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The Rest Is Noise
- Listening to the 20th Century
- Narrated by: Grover Gardner
- Length: 23 hrs and 7 mins
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Editorial reviews
Like the origins of a musical idea waiting to be developed through the course of symphony, Adrian Leverkühn, the titular musical genius of Thomas Mann's Doktor Faustus, foreshadows The Rest is Noise. Mann has Leverkühn attend a performance of Richard Strauss' Salome in 1906, the same event that opens The Rest is Noise. Alex Ross lists Leverkühn's fictional attendance along with that of the historically correct presence of Mahler, Puccini, Schoenberg, the cream of doomed European society - and the 17-year-old Adolf Hitler. in Mann's book, Leverkühn contracts syphilis around the same time from a prostitute who goes on to haunt his work; the implied germination of something dark and destructive - musically and historically - sets the tone for Ross' hugely ambitious book.
if writing about music is like dancing about architecture, Alex Ross, the classical music critic of the New Yorker, is Nureyev with a notebook. Critics may quibble with the lack of academic theory in his descriptions of music (in this regard, it's constructive to compare his book with Charles Rosen's The Classical Style), but he has an undeniable gift for enabling the reader to 'hear' the outline of the music he describes (or at least make them believe that is what they're hearing): "Strings whip up dust clouds around manic dancing feet. Brass play secular chorales, as if seated on the dented steps of a tilting little church...Drums bang the drunken lust of young men at the center of the crowd." Consequently, there are countless moments in this book where the temptation to download the music is overwhelming - clearly, copyright issues and running time barred inclusion of musical segments in this recording, and it's a tribute to Ross' style that this omission isn't a critical blow.
The author's forte - obsession, even - is to conjure up sweeping historical vistas and then focus in on the tiny details that bring biographies to life: Charles ives' stint as an insurance salesman, the discovery by Alban Berg's brother of the teddy bear as a marketable toy. Ross also likes to draw historical parallels between the careers of very different composers. However, comparisons with works outside the genre don't always convince of their relevance, for example Sibelius' 5th with John Coltrane's A Love Supreme. Everyone from Britten to Björk, Ellington to Einsturzende Neubauten is invoked, which is fun but can feel arbitrary. At these points, the listener is reminded of the author's other career as a prolific blogger - blog writing seems to invite a certain loftiness of authorial position from which vantage point sweeping generalisations are made; The Rest is Noise can occasionally fall into this trap. -Dafydd Phillips
Publisher's Summary
Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including two ASCAP Deems Taylor Awards for music criticism. In addition, he was named a 2008 recipient of a MacArthur Foundation fellowship, given for achievements in creativity and potential for making important future cultural contributions.
Critic Reviews
- National Book Critics Circle Award, Criticism, 2007
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- Mr. S. D. Bourges
- 06-03-2022
It could be 1/4 of its size to tell the same story
Extremely long book for such a small concept. No need of so many pages of uninteresting and irrelevant history. What is the key message or point of this book? Who knows…
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- Don
- 17-12-2015
Captivating- first class audiobook
I come from no knowledge of music history. My reason for choosing this book was to seek a link between my interest in the music of Greenwich village of the 1950-60's and what came before. I thought a writer for the New Yorker would be entertaining and informative and Mr Ross did not let me down. I also chose the audiobook form because I knew I would struggle with the book. Well, it had me captivated for a month in my daily commute to work. It has outlined a far more rich and diverse origin of music than I had imagined. It gave me knowledge of key composers to the present day and it was a good read, albeit sometimes a tough slog. The author's command of language added to the listening experience but I'll need to get the hard copy now because it's impossible to bookmark when driving! I was particularly interested in his documentation of composers "plundering the past" which seems to be a common criticism of more recent songwriters but confirms what people like Pete Seeger have said - that it was the history of music - ideas passed on from one to another. But as well there were new ideas like the atonal, the 12 note music etc of which I knew nothing and now will explore. Well written, well read and well done - thank you
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