Your first classical music book?

[Dr. Dread]

Get crackin'! 

What's my advance?

[Franco]

And the rest is history eh bruce.   

I kind-of figured that you tilted more toward 20thC early because your listening preferences seem to be more balanced in that direction, I wonder if the same holds true of others who avidly/primarily listen-buy to 20/21C stuff. I started 20thC too (Stravinsky, Bartok, Webern, Varese, Boulez, Stockhausen etc - stuff that fascinated the hell out of me), I was exposed-to & heard the older stuff first in school as a kid though (music class) but didn't care for any of it (plus had bad experiences as a child trying to learn Mozart on the piano which greatly turned me off, i absolutely abhorred the music, & the teacher).

I was also initially turned on to 20th C. classical music before truly deeply appreciating the earlier eras.  This was in part a product of my background, which was not one of traditional classical music studies, e.g. piano lessons.  I was self-taught, played mostly by ear, although I could read music from an early age - but when I got to music school, I was definitely not like the rest of the students, and I think coming from rock and jazz, my ears were less "opinionated" concerning what was "Great" (i.e. Bach, Beethoven, Wagner) or even what was (the word that was used then was ) "legitimate music". 

I did not even know how to pronounce Richard Wagner, and was quickly made to feel like a fool (although this has nothing to do with my antipathy to his music) - but a feeling which was mitigated by the fact that I did much better in ear-training exercises than my more traditionally trained  classmates.   

I was way off in to Stockhausen and Coltrane while everyone else was listening to Tristan und Isolde.

This pattern has been a constant ever since, I still don't like ReeKard Vagner, but I have outgrown what was then my own musical provincialism.

[Gurn Blanston]

Classical Music, The 50 Greatest Composers and their 1,000 Greatest Works - by Phil Goulding

Wonderful, wonderful intro.  I couldn't read it fast enough!!

That was my first book too. He pissed me off right from the beginning and it was hard to like him afterward. However, he DID turn me on to some new things to listen to, so I guess I'm grateful for that much.

[Grazioso]

An earlier edition of this for a music appreciation class:



That class and book are what really got me enthused about classical music and provided a firm foundation from which to begin exploring.

[Sergeant Rock]

That was my first book on classical music too. My high school library had a copy.

Sarge

[Harpo]

[secondwind]

Well, it wasn't my book, it belonged to the public library, but I kept renewing it until I finished it!  (Thanks to Brian for technical assistance needed to post the picture! 0:))

[J]

That was my first book on classical music too. My high school library had a copy.

Sarge

I also discovered Schoenberg's "Lives" early on when I was first seriously exploring CM, and found it very stimulating and informative.  However, much later I stumbled onto another "Lives of the Composers" type
volume that struck me as superior to anything I've seen along these lines either before or since -
"The Stream of Music" by Richard Leonard.  Just tremenduously well written and witty.  I read it every few years always with great enjoyment.  Anyone else familiar with this work?

[vandermolen]

An old hardback version of this:

[ChamberNut]

Just checked it out of the library! 

[secondwind]

I also discovered Schoenberg's "Lives" early on when I was first seriously exploring CM, and found it very stimulating and informative.  However, much later I stumbled onto another "Lives of the Composers" type
volume that struck me as superior to anything I've seen along these lines either before or since -
"The Stream of Music" by Richard Leonard.  Just tremenduously well written and witty.  I read it every few years always with great enjoyment.  Anyone else familiar with this work?

I haven't read this yet, but I'll be looking for it now!

[Anne]

Diletante:
Aaron Copland's What to listen for in music. Beginner-friendly explanations about form, texture, etc. It would be awesome if it were re-released with some kind of CD with examples.

I couldn't agree with you more.  As I read the book, I was constantly frustrated because I could not read music or read it fast enough.  In my opinion two Cd's are needed to illustrate that book adequately.

[Opus106]

[Aaron Copland's What to listen for in music.] It would be awesome if it were re-released with some kind of CD with examples.

Not quite, but close enough.

[Lethevich]

I got the Berlioz Bug quite early on, and so these were the first I read, initially from the library, then bought:



I have yet to read a "general introduction" style book, as I found that reading forums and reviews from many sources removed the need, and also the bias.

[Diletante]

Not quite, but close enough.

Looks interesting. What do I need to play those?

I couldn't agree with you more.  As I read the book, I was constantly frustrated because I could not read music or read it fast enough.

Yes. What I did was transcribe most of the score excerpts into Sibelius. It was very useful.

[Anne]

Glad you found a way to solve the problem.  I'll wait for the Cd's to come out if they ever do.

[monafam]

I had a Music Appreciation class in college taught by Paul Siskind (he might currently be the composer-in-residence in Minneapolis?).  The book was pretty much a generic "Intro to Music Appreciation..."   

I got the Copland book when I wanted to go a little deeper.   

[Opus106]

Looks interesting. What do I need to play those?

Any piece of software that lets you stream Real media. For Windows, go to real.com and download and install their media player.