The New Penguin Dictionary of Music

Jan 31, 2025 7:45 PM

Author:Paul Griffiths

The New Penguin Dictionary of Music is the essential A-Z of some 1,000 years of Western music. It explores in detail the lives and achievements of a huge range of composers, and examines such key topics as music history (from medieval plainchant to contemporary minimalism), performers, theory and jargon. Written by an award-winning music critic, and blending scholarship with personal insight and opinion, this dictionary is both a pleasurable read and an invaluable and authoritative reference book for all lovers of music, whether amateur or professional.

Reviews

An extremely entertaining history of magic

—— Sunday Telegraph

Highly readable... fascinating... remarkable

—— The Mail

Steinmeyer's history of the golden age of stage magic was a dazzling read, and has given me a few ideas about how to keep the family entertained at Christmas

—— Matthew Sweet , Independent

A highly entertaining study of magic's Golden Age

—— The Times

Highly readable ... fascinating ... A remarkable collection of strongly motivated egomaniacs and charlatans, all depicted in the boldest of colours

—— Marcus Berkman

A fascinating history of mirror illusions and the magicians who created them

—— Nicholas Blincoe , The Telegraph

Steinmeyer ... has a gift for translating stage performances to the page

—— Time Out

This is a really marvellous book, the most uninhibitedly intimate portrayal ever of the short, hard life and overall musical triumph of Lady Day...With Billie vividly reflects the chaos that Billie Holiday was born into and only rarely escaped from

—— Spectator

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