An early example of ragtime syncopation
Gustav Mahler: ‘Nun will die Sonn’ so hell aufgeh’n’ from Kindertotenlieder (1901–4)
Unlike many contemporaries, Mahler abandoned the smokescreen of euphemism and addressed difficult issues – here the deaths of children – head-on
Claude Debussy: Estampes, I. Pagodes (1903)
Debussy allowed his chords to reverberate and overlap in order to evoke the sound of the Javanese gamelan
Richard Strauss: Salome, Scene 4. Dance of the Seven Veils (1905)
Strauss’s starkly modern opera set a new standard for ear-splitting dissonance
Gustav Mahler: Das Lied von der Erde, VI. Der Abschied (1908–9)
Mahler’s instruction is for the final, long chord to fade away imperceptibly; Benjamin Britten described it as ‘imprinted on the atmosphere’
Igor Stravinsky: The Rite of Spring, VII. Dance of the Earth (1913)
The zenith of musical modernism in the early twentieth century, this shows Stravinsky having ‘everything at once’ – including African-style cross-rhythms – rather than developing a tune gradually
7. The Popular Age I
George Gershwin: Rhapsody in Blue (1924)
Jazz meets classical music in this revolutionary piece that was sneered at by highbrow critics but loved by audiences
Bertolt Brecht and Kurt Weill: The Threepenny Opera, II. Die Moritat von Mackie Messer (1928)
A savage critique of capitalist society in accessible musical form
George Gershwin: Porgy and Bess (1935)
A musical with social conscience, this was notable for its sympathetic but clear-eyed portrayal of underclass life
Carl Orff: Carmina Burana (1937)
The cultural calling-card of a composer who cooperated with the Nazi regime
Abel Meeropol: ‘Strange Fruit’, recorded by Billie Holiday (1939)
Emotionally charged and socially progressive coming-of-age for the popular song
Michael Tippett: A Child of Our Time, VIII. Steal Away (1939–41)
Interspersing quasi-operatic narrative passages with African-American spirituals, this response to the horrors of war was inspired by the real-life assassination of a German diplomat by a Jewish refugee
Dmitri Shostakovich: Leningrad symphony (1942)
Dedicated to the people of his besieged home city, this was musical patriotism and morale-raising for a mainstream audience
Aaron Copland: Appalachian Spring (1944)
American musical patriotism and morale-raising in a ballet score with enduring appeal
8. The Popular Age II
Leonard Bernstein and Stephen Sondheim: West Side Story (1957)
Groundbreaking musical fusing Latin-American, jazz, Broadway and classical styles
Bernard Herrmann: Psycho original soundtrack (1960)
Herrmann’s reinvention of film scoring techniques, with hard-edged string orchestra accompanying Hitchcock’s black-and-white horror masterpiece
Bob Dylan: ‘The times they are a-changing’ (1964)
Musical challenge to the prevailing United States political establishment
The Beatles: Revolver (1966)
A radical overhaul of the possibilities of pop, with daring integration of classical, avant-garde, folk and world idioms, studio technology and mainstream rock and roll
Stevie Wonder: Innervisions (1973)
Motown soul inventively merged with Cuban rhythmic patterns
Steve Reich: Music for 18 Musicians (1974–6)
Minimalism joined the gap between pop and classical and made classical-inspired music more relevant for the modern age
Stephen Sondheim: Sunday in the Park with George (1984)
Expanding the expectations of the stage musical: a musical narrative based on Georges Seurat’s 1884 pointillist painting A Sunday Afternoon on the Island of La Grande Jatte
Paul Simon and others: Graceland (1986)
South African iscathamiya (unaccompanied Zulu group-singing genre) brought into colourful collision with folk and country styles of the southern United States
John Adams: Nixon in China (1987)
Opera reconnected to contemporary current affairs
Steve Reich: Different Trains (1988)
Classical concert work for a string quartet, shaped around sound-sampling of taped conversations
