Robert Philip was formerly a senior lecturer in music at the Open University and is a well-known presenter on BBC Radio. He is the author of The Classical Music Lover’s Companion to Orchestral Music and the award-winning Performing Music in the Age of Recording.
“Robert Philip surveys the vast sweep of a vast subject in A Little
History of Music.”—John Check, Wall Street Journal, “Holiday Gift
Books: Music”
“To find a guide as thoughtful, as frank and as readable as
Philip’s is good news indeed. . . . It’s a pleasure to make the
journey in such wise and perceptive company.”—Richard Bratby,
Gramophone
“Philip’s deft prose, thoughtful explanations and pacy storytelling
make for a compelling and refreshingly open-minded read.”—Katy
Hamilton, BBC Music Magazine
“His literary style is enviably informative and welcoming, with the
result that I found the book difficult to put down, so compelling
and enveloping is its scope and clarity.”—Robert Matthew–Walker,
Musical Opinion
“This inexpensive and most admirable publication deserves wide
circulation. It is a major achievement and is thoroughly
recommended—just what is needed at the present time.”—Robert
Matthew–Walker, Musical Opinion
“Covering a huge array of types of music and associated aspects
across cultures and time periods, this book provides both depth and
breadth. . . . As a reference source and exposition of the
connections between genres, it could hardly be bettered.”—Terry
Freedman, Teach Secondary
“The impossible elegantly achieved: a history of music spanning
five continents and thousands of years in just 278 lucid, friendly
pages. Whether you are musically expert or you don’t know your
opera from your hip-hop, it’s a joy to read.”—John Rutter, composer
and conductor
“An engrossing, often surprising book that helps break the
classical music silo. Philip places the development of the art form
alongside contemporary social, political and religious developments
and connects the European masters to issues of global identity and
nationalism, with fascinating results.”—Petroc Trelawny, BBC Radio
3 broadcaster
“An astonishing feat of concision, this Little History covers all
known kinds of music, ever, from everywhere. It’s written with
fairness and balance, but also enthusiasm and love for the activity
of music-making. The foregrounding of popular music in the
twentieth century is particularly striking and original.”—Judith
Weir, composer and Master of the King’s Music
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