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Very Short Introductions #002
Music: A Very Short Introduction
What is music? How is it constructed? How is it consumed? Why do you enjoy it at all? In Music: A Very Short Introduction, Nicholas Cook invites us to really think about music and the role it plays in our lives and our ears. Drawing on a number of accessible examples, the author prompts us to call on our own musical experiences in order to think more critically about the roles of the performers and the listener, about music as a commodity and an experience, what it means to understand music, and the values we ascribe to it.
This very short introduction, written with both humor and flair, begins with a sampling of music as human activity and then goes on to consider the slippery phenomenon of how music has become an object of thought. Covering not only Western and classical music, Cook touches on all types from rock to Indonesian music and beyond. Incorporating musical forms from every continent, Music will make enjoyable reading for beginner and expert alike.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
This very short introduction, written with both humor and flair, begins with a sampling of music as human activity and then goes on to consider the slippery phenomenon of how music has become an object of thought. Covering not only Western and classical music, Cook touches on all types from rock to Indonesian music and beyond. Incorporating musical forms from every continent, Music will make enjoyable reading for beginner and expert alike.
About the Series: Combining authority with wit, accessibility, and style, Very Short Introductions offer an introduction to some of life's most interesting topics. Written by experts for the newcomer, they demonstrate the finest contemporary thinking about the central problems and issues in hundreds of key topics, from philosophy to Freud, quantum theory to Islam.
143 pages, Paperback
First published July 23, 1998
103 people are currently reading
2471 people want to read
About the author
Nicholas Cook
41 books16 followersNicholas Cook is a British musicologist and writer. In 2009 he became the 1684 Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge, where he is a Fellow of Darwin College. Previously, he was professorial research fellow at Royal Holloway, University of London, where he directed the Arts and Humanities Research Council Research Centre for the History and Analysis of Recorded Music (CHARM). He has also taught at the University of Hong Kong, University of Sydney, and University of Southampton, where he served as dean of arts.
He is a former editor of the Journal of the Royal Musical Association and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2001.
He is a former editor of the Journal of the Royal Musical Association and was elected a Fellow of the British Academy in 2001.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 92 reviews
March 4, 2015
Not much discussion on music itself. Most of the time is spent on explaining how perceptions of music has changed since the times of Beethoven, especially in terms of the role of the authority figure in music production, delivery and appreciation. The focus is clearly to advance the author’s own views on how music should be perceived. Which would have been fine of a specialized discussion, but not for a supposedly descriptive work that announces itself as an introduction to music in general, and not to some of the charged political discussions inside it. Misleading VSI, this one.
July 23, 2012
It is important to have one thing in mind before buying/borrowing this book: If you want a book about music that will teach you about notation, scales, chords or sound frequencies, then stay away from this one. This book is about music in context, and also about music and philosophy (and, to my delight, music and language) and whether you actually can listen to music in a context-free fashion at all. There is an unfortunate confusion (albeit kind of small) with the views of the earlier and the later Wittgenstein, but apart from that the author poses interesting questions about music and representation. (What does music represent? Does music represent something by nature, or does our language used to describe the music also illuminate a certain representation?)
I would have enjoyed a broader spectrum of composers taken into account in this book, as well as some more thoughts on not only modern musicology but also on musical styles (minimalism, serialism, spectral music and so on). There is a lot about Beethoven here. A lot of it is interesting, and I like how the author investigates the social construct of the imagined composer genius that receives musical pieces from above and doesn't have to edit an already finished product (Beethoven were repeatedly revising his musical scores, and composed music by the piano and not only at the desk), but towards the end of the book I would have enjoyed a few words about Glass, Pärt, Feldman, Cage or other important composers. The book gets a bit repetitive; Cook has some important things to say about music and context but I think he shouldn't have done it so much at length for this series. A broader approach would be more in style with the other Very Short Introduction books. (Maybe he wrote the book for other purposes, and then sold it to this Oxford series, but my opinion still stands since I believe the book would have been even more interesting had it been more diverese.)
All in all, still, this is a thought-provoking little book that you should read if you are interesting in music, philosophy and social relations.
