What to Listen for in the World by Bruce Adolphe

by Bruce Adolphe

What is the nature of music and what is its meaning in our lives? How is it created? How can it be more fully understood and appreciated? These questions are explored here by a composer who has written music for Itzhak Perlman, the Beaux Arts Trio and the National Symphony Orchestra. With disciplined lyricism and entirely devoid of technical jargon, Bruce Adolphe's book probes into the heart of such matters as the role of memory and imagination in creative expression, the meaning of inspiration, spirituality in music, the challenge of arts education and how music communicates. The author, acclaimed for his pre-concert lectures for The Chamber Music Society of Lincoln Center since 1992, also considers the work of composers such as Bach, Mozart, Beethoven, Schumann and Ravel in a way that is both poetic and accessible, designed to get directly to the essence of their art.

Genres: Music, Poetry, Philosophy

Hardcover

First published July 1, 2004

Reviews

[Sarah · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book is about listening and noticing to that which underlies music. It is deeply beautiful and deeply insightful.

Forget what sound is
and music becomes visible:

headlights rushing past
in night traffic
the iguana unmoving on the wall
or snake wrapped still around a tree
the speeding subway
or the apartment building
full of people doing things,
craggy hoodoos looming over highways
and the flock of gulls attacking bread crusts
on the beach.

[Laurinda · Rating 5 out of 5]

“Music must be very personal: only then will it be universal.
We recognize ourselves in others, not in generalizations about others.
A style is a personal view.
The view comes first, the style follows.
Sing of your self
and others will know what you mean.”

[Shoshana · Rating 5 out of 5]

One of my subletters picked this up for me at a bookstore, and I was totes skeptical. And then I read it and it was wonderful enough that I'm keeping it! Very Taoist, all poetry, all thoughtful. Analytical and impressionist at once. I'll be returning to this one.

[Helen · Rating 4 out of 5]

The Tao of Music