PREFACE

Edited by Maestro Mariano Garau

Listening to music and understanding its formal and expressive content is a prerequisite for recognising the styles of different epochs. However, distinguishing through listening to medieval music from romantic music to the present day is not easy, especially for those who have not received adequate musical training!

More than once I have heard opera choirs performing pieces by the great Palestrina, using a technical and expressive approach that was not adequate to correctly represent that style; yet the audience applauded anyway with great enthusiasm.

It therefore seems logical to me that sound musical training for both performers and listeners is the only way to avoid a false style of interpretation!

I believe that this valuable guide is a very useful reading tool as well as an essential study aid, with pages that are historically well listed and with technical notes that are indispensable in order to be able to draw information on the historical period consulted.

I can confirm that this is a masterfully thought-out guide for everyone and, knowing the author's artistic background, I highly recommend it, not only to musicians but also to simple listeners!

Listening in order to understand, learning to grasp the details, is the prerequisite for loving great music, so it would not be a bad idea to be able to use this guide in schools as well, so that the teacher can choose to treat a historical period through guided listening in a simple and clear form!

We really need a renewed school with compulsory teaching of music from an early age; in this regard, the Hungarian musician Zoltan Kodaly said: 'studying music serves

not only to prepare musicians, but also future listeners."

Educating young people to listen to music is the first important step to take; only then will it be possible to discern between the bad and the good, and this guide will certainly help!

Mariano Garau