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Shop nowThe Story of Music
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Learn moreA dynamic and expansive tour through 40,000 years of music, from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop songs
Music is an intrinsic part of everyday life, and yet the history of its development from single notes to multilayered orchestration can seem bewilderingly complex.
In his dynamic tour through forty thousand years of music, from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop, Howard Goodall leads us through the story of music as it happened, idea by idea, so that each musical innovationāharmony, notation, sung theater, the orchestra, dance music, recordingāstrikes us with its original force. Along the way, he also gives refreshingly clear descriptions of what music is and how it works: what scales are all about, why some chords sound discordant, and what all postwar pop songs have in common.
The story of music is the story of our urge to invent, connect, rebelāand entertain. Howard Goodall's beautifully clear and compelling account is both a hymn to human endeavor and a groundbreaking map of our musical journey.
Howard GoodallĀ is an Emmy, Brit, and BAFTA Awardāwinning composer of choral music, stage musicals, and film and television scores and a distinguished broadcaster. In recent years he has been Englandās first ever National Ambassador for Singing, the Classical Brit Composer of the Year, and Classic FMās Composer-in-Residence. He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire in the 2011 New Year Honors for services to music education.
Read by Simon Vance, Kate Reading, Marisa Calin, Ralph Lister, Antony Ferguson, Henrietta Meire, and Tim Bruce
Reviews
āWhat really makes the book sing is the authorās argumentative style, giving it narrative momentum from paragraph to paragraph. This really is the āstoryā of music, not just a chronological laundry list of important people and events.ā
āA lively zip through some forty-five millennia, jumping back and forth between classical, folk, and pop.ā
āNow comes Howard Goodall and everyoneās prayers are answered. He starts right at the beginning, with 25,000-year-old bone flutes. A racily written, learned, and often shrewdly insightful book.ā
āAn accessible guide to roughly 42,000 years of music in just over 300 pages that manages neither to sacrifice precise detail nor pugnacious opinion. This sweep is the bookās key strength, even if it means that some composers receive relatively short shrift. But it is in keeping with the title: this is about music, not a roll call of the greats, and Goodall is unfailingly acute on how technology drives musical innovationā¦The Story of Music is a clever, engaging read.ā
āMost of us take music for granted, and yet, as explained in this insightful exploration on the origins of music, someone had to come up with harmony and rhythm; someone had to create musical notationā¦A masterful and illuminating whirlwind tour through thousands of years of musical history.ā
āA celebrated British composer and broadcaster surveys the evolution and cultural significance of music, from prehistoric caves to Coldplayā¦He recognizes that the subject requires much inference until the ages of notation, print, and recording, but he plunges bravely into the lake of darkness and manages some illuminationā¦Goodall also explores the invention and modification of significant instrumentsāthe violin, organ, pianoā¦[While] the big names retain their size in his account. Bach, Handel, Mozart, Beethoven, Schubert, Chopin, and myriads of othersā¦the author is also alert to the significance of popular music and has some passages about Broadway and the movies, blues, rock ānā roll (whose origin he traces to Benny Goodman!), jazz, and hip-hop. Goodall also discusses the effects of political systems on music and musiciansāfrom pre-revolutionary France to Nazi Germany to the Soviet Union and others. The author continually reminds us of technological advancesāprint, recordings, radio, filmsāthat enabled music to spread as never beforeā¦Cultural history with some attitude and considerable rhythm and melody.ā
āBritish composer Goodallā¦focus[es] on the Western classical tradition and popular musicā¦The musical analysisā¦[is] well informedā¦For music listeners interested in Western classical and popular music.ā
āItās a big story that lives up to its subtitle as it spans centuriesā¦Narrator Simon Vance presents the facts and occasional opinions with all the authorās diligence. Like a lecture from a favorite professor, though, the book always entertains and engagesā¦Goodallās writing is thoughtful, considering such topics as the European influence on the blues and the stresses on composers who worked under Nazi or Soviet regimes. Thereās much for the music scholar and casual listeners.ā
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