Danny Elfman: Batman original soundtrack (1989)
Lisztian neo-Gothic power demonstrated the continued vibrancy in the cultural mainstream of the ‘classical’ heritage of the symphonic sound
Dario Marianelli: Atonement original soundtrack (2007)
Genre-defying layering of styles, one on the other: the orchestral past and present co-existing in a modern film score
Howard Goodall: Enchanted Voices (2009)
Newly composed twenty-first-century reappraisal of ancient plain-chant
(Highly Selective) Further Reading
Oxford History of Western Music, Richard Taruskin (Oxford University Press, 2005)
The Triumph of Music: Composers, Musicians and their Audiences, Tim Blanning (Allen Lane, 2008)
A History of Western Music, J. Peter Burkholder, Donald Grout, Claude Palisca (W W. Norton, 2009)
The Rise and Fall of Popular Music, Donald Clarke (St Martin’s Griffin, 1995)
Music: A Very Short Introduction, Nicholas Cook (Oxford University Press, 1998)
Roots of the Classical, Peter Van der Merwe (Oxford University Press, 2004)
Origins of the Popular Style, Peter Van der Merwe (Oxford University Press, 1989)
This is your Brain on Music, Daniel Levitin (Atlantic Books, 2007)
The Unanswered Question, Leonard Bernstein (Harvard University Press, 1990)
Vindications, Deryck Cooke (Cambridge University Press, 1982)
Unheard Melodies, or Trampolining in the Vatican, Paul Drayton (Athena Press, 2008)
Johann Sebastian Bach, Christoph Wolff (Oxford University Press, 2001)
Evening in the Palace of Reason, James Gaines (4th Estate, 2005)
Wagner and Philosophy, Bryan Magee (Penguin, 2001)
The Twisted Muse: Musicians and their Music in the Third Reich, Michael H. Kater (Oxford University Press, 1997)
Composers of the Nazi Era: Eight Portraits, Michael H. Kater (Oxford University Press, 2000)
The Reich’s Orchestra: The Berlin Philharmonic 1933–45, Misha Aster (Souvenir, 2010)
On Russian Music, Richard Taruskin (University of California Press, 2009)
Revolution in the Head: The Beatles’ Records and the Sixties, Ian MacDonald (Pimlico, 1995)
Between Old Worlds and New, Wilfrid Mellers (Cygnus Arts, 1997)
The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross (4th Estate, 2007)
Listen to This, Alex Ross (4th Estate, 2010)
Picture Credits
PAINTING FROM THE CHAUVET cave, southern France (© culture-images/ Lebrecht)
Bone flute from Hohle Fels (AFP/Getty Images)
Lur (after Danish example, about 1000 BC), made by Victor-Charles Mahillon (© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Leslie Lindsey Mason Collection)/Lebrecht)
The Schøyen Collection MS 2340: Lexical list of harp strings, Sumer, twenty-sixth century BC (The Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London)
Egyptian wall-painting featuring musicians (© Lebrecht Music & Arts)
Ancient Greek krater from the fifth century BC (Getty Images)
An organist and a horn player entertain at a Gladiator match (Museum für Vor und Frühgeschichte, Saarbrucken, Germany/ The Bridgeman Art Library)
The Schøyen Collection MS 1574: St Gallen diastematic staffless neumes, Austria or Southern Germany, twelfth century (The Schøyen Collection, Oslo and London)
‘Musica enchiriadis’, Msc.Var.1, fol.57r (Staatsbibliothek Bamberg/ photo: Gerald Raab)
View of the south transept of the Cathedral of Notre Dame, Reims (© Paul Maeyaert/ The Bridgeman Art Library)
Portrait of a Musician, possibly Josquin des
Prez, c.1485 by Leonardo da Vinci (Ambrosiana, Milan, Italy/ The Bridgeman Art Library)
Girolamo Savonarola (1452–98), Dominican priest and, briefly, ruler of Florence (Lebrecht Authors)
Al’Ud (lute) (© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Leslie Lindsey Mason Collection)/Lebrecht)
The Lute Player, c.1595, by Caravaggio (Hermitage, St. Petersburg, Russia/ The Bridgeman Art Library)
The Cittern Player by Gabriel Metsu (Gemaeldegalerie Alte Meister, Kassel, Germany/ © Museumslandschaft Hessen Kassel/ The Bridgeman Art Library)
