1. Music popularization and introduction
1. The premiere by Thomas F. Kelly, Commercial Press
This book mainly describes the premiere of five masterpieces in the history of music. These five masterpieces are works in different periods, and they can also be regarded as the most outstanding works in those periods, and most importantly, these works almost changed the development of music. These five parts are Flo, an opera by Monteverdi, an early Baroque musician; Messiah, an oratorio by Handel, a representative figure in Baroque period; Chorus of the Ninth Symphony by Beethoven, a master in Classical period; symphonie fantastique by Berlioz, The Romantic Period; and Sacrifice to Spring by Stravinsky, a musician who is inclined to neoclassicism and expressionism in modern music.
This book is recommended for fans who have a certain knowledge of classical music. The author not only describes the literary and social background of these works in detail, but also quotes a lot of original materials such as posters, commentary articles and musicians' correspondence at the premiere, which is very meaningful for the restoration of the premiere history.
2. Listening to Music (5th Edition) [America] By Craig Wright, Life, Reading and Knowledge Joint Publishing Company
This book has a relatively low threshold, and its content is mainly divided into three parts: music elements, music history and American pop music. The author introduced many music-related concepts in the book, and attached some charts as auxiliary materials. In addition to reading, this book also needs some appreciation and listening, so it can be said that it is a book that needs to be read and listened at the same time, which can help you understand the history of music and master music knowledge, and at the same time has a good effect on the introduction of classical music.
3. The Skill of Music by Jiao Yuanpu, Guangxi Normal University Press
This book is different from the previous one. It does not systematically introduce the relevant knowledge of classical music, but unlike other classical music books, it introduces a lot of knowledge except music itself. These contents seem to have nothing to do with the music itself, but they are actually very helpful for everyone to appreciate music. For example, the book introduces many skills of "how to appreciate music", including the understanding of music, and also talks about some concerts and other related knowledge. In short, this is also a good book.
Second, music knowledge and skills related classes
In fact, I don't read many books of this kind, and the content is relatively difficult to learn by myself, but students who don't have music-related knowledge can learn it at first, and the knowledge will be more difficult. Generally speaking, I can only recommend this kind of books briefly, but I can't give good study suggestions.
1. Fundamentals of Music Theory by Li Chongguang, People's Music Publishing House
This book is really very difficult to learn and learn well by self-study, and I haven't finished it myself. Moreover, there is some confusion in the chapters in this book, so it is not feasible to read and study in order. Some chapters may need to be studied in advance, and then go back to the previous chapters. However, the knowledge points in this book can be said to be authoritative and clear, and can only be recommended to students who are interested in learning music theory.
2. The Knowledge of Music Theory on the Keyboard, written by Li Chongguang, Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House
Compared with the previous one, this book is simpler in content and less extensive in knowledge. At the same time, the language of this book is more popular, easier to learn, and the reading order is basically no problem, and it mainly introduces the knowledge of music theory for piano keyboards.
3. History of Western Music, Wuhan University Press
In fact, this type of book does not necessarily use the recommended version of this publishing house. Most books on the history of western music are similar in content, including the introduction of the history of western music in Listening to Music mentioned above, which also has more overlapping parts with this book. This book is boring to read, and many things can't be remembered just by reading, so you also need to listen while reading.
III. Biographies and Other Categories
Actually, I like reading this kind of books best, because it is much easier to read, because there are no knowledge points to remember, and there are many interesting stories between musicians. However, I only recommend books by musicians related to classical music, because I don't know much about other musicians' books and I haven't read them carefully.
1. My Long Years [America] by artur rubinstein, Central Conservatory of Music Press
Rubinstein is one of the greatest pianists in the 2th century. This book is thick, but it is very rich in content. Rubinstein looked back on his life in his nineties and wrote this autobiography. This is Rubinstein's second autobiography. The previous one is called My Youth, but My Long Years has more readers.
This book records from the beginning of World War I and recalls his decades of artistic career. We can see the process of his transformation from a young man to a master. Personally, I find it very interesting that the book records many stories of Rubinstein, as well as many stories between him and other famous musicians. Some stories are hilarious to read, and we can see many behind-the-scenes stories of musicians who are usually invisible.
2. "Living in Music" [a] by daniel barenboim, Shanghai Music Publishing House
barenboim was the first group of musicians I came into contact with when I started listening to classical music. He is one of the greatest conductors and pianists in the world today. Of course, there is another reason why he is widely known to music fans, that is, he is the apprentice of the famous conductor karajan, the husband of the late cellist dupre, and the teacher of pianist Lang Lang.
This book doesn't introduce barenboim's comments on music. He himself said, "I don't intend to talk about privacy or individuality in this book, and I don't arrogantly think that I can make authoritative comments on music and musicians after more than 5 years of performing on stage. I just tried to write down my obsession with music and my curious exploration of this obsession. "
But personally, I didn't read much about "persistence" ... Instead, I read a lot about his journey of learning music in his early years and how he became a conductor from a pianist after becoming famous, and of course, he also had a lot of stage performance experiences. We can still see many stories between musicians in this book.
3. A Thousand Miles' Journey: My Story is written by Lang Lang and [Mei] Lizi. Guangxi Normal University Press
I didn't pay attention to it some time ago. When I searched online today, I found that this book seems to have been revised, and the cover has been changed. The new cover is not like the picture above. Although the publishing house has not changed, I don't know whether the revised content has changed from the version above.
This book is very interesting, because in this book we see not only the stories of musicians mentioned in the previous two books, but also many educational stories. This book records the story of Lang Lang from learning piano as a child to becoming a professional pianist. Personally, I think that Lang Lang's experience of learning piano as a child in the book is the most touching, because we can see some educational problems of parents in China. Although parents are ambitious, the pressure on their children is enormous, and Lang Lang grew up under this pressure.
However, since Lang Lang himself didn't have much time to write a book, this book was dictated during his performances around the world, and then recorded by American journalist Ritz who followed the interview. Therefore, this book was originally an English language book, and later translated into Chinese. Therefore, some stories in the book seem to read like the way foreigners speak. For example, when conflicts broke out, Lang Lang's father said, "You must die", which looked awkward in Chinese. However, it does not hinder the reading of the whole content.
4. Afternoon Music Time with Seiji Ozawa [Japanese] by Haruki Murakami, Nanhai Publishing House
This book is the earliest book about classical music that I came into contact with, and it is also a book that I like very much. Some time ago, Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa was suffering from cancer, and he was in recovery after being cured. Haruki Murakami had a series of dialogues with Seiji Ozawa in recovery. The difference between this book and other books is that it is recorded in the form of dialogue and is very easy to read.
But the problem is that some contents in this book will make people feel "unintelligible" just by reading, because many contents in the book are not only the discussion about music between Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa, but also the discussion about the deductive contents of different music albums. For example, in the first chapter, the two discussed many deductive versions of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.3, and they talked about the contents of the music while listening, which will make readers who have not been exposed to these deductive versions have great reading obstacles when reading.
But there are also many contents in the book that can be read without listening to records, such as the two people's discussion about the music of * * *, the opera conductor's understanding of chamber music, etc., which are all very valuable contents.
Let's recommend these books today. I have basically read or understood all the books recommended above. Although I don't guarantee that I have a high level of knowledge to recommend good books, I like most of them, especially biographies. As for these books, where to find them? It's all available on Taobao, so it's easy to find. That's all for today ~