Good music is needed, and if you tire of the same-old playlists, treat yourself to one or more CDs or downloads from Putumayo, which creates the best world music compilations in the world. If you like world music, subscribe to Songlines magazine.
Closer to home, Folk Radio is good. Past Perfect offers good remastered classics from Sinatra to Garland.
Note some musical instruments are made with animal strings, so choose vegan violin strings and for harps. You can also find biodegradable guitar plectrums (avoid tortoiseshell).
Gomi offers music speakers made from old bike batteries and other recycled materials.
100 Pieces of Classical Music is a book for those of us who kind of know that we should get into classical music (it’s proper music and has healing benefits) but perhaps it can be too serious and long, and we don’t really know what we’re doing! Let historian Tim Bouverie be a guide for newbies to classical music!
Drawing on his lifelong passion, the author has created a compilation of 100 classical masterpieces that are sure to move, and be enjoyed by almost everyone. Some are well-known and others are hidden gems, waiting to be brought to light. All are intended to comfort and inspire, and you’ll find a short introduction to each piece, plus a recommended recording to try. This is an accessible and entertaining book to bring to life 300 years of the world’s greatest music.
Tim Bouverie is the writer of the renowned book Appeasing Hitler, which looked at how disastrous years of indecision, failed diplomacy and parliamentary in-fighting allowed the Nazis to dominate Europe. So he needed to find another subject to write about, to counteract the depressing subject he specialises in. And as an expert on classical music, this was the perfect fit. He is a Fellow at Oxford University.
