The Story of Music: From Babylon to the Beatles

How Music Has Shaped Civilization

By: Howard Goodall

Narrated by: Simon Vance

Length: 12 hrs and 9 mins

Publisher's summary

Music is an intrinsic part of everyday life, and yet the history of its development from single notes to multilayered orchestration can seem bewilderingly complex.

In his dynamic tour through forty thousand years of music, from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop, Howard Goodall leads us through the story of music as it happened, idea by idea, so that each musical innovation—harmony, notation, sung theater, the orchestra, dance music, recording—strikes us with its original force. Along the way, he also gives refreshingly clear descriptions of what music is and how it works: What scales are all about, why some chords sound discordant, and what all postwar pop songs have in common.

The story of music is the story of our urge to invent, connect, rebel—and entertain. Howard Goodall's beautifully clear and compelling account is both a hymn to human endeavor and a groundbreaking map of our musical journey.

Download the accompanying playlist text.

©2014 Howard Goodall (P)2014 Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Excellent

This was an excellent overview of the history of music. The performance was five star. Any music lover from classical connoisseurs to modern pop enthusiasts will enjoy this selection.

Great book and performance, not full PDF

I really enjoyed the book and learned a lot. I wish that little clips from the songs he discusses were sampled with the narration, but there are Spotify playlists you can look up separately. That info *is* on the accompanying PDF, but there are other things they mention is on the PDF that wasn’t.

pdf Missing

Any additional comments?

The book comments on music and information provided in the pdf that is available with the audiobook. This was not provided bu audible as a reference.

Bad book for Audible

Three main issues-- (1) the text discusses scales and other technical aspects of music.. These topics clearly need some form of graphic. For example, to show the difference between types of Medieval church modes and various features of musical notation mentioned in the text. (2) Also, there are many references to musical pieces but there are no musical examples included with the text. (3) The narrator has the distracting and ultimately unlistenable habit of dropping his voice at the end of sentences. What professional reader does that? Who talks that way? Although it is well written, I deleted it.

For the novice

This book is clearly meant for the person who knows very little about musical history. This is not a fault. The history is clearly laid out and the author constantly draws connections between the historical goings-on and modern events and people that shows both his respect for the material and his respect for the audience.

A Complete, Yet Concise Telling of Music’s Story

Beyond all the wonderful information this book provides, its greatest contribution may be the sheer respect one develops through it of music’s essential character and power. Whether it’s Beethoven or Beyoncé, Mr. Goodall persuasively explains how music has flowed throughout time doing the same work via innumerable composers and genres. This book is indispensable for anyone who wants to advance in an understanding of what it means to be a musician or simply to have a love of music in one’s life.

Great book, look for the BBC documentary

Howard Goodall is great in all of his BBC work and now he has written this book. Really enjoyable to learn the components of music composition and find out when in (western) history each musical component/idea/approach was invented.

I wish I could purchase a version of this audiobook with imbedded audio samples of the musical pieces that he references in each chapter. The BBC documentary does a great job of playing examples as he describes the parts of the music to listen for.

Very Entertaining! & Very Educational!

I really loved this audio book. I learned so much interesting things I never knew. It might just be because I am a musician and I love & am obsessed with music because sometimes my Mom will listen to audiobooks with me like when I'm listening in the car or when I have it on the house speakers but with this one she'd beg me to change it to something else she'd say it's uninteresting & she didn't understand what it was talking about. So if your a musician or interested in music I bet you'll love it, if not you might think it's boring I don't know. One thing I do know for a fact! Is That Simon Vance is my absolute favorite audiobook narrator ever hands down. I sometimes will try an audiobook out just because he's the narrator & if I'm unsure about getting an audiobook & see Simon Vance's name I'll get it no matter what. He's The Best!

I'm a classical musician and even I loved this!

Fantastic book, very thorough researched history and very well compiled. It's obvious the author was taught from well-known musicologists who could weave a coherent narrative about western classical music from a vantage of hegemony of European countries in a way you'd expect, but often refers to worldwide musical comparisons.

Educational, enjoyable, and stimulating

Would you listen to The Story of Music: From Babylon to the Beatles again? Why?

Yes, it is full of information and my memory leaves much to be desired.

Have you listened to any of Simon Vance’s other performances before? How does this one compare?

Yes. He is very good here, as he usually is.

Did you have an extreme reaction to this book? Did it make you laugh or cry?

I immediately and spontaneously gave copies to friends.

Any additional comments?

An apparently informed negative review on amazon.com very nearly kept me from buying this book. Good thing I took a chance!

It is not that I disagree with all the criticism that reviewer and other commentators have put forth. However, these are minor when weighed against the remarkable quality of the book as a whole. (Incidentally, I do not think Goodall presents as negative a view of Wagner as some commentators pretend). Another reviewer cites Robert Greenberg's lectures (Great Courses series) as being all that Goodall's book is not: I have listened to 90% of Greenberg's numerous courses and recommend them highly. However, this in no way impinges on my enthusiasm for Goodall's book, which does something quite different.

I have learned a great deal from listening to this stimulating audiobook and recommend it to anyone with an interest in music or in cultural history. It is quite dense with information and references, so the better informed you are, the more you can make associations and are likely to enjoy it.