So I decide I absolutely must pick up a book giving me a good overview of the history of classical music, and after doing a bit of research, decide on Harold C. Schonberg’s The Lives of the Great Composers. But a quick check on Amazon leads me to discover that there are only hard copies on offer, and since I am traveling and using my Kindle, it seems I am out of luck. So I settle on Anthony Tommasini’s The Indispensable Composers instead. Boy am I ever glad that I “settled” on it!
Overall the book met my needs quite well. Tommasini writes in an accessible manner, explaining difficult musical concepts for the more casual listener, and even offering web links for further information. Yet his description and analysis of the works he treats is penetrating, insightful, and very personal. He gives the basic biographic information about each of the composers, but does so in an engaging way, usually interspersing it with a focus on the music and each of their careers to produce a rich tapestry effect, instead of a dry timeline.
Overall I found the way he includes his readers into his experience of the music to be delightful. But Tommasini is himself a pianist with a great love for opera, and both of these loves tend to limit his own experience of other sorts of music. While piano sonatas and concertos are given a spiritual, in-depth treatment, and he might go for pages on a single opera, music for wind instruments and strings seem to get much shorter shrift. His favorite versions of compositions for harpsichord are even performed on piano! Indeed, if one did not know better, one might be led to conclude that Tommasini actively does not like strings in particular.
Granted, the book is billed as a “personal guide,” and it very much is, which is generally to its credit. But if Tommasini could learn to expand his love of opera to other non-piano works, to experience them on such a plane, and then to share that enjoyment with his readers, he would be so much more versatile and engaging to an even broader audience. Which is not to say he would have the same insight as Yo-Yo Ma, Dizzy Gillespie, or Izthak Perlman, the way he does with piano.
People can no doubt generate endless controversy over who the best composers are or even if there is such a thing. Tommasini generally makes a very convincing case for why each of the 17 composers he chose are included, and why they made a significant, lasting impact on the business. I got the impression that he might as well have sub-titled the book: If I Had Allowed Myself 18, I Would Have Included Franz Liszt.
But then again, his case in favor of Igor Stravinsky was the only weak link. Tommasini freely admitted that the man mainly stole from others, like Debussy, Rimsky-Korsakov (who didn’t even make the list!), and Mozart. And while Tommasini half-heartedly tried to argue that Stravinsky was the standard bearer of tonal music in the 20th century, as against atonal Arnold Schoenberg, that role might as well have gone to Bela Bartok (at least from Tommasini’s own presentation). Sorry, but causing a riot in Paris just doesn’t qualify for making one “indispensable,” plenty of one-hit-wonders have caused no end of sensation and scandal during their fifteen minutes of fame.
I’m not saying this because I have anything against Stravinsky, merely pointing out that when I finished reading what Tommasini had to offer, I saw no reason for Stravinsky's elevation to the equal of the other sixteen. Maybe Tommasini could have gotten Liszt in after all without busting seventeen…
Anyway, I very much enjoyed reading it and I learned a lot as well. While not exactly a beach read, it’s accessible, made the more so by the links if you need them. However, seeing as even Tommasini recommends Schonberg’s Great Composers, I still plan to track that one down in hard copy. In the meantime though, rest assured you are not missing out by “settling” for this one instead! A good read indeed.