Status Updates From Language of the Spirit: An ...

Wow he’s really rhapsodizing about some of these guys — Charles Ives in particular gets a very interesting portrait that motivates me to learn more. But that really reveals how perfunctory some of the other chapters are (even moderns like Britten).

lmao I think he spends more time lecturing the reader on why we should appreciate Schoenberg than he spent on the entire Renaissance

The structure of this book is lopsided, too. It’s fairly similar to Tommasini’s in some ways, but supposedly trying to be more comprehensive — although that is kind of hopeless and Swafford inevitably shows he’s more interested in some people/eras than others. Part I and Part II have two chapters each; Part III has four chapters, Part IV has 12 chapters, and Part V has 13!

This narrator (Tom Perkins) is driving me crazy with mispronunciations 😑

Overall, it's a good book for it's purpose. I learned a lot. The Baroque and Classical composers are interesting because of their development of modern music. After that, there isn't any big development in music as a whole. It becomes who wrote what famous piece, and it gets boring. I can't retain the details. I'm not interested in their personal lives. I'll probably DNF this and move on to a new book.

I started this on audiobook. I'll probably which to paper. It's a factual book about music history and musical theory development. The author, who is a professor, admits the book is really just his college music courses in book format. Unlike a textbook, he has a conversational writing style. I need to read this slowly and to spend the time listening to the recommended recordings for the best experience.