Violin made by Nicolo Amati (© Museum of Fine Arts, Boston (Gift of Arthur E. Spiller, M.D)/ Lebrecht)
Organ from Notre-Dame de Valere (Bridgeman Art Library)
Clavemusicum Omnitonum (De Agostini Picture Library/ The Bridgeman Art Library)
Ballet costume worn by Louis XIV as Apollo (© Lebrecht Music & Arts Photo Library)
Title page of ‘The English Dancing Master’ by John Playford (© Lebrecht Music & Arts)
The first page of musical manuscript from Johann Sebastian Bach’s ‘Well-Tempered Clavichord’ (Getty Images)
‘The Military Prophet; or a Flight from Providence’, 1750 (© Museum of London)
Ranelagh Gardens, Interior of the Rotunda by Canaletto (Private Collection/ The Bridgeman Art Library)
Scene from Haydn’s opera ‘L’incontro improviso’ (© Lebrecht Music & Arts)
Paganini playing the violin (© Lebrecht Music & Arts)
Clara Wieck Schumann (The Art Archive/ Schumann birthplace/ Collection Dagli Orti)
IR 65 Johannes Kreisler (Staatsbibliothek Bamberg/ photo: Gerald Raab)
Caricature of Franz Liszt playing the piano (Archives Charmet/ The Bridgeman Art Library)
Engraving after Wilhelm von Kaulbach’s Battle of the Huns by Eugene Delacroix (© culture-images/Lebrecht)
The Standard Bearer by Hubert Lanzinger (Peter Newark Military Pictures/ The Bridgeman Art Library)
Third Reich stamps featuring Wagner operas, 1933
Advert for an appearance of The Fisk University Jubilee Singers (© Look and Learn/ Peter Jackson Collection/ The Bridgeman Art Library)
Four women dancers in Javanese Village, Paris Exposition, 1889 (© Niday Picture Library/ Alamy)
Narcisse, costume design by Leon Bakst for Sergei Diaghilev’s Ballets Russes, 1911 (© Leemage/ Lebrecht Music & Arts)
Vaslav Nijinsky in Claude Debussy’s L’Après Midi d’un Faune, Ballets Russes, seventh season (© De Agostini/ Lebrecht Music & Arts)
Paul McCartney in a studio to record ‘The Family Way’, November 1966 (Getty Images)
Steve Reich (Boosey and Hawkes/ ArenaPAL)
Paul Simon sings with Ladysmith Black Mambazo at Library of Congress Concert, Washington, DC (© Chris Kleponis/ epa/ Corbis)
Acknowledgements
GRATEFUL THANKS TO DAVID Jeffcock, Francis Hanly, Jan Younghusband, Paul Sommers, Caroline Page, Martin Cass, Will Bowen, Justine Field, Adam Barker, Tony Bannister, Colin Case, John Pritchard, Iain McCallum, all of whom helped create – with many other skilled colleagues – the BBC TV series, and for the book, Silvia Crompton, Becky Hardie, Cat Ledger, Caroline Chignell, Peter Bennett-Jones, John Evans, and for unerring support and musical encouragement during the period of this mammoth undertaking, Val, Daisy and Millie Fancourt, Kathryn Knight, Tim Brooke, Richard Paine, Richard King, Stephen Darlington, Darren Henley, Melvyn Bragg, Simon Halsey, Claire Jarvis, Pru Bouverie and my parents, Geoffrey and Marion Goodall.
Index
A | B | C | D | E
F | G | H | I | J
K | L | M | N | O
P | Q | R | S | T
U | V | W | X | Y | Z
Abbasid era 55
Adams, John 272, 273, 319
Adele 90, 146, 250
Aeschylus 148, 190
African-American music 179–80, 181, 182, 183, 184, 240–2
Al-Ándalus Caliphate 29–30, 52
Albarn, Damon 318
Albéniz, Isaac
Alfvén, Hugo: Swedish Rhapsody no.1 – Midsommarvaka 178, 246
al’Ud 29, 52, 53
Amati, Andrea 57
‘Amazing Grace’ 36–7, 39
Ambrosian chant 18
Anderson, Leroy: The Typewriter 269
Anglo-Celtic folk music 243, 307, 308, 316
Anglo-Saxons 17, 24
antiphony 71
anti-Semitism 152, 202–3, 217, 278
Apollinaire, Guillaume 268
Arcadelt, Jacques 67–8
Aristophanes 14
Armstrong, Louis 255, 256, 276, 278
Arne, Thomas 114, 128
Arnold, Samuel 134–5
Asche, Oscar: Chu-Chin-Chow 167
Ashwell, Thomas 65
Auric, Georges 320
Austria/Austrian Empire 1750–1850 see Beethoven, Ludwig van; Haydn, Josef; Mozart, Wolfgang Amadeus; Schubert, Franz 1850–1890 169, 174, 175 1890–1918 209, 213–18, 221, 223 see also names of Austrian composers
Avenpace (Ibn Bājja) 29 Figaro (play) 133
bebop 296–7, 297–8
