David King sent me a really interesting heads up about a music book that I know all of you will be really interested in: 'The World of Music' by Kjell Bloch Sandved. (All the photos below are of David's copy, and it looks like a beauty of a book!)
As soon as I read David's message I went out to search for a copy, and found several used ones in good condition on Amazon.com for $45 USD.
According to Wikipedia:
"Kjell Bloch Sandved (born 1922) is a Norwegian born author, lecturer and nature photographer, most known for his Butterfly Alphabet which contains pictures of Butterfly Wings resembling all the 26 letters in the latin alphabet and the arabic numerals 0 to 9. In 1960 he emigrated from Norway to USA, and from then he worked in National Museum of Natural History for the Smithsonian Institution as an author and lecturer, now retired."
David told me:
"As a change from my normal equipment related posts I thought I would share a little geek with you.
I love my hi-fi but primarily I am a music lover rather than an audio buff so imagine my delight when a couple of years ago I came the most beautiful music book. It is called The World Of Music Listeners Companion. It was published in 1954 by Waverley Books of Farringdon Street London and was edited by K V Sandved.
For a start it's of stunning quality being bound in mahogany and leather. It is just what says, a miscellany of information on music and performers in alphabetical order. What is particularly impressive is that it covers popular and classical music in a single volume of 2200 pages treating them equally. There are over 2000 photographs, caricatures and pictures and you can look up just about anything you want to know. It even contains a course in elementary music theory, ballroom dance steps, an accordion course, and a piano course. I have attached a few pictures to give you a flavour. I am sure that it will be of interest to some of your subscribers particularly the eccentric ones like me! The internet can't hold a candle to this as a "one stop" shop for music information. The only downside is that it stops at 1954.
It is reasonably rare but in spite of that it is still possible to pick it up for relatively little money. My copy cost £1.50 at a car boot sale. More usually on Ebay it can be found for c.£20 plus delivery.
I can promise interested individuals many happy hours of browsing!"
The copy I ordered from Amazon was published in 1963, and while the photo used on Amazon shows a volume that looks like David's volume, according to the seller's description of the book, it is a four volume set rather than the single volume version of 1954, so I'm not sure what happened between 1954 and 1963.
This looks like a fantastic book, and as book enthusiast as well as music lover, I'm really excited about thumbing through the copy I ordered!
Many thanks to David King for telling us about this book and sending along the photos - thank you David!
I'll be sure to update this post when I get my copy, so keep your eyes on this space!
Postscript: Shortly after I posted David's recommendation of 'The World of Music' by Kjell Bloch Sandved, 5 more copies were advertised for sale on Amazon, ranging in price from $25 USD to over $400 USD.
