A disappointment
Aug. 24th, 2021 08:23 pmBook Review: Understanding Music, by Antony Hopkins
One of the more disagreeable features of the recent Dominic Sandbrook volume I read was the ghastly quotations from the diaries of the arch-reactionary - or so he seems now - James Lees-Milne. Unfortunately, this book shares to some extent that persona. It's odd, because I think this is another re-read, and it seems quite different to the relaxed commentary by the same author on Beethoven's symphonies I read last year. It's not that Hopkins sets out to be bad; rather, I think it's that his writing style has dated rapidly, and perhaps there is a premonition of, and over-reaction against, dumbing down. Perhaps being moved from the Third Programme to Radio 4 was the start of a slippery slope. There is certainly some useful material here, in a survey of musical foundations and history, but some of the later sections feel more hectoring. There are probably easier introductions to the subject available today.
One of the more disagreeable features of the recent Dominic Sandbrook volume I read was the ghastly quotations from the diaries of the arch-reactionary - or so he seems now - James Lees-Milne. Unfortunately, this book shares to some extent that persona. It's odd, because I think this is another re-read, and it seems quite different to the relaxed commentary by the same author on Beethoven's symphonies I read last year. It's not that Hopkins sets out to be bad; rather, I think it's that his writing style has dated rapidly, and perhaps there is a premonition of, and over-reaction against, dumbing down. Perhaps being moved from the Third Programme to Radio 4 was the start of a slippery slope. There is certainly some useful material here, in a survey of musical foundations and history, but some of the later sections feel more hectoring. There are probably easier introductions to the subject available today.