Hi there. Here comes the 4th episode of non-fiction books review. For the fun of it, this time let’s have it in English.
Just before hitting 30, I started to feel an itchy emptiness in a corner of my head where I was supposed to have some familiarity with world’s classical music (and art, for that matter).
Stephen’s Fry “Incomplete & Utter History of Classical Music” was a way to fight this issue not stepping too far from my sofa.
Fast forward, I’m fascinated how Fry is writing about the melodies as if he was thoughtfully listening to each one of them for hours and hours.
My approach was “a bit” different – I tried to search for all the main masterpieces touched in the book and listen to at least 3-5 min of each, marking the ones which I liked particularly.
Initially, I planned to share the ones which I like most here with you. But taking into consideration that more than 2 years have passed since I read the book, I will only share the winner one.
The enchanting conclusion after reading the book is that YOU KNOW CLASSICAL MUSIC. Not just some “obvious” masterpieces that you must know if you live on this planet. But also most of the not so famous ones. Probably that’s why it’s called classical in the first place. It’s built into your DNA. Those rhythms get into you via advertisements, old Nokia ringtones, opening themes from movies and so on.
But why should anyone read a full-size book on classical music? Well, it might be that you know who Stephen Fry is and can foresee that you have a 0 risk of falling asleep while reading this.
Need to repeat myself by citing my favorite joke from the text:
“Fahrenheit died aged fifty, but nothing could dissuade him from his belief that he was actually 122.”
Now let’s try to decipher which composition piece is being discussed below just by feeling the rhythm? The one written by Ludwig and numbered 5?
Okay, and here comes the winner of my “bookmark” championship. The melody created in the beginning of the 20th century by a blind composer.
“Concierto de Aranjuez” by Joaquin Rodrigo.
Surprisingly simple one, starring the guitar with an obvious Spanish accent and feeling very modern. I acknowledge this one doesn’t sound very classical-ish, but that’s really the one I enjoyed most. You are welcome to join me in this.