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Title: Manfred: Dramatic Poem with Music in Three Parts

Author: George Byron, Robert Schumann

Narrator: Jill Balcon, David Enders, Laidman Browne

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 6 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-18-10

Publisher: Saland Publishing

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

Manfred is a dramatic poem written in 18161817 by Lord Byron. It contains supernatural elements, in keeping with the popularity of the ghost story in England at the time. It is a typical example of a Romantic closet drama. Manfred was adapted musically by Robert Schumann in 1852, in a composition entitled Manfred: Dramatic Poem with Music in Three Parts.

In this version, Sir Thomas Beecham conducts the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra with Laidman Browne, Jill Balcon, and David Enders reading the poem.

Members Reviews:

Wanted the text

Would you recommend this audiobook to a friend? If so, why?

I knew nothing of this poem when I began listening, and at first I found it somewhat confusing. There is no introduction or lead-in, it just begins, with full dramatic force. I spent half the recording trying to figure out what I was listening to and half getting swept up in the experience. The music is beautiful and the acting superb. I will seek out the written text and listen again with more literary understanding.

Very moving performance

Fantastic! This audio provides a great service because the original LP is no longer available. There is a lot of material for deep thought here.

Great but the music ruins it.

Would you listen to Manfred: Dramatic Poem with Music in Three Parts again? Why?

probably not, because I just bought it so I didn't have to read it for a class

What three words best describe the narratorss voice?

Passion, volume, Perfect

Was this a book you wanted to listen to all in one sitting?

Yup, its short and sweet

Any additional comments?

The musical bits really do ruin this audio book. You cannot understand a single word. I had to take out my book whenever they started up a song and I still couldn't follow a long. It was beautiful to listen to, but if you're listening to the audible book for content you're not going to get that.

Overacted and hard to listen to

This performance is not actually that great if you don't already know Byron's dramatic poem really well. It's really as much Schumann's work as Byron's. In fact, some of the language of the poem is included only in Schumann's choral songs set to Romantic orchestral music. These are quite beautiful and dramatic, but they make it impossible to hear what's being said in those parts. But the other problem is the performance itself. There isn't enough distinction among the various men's voices, so it's not always easy to tell immediately when a different character is speaking. Part of the problem here is that they all have rich, round, Shakespearean baritones. And part of the problem is that they're all ACTING. Rolled R's. Vibrato. FEELINGS. The actor reading Manfred himself seems especially delighted by melodramatic volume changes -- whisper, boom, quaver, shout. It makes it difficult to listen to. Either you can't hear him, or you're being deafened. And it's a little hard to take him entirely seriously. So actually it might not be that great even if you do know the poem really well.

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Title: Woodstock

Subtitle: The Oral History

Author: Joel Makower

Narrator: Joel Makower

Format: Abridged

Length: 1 hr and 58 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-27-09

Publisher: Joel Makower

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 12 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

In 1969 four young men - two budding entrepreneurs who really wanted to write sitcoms, a former head shop proprietor turned rock band manager, and a record company executive who smoked hash in his office - had a dream: to produce the greatest rock concert ever held. Little did they know how enormous a reality their dream would become - and what overwhelming hurdles they'd have to overcome, from crazed radicals to spoiled rockers to Governor Rockefeller.

Woodstock: The Oral History is the fascinating story of how it all came together - and almost fell apart - told by the men and women who made it happen.

It shares the adventures of a ragtag bunch of businessmen and bohemians, of hippies, hucksters, handymen, and hangers-on, working against all odds to unite a generation for one wild, glorious weekend in August 1969.

You'll hear the voices and get behind-the-scenes stories from such people as Abbie Hoffman; Miriam Yasgur (who, along with her husband, Max, owned the land on which the festival was held); Joe Cocker; Richie Havens; Wavy Gravy; Chip Monck; and dozens of other producers, performers, and key players in this rich tale of 1960s music, culture, politics, and hip capitalism.

