The Chronicle of Classical Music: An Intimate Diary of the Lives and Music of the Great Composers - Hardcover

Alan Kendall is the author of some twenty books, mostly on music and history. He co-edited the four-volume Heritage of Music for Oxford University Press.

This lavishly illustrated general history of music is presented in diary format. Beginning in 1600, periods of two to five years get single-paragraph overviews, which are followed by date entries that offer one or two sentences stating factual events in the history of music (e.g., "1700, 18 September. Vivaldi is ordained deacon, aged twenty-two, in Venice"). Accompanying sidebars list contemporary political and cultural events, and short quotes and captions add tiny vignettes. Every few pages, the chronology is broken up by a few tightly focused, diary-like paragraphs on an instrument, a composition, an event, a letter, or an idea. Completing the book is a reference section that includes a biographical listing of composers that gives little more than birth and death dates, a list of the "Top 100 Classical Recordings," acknowledgments, a bibliography, an index, and more-all in just 32 pages. The book is beautiful, but much of the writing is dry and overly brief; the style makes it impossible to formulate a cohesive vision of an artist or period. Not recommended; a better general reference is the four-volume Heritage of Music (LJ 10/15/89), edited by Kendall and Michael Raeburn.
Timothy J. McGee, Univ. of Toronto
Copyright 1994 Reed Business Information, Inc.