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A Listener's Guide to Mozart's Music

Most books about Mozart fall into one of two categories: biography and musical analysis. Of the latter few, if any, have been written with the new listener in mind. Lifelong music lover and self-proclaimed amateur Hershel Jick has come to the rescue with A Listener's Guide to Mozart's Music.

Jick's reader-friendly guide eschews technical language in favor of plain-English descriptions of 150 of Mozart's instrumental compositions. Plain, but heartfelt. Here's one, a description of K. 270, chosen more or less at random: "This piece for six winds has four movements. The first movement is exciting and ebullient. The second slow movement is a lovely song with special horn parts. The minuet has some restrained tension, and the last fast movement is fast-moving and exciting -- altogether a joy."

Compositions are graded from one to four stars to indicate each work's "relative beauty" -- a subjective judgment to be sure, but a helpful tool for those who might be intimidated by the number of works written by this prolific composer. I can think of no better guide to keep next to the compact disc collection, or to give to a friend as an introduction to Mozart's music.

If this book is successful, Jick promises to follow it with another on the composer's "stupendous vocal music."