Critic Reviews:

"Woodstock comes alive here, even if the music itself seems almost incidental to the backstage dramas." (Publishers Weekly)

"The definitive study of the mega-concert." (Rolling Stone)

Members Reviews:

Nice Trip

Wish I was there. Book is short and to the point. I like the real voice interviews of the story trippers.

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Title: The Edison Phonograph Company and The California Ramblers

Subtitle: The Story of a Lost Era in Jazz

Author: Bill Mills

Narrator: Bill Mills

Format: Unabridged

Length: 37 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-27-09

Publisher: Renaissance E Books Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 8 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

This is the behind-the-scenes story of the invention, development and commercial promotion of the phonograph by Thomas Alva Edison, the "Genius of Menlo Park." When tinfoil recording cylinders were replaced by flat disks, Edison pioneered a unique "vertical" recording process that produced a fidelity unmatched in its day. Unfortunately, manufacturing costs rendered it impractical and by the 1920's nearly all other companies were successfully using a different process. Edison's stubborn insistence on sticking with "verticals" nearly to the end eventually put the company out of business. Nevertheless, historians and critics agree that the Edison phonograph and disks provided the listener with the finest acoustic sound recordings of their time.

Listen to the story of this forgotten moment in recording and jazz history as told by audiophile Bill Mills and demonstrated by five carefully selected examples, from the Audio Archive, of Edison's unique process. These ultra-rare recordings open a window on the birth of Jazz as captured during its formative years and feature great arrangements with exciting improvised solos performed by a band of the hottest musicians of the era, The California Ramblers. Compare their performances of "Keep Smiling At Trouble," "Clementine," "The Stockholm Stomp," "Along Came Sweetness," and their sweetly suggestive version of "Tiptoe Through The Tulips" to the quality of other early Jazz recordings and you will understand why Edison championed his process to the bitter end!

Members Reviews:

Disappointing, I regret

This sounds like an old USA Radio programme. The actual content lasts only 30 mins - the rest being introductions and announcements. There is little you would learn about Edison here, if you have ever read a few paragraphs about his involvement with sound reproduction. The tracks played are actually OK and worth hearing, but overall I was disappointed. Sorry

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Title: The Beatles

Subtitle: An Aural History, Volume 1: The Formation of the Band

Author: Alan Lysaght

Narrator: David Pritchard

Format: Unabridged

Length: 1 hr and 5 mins

Language: English

Release date: 07-03-08

Publisher: Lysonic Productions Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 10 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

John Lennon's former school headmaster recalls his pupil's first band and the trouble they caused. The Cavern Club's disc jockey recounts the dawn of Beatlemania in Britain. Picture these young men experimenting with what would become their signature hairstyle, as described by photographer Astrid Kirchherr. Revolver cover artist Klaus Voorman describes the thunder that rocked the Kaiserkeller in the heart of Hamburg's seedy red-light district. Back in Liverpool at 10 Mathew St., a regular patron describes the throng of sweating enthusiasts packed into the Cavern Club.

These are the sights, sounds and sensations of history in the making. The familiarity, the excitement and the surprises that accompanied these lads from Liverpool to Hamburg and back again is yours to experience. Witness the birth of the original rock 'n' roll legend.

Members Reviews:

In My Life: Voices from the Beatles' Liverpool & Hamburg

This is a nice little audio documentary on the Beatles' early lives. The authors explain that they had collected a number of interviews over the years and they wanted to produce this series so we could actually hear the voices of Beatles' siblings, the Quarrybank headmaster, Pete Best and his mom Mona, Stuart Sutcliffe's mom, the Hamburg art students, among others. They also managed to capture interviews with George Harrison and Yoko Ono.

Yoko Ono talks about John fishing in Scotland. There are a number of small anecdotes like that, which add up to a fun chronological run through the early years.

The authors (or is it author?) mention a series. This is the only installment on Audible. I would like to hear others. But I hope they get rid of the background new agey muzak. I am guessing they put it in to tie together the various audio segments conducted over a number of years on different equipment. I have no idea. That is my guess. Though the audio does sound clean. I would just say ditch the muzak loop.

