A triumphant journey through the history of Western classical music and the minds of all its great composers 'My aim in this book is to offer an invitation to the glorious long voyage of Western classical music for all those who enjoy and love it, and seek to deepen their enjoyment and love without getting caught up in musicology and technicalities- an entry to Aladdin's cave, an injunction to 'taste and see' re-angled for the sense of hearing in all its complex and various modes. Not historical, but broadly chronological and thematic, from the earliest adventures in notation up to the present day - some fourteen centuries of continuity and interruptions, revolutions and renewals, complements and contrasts, via many detailed descriptions of individual composers and individual pieces. 'In part, it is an account of how music is made - its core of practice, skills, conventions, traditions - but also an attempt to chart the evolution of expression, what is being said, what felt, what communicated 'from the heart to the heart' - how music works upon its listeners, how it moves and stirs, how it reaches and appeals to the highest flights and deepest places (and everything between) of the organising pattern-making mind, the ebb and flow of the sensual body, the centres of emotion. 'Everything is within the art itself, at whatever epoch, in whatever idiom, whatever genre or intention. Nor is evaluation eschewed - why, as well as how, it is so good and why sometimes so deplorable. The style throughout is inherently allusive and I have tried everywhere to preserve the intonations and rhythms of speech - spontaneous, improvised, natural as breathing' - Robin Holloway

Details

ISBN13: 9780241183014
Format: Hardback
Number of Pages: 1184
Edition:
Publication Date: 17 Feb 2026
Publisher: Penguin Books Ltd
Publication City, Country: London, United Kingdom
Dimensions (cm): 24(H)x16.3(L)x5.5(W)1472
Weight (gm): 1472

Author Biography

Robin Holloway is a composer, teacher, writer and Emeritus Professor of Music at the University of Cambridge.

Reviews

The delight sings loudly off the page ... [Holloway] is fascinated by musical lineage and is a meticulous tracer and charter of influence , throwing cables across centuries and pulling seemingly disparate figures suddenly near. Irreverent , outspoken and unfailingly opinionated, with knowledge as broad as his vocabulary, [he[ offers an unofficial alternative account [of the history of Western music]; 'an enthusiast's record of delighted discoveries'; and a playful compendium ... alongside close listening and biographical fragments. Saying the unsayable is a repeated theme .... he wrestles with the toughest of repertoire and wins -- Alexandra Coghlan * Spectator *
Enthusiasts picking up this book will straightaway recognise a companion for life. They will be inexhaustibly educated, provoked and amused by the absoluteness of its commitment and the sharpness of its judgement … the book’s endearing loquacity, humour and energy bring to mind the literary fecundity of a Burgess or a Joyce. It is hard to believe that one person possesses and has been able to put on paper such an accumulation of knowledge -- Jonathan Gaisman * The Critic *
Music's Odyssey is a summation of [Robin Holloway]'s work as a writer on music ... an idiosyncratic and personal tour of the glories of classical music. Holloway loves to trace influence and lineage, but more delightful are the wormholes he finds between centuries ... he toys with tailoring his writing, chamelon-like, to echo the musical style of his subjects ... each word is worth savouring -- Rebecca Franks * The Times *
Music’s Odyssey is a generous compendium of ekphrases, shaped by unfearing judgement and threaded with autobiography. There is nothing like it -- Paul Griffitths * Times Literary Supplement *
Holloway’s new book has seemingly felicitous combinations of ... an ear for influence and sometimes unlikely connections found in Ross; an authority and forthrightness bestowed by erudition as with Taruskin; and an attractive concision similar to Scholes. Holloway’s new book has seemingly felicitous combinations of all the above: an ear for influence and sometimes unlikely connections found in Ross; an authority and forthrightness bestowed by erudition as with Taruskin; and an attractive concision similar to Scholes. [It also benefits from] the invaluable dual standpoint of a highly distinguished composer and academic ... a monumental, profoundly valuable book -- Dominic Hartley * Music Web International *
Holloway's writing has a distinctive and individual voice – most enjoyable when he is either rhapsodising or excoriating ... like sitting in a university tutorial with the most inspiring teacher -- Bernard Hughes * ArtsDesk *
[Robin Holloway is] a critical writer of singular acumen and eloquence ... whose brain and heart work together and as a multifaceted historian. ... I have been returning to this book, and shall continue to do so -- Norman Lebrecht * Slipped Disc *
A brave [and] very timely book [that] allows the reader plenty of freedom to think laterally about broader cultural issues while stick[ing] to a very clear purpose: to invite listeners to follow the development of music on a journey through the many centuries of its evolution, until we reach our own period. -- Geraint Lewis * Gramophone Magazine *