The Story of Classical Music

Interesting, informative, easy

This is a perfect application for audiobooks -- a history of classical music along with samples from the works of the composers discussed. I was afraid I would be bored, but was informed and entertained start to finish. This is a very basic overview -- appropriate for children or adults with minimal background in classical music. It gave me a very good context for the music, both in time, geographically, and stylistically. One criticism: the sound quality of the music was not great.

13 sur 13 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

A Good Basic Introduction

I did enjoy this book. I've listended to classical music and wished I knew more about the history - and I've read about classical music and wished I could hear the music they were talking about. This program gives you a quick tour with the brief highlights of both.

This program concentrates more on the historical settings of the composers, not the musical composition or theory. It is also easy to tell that this program was designed as an introduction for students (probably middle to high school age). I didn't mind that, some people may. Listen to the audio sample and you'll quickly see if this is the type of book you're looking for.

9 sur 9 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Short and sweet

I myself am a music student at university, and I found this to be a wonderfully short and sweet overview of classical music. It was written in an enjoyable way, and I loved that they put the musical excerpts in there as well. I felt he spent a little too much time on a few composers and really glossed over others. Overall, though, I'd recommend it to anyone.

5 sur 5 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Pretty Enjoyable

Between this title and 'Classical Music 101', this one was a joy to listen to as the latter one was drudgery. The narration was pleasant and the musical snippets were a nice additional bonus to help move the story along, although some of the snippets were too long. However, I enjoyed it and I believe that children 8 and over would also enjoy it.

5 sur 5 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Appeals to wide age range

While the quality of the music clips is disappointing, the narration is quite good. My children (ranging from kindergarten to sixth grade) and I all really enjoyed this audiobook. This book is a good choice for long car trips with a wide age range.

The only other criticism we have is that one point, the narrator mentions Rimsky-Korsakov as the composer of "Pictures at an Exhibition," which is incorrect. Even so, the book is highly recommended.

5 sur 5 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

The child's ear

I'm an adult and I love music, though I can't say I have an "educated ear". Thus my desire to do some music history! As I was looking through the more sophisticated books on the topic, I read a review of someone saying she had preferred this one because the music samples were longer. I'm glad I took her advice. I learned a lot, had fun and listened to some beautiful music and I'm not embarrassed to say that the "child" approach was perfect for me!

4 sur 4 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

A great listen

A delight to listen to and lightly informative. Highly recommended.

4 sur 4 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

Made for kids but we liked it also.

My husband and I quite enjoyed listening to this while commuting. He is quite familiar with the music and composers but found it enjoyable and informative anyway.

3 sur 3 personne(s) ont trouvé cet avis utile.

GREAT job! I just wanted more! :)

I thoroughly enjoyed this book! It's well written I enjoyed the narrator and I absolutely loved the music! I just wish there was more :-)

Entertaining and informative

Geared toward children and beginners. It provides a nice overview and lots of samples of beautiful and important works. Not for those looking for a deep scholarly text but excellent for those interested in exploring the different periods and learning about some of the major composers. Enjoyable listen.