Read the Music

by Beth Winegarner

Music touches everything. It pervades our memory, accompanies us through emotion and history, and becomes the lens through which we understand culture or politics. The essays in "Read the Music" are just as wide-ranging. The book kicks off with a ride through the post-9/11 landscape alongside Tori Amos and 12 cover songs she calls "girls," and concludes with a treatise on "Zoon," the album by British death-metal outfit Nefilim that retells an ancient Apocryphal text. In between, there's dialogue with Russian heiress Anastasia Romanov on the nature of trauma survival, the songs that might be sung by a robotic girl in love with the world, and a trip to the deepest part of the Scandinavian winter. If you've ever loved music, if you've ever found it seeping into every aspect of your life, then you will understand "Read the Music," even if you've never heard these songs before.

Genres: Music

116 pages, Paperback

First published August 23, 2006

About the author

Beth Winegarner is a journalist and author who has written for the New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, Wired, Mother Jones, and many others. Her most recent book is Francisco's Forgotten Cemeteries: A Buried History."

Reviews

[S. Harrell · Rating 5 out of 5]

With an original perspective on musical analysis, Winegarner does an excellent job of penning her love of music and those who craft it, as well as elucidates the power of music, itself. Through her personal connections to song and years of journalistic experience, Winegarner skillfully pulls together histories of the writing of artists such as The Doors, Tori Amos, and Live, shedding light on each artist's creative process. Beyond merely setting the inspiration of the muse to meter, Winegarner explores how each artist then bring the songs to life in a live medium, revealing a higher awareness evoked to intentionally create sonic energetic shifts. Her commentary on this process and how it works on audiences in interesting cultural times is unique and insightful.