A delight, with many surprises

The story is so widely reported and so well known, you may believe there's nothing more to learn. You'll be pleased with the scope of this tantalizing excerpt, and impatiently waiting for the other volumes of the production. Some of us will be sharing this with our kids, and grandkids...

for Beatle novices

nothing insightful and pretty short for the price you pay. but good idea to make it an aural history for my train ride.

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Title: Compact Dirt Digital Ditties

Author: John Valby

Narrator: John Valby

Format: Original Recording

Length: 59 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-28-08

Publisher: Laugh.com

Ratings: 4.5 of 5 out of 3 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

Explicit Language Warning: You must be 18 years or older to purchase.

Tracks:

1. Philosophical Bullshit

2. Was It You

3. Candy Bar Poem

4. Three Blind Crabs

5. Shithouse Blues

6. Leprosy

7. Yank My Doodle

8. Ya-Ya

9. Ayatollah Poem

10. Who Gives a F**k

11. Rock 'n' Roll

12. Yo-Ho

13. Gangbang

14. Skeeter

15. Madonna

16. F**king USA

17. Tight Twat Tina 2

18. Arf Rag

19. Little Penis

20. G. Lee's Groove

21. Eat-Bite

22. End of the Month

23. Johnny B. Bad

Editorial Reviews:

"Dr. Dirty" does it again, playing silly and raunchy songs on his old-fashioned piano in front of a live audience. While some of his tunes are original, like "The Candy Bar Poem", many are X-rated versions of classic ditties (such as "Three Blind Crabs", a version of "Three Blind Mice"). Sex acts, delicate parts of the anatomy, and venereal diseases make frequent appearances, so this definitely isn't a listen for the easily offended. Recommended for those who like their humor loud and filthy.

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Title: The Old Fart Cuts Another One

Author: John Valby

Narrator: John Valby

Format: Original Recording

Length: 30 mins

Language: English

Release date: 02-27-08

Publisher: Laugh.com

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

Explicit Language Warning: You must be 18 years or older to purchase.

Tracks:

1. Same-Sex Marriage

2. Best Shot

3. Country Roads

4. Shithouse Blues

5. Always a Woman

6. Flowers Quickie

7. Roll Your Leg Over (04)

8. Who Gives a F**k

9. Country Roads (Again)

10. American Pie

11. End of the Month (Yes)

12. Small World

13. Father Pedophilia

14. Spiderhole

15. Flintstones (Jackson)

16. Pedro's Song

17. El Paso Writing Sessions

18. Long and Winding

19. Can't Live

20. Raindrops

21. O Brother

Editorial Reviews:

This is a crisp live recording of unremittingly raunchy songs played on an old-fashioned piano. John Valby, sometimes known as "Dr. Dirty", delights in taking classic songs and giving them an obscene makeover. ("Same Sex Marriage" is a takeoff on Frank Sinatra's "Love and Marriage", and ends with Valby marrying his hamster.) Almost every sex act and controlled substance you can think of is here, along with a few you might never have imagined. Well-suited to those in the college fraternity mindset - no actual college necessary.

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Title: The Rest Is Noise

Subtitle: Listening to the 20th Century

Author: Alex Ross

Narrator: Grover Gardner

Format: Unabridged

Length: 69 hrs and 21 mins

Language: English

Release date: 12-10-07

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 327 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including two ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for music criticism. In addition, he was named a 2008 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, given for achievements in creativity and potential for making important future cultural contributions.

Editorial Reviews:

Like the origins of a musical idea waiting to be developed through the course of symphony, Adrian Leverkühn, the titular musical genius of Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus, foreshadows The Rest is Noise. Mann has Leverkühn attend a performance of Richard Strauss' Salome in 1906, the same event that opens The Rest is Noise. Alex Ross lists Leverkühn's fictional attendance along with that of the historically correct presence of Mahler, Puccini, Schoenberg, the cream of doomed European society - and the 17-year-old Adolf Hitler. in Mann's book, Leverkühn contracts syphilis around the same time from a prostitute who goes on to haunt his work; the implied germination of something dark and destructive - musically and historically - sets the tone for Ross' hugely ambitious book.

