Eruditions www.eruditiondigital.co.uk
publishes eBooks covering a wide range of subjects but of particular interest
for classical music lovers is a new range entitled Masterpieces of Music.
These eBook guides are produced in partnership with the record company Harmonia
Mundi www.harmoniamundi.com and combine the latest scholarship with
multimedia content and interactive functionality in a way that will enhance the
listener’s appreciation and understanding of some of the world greatest pieces
of classical music.
The publications are available in a range of formats
suitable for viewing via different devices and platforms i.e. a web-based
version for laptops and tablets, Apple iBooks and Amazon Kindle.
The first two publications in this series are Bach's Mass in B minor and Beethoven's Symphony No. 3 Eroica.
The author of these two eBooks is Matthew Rye who studied music at Magdalen College, Oxford, and has
spent his career in music journalism as a writer, editor and critic. He has
written numerous programme and CD booklet notes, was a reviewer for the Daily Telegraph for thirteen years and the
BBC Music Magazine for over 15 years,
and has also written for Independent,
Sunday Times, Musical Times, The Wagner Journal and other publications. He
contributed to The New Grove Dictionary
of Music and Musicians (2nd edition), The
Rough Guide to Classical Music, The
Blackwell History of Music in Britain and was general editor of 1001 Classical Recordings You Must Hear
Before You Die (Cassell Illustrated, 2007). He is currently reviews editor
of The Strad.
There are aspects of a conventional book with a facsimile colour front cover followed
by an Introduction to the series, Information about the author, and a Table of contents that enabled one to
easily access a particular section of the book. This is followed by a user’s guide including an online
helpline. The publishers have gone to great lengths to make this eBook
intuitive but, as an additional guide, there is a section explaining the Features of this publication including
audio playback, links to supplementary articles, enhanced timelines and
walkthrough features as well as the interactive score.
The first eBook in
this series that I looked at was Bach’s B minor Mass.
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| Erudition 147 pages |
Right from the Introduction
Matthew Rye provokes thoughts that are very pertinent to this great work such
as ‘Why did the composer, a stalwart Lutheran, create a work for the Roman
Catholic liturgy?’ Scattered throughout are entertaining and interesting
featured quotes from individuals such as Michael Torke, Sir Thomas Beecham,
Bach himself and his contemporaries.
There is a Profile of
the composer with links that take the reader to maps showing the location of
the cities mentioned. The Composer Timeline has links and a map
showing Bach’s travels together with a link to an online Interactive Timeline that adds detail, maps and photos by way of
the user touching a relevant entry on the timeline.
The Story Behind the
Mass is in five sections, an Introduction
(that explains the B minor Mass origins
in a Sanctus for Christmas, 1724), Mass
Appeal: A note of Terminology, Protestantism
and Catholicism in Saxony in Bach’s time (that gives the probable reason
for Bach writing a Catholic Mass – the Elector of Saxony was a staunch Catholic),
No Laughing Matter – the Parody Mass
and a Work Timeline. Terminology is
well covered by links to the Glossary though they don’t take one directly to
the specific entry. The Work Timeline
includes photographs that, on my Kindle Fire HD were of excellent definition.
There is a link that takes the reader to an online interactive Bach Mass
Timeline with the same features as the general interactive Timeline.
Walk Through gives
a brief guide to the sections of the Mass with online audio excerpts from the
relevant section. The performers aren’t credited as far as I could ascertain
but, given that this is a joint venture with Harmonia Mundi, I presume the
excerpts to be from Philippe Herreweghe’s recording with the Collegium Vocale
Gent and La Chapelle Royale.
There then follows a detailed analysis of each section of
the Mass with musical examples in short score and online musical audio examples
played on an organ. The main sections of the Mass have links to the interactive
online orchestral and choral excerpts. Due to the online access to these audio
excerpts, they cannot be listened to whilst following the short score but,
given that the excerpts are only four or five bars long, this is hardly a
problem.
One of the useful aspects of the way the excepts are often
done is that, for example, a fugal section of the Kyrie is set out in short
score then an organ excerpt of each line is played before hearing the top line,
second line and bass played together. Throughout the analysis of the Mass, the
text is shown in Latin and English. The
online Enhanced Interactive Score of
Kyrie I allows the user to link audio extracts to the score.
The section entitled Resources
includes the Glossary, Interactive
Timelines and such other features as the Credo Exposition in Detail and the Interactive Musical Score – Kyrie I and II in detail that are
accessible throughout the book via links.
However, it also includes Supplementary
Articles on Form and Structure,
Ancient and Modern and Symbols
musical and spiritual as well as Further
information about tempo (inc. German terminology), Further Reading (inc. web resources) and Further Listening showing a number of B minor Mass recordings that
can be bought by touching the link.
Beethoven’s Symphony No.3 ‘Eroica’
follows a similar format.
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| Erudition 125 pages |
The Story Behind the
Eroica places the third symphony in its context, the so called Heiligenstadt Testament, where Beethoven
poured out his intense feelings concerning not only his deafness but how he
felt misunderstood, his revolutionary leanings and initial admiration for
Napoleon Bonaparte as well as first performances of the Eroica and their
reception. With Shock of the new, Matthew
Rye, looks in more detail at how Beethoven achieved such an advance in musical
composition. There are links to Supplementary
Articles on Beethoven and Napoleon,
Beethoven and Prometheus, Beethoven’s developmental tricks and Thematic unity.
Beethoven’s Orchestra
looks at the instruments, size and layout of Beethoven’s orchestra. There
is a Work Timeline and an online enhanced Interactive Timeline that works in the
same manner as the B minor Mass eBook.
Walk Through takes
us straight into a detailed analysis of the Eroica with orchestral excerpts and
piano excerpts to accompany single stave or short score musical examples. Here
again I am guessing that the orchestral excerpts are from Andrew Manze’s
Harmonia Mundi recording with the Helsingborg Symphony Orchestra.
The Enhanced
Interactive Score of the Development Section is particularly impressive in
the way that audio extracts can be linked to the score with additional written
explanation. Also impressive is the way that the structure and development of
the first movement is explained in real depth with excellent diagrams.
Resources includes
Further listening with selected
recordings which, again, can be bought on line by clicking a link, Further reading (that I’m glad to see
includes my treasured Beethoven: the Music and the Life by Lewis Lockwood) and Web Resources. Supplementary Articles places together the articles mentioned above
that can be accessed by links.
There is an Index of
Musical examples which brings together all of the orchestral excerpts and a
Glossary and Appendix to which the
various links throughout the eBook have allowed access.
There are so many little features that can be accessed that
I hope that I have included them all in this review.
These two eBooks bode extremely well for the whole series.
There is nothing dry or overly academic about Rye’s analysis of the works.
These books are suitable for the ordinary music lover as well as music students
and, indeed, anyone who wishes to gain an extra depth of knowledge of these
works of genius.
Above all they are a joy to use and bring great fun to
learning more about these wonderful works.
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