Big Bangs
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Book Overview
The dramatic story of five key turning points in a thousand years of Western music - discoveries that changed the course of history.
Who first invented 'Doh Re Mi...'? What do we mean by "in tune"? Looking back down the corridor of a thousand years, Howard Goodall guides us through the stories of five seismic developments in the history of Western music. His "big bangs" may not be the ones we expect - some are surprising and some are so obvious we overlook them - but all have had an extraordinary impact. Goodall starts with the invention of notation by an 11th-century Italian monk, which removed the creation of music from the hands of the players to the pens of the composers; moves on to the first opera; then to the invention of the piano, and ends with the story of the first recording made in history. Howard Goodall has the gift of making these complicated musical advances both clear and utterly fascinating. Racy and vivid in a narrative full of colourful characters and graphic illustrations of technical processes, he also gives a wonderful sense of the culture of trial and error and competition, be it in 11th-century Italy or 19th-century America, in which all progress takes place. Big Bangs opens a window on the crucial moments in our musical culture - discoveries that made possible everything from Bach to the Beatles - and tells us a riveting story of a millennium of endeavour.Format:Paperback
Language:English
ISBN:0099283549
ISBN13:9780099283546
Release Date:January 2001
Publisher:Vintage Publications
Length:256 Pages
Weight:0.55 lbs.
Dimensions:0.5" x 5.1" x 7.8"
Customer Reviews
3 ratings
Big Bangs
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 15 years ago
Fascinating and so well done. Leonard Bernstein, move over. This man is good!
Big Bangs - right on!
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 21 years ago
Yes indeed, Howard Goodall's tome is a wonderful look at (arguably) the five most important 'inventions' that made music what it is today. Well written and easy to comprehend, the book demystifies some of the more detailed workings of music, and gives credit to those who helped to make it happen. Highly useful in the music classroom, it is just as easily a bedside book, where one could be fascinated by the historical figures and events discussed. Definitely a relevant and necessary work!
Interesting and chatty history of music
Published by Thriftbooks.com User , 22 years ago
Howard Goodall (UK composer and broadcaster) based this book on his fascinating TV series of the same name (Howard Goodall's Big Bangs). He proposes that the 5 critical turning points in Western musical history were:1. Invention of notation (music transferable without memorisation, complicated works became possible)2. Opera (sung drama)3. Equal temperament (the modern tuning system which corrects - on average - the Harmonic Series found by Pythagoras)4. The piano ("the amazing loud and soft machine")5. Recorded soundHe goes into quite a bit of detail about what made these discoveries special and what they meant to music and society at the time. It's an entertaining way to learn something about musical history, even if you don't know much about music.
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