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Bach, Beethoven, and the Boys
- Music History as It Ought to Be Taught
- Narrated by: Jean-Michel George
- Length: 3 hrs and 31 mins
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Publisher's Summary
David W. Barber has delighted fans around the world with Accidentals on Purpose, When the Fat Lady Sings, and other internationally best-selling books of musical humor. His best-selling Bach, Beethoven and the Boys chronicles the lives of the great (and not-so-great) composers, exploring their sex lives, exposing their foibles, and expanding on our understanding of these all-too-human creatures.
Filled with information, interesting facts, and trivia, this hilarious history covers music from Gregorian chant to the mess we're in now. From Bach's laundry lists to Beethoven's bowel problems, from Gesualdo's kinky fetishes to Cage's mushroom madness, Barber tells tales out of school that ought to be put back there (think how much more fun it would be if they taught this stuff).
"My heartiest commendation for an admirable work of scholarship.... I will not say again that it is funny, since this will compel you to set your jaw and dare Barber to make you laugh." (Anthony Burgess on Bach, Beethoven and the Boys)
What listeners say about Bach, Beethoven, and the Boys
Average Customer RatingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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Overall4 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story3 out of 5 stars
- Ruffkutt
- 08-20-18
Wanted: More audiobooks from the author
Fun listen owed in large part to narrator JM George's patrician nobility accent which adds a Pythonesque quality. Would purchase Mr. Barber's other works as audiobooks with this form of narration.
3 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Amazon Customer
- 10-31-18
MARVELOUS
I highly recommend this to any student of music that has endured a 3:00pm music history class.
2 people found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jack Frasier
- 03-02-19
funny and whimsical
very enjoyable and quick audiobook. only 3 hours or so. nice for funny history lesson
1 person found this helpful
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- MichaelP
- 05-23-22
Very Entertaining
Not a lot of new information of you have any background in Music History - BUT, VERY entertaining. Worth the time!
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Overall5 out of 5 stars
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Performance5 out of 5 stars
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Story5 out of 5 stars
- Jeri
- 04-11-20
The Most Fun You’ll Have Learning Something
A delightfully irreverent take on classical music 🎶 it is quite funny and definitely a great way to spend time. The narrator is a perfect fit for the material.
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-
Story4.5 out of 5 stars 73
Like Jan Swafford’s biographies Beethoven and Johannes Brahms, Mozart is the complete exhumation of a genius in his life and ours: A man who would enrich the world with his talent for centuries to come and who would immeasurably shape classical music. As Swafford reveals, it’s nearly impossible to understand classical music’s origins and indeed its evolutions, as well as the Baroque period, without studying the man himself.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Too many words
- By James Messelbeck on 01-12-21
By: Jan Swafford
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It Ended Badly
- Thirteen of the Worst Breakups in History
- By: Jennifer Wright
- Narrated by: Hillary Huber
- Length: 8 hrs and 8 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 760
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 693
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Story4 out of 5 stars 691
Spanning eras and cultures from ancient Rome to medieval England to 1950s Hollywood, Jennifer Wright's It Ended Badly guides you through the worst of the worst in historically bad breakups. In the throes of heartbreak, Emperor Nero had just about everyone he ever loved - from his old tutor to most of his friends - put to death. Oscar Wilde's lover, whom he went to jail for, abandoned him when faced with being cut off financially from his wealthy family.
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1 out of 5 stars
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Shallow, poorly researched, forced humor
- By S. Yates on 05-11-17
By: Jennifer Wright
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Fryderyk Chopin
- A Life and Times
- By: Dr. Alan Walker
- Narrated by: Corrie James
- Length: 23 hrs and 28 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 69
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 63
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 64
Based on 10 years of research and a vast cache of primary sources located in archives in Warsaw, Paris, London, New York, and Washington, D.C., Alan Walker's monumental Fryderyk Chopin: A Life and Times is the most comprehensive biography of the great Polish composer to appear in English in more than a century. Walker's work is a corrective biography, intended to dispel the many myths and legends that continue to surround Chopin.
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5 out of 5 stars
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This book is a masterpiece
- By Carpe Diem on 02-09-19
By: Dr. Alan Walker
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I'm Your Man
- The Life of Leonard Cohen
- By: Sylvie Simmons
- Narrated by: Joshua Pollock
- Length: 18 hrs and 32 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 236
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 202
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 195
The legend behind such songs as "Suzanne," "Bird on the Wire," and "Hallelujah" and the poet and novelist behind such groundbreaking literary works as Beautiful Losers and Book of Mercy, Leonard Cohen is one of the most important and influential artists of our era, a man of powerful emotion and intelligence whose work has explored the definitive issues of human life - sex, religion, power, meaning, love. I'm Your Man is the definitive account of Cohen's extraordinary life.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Biography from a room
- By john e reynolds on 08-21-16
By: Sylvie Simmons
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Something Wonderful
- Rodgers and Hammerstein's Broadway Revolution
- By: Todd S. Purdum
- Narrated by: Todd S. Purdum
- Length: 10 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 409
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 356
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 353
They stand at the apex of the great age of songwriting, the creators of the classic Broadway musicals Oklahoma!, Carousel, South Pacific, The King and I, and The Sound of Music, whose songs have never lost their popularity or emotional power. Even before they joined forces, Richard Rodgers and Oscar Hammerstein II had written dozens of Broadway shows, but together they pioneered a new art form: the serious musical play.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Fabulous book about Rodgers & Hammerstein!!!
- By BigWally on 06-27-18
By: Todd S. Purdum
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Positively 4th Street
- By: David Hajdu
- Narrated by: Bernadette Dunne
- Length: 12 hrs and 20 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 164
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 117
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 117
Positively 4th Street is a mesmerizing account of how four young people (Bob Dylan, Joan Baez, Mimi Baez Farina, and Richard Farina) gave rise to a modern-day bohemia and created the enduring sound and style of the 1960s.
