2016年3月8日 星期二

The Complete Classical Music Guide Book Report by S3A Kasy Cheu 

The Complete Classical Music Guide is a book with comprehensive information about the elements of classical music and the specialties of different musical periods, ranging from the Baroque era to the 20th century.
This book also gives us an in-depth look into the backgrounds and the key works of the composers of each musical period. For instance, Frédéric Chopin is one of the composers that is mentioned in the book. 
As a pianist myself, this book has given me an insight on what I learn on a daily basis. I've always assumed there are only four main musical periods, the Baroque Period, the Classical Period, the Romantic Period and the 20th century, however, after reading this book, I've realised that there is way more than just that. If we subdivide the musical eras, we actually have seven musical eras. How fascinating! 
This book has not only been an eye-opener but also made me realise how little I've learnt throughout all these years of taking piano lessons, what I normally learn in piano lessons is just a small chunk of what makes classical music so astonishing. 
This book has made me understand more about the backgrounds of the composers, which is crucial when playing classical music, because musicians, in order to play the pieces the way they were originally intended, need an extensive amount of knowledge about the pieces, in a nutshell, the background of the composers, when and why were the pieces composed, etc. These knowledge are not easily found on the internet due to how little people actually know about them. Therefore, this book is really helpful for musicians out there that are trying to interpret the pieces as well as they could. 
I highly recommend this book to any musicians, whether or not you are a musician that plays classical music, it is also a great book for those who are eager to learn more about the history of music.