Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music

by Tim Lihoreau and Stephen Fry

Tim Lihoreau (Secondary Author)

'Hello, I'm Stephen the Fry. Now time for the first outing of a brand, spanking new feature here on The Incomplete and Utter History of Classic Music... putting some unsuspecting figure in music under the spotlight.'

In his Incomplete & Utter History of Classical Music, Stephen Fry presents a potted and brilliantly rambling 700-year history of classical music and the world as we know it. Along this musical journey he casually throws in references to pretty much whatever takes his fancy, from the Mongol invasion of Russia and Mr Khan (Genghis to his Friends), the founding of the MCC, the Black Death (which once again became the new black in England) to the heady revolutionary atmosphere of Mozart's Don Giovanni and the deep doo-doo that Louis XVI got into (or 'du-du' as the French would say).

It's all here - Ambrose and early-English plainsong, Bach, Mozart (beloved of mobile phones everywhere), Beethoven, Debussy, Wagner (the old romantic), right up to the present day. Entertaining and brilliantly written, this is a pretty reckless romp of a history through classical music and much much more.

• ISBN10: 0752225340
• ISBN13: 9780752225340
• Publish Date: 1 October 2004
• Publish Status: Out of Print
• Out of Print: 9 December 2008
• Publish Country: GB
• Publisher: Pan Macmillan
• Imprint: Boxtree Ltd
• Format: Hardcover
• Pages: 320
• Language: English

Reviews

[MurderByDeath]

I feel like I've just finished a flipping marathon.   

If, like me, you enjoy slightly more than a smattering of classical music but are utterly ignorant of who came first and who wrote what where and when, this is an extraordinarily entertaining and sometimes silly (it's Fry) way to go about educating yourself.  But be warned: Fry packs an absolute boatload of information into the 304 pages he has to work with.  I had been enjoying this book at night, right before going to sleep, but once I entered the era of Beethoven and Mozart, I actually started having trouble sleeping afterwards; my mind just kept reeling through all the information and I was 'continuing to read' after I was asleep (if you think Fry is silly, you should hear the nonsense I was 'reading' in my sleep).  I finally just threw myself into the final third all day today so I could finish the bloody thing and get a decent night's sleep.     

I'd have gone the whole 5 star hog but this is a very UK-centric book; lots and lots of very British cultural references, quite a few of which I'm certain went right over my head in spite of having a husband weaned on the Australian BBC feed, so if you wouldn't consider yourself moderately versed in UK popular culture and/or cockney slang (thank god for MT) then you might find the writing irritating at times.  All in all though, in spite of the more-screwed-up-than-usual sleeping patterns, I thoroughly enjoyed the read and the education. And I'm dragging MT to the Melbourne Symphony's performance of Beethoven's Fifth next weekend.  That'll teach him to help me translate the cockney.  ;-)