Classical Education Written, Audio And Video Materials To Help Improve Understanding, Appreciation Of Music
Materials to help people appreciate classical music are multiplying rapidly. A sampling:
CD/books and CD-ROMs
“Play by Play,” an integrated book and CD program (a “CD-B”). (Harper/Collins. $25): Four-volume series. The books guide you through the music as you listen to the CD. The text’s printed digital-clock times allow listeners to replay musical passages while perusing readable narrative analyses of Bach’s Cantatas Nos. 80 and 147, Mozart’s Piano Concertos Nos. 20 and 21, Beethoven’s “Eroica” Symphony and “Egmont” Overture and Tchaikovsky’s Fifth Symphony and “Romeo and Juliet” Overture.
“Compact Companions: A Listener’s Guide to the Classics,” a CD-B. (Simon & Schuster, $17.50): CD-size books on the life and times of Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Rossini and Puccini. But no digital-clock linkage with the CDs. Each booklet merely includes a CD containing excerpts from about 10 of the featured composer’s works.
“Classical Music: A New Way of Listening,” a CD-B. (Macmillan, $25): Entertaining British author Alexander Waugh guides novices through Tchaikovsky’s complete “1812” Overture, plus extracts from Mozart, Vivaldi, Beethoven, Schubert and Debussy. Text synchronized with CD timings. But watch out: Colored “timeline” graphs in the text corresponding to musical excerpts are irrelevant or just gibberish.
“Marsalis on Music: The Companion to the Public Television Series,” a CD-B. (Wynton Marsalis and Sony Classical USA, $30): This book mirrors Marsalis’ excellent PBS series, which is available on VHS videos. The trumpeter’s clear and innovative approach to explaining both classical music and jazz to children, as well as adults, has endeared him to music educators nationwide. He might be the 1990s’ answer to Bernstein on music. Wonderfully easy-to-grasp introductions to soul and swing, as well as sonata form and orchestration.
“The CD Companion to Beethoven’s Ninth Symphony,” interactive CD-ROM for Macintosh. (Voyager Co., 1351 Pacific Coast Hwy., Santa Monica, Calif., $100): Beethoven’s Ninth 101, brilliantly done. Besides offering a tutorial of Beethoven’s life and work, it enables the user to cue up any of the symphony’s major subdivisions - expositions, developments, codas and variations - in a blow-by-blow description of the music synchronized with the CD. Fun quizzes, too. Stravinsky’s “The Rite of Spring” and Dvorak’s “New World” Symphony also are available.
“Juilliard Music Adventure,” an interactive CD-ROM for children 9 and up for Macintosh and Windows (Theatrix. 1250 45th St., Suite 150; Emeryville, Calif. 94608-2924. $35.): Transports kids to a cartoon-style magic castle and introduces them to rhythm, melody and orchestration in various styles. Manipulating rhythm and melody tools, they then create their own music.
Videos
“The Golden Age of the Piano,” VHS video (Philips, $30): A parade of great pianists - Horowitz, Rubinstein, Hofmann, Brailowsky, Padewereski - captured on historic films, with clear, unfussy narration by pianist/commentator David Dubal. Like “The Art of Conducting,” this is ideal for filling in knowledge gaps concerning some of the icons of music still heard on CDs.
“The Art of Conducting,” VHS video (Teldec, $25): Fascinating film clips of legendary conductors with excellent narrative discussing interpretive styles. Includes a brief 1915 silent film of Arthur Nikisch, who conducted Brahms symphonies for Brahms, plus complete performances from 1932 of Wagner overtures by Fritz Busch and Felix Weingartner, as well as rare footage of Wilhelm Furtwangler, Fritz Reiner and others.
Magazines
“BBC Music Magazine” (80 Wood Lane, London W12 OTT. USA edition: Call 800-284-0200. $10.50): Lavishly illustrated, explanatory articles for newcomers to the classics. A recent issue featured “The Symphony: Past, Present and Future,” detailing the development of the orchestra and included opinion pieces on its future by composers Philip Glass and Peter Maxwell Davies.
Books
“Classical Music: An Introduction to Classical Music through the Great Composers and Their Masterworks” (Readers Digest, $35): Traditional but well-written sourcebook by John Stanley covering music’s development from the Middle Ages to the present.
“Classical Music: The 50 Greatest Composers and Their 1,000 Greatest Works” (Phil G. Goulding, Fawcett Columbine, $25): A music aficionado lists his top 50 all-time great composers - and has the temerity to exclude the revolutionary genius Arnold Schoenberg, who is brushed off with Copland and Purcell as an “Also-Ran.” Distinctly amateurish.
“A Night at the Opera: An Irreverent Guide to the Plots, the Singers, the Composers, the Recordings” (Sir Denis Forman. Random House. $40): Former deputy chairman of London’s Royal Opera walks you through 83 favorite operas, annotating each act minute-byminute, aria-by-aria, with commentary.