A Concise History of Western Music

A Concise History of Western Music Paul Griffiths Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2006 358pp. $35 ISBN: 0-521-84294-8 (hardcover)

It is an incredible undertaking for anyone to attempt to write an entire history of western music, but to make it concise is an almost unimaginable task. Two books that have attempted this are The Concise Oxford History of Music by Gerald Abraham, published in 1979 (968 pages long), and Concise History of Music by Barbara Manning, published in 1998 (at 585 pages). These are both quite lengthy; however, the recently published (2006) Paul Griffiths's A Concise History of Western Music has only 358 pages of text. In fewer pages, Griffiths adequately covers a wide range of musical topics, from prehistory and ancient times to the present Paul Griffiths is a renowned British critic and one of the leading authorities on modern classical music. His books on modern music include Modern Music and After and Modern Music-A Concise History. His publications include The Penguin Companion to Classical Music and The Substance of Things Heard: Writings About Music. Griffiths has also written books on Barraqué, Boulez, Cage, Messiaen, Ligeti, and Stravinsky.

Griffiths's A Concise History of Western Music is a practical source for the general reader student, and teacher. It consists of well written narratives that are easy to understand and terminology that is clearly defined in the Glossary. It achieves its purpose by providing both an informative and clear story of western music.

Engaging, clear, and informative, this is...