Rating: 
Summary: Informative but rigid
Review: This book presents a wealth of factual information and the author has obviously done a tremendous amount of research on the topic, the problem I have is with the presentation. The author is preoccupied with assigning numerical rankings to the composers and their works and with placing them in a rigid hierarchy: "It is exeedingly bad form to lower any of the seven Demigods to the level of Artists of a High Order, the 21-to-50 group...It is not authorized to drop the 11-to-20 composers from The List. They may be demoted." This type of mathematical juggling may be appealing to beginners approaching Classical music from the sciences, but not for those intimately involved in the arts. Ultimately Goulding comes across as someone who wishes to classify and systematize the body of classical music rather than someone who appreciates it for it's pure art and beauty.
Rating: 
Summary: Enter classical music through the front door!
Review: This book succeeds both as an idea and as a text. Let me explain. The author's idea before he began was to put together a one-volume, easily-readable work that would allow a curious adult beginner to enter into, and then to understand and enjoy, the world of classical music. This was a lofty plan. Happily, the book is a triumph.Phil Goulding is one of these people who are smart and charming, but not too show-offy smart and not too adorably cute. So the writing at all times is clear, compact, and interesting. It's an easy and fun read. The book begins by justifying itself: Goulding explains why the format of the book is to discuss, in sequence, who he ranks as the 50 greatest composers of all time. After a few pages of music theory (not too boring, actually), we move on to the composers' profiles. These are great. Introduced by a black-and-white illustration of each master, we get a few paragraphs of biography, then a discussion of the particular artist's genius, some anecdotes, and finally a VERY handy list of what works we might want to listen to from that composer's pen. There are actually three lists: a beginner's list, an intermediate list, and then a be-all, end-all list for completists. That's the long and short of this clever 600-page book. It's definitely not a college textbook, nor treatise on classical music. It is, however, a light, interesting, juicy look at classical music, brimming with fascinating observations and behind-the-scenes factoids. A bit gimmicky, but very enjoyable and useful.
Rating:
Summary: Enter classical music through the front door!
Review: This book succeeds both as an idea and as a text. Let me explain. The author's idea before he began was to put together a one-volume, easily-readable work that would allow a curious adult beginner to enter into, and then to understand and enjoy, the world of classical music. This was a lofty plan. Happily, the book is a triumph. Phil Goulding is one of these people who are smart and charming, but not too show-offy smart and not too adorably cute. So the writing at all times is clear, compact, and interesting. It's an easy and fun read. The book begins by justifying itself: Goulding explains why the format of the book is to discuss, in sequence, who he ranks as the 50 greatest composers of all time. After a few pages of music theory (not too boring, actually), we move on to the composers' profiles. These are great. Introduced by a black-and-white illustration of each master, we get a few paragraphs of biography, then a discussion of the particular artist's genius, some anecdotes, and finally a VERY handy list of what works we might want to listen to from that composer's pen. There are actually three lists: a beginner's list, an intermediate list, and then a be-all, end-all list for completists. That's the long and short of this clever 600-page book. It's definitely not a college textbook, nor treatise on classical music. It is, however, a light, interesting, juicy look at classical music, brimming with fascinating observations and behind-the-scenes factoids. A bit gimmicky, but very enjoyable and useful.
Rating: 
Summary: It's both good and bad
Review: What's good is that it's nice for a book that is approachable and conversationally written to be available to help a beginner. It functions as both a pleasant read and a good source of information for the beginner to figure out what pieces of music are best first-buys by a particular composer. But there's a big caveat here, which is that there are lots of other things that make this book an AWFUL first purchase for a beginner. First of all, no beginner's book should be so offensively and intrusively opinionated insofar as how to "rank" the composers. Beginners who are reading this take note: ranking the composers in terms of their amorphous "greatness" is, like, SO early 20th century. It's a pointless waste of time and will only pigeonhole you in terms what music you'll be exposed to. Which is another problem here -- the list itself leaves much to be desired. This is a good list of 18th and 19th century composers, and this book should be taken as a survey of ONLY this music (and a few 20th century artists following their lead). This book has incredibly poor coverage of 20th century music and it is not exactly a small minority opinion that much of the greatest work in the classical canon was composed in the 20th century. But, this book would have the beginner believe that there isn't much in the 20th century worth hearing, and even if there was, it still wouldn't be of much value when compared to earlier composers. Personally, I find offensive the notion that someone should be steered in the direction of Wagner instead of Bartok, Ives or Messiaen, and I believe that anybody with a solid *comprehensive* grounding in classical music will have the same strong reservations about this book as I. For any beginners who like the book and the music contained within, I say "now look deeper." You've only scratched the surface of the great music and composers that are out there.
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