if writing about music is like dancing about architecture, Alex Ross, the classical music critic of the New Yorker, is Nureyev with a notebook. Critics may quibble with the lack of academic theory in his descriptions of music (in this regard, it's constructive to compare his book with Charles Rosen's The Classical Style), but he has an undeniable gift for enabling the reader to 'hear' the outline of the music he describes (or at least make them believe that is what they're hearing): "Strings whip up dust clouds around manic dancing feet. Brass play secular chorales, as if seated on the dented steps of a tilting little church...Drums bang the drunken lust of young men at the center of the crowd." Consequently, there are countless moments in this book where the temptation to download the music is overwhelming - clearly, copyright issues and running time barred inclusion of musical segments in this recording, and it's a tribute to Ross' style that this omission isn't a critical blow.

The author's forte - obsession, even - is to conjure up sweeping historical vistas and then focus in on the tiny details that bring biographies to life: Charles ives' stint as an insurance salesman, the discovery by Alban Berg's brother of the teddy bear as a marketable toy. Ross also likes to draw historical parallels between the careers of very different composers. However, comparisons with works outside the genre don't always convince of their relevance, for example Sibelius' 5th with John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Everyone from Britten to Björk, Ellington to Einsturzende Neubauten is invoked, which is fun but can feel arbitrary. At these points, the listener is reminded of the author's other career as a prolific blogger - blog writing seems to invite a certain loftiness of authorial position from which vantage point sweeping generalisations are made; The Rest is Noise can occasionally fall into this trap. But with such a huge amount to cram in, this is easily forgiven.

Grover Gardner narrates this sprawling epic, leading the listener through the maze of allusions, dates, and the constant switching from the macro to the micro.

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Title: This Is Your Brain on Music

Subtitle: The Science of a Human Obsession

Author: Daniel J. Levitin

Narrator: Edward Herrmann

Format: Abridged

Length: 6 hrs and 10 mins

Language: English

Release date: 08-03-07

Publisher: Penguin Audio

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 701 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music - its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it - and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, Levitin reveals:

©2007 Daniel J. Levitin; (P)2007 Penguin Audio, a member of Penguin Group (USA), Inc. and Books on Tape. All rights reserved.

Critic Reviews:

"Levitin's snappy prose and relaxed style quickly win one over and will leave readers thinking about the contents of their iPods in an entirely new way." (Publishers Weekly)

"Levitin is a deft and patient explainer of the basics for the non-scientist as well as the non-musician....By tracing music's deep ties to memory, Levitin helps quantify some of music's magic without breaking its spell." (Los Angeles Times Book Review)

Members Reviews:

Neuroscience for the right brain

If you have an interest in how the brain works, and you like music, you'll enjoy this book. The author gives some great vocabulary to the lay person to help to describe music in precise terms without getting too technical. The book walks through the interaction between music and the brain functions and explores some of the ideas that are current in musico-neurophysiology. He spends the last chapter or so of the book on the evolutionary basis of music-brain interaction, which seems out of place in an otherwise cohesive study.

Intricate Reading

I advice a core group of musicians and people whose livelihood depend on music to view this book as compulsory. Orchestral composers and conductors, program directors and any student of music all should add this book to their cart and buy it NOW! The information this book contains is simply too foundational and new to pass up.

As a critique of the book, there are two general ways in which I perceive this book. First, it is a very intricate review of how our brains process music. I have a general interest in the neurology of psychology and Daniel Levitin proves to be very informative, thus making his book interesting to me. On the flip side of this (my second perception), the presentation is dry. It reminds me of the book "Getting to Yes" (Fisher, Ury & Patton) in that it is good information delivered in nearly monolithically by a narrator. I feel like I am having information downloaded into my thinking brain while my emotional brain is ignoring everything said. Where as Stephen Covey's "The 8th Habit" is read by Stephen Covey, himself, with complete sincerity and from his heart, "This is Your Brain on Music" is tough to listen to considering the intricate details and monotone narrator.