I would have enjoyed a broader spectrum of composers taken into account in this book, as well as some more thoughts on not only modern musicology but also on musical styles (minimalism, serialism, spectral music and so on). There is a lot about Beethoven here. A lot of it is interesting, and I like how the author investigates the social construct of the imagined composer genius that receives musical pieces from above and doesn't have to edit an already finished product (Beethoven were repeatedly revising his musical scores, and composed music by the piano and not only at the desk), but towards the end of the book I would have enjoyed a few words about Glass, Pärt, Feldman, Cage or other important composers. The book gets a bit repetitive; Cook has some important things to say about music and context but I think he shouldn't have done it so much at length for this series. A broader approach would be more in style with the other Very Short Introduction books. (Maybe he wrote the book for other purposes, and then sold it to this Oxford series, but my opinion still stands since I believe the book would have been even more interesting had it been more diverese.)
All in all, still, this is a thought-provoking little book that you should read if you are interesting in music, philosophy and social relations.
October 23, 2018
"But when we speak of music we are really talking about a multiplicity of activities and experiences; it is only the fact that we call them all 'music' that makes it seeem obvious they belong together."
-- Nicholas Cook, Music: VSI
Vol N° 2 of Oxford's Very Short Introductins series.
'Music: A Very Short Introduction' is one of the very first books in Oxford's series. It is both MORE and LESS (not to be confused with more or less) than what I was expecting. It was more of an academic, post-modern, post-colonial, Marxist look at music. Since the Western Canon is the elephant in the room for any discussion of Music, it gets most of the attention, but Cook also spends a lot of time wandering around the idea of Music as cultural system, language, and representation of culture and society. He also explores critical theory, musicology, music theory, and the potential for music as a means of cross-cultural understanding and insight. There was a part of me (the part that will occassionally flirt with Wittgenstein AND John Cage) that enjoyed the academic and cerebral approach to understanding Music.
There was also a part of me that wanted to tightly wrap a brass trumpet around Cook's neck. I don't think these books need to be easy, but part of the issue with academics in many fields is their tendency to write for their own little group (the less of my more AND less). I'm not sure this book would be of interest for many beyond a MUSIC501 (Introducton to Musicology) course at Duke, etc. I guess for me this type of a book, as an amatuer music listener, would be more Schönberg and less Mozart. It is aimed at the few and not the many.
-- Nicholas Cook, Music: VSI
Vol N° 2 of Oxford's Very Short Introductins series.
'Music: A Very Short Introduction' is one of the very first books in Oxford's series. It is both MORE and LESS (not to be confused with more or less) than what I was expecting. It was more of an academic, post-modern, post-colonial, Marxist look at music. Since the Western Canon is the elephant in the room for any discussion of Music, it gets most of the attention, but Cook also spends a lot of time wandering around the idea of Music as cultural system, language, and representation of culture and society. He also explores critical theory, musicology, music theory, and the potential for music as a means of cross-cultural understanding and insight. There was a part of me (the part that will occassionally flirt with Wittgenstein AND John Cage) that enjoyed the academic and cerebral approach to understanding Music.
There was also a part of me that wanted to tightly wrap a brass trumpet around Cook's neck. I don't think these books need to be easy, but part of the issue with academics in many fields is their tendency to write for their own little group (the less of my more AND less). I'm not sure this book would be of interest for many beyond a MUSIC501 (Introducton to Musicology) course at Duke, etc. I guess for me this type of a book, as an amatuer music listener, would be more Schönberg and less Mozart. It is aimed at the few and not the many.
January 1, 2017
This short, immensely readable book was first published in 1998 in the UK and then re-published in 2010 (with some additional material) by Sterling Publishing Company (NY) as part of its “A Brief Insight” series. It provides a fascinating discussion about music as it has developed in the West during the 20th-century.
Most interesting is the line of inquiry taken: our understanding of music in the West stems from what Cook calls the ‘Beethoven Phenomenon’ of the 19th-century which more or less established what might be meant by the term ‘great music’. The 20th-century, however, with its advances in instrumental and recording technology, and the increasing availability of wider concepts than merely European interpretations (making music from all over the world readily accessible, for example) permitted the questioning and even overturning of the previous century’s aesthetic assumptions. By the turn of the 21st-century, themes such as the spirit realm, of Nature or Music speaking through the genius composer had become foreign.
Cook examines concepts developed particularly as a result of the increased academic studies (such as the re-discovery of ‘early music’, for example, or cultural and multicultural ‘musics’, the use of music in politics and advertising, and the more recent considerations relating to gender studies) in a series of chapters relating to specific subject matters: music as an ‘imaginary object’; music as a matter of ‘representation’; the influence of academic analysis in the discipline; and problems of ‘gender’ and interpretation. None of this is presented in any difficult-to-understand way — indeed, the very opposite is the case.
