What Makes It Great? : Short Masterpieces, Great Composers
, by Kapilow, Rob
- ISBN: 9780470550922 | 0470550929
- Cover: Hardcover
- Copyright: 9/6/2011
Using an innovative approach, Rob Kapilow in his refreshing trademark style presents the history of music from Bach and Vivaldi to Debussy by focusing on short pieces by the major composers. The book operates on two levels, using each short piece of music as a way of grasping the essence of each compser's genius while also focusing on the way each piece transformed the musical language of its time, making something normally forbidding and difficult -- the history of music -- utterly manageable and easy to grasp. For example, for Vivaldi he will use one movement of the Four Seasons, for Handel the Hornpipe for The Water Music, for Mozart an aria from The Marriage of Figaro, for Chopin a mazurka, for Wagner the Tristan and Isolde prelude, for Puccini and aria from Madama Butterfly, and so on. The book opens with an introductory chapter explaining what Kapilow is up to, what the reader will gain from it, and an overview of what is to come, creating a context for the book. Additionally, in the chapters on the compoers, he discusses important topics that to widen the focus at key moments and further develop the evolving story of the history of music. All of the short works are hearable and seeable on the book's website so by the end the reader will have taken a unique, accessible, tour-in-microcosm through the history of music with all the mustiness removed.
Please wait while the item is added to your bag...
