MUSIC TELLS THE TALE: A Guide to Programme Music

Here's a sensitive, knowledgeable friend come to take you to a concert. You're going to hear ""illustrative"" music for piano and for orchestra: overtures, incidental music, perhaps a programme symphony or a symphonic poem. So that you'll enjoy the music more he'll tell you what it is supposed to be about, and a little about the composer and his music generally. Care to listen? ""Suddenly the atmosphere softens and a sweet, slow tune is played by a solo violin. A young lady passes by, and she is so beautiful that the American stops and stares after her."" It's Gershwin's American in Paris, of course, and our friend is merely clueing us in from the music itself to a possible succession of images and incidents. And he'll explain, at the end, any musical terms we don't know. (In standard summation, thirty-eight works by twenty-eight composers, alphabetically arranged, covering much but not nearly all of the regular repertoire. Nicely written, nicely illustrated, nice to have--especially in the home.)