The discussion about Western musical notation (found in the chapter on music as an imaginary object) I found to be particularly interesting: the fact that the notation of the earliest music we have is not so precise as one might think — that we really do not have any truly good idea as to how such notation was ‘interpreted’ and/or performed, let alone how they might have been heard and interpreted by their listeners; and the fact that for some musical cultures even today, such ‘notation’ may not even be possible in any practical sense of the word. It makes one re-think any preconceptions in this regard…
In the end, all of this seems to result in the ‘conclusion’ that music can have both good (if you’re optimistic) and bad (if you’re pessimistic) influences, and that therefore we have to be engaged actively with it. Two quotes from the end of the book: “…music is not a phenomenon of the natural world but a human construction. It is, par excellence, the artifice which disguises itself as nature. That is what makes it not only a source of sensory pleasure and an object of intellectual speculation, but also the ultimate hidden persuader.”; and “We need to understand [music’s] working, its charms, both to protect ourselves against them and, paradoxically, to enjoy them to the full. And in order to do that, we need to be able not just to hear music but to read it too: not in literal, notational terms, to be sure, but for its significance as an intrinsic part of culture, of society, of you and me.”
I have quoted these statements because, having read this book after Kevin Kelly’s 2010 “What Technology Wants’ and Denis Dutton’s 2009 “The Art Instinct” I feel that perhaps both these authors present alternative understandings relating to art and technology, and the interested reader might find them of particular interest. Cook’s 1998/2010 book limits itself to considerations of music only, but it appears to me that a rather comprehensive view is taken of the subject, and presented in a way that any reader will find informative, instructive and thought-provoking, and best of all, very easy to read.
Most interesting is the line of inquiry taken: our understanding of music in the West stems from what Cook calls the ‘Beethoven Phenomenon’ of the 19th-century which more or less established what might be meant by the term ‘great music’. The 20th-century, however, with its advances in instrumental and recording technology, and the increasing availability of wider concepts than merely European interpretations (making music from all over the world readily accessible, for example) permitted the questioning and even overturning of the previous century’s aesthetic assumptions. By the turn of the 21st-century, themes such as the spirit realm, of Nature or Music speaking through the genius composer had become foreign.
Cook examines concepts developed particularly as a result of the increased academic studies (such as the re-discovery of ‘early music’, for example, or cultural and multicultural ‘musics’, the use of music in politics and advertising, and the more recent considerations relating to gender studies) in a series of chapters relating to specific subject matters: music as an ‘imaginary object’; music as a matter of ‘representation’; the influence of academic analysis in the discipline; and problems of ‘gender’ and interpretation. None of this is presented in any difficult-to-understand way — indeed, the very opposite is the case.
The discussion about Western musical notation (found in the chapter on music as an imaginary object) I found to be particularly interesting: the fact that the notation of the earliest music we have is not so precise as one might think — that we really do not have any truly good idea as to how such notation was ‘interpreted’ and/or performed, let alone how they might have been heard and interpreted by their listeners; and the fact that for some musical cultures even today, such ‘notation’ may not even be possible in any practical sense of the word. It makes one re-think any preconceptions in this regard…
In the end, all of this seems to result in the ‘conclusion’ that music can have both good (if you’re optimistic) and bad (if you’re pessimistic) influences, and that therefore we have to be engaged actively with it. Two quotes from the end of the book: “…music is not a phenomenon of the natural world but a human construction. It is, par excellence, the artifice which disguises itself as nature. That is what makes it not only a source of sensory pleasure and an object of intellectual speculation, but also the ultimate hidden persuader.”; and “We need to understand [music’s] working, its charms, both to protect ourselves against them and, paradoxically, to enjoy them to the full. And in order to do that, we need to be able not just to hear music but to read it too: not in literal, notational terms, to be sure, but for its significance as an intrinsic part of culture, of society, of you and me.”
I have quoted these statements because, having read this book after Kevin Kelly’s 2010 “What Technology Wants’ and Denis Dutton’s 2009 “The Art Instinct” I feel that perhaps both these authors present alternative understandings relating to art and technology, and the interested reader might find them of particular interest. Cook’s 1998/2010 book limits itself to considerations of music only, but it appears to me that a rather comprehensive view is taken of the subject, and presented in a way that any reader will find informative, instructive and thought-provoking, and best of all, very easy to read.
