Review by Booklist Review
Ages 5^-9. The story starts on splendid front endpapers featuring pen-and-watercolor sketches of early instruments: lutes and viols, tabors and crumhorns. The back papers illustrate modern orchestral instruments: harps and violins, clarinets, and flutes. Before 1600, musical groups were small, but in 1597 the Italian composer Gabrieli wrote separate parts for specific groups of instruments in his Sacrae Symphoniae, marking the beginning of the orchestra. Koscielniak describes different musical styles and families of instruments, and introduces composers such as Haydn, Stravinksy, and Ellington to trace the growing power, intensity, and form of orchestral music. The illustrations are dense with gentle color and filled with scenes of musicians at play and pictures of instruments, with banner labels adding more information. The labels in particular use a light touch: the trombone, we learn, is Italian for "large trumpet," and Louis XIV had an ensemble called "The King's Twelve Excellent Oboists." A lot of information about who invented what and how it's played is packed into these engaging pages, making this a shining tool for adults to share with children who enjoy music and want to know more. --GraceAnne A. DeCandido
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
"Informed and lively, this fact-filled excursion through music history is just the ticket for budding musicians and music-lovers at large," said PW in a starred review. Ages 4-8. (June) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by School Library Journal Review
Gr 2-5-In a similar but much more focused format than his Hear, Hear, Mr. Shakespeare (Houghton, 1998), Koscielniak describes the evolution of the modern symphony orchestra and the instruments that comprise it. An informative narrative occupies at least one side of each double-page spread. Watercolor and line fill the pages, providing an up-close look at a variety of musical instruments and methods of sound production. Text inserts and captions accompany the artwork, describing the development of the instruments and their parts, or providing other related anecdotal information. The upbeat, whimsical drawings contrast with the rather formal narrative, which sometimes makes odd assumptions about readers' level of knowledge. Tempo is defined, for example, but not ensembles. The author covers a lot of ground here, perhaps too much, but most youngsters will learn something new. A fine complement to music-education programs.-Corinne Camarata, Port Washington Public Library, NY (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Horn Book Review
This concise chronological account covers the pre-Baroque period all the way to contemporary jazz and computer-controlled synthesized orchestras. For each historical period, a standard-bearer composer is discussed, while detailed illustrations of musicians playing period instruments are employed to introduce all the instrument families in the modern orchestra. From HORN BOOK Fall 2000, (c) Copyright 2010. The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright The Horn Book, Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
