The NPR Curious Listener’s Guide To Classical Music, by Tim Smith

As a child I would listen to NPR because my grandmother liked to listen to classical music on the radio, and this book is precisely the sort of book that I would expect coming from the NPR music that I remember hearing then.  This is not to say that it is by any means a bad book.  Simply because a book delivers exactly what is expected does not make it bad.  It would, no doubt, have been an even better book if its idea of the classical repertoire were broader than it was, but as an introduction to the concert music repertoire the book is certainly appealing if also equally certainly a bit basic.  And, it should be noted as well that the author has far broader tastes in contemporary classical music than some of us (myself included) would have, comparing the spare minimalism or the ugly atonal music with the abstract of Pollack, which is also not quite as impressive as many contemporary art critics would like to make it out to be.  Suffice it to say that one’s interest in various musical styles will likely vary from this particular book.

In terms of its contents, this book is nine chapters long and is a bit more than 200 pages, a suitably quick read for those who want to be introduced to what the NPR thinks about classical music.  The book begins with acknowledgments, a foreword, and an introduction, after which the author seeks to define what classical music is (1).  This leads to a discussion of the story of classical music (2) throughout history (hitting the high points, to be certain, and not the more obscure ones), before looking at the varieties of classical music (3) based on era.  After that there is a discussion of classical music deconstructed, providing a discussion of various aspects or types of classical music (4).  After this there is a discussion of the composers of the repertoire (5), although plenty more could have been added besides the familiar ones mentioned here, as well as the performers (6), most of them from the 19th or 20th century.  There is then a discussion of the music that is most important to know (7), all of which the author expects the reader to have as part of one’s music library, as well as some suggestions of particular cds to buy (8) and some comments as to the language of classical music (9), as well as resources for curious listeners and an index.

In reading this book I was puzzled as I often again by the assumption of the reader that classical music is something that needs to be supported by the government.  Given the way that so much of 20th century music (and art) has a high degree of cultural decadence involved with it, it is highly dubious that this sort of music that is distinctly not popular with the people at large should be subsidized by the government.  If the music were at least culturally enlightening or worthwhile like a mass or motet, that would be one thing, but atonal music and Philip Glass or anti-war or pro-gay symphonies whining about AIDS is an entirely different matter when it comes to receiving public support.  Unfortunately, while much in this book is not a particular surprise, there is a high degree of political grandstanding in a book like this that jeopardizes the support of classical music as a whole.  After all, where taxpayer money is going to support something, it becomes very important to note whether that which is supported is worthy of it morally speaking, and that is not always the case here.