Wow!, March 18, 2009
By Rich Patterson (Minneapolis, MN)
By Rich Patterson (Minneapolis, MN)
My god, this book is encyclopedic in it's scope. Every paragraph is jam-packed with interesting facts and observations to the point it made my head spin. It's so dense with information that I started reading it a page at a time. Even then I found myself being overwhelmed. This isn't so much a comment on the writing as it is on my personal level of comprehension and retention. In fact, I think Spencer does an excellent job of taking the catalyst of a genre and tracing it through all of it's influences and offshoots (reminds me of James Burke's "Connections" series from the BBC). I just wish I could hear snippets of everything so I could make the same mental, musical connection as the author (although I can only imagine the licensing nightmare of such a compilation). I started getting into film scores a few years back and I wanted to know more about the origins of styles. This book delivers on that plus a whole lot more. It's introduced me to a host of previously unknown composers and films, and has since compelled me to spend WAY too much money on expanding my CD and DVD collection. This is mandatory reading for any maven of television or motion picture soundtracks. It's an intensive, exhaustive treatise and may just be the defining work on the subject.
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