First, the popularization and introduction of music
1. "Premiere" [America] by Thomas F. Kelly, Commercial Press
This book mainly describes the premiere of five masterpieces in the history of music. These five masterpieces are works of different periods, which can be regarded as the most outstanding works in those periods. Most importantly, these works almost changed the development of music. These five parts are the early baroque musician Monteverdi's opera Flo; Messiah, the oratorio of Handel, a representative figure in Baroque period; Chorus of Beethoven's Ninth Symphony in Classical Period; Symphonie fantastique in Berlioz, The Romantic Period; And the Sacrifice of Spring by Stravinsky, a musician who tends to neoclassicism and expressionism in modern music.
This book is recommended to fans who have some knowledge of classical music. The author not only described the literary and social background of these works in detail, but also quoted a large number of original materials such as posters, review articles and musicians' letters at the premiere, which is very meaningful for the restoration of the premiere history.
2. Listening to Music (5th Edition) [America] By Satoshi Nakamoto, Life, Reading and New Knowledge Joint Publishing Company.
The threshold of this book is relatively low, and the content is mainly divided into three parts: music elements, music history and American pop music. The author introduced many concepts related to music in the book, and attached some charts as auxiliary materials. In addition to reading, this book needs some appreciation and listening, so it can be said that it is a book that needs to be read and listened at the same time, which can help you understand the history of music and master the knowledge of music, and also has a good effect on the introduction of classical music.
3. The Skills of Music by Jiao Pu Yuan, Guangxi Normal University Press.
This book is different from the previous one. It does not systematically introduce the relevant knowledge of classical music, but unlike other classical music books, it introduces a lot of knowledge except music itself. These contents seem to have nothing to do with the music itself, but they are actually very helpful for everyone to enjoy the music. For example, the book introduces many skills of "how to appreciate music", including the understanding of music, and also talks about some concerts and other related knowledge. In a word, this is also a good book.
Second, music knowledge and skills related categories
In fact, I don't read many of these books, and the content is relatively difficult to learn by myself, but for students who don't have music-related knowledge, they can get started and the knowledge will be more difficult. Generally speaking, I can only recommend this kind of books briefly, and I can't give good study suggestions.
1. Fundamentals of Music Theory by Li Chongguang, People's Music Publishing House.
This book is really difficult to learn, and I can't learn it well by myself. I haven't finished reading it myself. Moreover, the chapters of this book are a little confusing, so it is not feasible to read and study in order. Some chapters may need to be studied in advance, and then go back to the previous chapters. However, the knowledge points in this book can be said to be authoritative and clear, and can only be recommended to students who are interested in learning music theory.
2. Li Zhongguang's Knowledge of Music Theory on the Keyboard, Hunan Literature and Art Publishing House.
Compared with the previous book, this book is simpler in content and less knowledgeable. At the same time, the language of this book is more popular and easier to learn, and the reading order is basically no problem. And mainly introduces the musical theory knowledge of piano keyboard.
3. History of Western Music, Wuhan University Press
In fact, this type of book does not necessarily use the version recommended by this publishing house. Most books on the history of western music are similar, including the introduction of the history of western music in Listening to Music mentioned earlier, and there are many overlaps with this book. This book is boring to read, and many things can't be remembered just by reading it, so you need to listen while reading it.
Three. Biography and other categories
In fact, my personal favorite is this kind of book, because it is much easier to read, there are no knowledge points to remember, and there are many interesting stories among musicians. However, I only recommend the books of musicians related to classical music, because I don't know much about other musicians' books and haven't read them carefully.
1. My Long Years by artur rubinstein [America], Central Conservatory of Music Press.
Rubinstein is one of the greatest pianists in the 20th century. This book is thick, but rich in content. Rubinstein reviewed his life in his nineties and wrote this autobiography. This is Rubinstein's second autobiography. The previous book was called My Youth, but My Long Years has more readers.
This book records the First World War and recalls his artistic career for decades. We can see the process from a young man to a master. Personally, I find it very interesting. The book records many stories of Rubinstein, as well as many stories between him and other famous musicians. Some stories are hilarious to read, and you can see many behind-the-scenes stories of musicians that you can't usually see.
2. Living in Music [A] By daniel barenboim, Shanghai Music Publishing House.
Barenboim was one of the first musicians I met when I started listening to classical music. He is one of the greatest conductors and pianists in the world today. Of course, another reason why he is widely known by music fans is that he is the apprentice of the famous conductor karajan, the husband of the late cellist dupre, and the teacher of pianist Lang Lang.
This book does not introduce barenboim's comments on music. He himself said, "I'm not going to talk about privacy or personality in this book, and I'm not proud to think that I can make authoritative comments on music and musicians after staying on the stage for more than 50 years. I just tried to write down my obsession with music and my curious exploration of this obsession. "
However, I personally don't see much about "persistence" ... I did read a lot about his early learning of music and how he became a conductor from a pianist after becoming famous. Of course, there are also many experiences of his stage performance. We can also see many stories between musicians in this book.
3. A Journey of a Thousand Miles: My Story, written by Lang Lang and [America] Ritz, Guangxi Normal University Press.
I didn't notice it some time ago. Today, when I searched online, I found that this book seems to have been revised and its cover changed. The new cover is not like the picture above. Although the publishing house has not changed, I don't know whether the revised content has changed from the above version.
This book is very interesting, because in this book we see not only the stories of musicians mentioned in the first two books, but also many educational stories. This book records the story of Lang Lang from learning piano to becoming a professional pianist. Personally, I think Lang Lang's experience of learning piano as a child is the most touching, because we can see some educational problems of China's parents. Although parents are ambitious, the pressure on their children is enormous, and Lang Lang grew up under this pressure.
However, because Lang Lang himself didn't have much time to write a book, this book was dictated by him during his performances around the world, and then recorded by American journalist Ritz who followed the interview. So this book was originally an English book, and later it was translated back into Chinese. So some stories in the book seem to be very similar to the way foreigners speak. For example, when the conflict broke out, Lang Lang's father said "You must die", which looked awkward in Chinese. However, it does not hinder the reading of the whole content.
4. Afternoon Music Time with Seiji Ozawa [Day] by Haruki Murakami, Nanhai Press.
This book is the first book about classical music that I came into contact with, and it is also a book that I like very much. Not long ago, Japanese conductor Seiji Ozawa suffered from cancer and was recovering after being cured. Haruki Murakami had a series of dialogues with Seiji Ozawa in Recovery. The difference between this book and other books is that it is recorded in the form of dialogue and is very easy to read.
But the problem is that some of the contents in this book will make people feel "puzzling" just by reading it, because many of the contents in the book are not only the discussion about music between Haruki Murakami and Seiji Ozawa, but also the discussion about the deductive contents of different music albums. For example, in the first chapter, the two discussed many deductive versions of Beethoven's Piano Concerto No.3, and they talked about the music content while listening, which would make readers who have not been exposed to these deductive versions have great reading obstacles.
But there are also many contents in the book that can be read without listening to records, such as their discussion of Mahler music, the understanding of chamber music by opera directors and so on. , are very valuable content.
Let's recommend these books to you today. I have basically read or understood all the books recommended above. Although I don't guarantee that I have a high level of knowledge to recommend good books, I like most of them, especially biographies. As for these books, where can I find them? It's all on Taobao. It's easy to find. Let's call it a day ~