Musical Revolutions

How the Sounds of the Western World Changed

Stuart Isacoff

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English

Alfred A. Knopf
19 July 2022

Music; History

"From the critically acclaimed author of Temperament, a narrative account of the most defining moments in musical history-classical and jazz-all of which forever altered Western culture

""A fascinating journey that begins with the

origins of musical notation and travels through the centuries reaching

all the way to our time.""-Semyon Bychkov, chief conductor and music

director of the Czech Philharmonic

The invention of music notation by a skittish Italian monk in the eleventh century. The introduction of multilayered hymns in the Middle Ages. The birth of opera in a Venice rebelling against the church's pious restraints. Baroque, Romantic, and atonal music; bebop and cool jazz; Bach and Liszt; Miles Davis and John Coltrane. In telling the exciting story of Western music's evolution, Stuart Isacoff explains how music became entangled in politics, culture, and economics, giving rise to new eruptions at every turn, from the early church's attempts to bind its followers by teaching them to sing in unison to the global spread of American jazz through the Black platoons of the First World War.

The author investigates questions like- When does noise become music? How do musical tones reflect the natural laws of the universe? Why did discord become the primary sound of modernity? Musical Revolutions is a book replete with the stories of our most renowned musical artists, including notable achievements of people of color and women, whose paths to success were the most difficult."

By: Stuart Isacoff
Imprint: Alfred A. Knopf
Country of Publication: United States
Dimensions: Height: 210mm, Width: 143mm, Spine: 22mm
Weight: 535g
ISBN: 9780525658634
ISBN 10: 0525658637
Pages: 288
Publication Date: 19 July 2022
Audience: General/trade , ELT Advanced
Format: Hardback
Publisher's Status: Active

STUART ISACOFF is a pianist, writer, and the founder of Piano Today magazine, which he edited for nearly three decades. A winner of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award for excellence in writing about music, he is a regular contributor to The Wall Street Journal and many other leading publications. He is also the author of Temperament- How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization, A Natural History of the Piano, and When the World Stopped to Listen. He lives in Closter, New Jersey.

Reviews for Musical Revolutions: How the Sounds of the Western World Changed

Stuart Isacoff's Musical Revolutions is an astonishing portrayal of how music has evolved into what it is today. His writing takes us on a fascinating journey that begins with the origins of musical notation and travels through the centuries reaching all the way to our time, revealing the politico-cultural context that made revolutions in music inevitable. -Semyon Bychkov, chief conductor and music director of the Czech Philharmonic