David Dubal, a professor of piano literature at the Juilliard School, was the classical-music program director at WNCN for more than twenty years. He is the author of many books and lives in New York City.
"This is a music literacy handbook packed full of useful information that every musician and music lover needs almost daily" --The Tampa Tribune "The Essential Canon of Classical Music is a terrific book. David Dubal's spirited essays are wonderful introductions to the composers, and his vivid descriptions of the music and recommendations of recordings are invaluable. This book has something for everyone, from the beginner to the sophisticated listener. It has a permanent resting place on my CD player." --Tony Randall "No one writes more cogently on music than David Dubal. I learned a lot. Dubal instructs even as he entertains. And he cares deeply." --Ned Rorem "A true classic of the genre . . . Dubal's solid book is a valuable work of reference, and a musical education in itself." --National Review "The book will please those systematically assembling a library of classical recordings and those simply wanting help at the music store." --Houston Chronicle "David Dubal is a truly gifted explainer of the classical repertoire." --Buffalo News "Rich and instructive." --New York Observer "Provides useful guideposts for the lay reader." --Symphony "Here at last is a work that bears nothing in common with the arid machinations of the academic encyclopedists. Instead Dubal offers adroitly written vignettes about every major and more than a few minor composers. Obliterating both myth and shallow idolatry with his keen wit, lively prose and comprehensive scholarship, Dubal minces no words, revealing in every case much of his subject idiosyncratic peccadilloes." --The Times [St. Petersburg Florida]
To attempt to cover the range of serious music is a herculean task from medieval polyphony to the minimalism of Arvo P?rt and Philip Glass, offering insights, biographical information on dozens of major and minor figures, and even finding room for moderately useful, if necessarily incomplete, discographies, Dubal has brought it off better than might have been expected. As a teacher at the Juilliard School and with 20 years as a classical program director at New York's WNCN radio station, he brings strong qualifications to the job, and since he writes decently, if sometimes rather bluntly, and has thought through his organization clearly, the book is probably the most useful of its kind now available. He divides music into the traditional five periods, and lists the significant composers as well as a host of lesser figures chronologically within those. In each case, he offers a few biographical snippets (more extended portraits for the great figures), provides a sense of where the composer fits into the scheme of things, then lists significant works and some chosen recordings. These are likely to be the most controversial aspects of the book, though Dubal is careful to point out that his choices offer a range of approaches to the seminal works. He does seem to have vast affection for the recordings of Sir Thomas Beecham and, more recently, for the work of Charles Dutoit; and inevitably some will question his priorities: nearly twice as much space for Richard Strauss as for, say, Sibelius? For Paul Dukas over Carl Nielsen? But the book's usefulness and comprehensiveness cannot be denied. (Sept.) Copyright 2001 Cahners Business Information.
"This is a music literacy handbook packed full of useful information that every musician and music lover needs almost daily" --The Tampa Tribune "The Essential Canon of Classical Music is a terrific book. David Dubal's spirited essays are wonderful introductions to the composers, and his vivid descriptions of the music and recommendations of recordings are invaluable. This book has something for everyone, from the beginner to the sophisticated listener. It has a permanent resting place on my CD player." --Tony Randall "No one writes more cogently on music than David Dubal. I learned a lot. Dubal instructs even as he entertains. And he cares deeply." --Ned Rorem "A true classic of the genre . . . Dubal's solid book is a valuable work of reference, and a musical education in itself." --National Review "The book will please those systematically assembling a library of classical recordings and those simply wanting help at the music store." --Houston Chronicle "David Dubal is a truly gifted explainer of the classical repertoire." --Buffalo News "Rich and instructive." --New York Observer "Provides useful guideposts for the lay reader." --Symphony "Here at last is a work that bears nothing in common with the arid machinations of the academic encyclopedists. Instead Dubal offers adroitly written vignettes about every major and more than a few minor composers. Obliterating both myth and shallow idolatry with his keen wit, lively prose and comprehensive scholarship, Dubal minces no words, revealing in every case much of his subject idiosyncratic peccadilloes." --The Times [St. Petersburg Florida]
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