June 24, 2011
Music is endless. That Oxford University Press thought it could make even the smallest progress towards explaining it in their series A Very Short Introduction initially seems ridiculous. But instead of trying to describe the entire history of human expression through sound, Nicholas Cook's little book focuses on identifying and challenging the preconceptions that Western readers might ascribe to the term "music".
What preconceptions, for example? The distinction between musicians and non-musicians is a product of Western culture; in other cultures, all members of a community may participate. The phenomenon of classical music where a core repertoire is venerated like objects in a museum arose in the 19th century. That music must spring from the heart, must be "authentic" arose with the 20th-century ascendency of popular music.
The last 50 pages are a description of the field of musicology, especially the shakeups of the 1980s that led musicologists to believe any writing on music is inextricably biased. The music and gender debate (e.g. McClary's claim that Beethoven's Ninth expresses the desires of a rapist) closes the book.
Well, Cook's point that there is more to music than a typical English-language reader might think is all well and good, but I wish he had gone on to say something about the possibilities of music outside our preconceptions. At least a mention of non-Western scales that might sound dissonant and grating to us but smooth and pleasant within their native culture, or the frequent link between music and tribal ritual. There are some factual errors (like saying that György Ligeti was born in Hungary) and distortions like the myth of serial tyranny after World War II.
Readers with an wide interest in music probably won't find much here. The key point is made just a few pages in and from there it's simply repeated.
What preconceptions, for example? The distinction between musicians and non-musicians is a product of Western culture; in other cultures, all members of a community may participate. The phenomenon of classical music where a core repertoire is venerated like objects in a museum arose in the 19th century. That music must spring from the heart, must be "authentic" arose with the 20th-century ascendency of popular music.
The last 50 pages are a description of the field of musicology, especially the shakeups of the 1980s that led musicologists to believe any writing on music is inextricably biased. The music and gender debate (e.g. McClary's claim that Beethoven's Ninth expresses the desires of a rapist) closes the book.
Well, Cook's point that there is more to music than a typical English-language reader might think is all well and good, but I wish he had gone on to say something about the possibilities of music outside our preconceptions. At least a mention of non-Western scales that might sound dissonant and grating to us but smooth and pleasant within their native culture, or the frequent link between music and tribal ritual. There are some factual errors (like saying that György Ligeti was born in Hungary) and distortions like the myth of serial tyranny after World War II.
Readers with an wide interest in music probably won't find much here. The key point is made just a few pages in and from there it's simply repeated.
November 16, 2019
A very good little book with an interesting, and quite original, discussion about music.
Of course, there is a huge academic perspective to this book, which makes me think that perhaps that’s the reason its reviews and ratings are so low.
Of course, there is a huge academic perspective to this book, which makes me think that perhaps that’s the reason its reviews and ratings are so low.
November 18, 2020
Maybe this is what dancing about architecture feels like.
June 17, 2023
Focuses on musicology, especially the contingent history of norms. Relies on a confused and vague anti-realist and relativist hermeneutics.
Read
November 10, 2021This was one of my back-up plans for #beyourserendipity, paired with LMS and also a book I picked up to cross one of my impossible list goal of "reading a book that is purely out of random interest". Despite how short this book is though, it took me a while to finish it.
Like a piece that crescendos and decrescendosthis is me trying my best guys my interest in this fluctuated every time I picked it up. Subjectively I find this an OKAY read, perhaps due to my assumption that this was about music theory or learning about music and/or playing it, that I was distracted by how much it is...not.
In hindsight I should've known better, with the word "Oxford" on the book cover, that this was a more academic read leaning towards a brief analysis of music history, academia, culture and representations. Nevertheless, I can say as someone who doesn't have any musical knowledge at all, I did find myself nodding and following along to what the author is trying to say. Basically it was an okay experience, I got lost and I got back - like how music can get you.
At the same time though I don't think it deserved just 2 stars (considering who I am as a person) because I feel like someone who has more knowledge or are in the actual field would enjoy it more than I do.
Like a piece that crescendos and decrescendos
In hindsight I should've known better, with the word "Oxford" on the book cover, that this was a more academic read leaning towards a brief analysis of music history, academia, culture and representations. Nevertheless, I can say as someone who doesn't have any musical knowledge at all, I did find myself nodding and following along to what the author is trying to say. Basically it was an okay experience, I got lost and I got back - like how music can get you.
At the same time though I don't think it deserved just 2 stars (considering who I am as a person) because I feel like someone who has more knowledge or are in the actual field would enjoy it more than I do.
