The Music Pack

by Ron van der Meer and Michael Berkeley

The Ghost Writer introduces Nathan Zuckerman in the 1950s; a budding writer infatuated with the Great Books, discovering the contradictory claims of literature and experience while an overnight guest... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Hardcover
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0679430989
• ISBN13: 9780679430988
• Release Date: November 1994
• Publisher: Knopf Publishing Group
• Length: 18 Pages
• Weight: 2.20 lbs.
• Dimensions: 1.4" x 11.5" x 11.5"

Customer Reviews

A book of musical treasures

Oh my, stop reading and click on the order button! If you have children and want their musical horizons expanded, you must have "The Music Pack!" The accompanying CD alone is worth the price. Listen: Josquin's "Kyrie" by the Hilliard Ensemble, Palestrina's "Kyrie" (so different) by King's College Choir, Monteverdi's "Su pastorelli" (a madrigal) by Taverner Consort and Players, Purcell's "When I am laid in earth" (one of my most favorite pieces of music) from his opera, Dido and Aeneas, performed by Mermaid Singers and Orchestra. Other well-represented composers are Handel, Bach, Haydn, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Wagner, Chopin, Verdi, Brahms, Janacek, Mahler, Debussy, Stravinsky, and Alban Berg.(Wow, I just heard an excerpt from Berlioz's Symphonie Fantastique, which I have never before heard. The book lists the complete titles for those interested in complete pieces of music instead of just excepts or short pieces.) Little Lars and Samantha will gain so much from this music pack (as well as Mom and Dad, or whoever are the caretakers). Just open the over-sized book and look at the basics of music: voice, musical notation, the piano keys with the C Major scale overlaid, how sounds looks. Pull this, take this out, open this, ratchet this, fun stuff to do to go with the narrative. Next two pages reveal more excitement, this time of how instruments work, their reeds, how an organ works, harmonica, and so on. More activities! Two pages of piano development are next with a pop-up piano, three piano virtuosos. With the percussion pages you get pop-up drums, a take-out drum membrane with little attached beads as strikers. Now the entire orchestra pops up, including a conductor. Must have him! History of the development and the opera are provided. Then the 20th century is laid out in a two-page spread of color illustrations of important figures, including Louis Armstrong, Duke Ellington, Gilbert and Sullivan, Frank Sinatra, vinyl, cassettes, and CDs, George and Ira Gershwin, Bernstein, and music videos. World music makes the scene with a pull-out illustrating where various music forms developed: reggae, salsa, disco, calypso, blues, flemenco, jazz, and rap. Finally, a wall chart 24 x 11 is a summation of the book, including the "twenty masterpieces" on the CD, the periods of music, and then the 20th cent. figures and music. Accompanying the CD is a Commentary briefly explaining (stop, I'm listening to an excerpt from Beethoven's Eroica, ok, it's over) all twenty pieces. Last, there is a little booklet with many musical terms from accidental and analogue sound to yodeling and zarzuela (a Spanish comic opera in which lines are spoken instead of the usual recitative). I cannot believe I have had this Music Pack for years and never opened it, but now I can put it to good use and let my great-nieces and nephew have it for the summer. Maybe they will be inspired to become musical!

The Music Pack by Ron Van Der Meer and Michael Berkeley

This book is definitely one of the best books I have ever read.With its awesome 3-D pop-ups,this book is surely a book that everyone in your family would enjoy. Even if you are four year of age there are still things to do in this book! It has pop-up instruments that you can actually play! The book tells you about world music, and also comes with a CD full of classcal music.It includes timelines of various musical masters throughout the centuries.This book is packed with so much information that if you were to read it you would instantly become educated in how to use instruments and how music is created. I highly recommend this book to any music lover, or music teacher. I have been playing two instruments for about three years, and this book is just as fun as playing the real thing!