Singer's Notebook

by Ian Bostridge

Ian Bostridge is one of the outstanding singers of our time, celebrated both for the quality of his voice and for the exceptional intelligence he brings to bear on the interpretation of the repertoire of the past and present alike. Yet his early career was that of a professional historian, and "A Singer's Notebook" takes a look at the multifaceted world of classical music through the eyes of someone whose career as a singer has followed a unique trajectory. Consisting of short essays and reviews written since 1997, some in diary form, it ranges widely over issues serious (music and transcendence) and not so serious (the singer's battles with phlegm), while inevitably discussing many of the composers with whom Bostridge has become identified, such as Britten, Henze, Janacek, Schubert, Weill and Wolf. Ultimately it returns to the theme of his earlier work on seventeenth century witchcraft - what place can there be for the ineffable in a world defined by an iron cage of rationality? Inclu

Genres: Music, Nonfiction, Essays

208 pages, Hardcover

First published September 1, 2011

Reviews

[Gabriela Francisco · Rating 4 out of 5]

"Even small things can delight us." -- Bostridge, quoting Hugo Wolf

This is the very first book I ordered from abroad (thank you Book Depository!!!), and I spent three weeks praying nightly that the package would arrive safely from the UK! It is not available locally here in Manila, and I’ve been wanting to read it for ages, having been a huge fan for years! And I was not disappointed! The package arrived, and the book proved worth the wait.

It is one of the most difficult things in the world to write about something as intangible and abstract as music. And as if having the voice of an angel wasn’t enough, this book is proof that British tenor Ian Bostridge possesses the brain of a god as well. Reading this collection of essays (primarily on lieder and Britten but including a few book and opera reviews) was like listening to a very funny professor who blended incredible learning and vast performance experience with a delightfully hilarious sense of humor. Think Daniel Barenboim, but more opera buffa than seria.

For example, Bostridge writes: "My life is governed by phlegm to an extent that utterly disgusts my friends and family." Ahahahaha. Also, he speaks of Hugo Wolf's lieder having "Wagner's endless melody without the endlessness." Haha!

But also... Ian Bostridge’s first career was that of a legitimate historian (with a PhD from Oxford!), and IT SHOWS. The book is interspersed with a smattering of academic lingo, such as “noumenal,” “chary” and “dyspeptic,” with quotations from the likes of Wittgenstein, Jaspers, and the composers themselves. There's discussions of Teutonic "Kultur" versus French "Zivilisation" and pages where Bostridge waxes poetic over the dissolution of tonality and what it meant for Romanticism's language of irrationality.

This “notebook” brought memories of Music Literature classes in college. Ian Bostridge would have had a great career as a professor! He made me want to listen to all the recordings and works he discussed, and anyone who makes readers thirst to listen to Janacek or Hans Werner Henze FOR FUN truly has a gift.

Mind you, Ian Bostridge is no highbrow elitist, despite his qualifications. He writes of learning from Barbra Streisand and Bob Dylan, and speaks of what classical musicians can learn from the best of popular ones.

Highly accessible as well as being highly learned, this book is a treat for anyone interested in music (and that’s ALL of us)! I suggest that it be read in small doses, a few chapters at a time, so you can listen to the song cycles / operas he mentions on Spotify while drinking your tea with scones and clotted cream.

I am soooo looking forward to immersing myself in Ian Bostridge’s second book this coming sembreak!

[Nick]

An interesting read. Ian Bostridge is a singer I've heard live in a lieder concert. Always committed, knowledgable about his subject and its history, he writes here of an ongoing and successful carreer, and the songs and their contexts. lots of interest.

[Antonija · Rating 5 out of 5]

The way Bostridge writes and the ease with which he explains things and his words flow, makes you agree with him fully. Everything seems logical and at the same time astonishing. As a classical singer I appreciate someone who is bold enough to put his thoughts and knowledge of "this side of the music world" on the paper and shares it with the world wholeheartedly.

[Mary Beth · Rating 3 out of 5]

A fluid, polished writer, Bostridge has a tendency to indulge in too-sweeping statements (more sweeping, one suspects, than he truly means), a tendency exacerbated by the often tantalizingly short length of these essays, most of which originated as program notes or magazine columns. Nevertheless, he is thoughtful about his vocation and brings intriguing insights to the music he sings.

2019 Popsugar Reading Challenge
5. A book written by a musician (fiction or nonfiction).

[Michael Pennington · Rating 4 out of 5]

Unexpectedly, I loved this.

[Agnès Denie · Rating 5 out of 5]

I keep reading passages to other people to make them laugh. I'm still waiting for Netflix to pick up his version of The Sopranos