May 17, 2019
Nicholas Cook's sense of humor and the overall tone of this work make it different from other books in this series. Particularly his humor takes some getting used to, at least for me. If Cook were an Oxford professor in a British crime show, he'd be one of Morse's top suspects. Much of the book is about unlearning "Western" assumptions about how we think about music, or a kind of history of how the "West" thinks about music, maybe. I would say post-post-modern but that makes it sound like impenetrable gobbledygook when it's the opposite of that, so clearly written that it all seems kind of obvious. In fact, at a few points in the book I was thinking, "this is useless," but I kept returning to it mainly because the other books I am reading are kind of depressing and thinking about music is nice. The final two chapters are the best, especially the one about gender and music.
June 21, 2012
Such a clever little book--Cook goes against tradition to imagine a better way of inviting audiences back to classical usic. This book is not for academics; it's for peope who love music. He may be one of the only writers trying to save the profession (and with a great, dry wit, too).
September 23, 2024
It must be difficult to condense a cohesive introduction to music into 120 pages. Cook's efforts are interesting and offer new insights into musicology. But if someone arrived on Planet Earth and wanted someone to explain music to him, then this book wouldn't be the answer. Which is perhaps the point that the author was making right from the start.
Read
October 29, 2024Pensumboka som lå på hylla et år var godt å få lest ferdig.
July 30, 2021
Es un libro muy interesante aunque para mí le sobran le sobran algunos subapartados del último capítulo donde habla solo de suposiciones y teorías.
October 17, 2019
Un libro interesante sobre... musicología. No tanto sobre música, sino sobre formas de apreciar, estudiar y entender la música.
July 12, 2022
The author sets out his aims very early in the piece: He "wants to spread out a map that all music could, in principle be put onto".....To talk about music in general is to talk, not about staves and quavers but about what music means.....I love the quote, attributed to Elvis Costello, that "Writing about music is like dancing about architecture". (So why am I reading this book?)
He talks about the role of authors and interpreters of music and points out that classical music has promoted its performers as stars, just as in pop music. And he suggests that the main message of the book is "that we have inherited from the past a way of thinking about music that cannot do justice to the diversity of practices and experiences which that small word 'music' signifies in today's world".
Since Beethoven's time it has become the normal expectation that great music should continue to be performed, long after the death of the composer. (That wasn't always so). There is an intuition that music is a kind of a window into an esoteric spiritual world ...dating back to Pythagoras. Today, entering a concert hall is like entering a cathedral. Within the inner sanctum a strict code of audience etiquette prevails. And the confident distinction between high and low art (in music) still persists in the standard format of musical history or appreciation Textbooks.....totally eurocentric ...ignoring the contribution of other cultures..Asian, African. Though since the 1980's a sea change has taken hold in the academic disciplines of Musicology.
He suggests that all descriptions of music involve metaphor and when we study music, we aren't just studying something separate from us, something 'out there': there is a sense in which we are studying ourselves too.
The history of music has been very much about the constructionist view of art ...that the important part is the composing and performing but Cook draws attention to the "reception-based' approaches to music. He suggests that the two approaches have to work in harmony. But the reception based approach is inclusive rather than exclusive; that we can best understand music by being in the middle of it.
Beethoven wanted to produce a complete and authoritative edition of his music but this never eventuated. A consequence for his music, and virtually all the composers, is that their work was copied and reproduced with errors or corrected and redrafted so that what we have today is more or less a bit of a guess at what the composer intended.
A historical performance movement emerged where the objective was to perform music the way it was originally performed for/by the composers (eg with harpsichord rather than piano) but in most conservatories these days you can hear historical and unhistorical performances of Bach....it's just become a fact of life.
There's an interesting mention of ethnomusicologists working in Ethiopia with the Beta Israel community who consider their origins to be Jewish but the ethnomusicologist's study of their liturgy placed them as of Christian origins. It became a political question rather than a musical issue whether to reveal this.And with modern critical theory analysis of musicology one really big issue has been gender and music. Women were allowed to play music (in some societies) but certainly not encouraged to compose it or play professionally. And there are arguments that strong, assertive music is masculine and soft more flexible music is feminine......and gay composers write gay music etc. As Cook says, "You can read the same stereotypes into nineteenth century composers Beethoven and Schubert". And interpretations of music open up its ability to function as an arena for the negotiation of gender politics, and indeed, of other personal and interpersonal values.
