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  1. #1 by Anonymous on April 13, 2010 - 12:08 am

    Nice enough, but the stuff about me is not very accurate. I liked the parts about Johann Sebastian though, he was always such a bore – and reading the chapter about Wolfgang made me laugh. He was a great guy, always fun at parties, and a decent enough composer (except his chamber works, which always make me fall asleep.) As for Stravinsky and Schonberg and those guys, I must admit I have great problems understanding their music.
    Rating: 4 / 5

  2. #2 by Wimberly Thomas on April 13, 2010 - 1:24 am

    I’m sure that the material is very fun to read. My library has an online copy of this and that’s how I got access to it. There was one name in my general music history class that our professor stressed for us to spell right and it was that of Johannes Ockeghem. Now, as I was reading the chapter on Josquin des Prez, the word O-K-E-G-H-E-M jumps out at me like a cat out of water. If you’re going to include tne name of a composer, at least spell his name right.
    Rating: 3 / 5

  3. #3 by H. M. Tiddlywinks on April 13, 2010 - 4:08 am

    Most of this book is limited to very brief biographical summaries of pop culture composers. Barber also seemed to be trying a little bit too hard to be humourous, and his frequent banteresque footnotes were distracting and for the most part unncesessary. This book IS good for a general overview of composers and as a very sparse outline of Western music’s greatest composers.
    Rating: 2 / 5

  4. #4 by Anonymous on April 13, 2010 - 6:28 am

    It was my impression that the point of this book is to “demythologize” (or should that be denigrate?) the great composers. Although it is informative in a very lightweight and breezy way, it also presents some rather dubious statements as if they were commonly accepted facts (best example: “Beethoven had syphilis”) in an off-handedly casual way that does not encourage readers to question the source. Separating the fact from the fiction in this book is no simple chore, so don’t start here if what you want is real information. If you want to feel justified in treating classical composers with disdain, this book will certainly help.
    Rating: 1 / 5

  5. #5 by William K. Ahrens on April 13, 2010 - 6:50 am

    As a person who enjoys classical music but has not been trained in that field, I greatly enjoyed this book. Several times, statements by the author sent me to an internet site, such as Wikipedia, to confirm that what he had stated was true. I was not sure if it was tongue-in-cheek or factual; turns out all the things I looked up were factual. That is the charm of this book. The author tells the reader things in such an outrageously funny manner that one does not know for sure whether to believe it or not. Well, believe it! That’s the fun. I know two classically trained musicians, my wife and her sister, who both have read this book, and have also found it to be very amusing, fun, and easy to read.

    Whether you are a trained musician, or just a music lover, I recommend this book.
    Rating: 4 / 5