Beethoven, Ludwig van 1, 5, 120, 122, 131, 132, 133, 137, 139–43, 144, 146, 147–8, 148–51, 151–2, 152–3, 155, 158, 159, 169, 172 ,174, 178, 226–7, 246 Coriolan 148 The Creatures of Prometheus 147 Egmont 148 King Stephen 148 ‘Mephisto’s Flea-song’ 147 Piano Sonata no. 8, Pathétique 140 string quartets 151 Symphony no. 3, Eroica 139, 141–2, 148, 172, 214, 271, 286 Symphony no. 5 127–8, 148, 149, 226–7 Symphony no. 6, Pastoral 133, 145, 147, 172 Symphony no. 7 149, 313 Symphony no. 8 313 Symphony no. 9, Choral 128, 149–50, 154, 321 Wellington’s Victory 148
Bellini, Vincenzo 163, 165
Beneventan chant 18
Benny Goodman Sextet 295
Benois, Alexandre 232, 233
Berg, Alban 216
Berlin, Irving 306
Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra 115, 280, 281
Berlioz, Hector 137, 148, 150–1, 153–4, 160–4, 194
Bernstein, Elmer 174, 306
Bernstein, Leonard 183, 216, 272, 276, 306, 314–15, 321
Berry, Chuck: ‘Roll over Beethoven’ 310
Bertolotti, Gasparo di (‘Gasparo da Salò’) 57
Beyoncé: If I Were a Boy’ 304
Bhangra 320
Biber, Heinrich 88–9, 90, 95
Billy Eckstine and his Orchestra 297–8
Birck, Wenzel 130
Bizet, Georges 230, 251, 260
Blake, Eubie 255
Blakey, Art 298, 299
Bliss, Arthur 274
Blitzstein, Marc: The Cradle Will Rock 276
Blondie: ‘Rapture’ 319
Blues 242–4, 246
Blur 318
Boccherini, Luigi 253–4
Bologne, Joseph 134
Bonaparte, Napoleon see Napoleon Bonaparte
Borodin, Alexandre 171, 232, 233, 235
Boughton, Rutland 204
Boulez, Pierre 309–10, 313–14
Bourke, Lisa 292
bow 53, 55
Bowie, David 276, 317
Boyce, William 128
Brackett, Joseph: ‘Simple Gifts’ 290
Bragg, Melvyn: The Hired Man 276
Brahms, Johannes 157, 175, 178, 205, 206, 227, 246
brass instruments 10, 128
Brecht, Bertolt 274–5, 276, 277
Brenston, Jackie: ‘Rocket 88’ 299, 300
Britain/England early period 17, 18, 24 1450–1650 48–9, 53, 54, 58–9, 61, 65–6, 67 1650–1750 75, 108–12, 113–15, 116–17 1750–1850 118–19, 123–4, 134–5, 145 1850–1890 179, 189–90, 205–6 1890–1918 209–10, 230, 240–1, 247–8 1918–1945 249–50, 254, 289, 292, 293 1945–2012 307–9 see also names of British composers
Britten, Benjamin 216, 217, 289, 293, 314
Broadway 255, 265, 266, 315
Broadwood, John 140
Bruch, Max: Serenade in A minor 246
Bruckner, Anton 206
Brudavaelte Lurs 10
&nbs
p; ‘Bryng us in good ale’ 50
Burleigh, Harry Thacker 180, 182
Busch, Fritz 247
Butterworth, George 247
Buxtehude, Dietrich 108
Byrd, William 59, 61, 66
Byzantine Empire 17, 55
cadence 36, 37, 47, 86
Cage, John 314
‘cakewalks’ 244
Calloway, Cab: ‘Jitter Bug’ 297
Carey, Mariah 45
Carissimi, Giacomo 112–13, 114
Carlos, Wendy 321
Carnatic classical music 34
carols 49–51
Caruso, Enrico 239
castrati 110
Catherine de Medici 57, 59–60, 79
Catholic Church see Roman Catholic Church
Cavalli, Francesco 79, 110
Caxton, William 49
Chaconne 89–90
Chaliapin, Feodor 233
Chaplin, Charlie 255, 267, 270, 279, 320
Cherubini, Luigi 158, 164
Chicago 244, 245, 249, 256
China 7, 12, 18, 55, 101
Chopin, Frederic 94, 155, 157–9, 175, 215, 233, 323
chorales 63–4, 104, 107
chords 28, 34, 36–40, 41, 64, 69–70, 85–6, 86–7, 88, 90–2, 125–8, 185–7, 199, 221–2, 229
Christian, Charlie 195–6, 295–6, 298
chromaticism 198–9
Circle of Fifths 90–2
citole 54
cittern 54
clocks, pendulum 76
Coates, Eric: ‘Calling All Workers’ 289
Cocteau, Jean 267, 268
Cohen, Leonard: ‘Hallelujah’ 264
Coldplay 1, 318
Coleridge-Taylor, Samuel 183, 241–2
Colman, George: Inkle and Yarico 134–5
concerto 60, 81, 82, 94–5
concerto grosso 84
consorts 57, 58–9, 82–3
contredanse 259, 260, 264
Cooke, Sam: ‘A Change is Gonna Come’ 135
Copland, Aaron 216, 289–90, 306
Coprario, Giovanni (John Cooper) 78–9
Corelli, Arcangelo 81–6, 91, 94, 95, 122
Corigliano, John 216
Cornysh, William 48–9, 51
counterpoint 104–7, 120
Counter-Reformation 64, 66, 73
Couperin, François 107–8
‘Coventry Carol’ 51
Cristofori, Bartolomeo 96
csárdás 176, 178–9
The Story of Music: From Babylon to the Beatles: How Music Has Shaped Civilization Page 37
