Big Bangs

Product Description

The dramatic story of five key turning points in a thousand years of Western music
- discoveries that changed the course of history. Who first invented Doh Re Mi...? What do we mean by in tune"? Looking back down the corridor of a thousand years Howard Goodall guides us through the stories of five seismic developments in the history of Western music. His "big bangs" may not be the ones we expect
- some are surprising & some are so obvious we overlook them
- but all have had an extraordinary impact. Goodall starts with the invention of notation by an 11th-century Italian monk which removed the creation of music from the hands of the players to the pens of the composers; moves on to the first opera; then to the invention of the piano & ends with the story of the first recording made in history. Howard Goodall has the gift of making these complicated musical advances both clear & utterly fascinating. Racy & vivid in a narrative full of colourful characters & graphic illustrations of technical processes he also gives a wonderful sense of the culture of trial & error & competition be it in 11th-century Italy or 19th-century America in which all progress takes place. Big Bangs opens a window on the crucial moments in our musical culture
- discoveries that made possible everything from Bach to the Beatles
- & tells us a riveting story of a millennium of endeavour."