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2 out of 5 stars
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Lousy reader ruins otherwise interesting history
- By Barbara on 10-20-04
By: David Hajdu
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Charles Dickens
- A Life
- By: Claire Tomalin
- Narrated by: Alex Jennings
- Length: 16 hrs and 29 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 166
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 146
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 146
Charles Dickens: A Life gives full measure to Dickens's heroic stature - his huge virtues both as a writer and as a human being - while observing his failings in both respects with an unblinking eye. Renowned literary biographer Claire Tomalin crafts a story worthy of Dickens's own pen, a comedy that turns to tragedy as the very qualities that made him great - his indomitable energy, boldness, imagination, and showmanship - finally destroyed him.
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5 out of 5 stars
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A great biography brilliantly read
- By C. Randall Curb on 11-04-13
By: Claire Tomalin
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Thelonious Monk
- The Life and Times of an American Original
- By: Robin DG Kelley
- Narrated by: Sean Crisden
- Length: 25 hrs and 30 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall5 out of 5 stars 132
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 117
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Story5 out of 5 stars 117
Thelonious Monk is the critically acclaimed, gripping saga of an artist's struggle to "make it" without compromising his musical vision. It is a story that, like its subject, reflects the tidal ebbs and flows of American history in the 20th century. To his fans, he was the ultimate hipster; to his detractors, he was temperamental, eccentric, taciturn, or childlike. His angular melodies and dissonant harmonies shook the jazz world to its foundations, ushering in the birth of "bebop" and establishing Monk as one of America's greatest composers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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The definitive bio of Monk
- By ricardo on 12-27-17
By: Robin DG Kelley
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Wishing on the Moon
- The Life and Times of Billie Holiday
- By: Donald Clarke
- Narrated by: Anna Fields
- Length: 17 hrs and 45 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 125
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 88
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 86
No singer has been more mythologized and more misunderstood than jazz legend Billie Holiday, who helped to create much of the mystique herself with her autobiography, Lady Sings the Blues - and this authentic biography sets the record straight. Donald Clarke was given unrivaled access to a treasure trove of interviews from the 1970s with those who knew Lady Day in all stages of her short, tragic life - from her childhood in the streets and good-time houses of Baltimore, through the early days of success in New York and the years of fame, to her tragic decline.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Comment on the other reviews.
- By Rob G. on 01-22-15
By: Donald Clarke
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The Invisible Woman
- The Story of Nelly Ternan and Charles Dickens
- By: Claire Tomalin
- Narrated by: Wanda McCaddon
- Length: 10 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 88
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Performance4 out of 5 stars 76
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Story4 out of 5 stars 76
Charles Dickens and Nelly Ternan met in 1857; she was 18, a hard-working actress performing in his production of The Frozen Deep, and he was 45, the most lionized writer in England. Out of their meeting came a love affair that lasted 13 years and destroyed Dickens's marriage while effacing Nelly Ternan from the public record.
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4 out of 5 stars
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Interesting
- By Jean on 01-21-13
By: Claire Tomalin
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E. E. Cummings
- A Life
- By: Susan Cheever
- Narrated by: Stefan Rudnicki
- Length: 7 hrs and 53 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 137
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 123
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Story4 out of 5 stars 123
E. E. Cummings' radical experimentation with form, punctuation, spelling, and syntax resulted in his creation of a new, idiosyncratic means of poetic expression. And while there was critical disagreement about his work (Edmund Wilson called it "hideous", while Malcolm Cowley called him "unsurpassed in his field"), at the time of his death in 1962, at age 67, he was, after Robert Frost, the most widely read poet in the United States. Now, in this new biography, Susan Cheever traces the development of the poet and his work.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Very engaging story of the life of e.e.cummings!
- By Kathi on 02-14-14
By: Susan Cheever
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The Finishing School
- By: Muriel Spark
- Narrated by: Nadia May
- Length: 3 hrs and 13 mins
- Unabridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 99
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Performance4.5 out of 5 stars 77
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Story3.5 out of 5 stars 77
College Sunrise is a vaguely disreputable finishing school in Lausanne, Switzerland. Rowland Mahler and his wife, Nina, run the school as a way to support themselves while he works, somewhat falteringly, on his novel. Into his creative writing class comes 17-year-old Chris Wiley, a literary prodigy whose historical novel-in-progress, on Mary Queen of Scots and the murder of her husband Lord Darnley, has already excited the interest of publishers.
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5 out of 5 stars
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Short but Sweet
- By Blythe on 08-13-07
By: Muriel Spark
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Being John Lennon
- A Restless Life
- By: Ray Connolly
- Narrated by: Jonathan Keeble
- Length: 16 hrs and 1 min
- Unabridged
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Overall4.5 out of 5 stars 38
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Performance5 out of 5 stars 32
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Story4.5 out of 5 stars 32
What was it like to be John Lennon? What was it like to be the castoff child, the clown at school, the middle-class suburban boy who pretended to be a working-class hero? How did it feel to have one of the most recognizable singing voices in the world but to dislike it so much he always wanted to disguise it? Being John Lennon is not about the whitewashed Prince of Peace of “Imagine” legend - because that was only a small part of him. The John Lennon depicted in this book is a much more kaleidoscopic figure, sometimes almost a collision of different characters.
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5 out of 5 stars
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great story great reader
- By Tebbe on 01-24-20
By: Ray Connolly
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John Lennon
- The Life
- By: Philip Norman
- Narrated by: Graeme Malcolm
- Length: 12 hrs and 52 mins
- Abridged
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Overall4 out of 5 stars 137
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Performance