The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music | 
 enlarge | Author: Ted Libbey
Publisher: Workman Publishing Company
Category: Book
List Price: $19.95
Buy New: $6.96
You Save: $12.99 (65%)
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Avg. Customer Rating:  12 reviews
Sales Rank: 61002
Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 928
Shipping Weight (lbs): 2.8
Dimensions (in): 8.9 x 6 x 2.1
ISBN: 0761120726
Dewey Decimal Number: 780.3
UPC: 019628120724
EAN: 9780761120728
ASIN: 0761120726
Publication Date: April 11, 2006
Availability: Usually ships in 1-2 business days
Shipping: Expedited shipping available
Condition: THIS ITEM IS BRAND NEW IN EXCELLENT CONDITION
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Product Description
A complete education in classical music, written with verve and wit. No music lover can pick up this one-volume compendium without becoming a more knowledgeable, discerning listener. • The sonata form revealed, and why it's been deeply satisfying for three centuries. • What to listen for in Brahms, a self-described Classicist who was one of music's great innovators. • Pizzicato, fioritura, parlando, glissando. • The transformative power of Toscanini–who earned more conducting the New York Philharmonic than his contemporary Babe Ruth made with the Yankees. • And throughout, more than 2,000 recommended recordings.
Log on and listen. Created with Naxos, the world's largest classical music label, the book includes a unique Web site featuring more than 500 examples cited in the text. Look up barcarolle. First read about its swaying 6/8 meter and Venetian origins; then log on to the music Web site and hear it performed in Act IV of Offenbach's Les contes d'Hoffmann. If that whets your curiosity about Offenbach, click to hear the cancan in his La vie parisienne. All online samples are marked by an icon in the text.
Book Description
A jam-packed, 11-year undertaking of 928 pages, 1,500 entries, and over 1,000 recommended recordings, The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia is an everything-you-need-to-know bible for the classical music lover. Written with infectious enthusiasm by Ted Libbey, author of The NPR Guide to Building a Classical CD Collection, with 174,000 copies in print, this is an encyclopedia with wit and verve, covering those terms, works, composers, and performers that NPR listeners and concertgoers are most likely to encounter. In addition, buyers of the book will receive a password that opens the door to an interactive Web site, created in a partnership with the classical music powerhouse, Naxos, that allows them to listen to 600 examples of works, techniques, and performers discussed and cross-referenced in the book. This is the first interactive encyclopedia of music!
Libbey, a spirited, selective guide, writes “lyrically and lucidly about music and music makers” (Chicago Tribune) and knows how to ground abstract ideas in the real. How does it work? Look up barcarolle, and he not only defines the term vividly (“the melody is a gentle, rocking rhythm suggestive of the swaying of a boat”) but suggests three exemplary pieces of music to listen to—Offenbach’s Tales of Hoffman, Mendelssohn’s Songs Without Words, and Chopin’s Barcarolle. Then go to the Web site and hear what he’s writing about.
What is the tonic? Why is there such a satisfying psychological impact at the end of a sonata? Who is Thomas Tallis? What is the idea behind Bach’s Well-Tempered Clavier, and was there ever an ill-tempered clavier? For the music lover, impossible to put down.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 7 more reviews...
An Excellent and Inspiring Guide December 9, 2007
1 out of 1 found this review helpful
I hope that no potential readers were offput by the very silly and petty Publishers Weekly review. This is a very helpful and at times facinating guide to classical music and recorded music performance. Libbey's expertise and passion make for great reading. Very insightful and very helpful when searching for a good recording of a favorite piece.
A delightful experience for any classical music lover. June 24, 2007
11 out of 11 found this review helpful
"The NPR Listener's Encyclopedia of Classical Music" is a delightful combination reference book and video game for all classical music buffs. Besides its nearly 1,000 pages of listings, from Claudio Abbado to Ellen Taaffe Zwilich, the book gives you access to a page on the Naxos Music website which allows you to listen to more than 500 musical selections online. I just signed on to the page for the first time, and listened to the very first listed selection--John Adams' "Shaker Loops." I look forward to hours of fun with this wonderful new toy! I appreciate the breadth and depth of knowledge author Ted Libbey brings to the project, as well as his inclusion of favorites of mine who aren't necessarily well-known to today's listening public, such as the Danish tenor Aksel Schiotz. In his introduction, Libbey notes he tried to avoid the gaps and errors in such standard reference works as Grove's Dictionary of Music and Musicians, and adds, "Doubtless there will be errors still, and for these I accept full responsibility." Alas, I have already caught him in two. The first is the listing of Beethoven's birthday as December 17, 1770, when even "Peanuts'" Schroeder and Lucy know that Beethoven was born on December 16. Of course, that could have been a printer's or proofreader's error, but the second mistake is more serious--when Libbey states that Vladimir Horowitz withdrew from the concert stage in 1953 in a severe depression over the suicide of his only daughter. Actually, Horowitz's daughter, Sonia, did not commit suicide until the 1970s (which caused Horowitz a second bout of severe depression); I'm not sure exactly what caused Horowitz's 1953 breakdown, but I had always understood that an addiction to prescription drugs was at least partly to blame. Nevertheless, these are minor caveats to an otherwise enjoyable and informative volume. Any classical music lover with computer access would be happy to own it.
A handy reference June 13, 2007
5 out of 5 found this review helpful
Don't get this if you are looking for an overview of music history, this is a reference book--exactly as advertised.
It comes with a login to naxos.com that allows you to listen to literally hundreds of hours of music from the naxos library for free! This is a tremendous value.
I was most impressed by the sheer amount of information--not just the historic information, even my favorite 20th and 21st century composers were given a fair amount of coverage.
NPR is better June 9, 2007
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Couldn't choose between the NPR ecyclopedia and the Vantage Guide so bought both. The NPR book is younger, more detailed, more information on a wider variety of artists and composers and in my opinion ; much better.
NPR LIstener's Enclyclopedia of Classical Music June 8, 2007
Even for the true classic music afficiando, this is a helpful compendium of names and selections to use when purchasing albums or for general hands on reference.
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