I thought when I first read this book that it was easily understood. Yes, Cook writes clearly in a way that is easy to understand but on re-reading, I've realised that it's very difficult to capture the essence of what he's written. There are just so many different threads running there. He ends up (as he'd begun) with a kind of warning about the seductive power of music (though advertising) to seduce us. Hence advocates maintaining vigilance and an eternal critical attitude towards music and its ideologies.
Four stars from me.
He talks about the role of authors and interpreters of music and points out that classical music has promoted its performers as stars, just as in pop music. And he suggests that the main message of the book is "that we have inherited from the past a way of thinking about music that cannot do justice to the diversity of practices and experiences which that small word 'music' signifies in today's world".
Since Beethoven's time it has become the normal expectation that great music should continue to be performed, long after the death of the composer. (That wasn't always so). There is an intuition that music is a kind of a window into an esoteric spiritual world ...dating back to Pythagoras. Today, entering a concert hall is like entering a cathedral. Within the inner sanctum a strict code of audience etiquette prevails. And the confident distinction between high and low art (in music) still persists in the standard format of musical history or appreciation Textbooks.....totally eurocentric ...ignoring the contribution of other cultures..Asian, African. Though since the 1980's a sea change has taken hold in the academic disciplines of Musicology.
He suggests that all descriptions of music involve metaphor and when we study music, we aren't just studying something separate from us, something 'out there': there is a sense in which we are studying ourselves too.
The history of music has been very much about the constructionist view of art ...that the important part is the composing and performing but Cook draws attention to the "reception-based' approaches to music. He suggests that the two approaches have to work in harmony. But the reception based approach is inclusive rather than exclusive; that we can best understand music by being in the middle of it.
Beethoven wanted to produce a complete and authoritative edition of his music but this never eventuated. A consequence for his music, and virtually all the composers, is that their work was copied and reproduced with errors or corrected and redrafted so that what we have today is more or less a bit of a guess at what the composer intended.
A historical performance movement emerged where the objective was to perform music the way it was originally performed for/by the composers (eg with harpsichord rather than piano) but in most conservatories these days you can hear historical and unhistorical performances of Bach....it's just become a fact of life.
There's an interesting mention of ethnomusicologists working in Ethiopia with the Beta Israel community who consider their origins to be Jewish but the ethnomusicologist's study of their liturgy placed them as of Christian origins. It became a political question rather than a musical issue whether to reveal this.And with modern critical theory analysis of musicology one really big issue has been gender and music. Women were allowed to play music (in some societies) but certainly not encouraged to compose it or play professionally. And there are arguments that strong, assertive music is masculine and soft more flexible music is feminine......and gay composers write gay music etc. As Cook says, "You can read the same stereotypes into nineteenth century composers Beethoven and Schubert". And interpretations of music open up its ability to function as an arena for the negotiation of gender politics, and indeed, of other personal and interpersonal values.
I thought when I first read this book that it was easily understood. Yes, Cook writes clearly in a way that is easy to understand but on re-reading, I've realised that it's very difficult to capture the essence of what he's written. There are just so many different threads running there. He ends up (as he'd begun) with a kind of warning about the seductive power of music (though advertising) to seduce us. Hence advocates maintaining vigilance and an eternal critical attitude towards music and its ideologies.
Four stars from me.
December 14, 2014
First of all, as other reviewers have noted, this is not in fact an introduction to music. Can there even be such a thing actually, a written introduction to music?
This question is actually a good starting point for this book, and if your answer is "of course there can be, don't be silly", then you'll probably be disappointed by Cook's little book. If your answer is "don't be pedantic, obviously the first introduction is through sound but we need words to make sense of it" you'll be happy to find out that Cook isn't as wise-assly pedantic as I was just here - in fact, he appreciates your critical instinct and hopes to open you up to new ways of reasoning about music.
The main takeaway from the book is its enthusiasm for the participative aspect of music, music's ability to construct meaning (as opposed to simply reflecting it). Cook cautions us not to slip into a fully constructivist utopian mode, seeking a sort of academic middle ground, radical (esp. by late-XX century standards) yet realistic. And he does play a little loose with the facts (this is a "short introduction", not an authoritative treatise), which usually helps with the book's readability.
I've been pretty favourable so far, so why only 3 stars? Well, as helpful as I agree the book must be to many people, I feel like the practical imperative is missing. It's like "OK, we agree that composing/performing/discerning music are all equally important and we should blur the lines between them and get everyone involved, but what are we doing about it?" Arguably it's unfair to ask this of an introductory book, but hey, the book made me do it!
