Classical Notes (Orchestra) is a multimedia resource that attempts to give an overall impression of classical music to the novice musician. Whether this is children or adults, is not stated. Important composers, instruments, and orchestral repertoire are given considerable mention and attention. The main menu is an indication of the contents of this CD‐ROM:
Composers (entire list)
Composers (A‐B, C‐D, etc.)
Orchestras of the world
Glossary
Notes with music examples
Instruments
Pictures of instruments
Listening for musical form ‐ audio lecture
Music examples (list of pieces)
A suggested library list
There are a number of good points to this resource. The audio lecture on musical forms is the best attribute of this CD‐ROM. The lecture is concise yet informative, with simple musical examples for the user to access. Form in music is often the most difficult aspect in teaching music appreciation, and this CD does an excellent job in assisting the user toward understanding musical compositional techniques. Another excellent point in favor of this resource is that underlined musical terms are instantly defined with a click of the mouse. Finally, the “Orchestras of the world” section is outstanding in its research and depth. An extensive history and update on virtually every major orchestra in the world is given. Obviously, this will be the first section in this resource that will become outdated; but the historical information is extremely useful and necessary.
There are, however, a number of negative points about this resource. One is the arrangement of the main menu. It appears to be a rather haphazard listing of the contents of the CD‐ROM, and could have been better organized to assist the user. For instance, why are the composers listed in both a complete list and a concise alphabetical list? Also, the Instruments and Pictures of instruments sections would have been better off combined with discussions of instruments along with their pictures. The suggested library list should have been called Beginner’s list of musical recordings or A classical music library collection for beginners.
The biggest problem with this resource, however, has to do with the music. As a music teacher myself, one of the greatest challenges to teaching children through adults about music is learning to listen intelligently. This involves learning to recognize the various sounds of the orchestral instruments; the basic forms like the symphony, string quartet, and concerto; and being able to describe what is happening in musical compositions and make intelligent decisions regarding musical periods and appropriate composers. This type of activity cannot be accomplished with this resource because all of the music is done with a synthesizer. There is no actual orchestral music recorded on this CD‐ROM. Everything has been recorded using a synthesizer. Therefore, the instructional value of this resource will not accomplish the goals of most music instructors, which is to teach students how these instruments sound and work together to create orchestral music.
In summary, the value of this resource is in the audio lecture on musical form, the instant access to music definitions and terminology, and the Orchestras of the world section. The use of synthesized music on a CD‐ROM whose purpose is to illustrate orchestral music, however, clearly negates much of the positives associated with this resource and should steer consumers toward other products that use actual recorded music as their basis. Obviously, using actual recorded orchestral music would mean that the publisher would have to pay copyright and performance fees; but the usefulness of their product would more than make up for the extra effort and costs.