Last, considering the topic, music, I think Levitin had a perfect opportunity to go much further using this audio book as a tool. While there are simple examples of music to support points that Levintin is making, not once when he mentions an actual song does he then play the actual recording of the song on the audio tape. Yes, there are legal recording ownership rights that Levintin would have to negotiate in order to play song recordings on this audio book, but it would have enhanced the book tremendously.

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Title: A History of Music in Western Civilization

Author: various

Narrator: various

Format: Unabridged

Length: 11 hrs and 49 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-22-07

Publisher: HighBridge, a division of Recorded Books

Ratings: 3 of 5 out of 51 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

From anonymous 10th-century troubadours to world-renowned 20th-century composers, this comprehensive commentary explores the roots of the most influential music genres of our time. Essential listening for students and lovers of great music, A History of Music in Western Civilization features music performed by world-renowned orchestras and enlightening discussions by 15 prominent music authorities, including Christopher Hogwood, Dr. Wilfrid Mellers, and others.

Original material © Sussex Publications Limited, U.K.; (P)1991 A-FM Recordings, U.S.A

Contact me for any questions: [email protected]

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Title: Laurel Canyon

Subtitle: The Inside Story of Life in L.A.'s Legendary Rock and Roll Neighborhood

Author: Michael Walker

Narrator: Lloyd James

Format: Unabridged

Length: 8 hrs and 24 mins

Language: English

Release date: 05-18-06

Publisher: Blackstone Audio, Inc.

Ratings: 4 of 5 out of 255 votes

Genres: Arts & Entertainment, Music

Publisher's Summary:

Laurel Canyon was the neighborhood perched above the clubs and record companies of Sunset Strip where Joni Mitchell, Jim Morrison, Graham Nash, Cass Elliot, Carole King, Don Henley, and Peter Tork, just to name a few, lived and collaborated to make an indelible mark on our music and our culture. This is the story of an important period in rock music, but also of the harsher results of the sixties, as hard drugs and easy sex began to take their toll and the gruesome Wonderland murders signaled the end of the era.

©2006 Michael Walker (P)2006 Blackstone Audio Inc.

Critic Reviews:

"Laurel Canyon is hilarious and true and bittersweet. Michael Walker catches the mood in the air, and gets it right....The interviews are wonderful....It's a beautifully written document of that time and place when the personalities were as big as those stony dreams that fueled some of the greatest masterpieces in rock." (Cameron Crowe)

Members Reviews:

Interesting book. Poor reader.

As a history of change during the cultural and counter-cultural heyday in Los Angeles, this book is a fascinating tale. Laurel Canyon becomes the stage on which events transpire as well as the abyss in which "the scene" evolves and devolves. Anyone interested in Los Angeles, rock and roll history, the sixties, drug culture, crime and mayhem, will indulge in this story. The only drawback -- and it is quite a major one -- is the reading, which is flat and lacks a sense of pacing. The fatal flaws are repeatedly misplaced pauses that break sentences into dissociated fragments. Nonetheless it is still a worthwhile and valuable "read."

OK

The book was alright. I was expecting quite a bit more and hoped for a deeper insight into the goings on of the time. I did find the vocabulary that the writer used to very often be unnecessarily loquacious which repeatedly sent me scurrying off to my thesaurus.

An interesting flashback to the 60s and 70s

Now I can go through my old Joni Mitchel albums and line up the songs with the back ground happenings in Laurel Canyon. The author is not as talented a writer as the people he writes about. He uses the biggest words he can find in the dictionary to say the simplest things. It reminds me of the long winded papers I wrote in grad school. Aside from that, it is an interesting read for the baby boom generation.

easy listening social history

a very enjoyable listen, for this baby boomer at least. It goes beyond pop culture to capture some of the social history of the time.

Fairly Good Book...Hard to Follow in Places

I thought the stories in this book were really good. I would definitely recommend it. The biggest issue I had was that it was hard to follow at certain times. In large part this is due to the fact that this is a compilation of different stories about the canyon. Since this is an audio book, (obviously) if you lose track of who is talking at any point, you can't easily look back and see the name of the narrator. It can make it hard to follow in certain instances...especially if you get side tracked in the middle of a story.