Ten notable music books

Howard Goodall is an award-winning composer of choral music, stage musicals, film and TV scores, is well known as a TV and radio broadcaster, and from 2007-11 was England’s first ever National Ambassador for Singing.

For the past 15 years Goodall has written and presented his own TV documentary series on the theory and history of music. For these he has been honored with a BAFTA, an RTS Judges’ Prize for Outstanding Contribution to Education in Broadcasting and over a dozen other international broadcast awards. In January 2013, Howard Goodall’s Story of Music, 6 hour-long films for BBC2 will be broadcast, with an accompanying book.

For the Guardian, Goodall named ten of his favorite music books, including:

Music: A very short introduction by Nicholas Cook [OUP 1998]

I am not sure how the deft Prof Cook manages to squeeze so much intelligence, cultural reference and perspective into so short a book. It is the Tardis of musical analysis. No sooner have you started it than it seems to be drawing to its conclusion but in between page 1 and 160 you eyes and ears are opened. If you only read one book on western music (apart from mine!) this is it.

Read about another book on the list.

--Marshal Zeringue