I find myself more interested in how musicians grapple with these things, or how they perceive other musicians, than the musicological perspective, as nuanced and insightful as it might be in this book for example. Which isn't to say I'm giving up on it or on musicology, not just yet. I still recommend this book, but it may not exactly change your life.
This question is actually a good starting point for this book, and if your answer is "of course there can be, don't be silly", then you'll probably be disappointed by Cook's little book. If your answer is "don't be pedantic, obviously the first introduction is through sound but we need words to make sense of it" you'll be happy to find out that Cook isn't as wise-assly pedantic as I was just here - in fact, he appreciates your critical instinct and hopes to open you up to new ways of reasoning about music.
The main takeaway from the book is its enthusiasm for the participative aspect of music, music's ability to construct meaning (as opposed to simply reflecting it). Cook cautions us not to slip into a fully constructivist utopian mode, seeking a sort of academic middle ground, radical (esp. by late-XX century standards) yet realistic. And he does play a little loose with the facts (this is a "short introduction", not an authoritative treatise), which usually helps with the book's readability.
I've been pretty favourable so far, so why only 3 stars? Well, as helpful as I agree the book must be to many people, I feel like the practical imperative is missing. It's like "OK, we agree that composing/performing/discerning music are all equally important and we should blur the lines between them and get everyone involved, but what are we doing about it?" Arguably it's unfair to ask this of an introductory book, but hey, the book made me do it!
I find myself more interested in how musicians grapple with these things, or how they perceive other musicians, than the musicological perspective, as nuanced and insightful as it might be in this book for example. Which isn't to say I'm giving up on it or on musicology, not just yet. I still recommend this book, but it may not exactly change your life.
August 24, 2015
Be kind, this is my first review on goodreads! :-)
Objective Book Rating: 4/5
Personal Rating: 4/5
Book Cover Rating: Considering this is part of a larger series of short introductions by Oxford, I won’t bother rating the cover.
There’s nothing I like more than a book that does exactly what it promises, which, in this case, is provide a very short introduction to music. It was a quick, easy, informative read. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in music, regardless of experience or prior knowledge on the subject. However, it may be worth mentioning that someone who is well versed (lol, accidental pun!) in music probably won't find anything new here. Remember it's intended as an introduction, it's not meant to be a definitive guide to all things music!
Objective Book Rating: 4/5
Personal Rating: 4/5
Book Cover Rating: Considering this is part of a larger series of short introductions by Oxford, I won’t bother rating the cover.
There’s nothing I like more than a book that does exactly what it promises, which, in this case, is provide a very short introduction to music. It was a quick, easy, informative read. I recommend this book to anyone who has an interest in music, regardless of experience or prior knowledge on the subject. However, it may be worth mentioning that someone who is well versed (lol, accidental pun!) in music probably won't find anything new here. Remember it's intended as an introduction, it's not meant to be a definitive guide to all things music!
July 31, 2015
Far from being a general overview of music history, this book challenges the reader to think about music from different perspectives. Can we really understand "music" at all, or are we simply privy to a small portion of what is available, seen through the lens of our own experiences? How do we determine what pieces of music (and, by the way, why are they only "pieces"?) enter the canon of "masterworks," largely occupied by male composers throughout history? And is music an agent of change, or does it follow pre-set ideals?
This small volume is filled with big ideas, and questions many of the accepted practices in music education. I am still digesting this one; I'm sure that I will be returning to it in the future.
This small volume is filled with big ideas, and questions many of the accepted practices in music education. I am still digesting this one; I'm sure that I will be returning to it in the future.
April 28, 2018
This could be titled "Musicology: A Very Short Introduction" as it isn't about the history of music so much as about the social impact of how we look at music. It covers a lot of ground for its 120 pages, from the cult of Beethoven to gender issues in music, ideas of performance vs. composition etc.
Its a really interesting introduction to a way of looking at music that most of us are not aware of in our daily lives, problematizing how people listen to and appreciate music and how the way in which we do this is so intertwined with our social and historical context. It's very good at showing how music both in terms of performance, composition and appreciation is a socially constructed phenomena.
Its a really interesting introduction to a way of looking at music that most of us are not aware of in our daily lives, problematizing how people listen to and appreciate music and how the way in which we do this is so intertwined with our social and historical context. It's very good at showing how music both in terms of performance, composition and appreciation is a socially constructed phenomena.
