Music Ho!: A Study of Music in Decline

By Constant Lambert

Book Overview

Book by Lambert, Constant This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0701206039
• ISBN13: 9780701206031
• Release Date: November 1987
• Publisher: Random House UK
• Length: 304 Pages
• Weight: 0.65 lbs.

Customer Reviews

Great Book Hiding Under a Bad Title

What was Constant Lambert thinking? Music, Ho! What? Actually, Lambert was thinking of Shakespeare's Antony and Cleopatra, when, at a lavish banquet, everyone yells out, "The music, ho!" Whereupon enters Madian the Eunuch (no, I could not make this up), who just as quickly makes a wordless exit when Cleopatra remarks, "Let it alone; let's to billiards." Mr. Lambert, rightly, will not let it alone, and instead writes a very incisive and witty commentary on modern music. Considering that it was published in 1934, the book's arguments and observations are still startingly relevant today. A warning, though: there are a few observations about race (including one about Jews)that would be considered beyond the pale today. With that caveat, I still highly recommend this sparkling commentary on music which makes clear why Constant Lambert was the model for Anthony Powell's portrait of the modern, witty, intellectual composer, Hugh Moreland, in Powell's A Dance to the Music of Time.