Building a Classical Music Library

By Bill Parker

Book Overview

No Synopsis Available.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0964133202
• ISBN13: 9780964133204
• Release Date: January 1994
• Publisher: Bill Parker
• Length: 286 Pages
• Weight: 0.95 lbs.
• Dimensions: 8.8" x 1.0" x 5.8"

Customer Reviews

Excellent Resource

If you are just starting out in classical music or want to be assured of having the best in your collection, this is a must. I listened to every piece recommended and acquired copies of the vast majority. It exposes you to pieces you might not have heard of or considered and it tells you the best performances of the ones you want. Did wonders for my appreciation of classical music and my collection.

Invaluable research tool

I have used the 3rd edition of the book since 1995 to look up the "definitive" recordings for various composers. Parker generally gives three different recordings as options and states why he makes those his choices. I usually choose his #1 choice or the all digital choice. I have not been disappointed yet. My only wish is that the book be revised. I have the third edition

An Explorers Guide

I'd been a classical music collector for about 19 years when a friend gave me this book for Christmas. I put off reading it thinking it looked like a book for beginners (it is and more). When I did started reading it I was unable to put it down. It offers information and insight with out loading you down with the author's opinions. I hate buying a CD and reading the liner notes and having whoever wrote it tell me how inferior the composer was. Many reviewers and resource books do the same, its only good if "I" say it is, and "MY" opinion is all your should be concerned with. With Bill Parker classical music is a world waiting to be explored, and enjoyed. It doesn't cover everything, but it is a good read.

Good for beginners, bad for chamber music fans

This book has several features that make it helpful for beginners: it is a survey of Western music from Gregorian Chant to Minimalism, a biographical dictionnary of its main composers, from William Byrd to Phillip Glass, and a guide to the best recordings of each composer's main works. All this in a little more than 300 pages! Of course it can't be compared with much bigger and comprehensive guides like the Penguin or the Grammophone. The closest thing there is to it is Kenneth and Valerie McLeish's "The Listener's Guide to Classical Music", which is about the same size and also deals with composers in alphabetical order (but does not classify them according to periods). The main difference between the two books is that McLeishes' says which works of each composer you should look for, but gives no indications of the best recordings available, as Bill Parker does. So that this book may turn out to be the better one for beginners. However, Parker doesn't care much about chamber music: not even famous masterpieces as Schubert's and Mozart's string quintets are mentioned and, among Haydn's many great string quartets, only the "Emperor" quartet is considered. If you like chamber music, this is not the book for you.

A great book to survey the breadth and depth of classical!

Mr. Parker writes an excellent survey of the history of classical music, it's major composers, and their major works and several of their minor works. If you want to follow the development of classical music, from plainchant to polyphony and on to multi-part harmony and the advent of the modern symphony, then this book will serve you well. If you just want to check out a composer and get a feel for his or her works and Mr. Parker's recommended recordings this book is a tremendous help. The Penguin Guide it is not, nor does Mr. Parker pretend to name the top 10, 50, or 100 composers of all time. If you're new to classical music I highly recommend this work; if you're already an afficiondo of the genre this book will serve you well as a quick reference to the lives and works of several composers.