Rating: 
Summary: The Power of Music to affect man and culture
Review: Music is the language of the soul, perhaps even more powerfully so than is poetry. This book opened my eyes to the realization that there is much more to music than "entertainment". In one sense it is true that "we are what we eat", since our bodies are composed by the substances we partake of as food. But, most of us do not realize how we are influenced at the psychological or soul level by the music that is a part of our lives. After reading this book I understand that Music is one of the most powerful forces in the shaping of our destiny and personalities. This may sound like "too much", but, I may suggest that you reserve such a judgment until after you read it!
Rating: 
Summary: Sense mixed with nonsense
Review: Tame's analysis of 20th-century classical music is completely one-sided, with examples carefully selected to support his point of view. Here's his view briefly summed up: All 20th-century music is a heap of unholy garbage. The problem is that he focuses only on the most avant-garde and radical composers (Schoenberg, Cage etc.) Where do composers such as Bartok, Prokofiev, or Messiaen fit in his analysis? They receive no mention. For Tame, the 20th century was simply a diabolical parade starting with Debussy and ending with cacophonous rock. I agree completely with Tame that atonality and other radical developments are unhealthy and anti-musical; but there is more to 20th-century music than the ten most avant-garde composers! He places the avant-gardists on one hand, and on the other hand such traditionalists as Rachmaninoff and Vaughan Williams, whom he absolutely adores. Many of Tame's conclusions are utterly bogus, and some I find positively offensive. For example, his assertion that Stravinsky had a lot in common with the rock and roll culture because of "degenerate" lifestyle. EXCUSE ME?!! Can we have some evidence to back up this assertion? Again, Tame concentrates only on Stravinsky's most avant-garde work: THE RITE OF SPRING. Like many simpletons, Tame seems to think that this is the only thing Stravinsky wrote. What about an assessment of Stravinsky's later music, which shows a strain of conservatism and a concern for the musical values which Tame upholds? Tame's statement that Stravinsky touched virtually all of the "New Music" styles is very misleading; to my knowledge, he did not turn late in life to computer music! Stravinsky's religious faith gets no mention. Oh, and I think anyone who thinks that OEDIPUS REX is a degenerate work of music should have his head examined. Can anyone take this author seriously? I think we have serious reason to doubt the musical expertise of a writer who writes the following phrase: "[The music of THE RITE OF SPRING] reaches such a crescendo of hedonistic abandonment..." Anyone with a high school education and an elementary musical training knows that a crescendo is a climax, not the building to a climax! Please, savor that marvelous little sentence. It tells us a lot about the author.
Rating: 
Summary: Very poor. If you are a serious music researcher, go away!!!
Review: The autor of this... "pubblication" (because i'm not sure that's possible to call this a PUBBLICATION!!!) is more like a religion fanatic that a Music Guru!!! Is really terrible how he speak about the Devil's Music (in the 3rd millenium). A ridicolous "Music to Chakras" table where, with a marvelous superficiality, he speak about the "Perversion of the good quality of the Consciousness Ray", the music style that affect this "Degenerated state of consciousness" and the Good Quality music that prevent the chakras to this wrong functioning... really, are the autor think that we are stupid like him? Well, if you are a stupi, religious fanatic this book is for you. But if you are a serious, objective and clever music researcher, do not buy this "Bible of the Devil's music".
Rating: 
Summary: A few interesting trees in a forest of speciousness.
Review: The book starts with some history of how some people and powers dealt with music, since, as we all know, music has the power to influence our emotions. Duh, nothing new here, but then Tame goes on to stating as fact his own narrow religious world view. He writes that our "materialist" world has given us music that is devoid of spirituality. Is music the chicken or the egg? Yet critics have found every new musical idea to be atacked as immoral, the same for all art. He ends with a few lines from the Sex Pistols as proof the world is going to hell in a handbasket. And this Intro is the best part, it's all downhill from there into primal mysticism and worse. For example, this comical contradiction he claims is self evident: religious belief is not superstition but "some form of Higher Truth" at the core of all things. In other words SUPERSTITION! The book is out of print and has countless used copies for sale for a good reason. Save your two dollars for something else.
