Stephen Fry's Incomplete and Utter History of Classical Music is a book ghostwritten by Tim Lihoreau for author, actor, comedian and director Stephen Fry.
It is based on Fry's regular Classic FM (UK) radio slot and is a book about the history of classical music. Fellow radio host Lihoreau has written a range of Classic FM publications along similar lines.
Fry provided a Foreword in which he states that it is "a very personal book" (p. ix). Although the book is written in the first person, the nature and extent of Fry's contribution is not otherwise explained.
Famous quotes containing the words classical music, stephen, fry, incomplete, utter, history, classical and/or music:
“The basic difference between classical music and jazz is that in the former the music is always greater than its performance—Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, for instance, is always greater than its performance—whereas the way jazz is performed is always more important than what is being performed.”
—André Previn (b. 1929)
“Comes from a fine family. So she tells me. Brother’s a priest, all that. But, you know, death, disaster, unfortunate investments. One day she’s a little princess, up on the hill. Next, she’s down there, working the bars for the best she can.”
—Peter Prince, British screenwriter, and Stephen Frears. Harry (Bill Hunter)
“What after all
Is a halo? It’s only one more thing to keep clean.”
—Christopher Fry (b. 1907)
“Each of us is incomplete compared to someone else, an animal’s incomplete compared to a person ... and a person compared to God, who is complete only to be imaginary.”
—Georges Bataille (1897–1962)
“Never be rash with your mouth, nor let your heart be quick to utter a word before God, for God is in heaven, and you upon earth; therefore let your words be few.”
—Bible: Hebrew, Ecclesiastes 5:2.
“Gossip is charming! History is merely gossip. But scandal is gossip made tedious by morality.”
—Oscar Wilde (1854–1900)
“The basic difference between classical music and jazz is that in the former the music is always greater than its performance—Beethoven’s Violin Concerto, for instance, is always greater than its performance—whereas the way jazz is performed is always more important than what is being performed.”
—André Previn (b. 1929)
“As for the terms good and bad, they indicate no positive quality in things regarded in themselves, but are merely modes of thinking, or notions which we form from the comparison of things with one another. Thus one and the same thing can be at the same time good, bad, and indifferent. For instance music is good for him that is melancholy, bad for him who mourns; for him who is deaf, it is neither good nor bad.”
—Baruch (Benedict)