Ladybird Tuesday - The Story of Music

The Story of Music caught my eye because I've always had an interest in music and the book seemed very familiar, possibly it's one that I read as a child. It was first published in 1968 and is part of Series 662 - History of the Arts. It is written for an older child, and is an incredibly comprehensive look at music throughout history.

The book begins with the first known example of a man making music - as depicted in a pre-historic cave painting. Early man believed that music-making had magical powers and could be used to control the weather or cure sickness. The book moves on to take a look at the first musical instruments and accounts of musical instruments and music in the Old Testament.

I particularly enjoyed the chapter on minstrels in the Middle Ages, having studied this period and learned about some of the great stories like Beowulf and Siegfried.

The final page of the book laments the fact that today we can hear any music that we choose from any period, and that because all this music is so easily obtained we make too little effort to listen to it. The caption to the illustration below is "Good music unappreciated!", a radio playing in the background while a lady hoovers. I wonder what the author would have to say about the way in which we consume music today, where we really can listen to anything that we choose on demand and very much take it for granted.

If you love Ladybird books, do pop over and visit Ladybird Tuesday, where Being Mrs C is assembling a really comprehensive catalogue of Ladybird books and reviews.

Below you can find links to all my Ladybird Tuesday book posts.

Snow White and Rose Red
Hansel and Gretel
Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves
The Three Little Pigs
The Old Woman and her Pig
Little Red Riding Hood
The Ugly Duckling
The Railway Children
A Little Princess
A First book of Aesop's Fables

A Ladybird Book about Knitting
More Things to Make - For Special Occasions
Easy to Make Puppets
Learning to Sew
Stamp Collecting
Tricks and Magic

Prehistoric Animals and Fossils
Dinosaurs
Stone Age Man in Britain
Great Civilisations - Crete
Charles Dickens
Nelson
Lives of the Great Composers Book 1
Lives of the Great Composers Book 2
The Story of Music

Plants and How They Grow
The Ladybird Book of the Night Sky
Sea and Air Mammals
The Farm

The Story of Nuclear Power
The Motor Car
How it Works - The Computer
How it Works - The Rocket
The Story of Ships
The Postman and the Postal Service
People at Work - The Nurse

Understanding Numbers
Talkabout Clothes
Going to School
Teaching Reading

Stories of Special Days and Customs
Christmas Customs

Girls and Boys - A Ladybird Book of Childhood