Rating:
Summary: Musical Madness
Review: The intention of this book is in the right place. It's a wake-up call to society on the destructive effects of modern music, and conversely, the healing power of the more traditional forms. The author discusses 20TH Century classical music (the "New Music"), jazz & rock, Indian, and Chinese music, and discusses the physiological effects of music. His discussion about Chinese and Indian music is fascinating, and he seems fairly objective here (not in being strictly factual (he includes the oriental theories and myths in the material), but rather that he is able to discuss this music without passing esthetic judgement.) His discussion of the "New Music" and Rock/Jazz is much too one-sided. I totally agree with him that early jazz (the blues) and rock are particulary destructive (stand back and examine the lyrics to most songs... I rest my case.) I would also agree with the author that the atonality of most 20TH century "classical" music, not being rooted in the physics of the harmonic series, is also very destructive. (As he points out, this music is so universally disliked that in practice it's not so destructive -- because few people listen to it.) However, there are several inaccuracies in his critique of 20TH century art forms, and he argues his case with the fanaticism ......... that I find most unattractive. He is also quite fond of circular reasoning. As one example, he criticizes composer Steve Reich for having imitated the rythmns of african drumming in his music, claiming that Reich is somehow re-enacting barbaric voodoo rituals in his music. Yes, it's true that Reich's inspiration comes his study of African drumming, but to claim that Reich is consciously (or unconsciously for that matter) attempting to create music suitable for voodoo is absolutely ridiculus. (For one thing, drumming is part of all African ritual, both voodoo and more constructive uses.) In his section on rock, he compares the incessant drumbeat to a shaman's ritual, and notes that rock drummers can sometimes move into a trance state during their performances. Yet, that's the whole point of shamanic drumming (the trance), and that's part of the healing, not the destructive, power of the drum. He spends a page deriding Wendy Carlos' "Switched on Bach" recordings, yet for that whole page, he never really explained what made them bad, except that they were synthesized (so that makes them bad?) and that they made a lot of money. His scathing criticisms about the use of computers to compose or teach music are really unfair and miss the point entirely. Computer composition in the 70's were really about AI experimentation - I'm sure nobody thought that computers would actually compete with a human composer! His main complaint about Jazz is it's over-sesuality. I would agree with him here, after re-listening to some of my (instrumental) jazz recordings. Yet so is the Isolde Liebestod from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde", yet he holds Wagner's music in high esteem. (as well he should :-) For some people, sensuous jazz would be healing. For others it is unbalancing. Yet the author seems unable or unwilling to provide a more moderate view of music.
Rating:
Summary: Musical Madness
Review: The intention of this book is in the right place. It's a wake-up call to society on the destructive effects of modern music, and conversely, the healing power of the more traditional forms. The author discusses 20TH Century classical music (the "New Music"), jazz & rock, Indian, and Chinese music, and discusses the physiological effects of music. His discussion about Chinese and Indian music is fascinating, and he seems fairly objective here (not in being strictly factual (he includes the oriental theories and myths in the material), but rather that he is able to discuss this music without passing esthetic judgement.) His discussion of the "New Music" and Rock/Jazz is much too one-sided. I totally agree with him that early jazz (the blues) and rock are particulary destructive (stand back and examine the lyrics to most songs... I rest my case.) I would also agree with the author that the atonality of most 20TH century "classical" music, not being rooted in the physics of the harmonic series, is also very destructive. (As he points out, this music is so universally disliked that in practice it's not so destructive -- because few people listen to it.) However, there are several inaccuracies in his critique of 20TH century art forms, and he argues his case with the fanaticism ......... that I find most unattractive. He is also quite fond of circular reasoning. As one example, he criticizes composer Steve Reich for having imitated the rythmns of african drumming in his music, claiming that Reich is somehow re-enacting barbaric voodoo rituals in his music. Yes, it's true that Reich's inspiration comes his study of African drumming, but to claim that Reich is consciously (or unconsciously for that matter) attempting to create music suitable for voodoo is absolutely ridiculus. (For one thing, drumming is part of all African ritual, both voodoo and more constructive uses.) In his section on rock, he compares the incessant drumbeat to a shaman's ritual, and notes that rock drummers can sometimes move into a trance state during their performances. Yet, that's the whole point of shamanic drumming (the trance), and that's part of the healing, not the destructive, power of the drum. He spends a page deriding Wendy Carlos' "Switched on Bach" recordings, yet for that whole page, he never really explained what made them bad, except that they were synthesized (so that makes them bad?) and that they made a lot of money. His scathing criticisms about the use of computers to compose or teach music are really unfair and miss the point entirely. Computer composition in the 70's were really about AI experimentation - I'm sure nobody thought that computers would actually compete with a human composer! His main complaint about Jazz is it's over-sesuality. I would agree with him here, after re-listening to some of my (instrumental) jazz recordings. Yet so is the Isolde Liebestod from Wagner's "Tristan and Isolde", yet he holds Wagner's music in high esteem. (as well he should :-) For some people, sensuous jazz would be healing. For others it is unbalancing. Yet the author seems unable or unwilling to provide a more moderate view of music.
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