs (I have the latter) that together give you a quick, fairly accurate, and quite enjoyable survey of three major topics. Perry Keenlyside's (NA 314412) is on three tapes or CDs and more or less delivers what the title promises in about 3 hours and 40 minutes. The text is considerately divided into sections--"Mozart, the child prodigy," "January 1762, the first journeys," "Paris and London, 1763-4," and so on--with tracking cues for each section. The narration and quotations from letters and journals of the time are accompanied by the appropriate music drawn from the bottomless Naxos catalogue. Nigel Anthony is the narrator, aided by Paul Rhys (Mozart), Edward de Souza (Leopold Mozart), with David Timson and Anna Patrick in "other parts." I have not seen the original books to see how much of an abridgment this is, if at all, but that is immaterial. The voices are personable, the information digestible, the whole project very worth while, especially at the price. Those last two sentences are true for the other setsas well. Richard Fawke's (NA414012) and (417612) are both on 4 tapes or CDs and read solo by Robert Powell. I am afraid that just a little five hours is not enough to handle the first topic with any satisfying degree of completeness; but it does give a 'Monarch Notes" glance at an enormously wide and complicated topic and is just enough for anyone who wants a head start before plunging into longer works. On the other hand, I greatly enjoyed the Opera set, timed at only 5 minutes more than the other recording. Trying to cover less, it does it better; and it even has room for some amusing incidents such as the one about the famous one-act opera that was entered into a contest (which it won) by the composer's wife who had more faith in it than did the composer. [No, you listen to the recording to learn which opera I mean.] My only objection to the Naxos recordings of books in the low recording level that makes it a bit difficult to hear on a walkman set up on (say) a noisy train. But this should offer no problem to home hearing or even in your car. These sets are really perfect listening for long trips.
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