Thousand records of the twentieth century

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   The musicologist and jazz guitarist Enrico Merlin has compiled a book containing 1000 records of twentieth century music.

Music without barriers: from Mahler to Opeth.

Not only western music.

In his book, the criterion he followed to make his selection is exposed:

As Merlin specifies, the criterion is NOT to select the "Best Albums", it is NOT to select "The Most Beautiful albums".

The criterion is: "the historical importance of each work, especially taking into account the intrinsic innovative content from the perspective of a music historian who is also a musician."

The assumption is that music always evolves, and that the evolution of music depends on the evolution of three of its characteristics:

- melody
- harmony
- rhythm

but, starting from the twentieth century, with recording techniques, with electric and electronic instruments, it is necessary to take into account three other parameters that DO NOT appear in the musical score:

- musical timbre
- dynamics
- expressiveness.

According to these criteria, Merlin has given ample space to musicians who during their career have developed very different creative solutions, while other musicians who have remained very faithful to one of their lines (a sound, for example, a genre, etc.) have been less represented. 

Edited by jamesbaldwin - March 31 2022 at 15:50