Rate this book

Listen To This (2010)

by Alex Ross(Favorite Author)

3.92 of 5 Votes: 5

ISBN

0374187746 (ISBN13: 9780374187743)

languge

English

genre

History & Biography

publisher

Farrar, Straus and Giroux

review 1: After reading The Rest Is Noise, Ross' surprisingly entertaining book about 20th century classical music, I was eager to look into this collection of his essays that includes some topics I was more personally familiar with, particularly the articles on Radiohead, Bjork, and Bob Dylan. The Bjork article is fantastic, exhibiting a depth to her character and her artistic style that go a long way to convince the reader that she is indeed from this planet. The other two are both engaging as well, but as someone with limited knowledge of the classical music world, like The Rest is Noise it is again Ross' ability to invite the reader into unfamiliar territory with his vast knowledge and passionate but honest portrayal of the music that makes the book worth reading. His opening ch... moreapter, an opus on the state of classical music today, is a resounding overture that is followed by compelling essays covering the likes of Schubert, Mozart, Verdi, and many more that are fascinating even to someone whose knowledge of these composers does not extend much past recognizing their names. Even the chapter on Marian Anderson shows off Ross' dexterity as a writer, weaving musical and historical narratives into a more complete picture of the artist, her voice, and what it meant to African Americans in the years that preceded the Civil Rights Movement. For those wary of reading about music, who cite the adage that writing about music is akin to dancing about architecture, Alex Ross may just change your mind.
review 2: A hit and miss collection, which isn't too surprising, given the range and my own peculiarities as a reader. The first, manifesto-like piece is very entertaining: say no to Classical Music, yes to demanding music, which is what a bunch of boring people call Classical Music! Then a piece on a short sequence which is used across all genres and throughout the musical hierarchy, deftly showing that our separations of popular from classical are more or less nonsense... which is also tremendously boring if you've already been convinced of that. From there Ross attempts to practice, rather than theorize about, this 'music is just music' idea. He's at his best when writing mini-biographical journalistic pieces, as with his discussion of Esa-Pekka Salonen, Bjork, and 'late' Brahms, but take that with a pinch of salt, because it might just be that I love Brahms and like Bjork and contemporary music while not being all that keen on, say, Sinatra and Schubert. The weakness, as with almost everyone who tries to make the leap from classical writing/playing to 'pop' writing/playing, is that he treats pop as if it's a tradition in the same way that classical music is a tradition. The great sounds (string sections; piano sonatas) and composers (from Palestrina on down) are a given set of excellences. Pop music has no such tradition, but writers like Ross act as if the most well-known interesting pop musicians (Bjork, Radiohead, Sonic Youth, Kurt Cobain (soi disant)) are actually the most interesting, which is a long way from the truth. The best pop musicians, and the ones most worth writing about, don't end up with long careers or hit records; they're not very well known. They come up with a sound or two, a song or two, and then often--not always--fade away. I imagine that Ross could write about, say, the backroads of experimental metal and the niche sites of electronic music just as well as he does about Radiohead. Is there an audience for that? Perhaps not right now, but the music journalist's job is to create that audience. I'd love to see Ross write about the most interesting pop music out there right now, rather than just the groups he can get a New Yorker profile out of. less

Download links for: Listen to This

Advertising