April 22, 2021
Not really an introduction; more the claim that music is culture, and culture is really complicated and confusing. There's lots of different types of cultures and so many variables within each one that we get lost trying to understand it. The text mainly consists of anecdotes, assertions, and the occasional argument to that effect.
Music being in every culture makes it easier to understand, not harder. So too that it has so many different forms, so many different uses, so many different histories -- in fact, it would be much easier to list the forms, uses, and histories that music doesn't relate to at all: Not a lot.
An adoring ode to confusion. Look elsewhere for elucidation and introduction.
Music being in every culture makes it easier to understand, not harder. So too that it has so many different forms, so many different uses, so many different histories -- in fact, it would be much easier to list the forms, uses, and histories that music doesn't relate to at all: Not a lot.
An adoring ode to confusion. Look elsewhere for elucidation and introduction.
March 17, 2025
A tratti interessante in alcuni brevi passaggi, ma in generale è molyo discontinuo, ripetitivo e saturo di ragionamenti filosofici che un musicista può trascurare senza nessun tipo di problema. Pensavo si trattasse di un libro sulla musica con più connotazioni tecniche e storiche piuttosto che una carrellata di sofismi ed analisi sociali che possono risultare molto noiose (limite mio, assolutamente). Ammetto che le ultime pagine neanche le ho letto, mi stavo bloccando ed ho lasciato perdere. Lo ricorderò come uno di quei pochissimi libri che non sono riuscito a terminare. Chissà, magari più avanti lo rileggerò e ne coglieró qualche significato nascosto che ora mi è inaccessibile.
December 1, 2015
Like a great piece of music, it's difficult to describe exactly why this book is so good. It's not so much about music itself so much as the historical/cultural/social reception of music. But through a wealth of examples, Cook illuminates the importance of how and why we listen to music in intriguing and insightful ways.
Chapter 1: Musical Values
Chapter 2: Back to Beethoven
Chapter 3: A State of Crisis?
Chapter 4: An Imaginary Object
Chapter 5: A Matter of Representation
Chapter 6: Music and the Academy
Chapter 7: Music and Gender
Chapter 1: Musical Values
Chapter 2: Back to Beethoven
Chapter 3: A State of Crisis?
Chapter 4: An Imaginary Object
Chapter 5: A Matter of Representation
Chapter 6: Music and the Academy
Chapter 7: Music and Gender
December 14, 2015
Started well but lost some steam mid way through. It claims to cover all types of music but has hardly any references to any non-western tradition. When started making claims that Schubert's music was too feminine for him to be considered a true male I had enough.
Glad I bought it a discounted price. You get what you pay for.
The only note made:
In Pythagoras times music was seen as a representation of cosmic harmony. By the eighteen century, it was seen as capable of capturing feelings. It can reveal to us through the art of composer new areas of perception.
Glad I bought it a discounted price. You get what you pay for.
The only note made:
In Pythagoras times music was seen as a representation of cosmic harmony. By the eighteen century, it was seen as capable of capturing feelings. It can reveal to us through the art of composer new areas of perception.
January 29, 2016
This is good.
It is more about Classical Music though.
Musicology, practice seeing music from different views and it asks the question is Music - classical - in crisis? and I liked the answer
A good short introduction to music.
Side note:
The first thing I remember hearing in my life, was a sound coming out of a baby comb my mother used to brush my hair with; and it was Beethoven's Für Elise, it will always has a special place in my life <3 :)
It is more about Classical Music though.
Musicology, practice seeing music from different views and it asks the question is Music - classical - in crisis? and I liked the answer
if there is a crisis in classical music, it is not in the music.
A good short introduction to music.
Side note:
The first thing I remember hearing in my life, was a sound coming out of a baby comb my mother used to brush my hair with; and it was Beethoven's Für Elise, it will always has a special place in my life <3 :)
July 6, 2021
Excellent book which challenges our ways of understanding music. Easy to read yet thought-provoking prose, intellectual honesty and genuine passion for music shine through jn Cook's book.
Might have a bad time if you don't enjoy looking at things critically.
Might have a bad time if you don't enjoy looking at things critically.
October 21, 2012
[da pene...
o
da pena...]
¿qué caro está el papel higiénico, no?
la vida está mu mala.
November 19, 2012
Empezando por el título, que no tiene nada que ver con la tesis del libro, no recomiendo su lectura si no es desde una actitud crítica-destructiva.
November 3, 2018
Excellent, slim volume that explores how we understand music.
June 6, 2023
Very informative. An excellent way into the academic study of music and written with an engaging tone.
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