Our critics cast their eyes over a bumper selection of books on classical music
The Cambridge Companion to Music and Romanticism Ed. Benedict Taylor Cambridge 404pp (pb) £22.99
As its editor Benedict Taylor points out in his introductory article, this book is not so much an account of a musical style, as an exploration of the way music crosses paths with other aspects of Romanticism, notably in literature, painting, philosophy and politics. Romanticism is notoriously difficult to define, particularly when it comes to music – that most romantic of all arts, as ETA Hoffmann called it. Hoffmann’s famous review of Beethoven’s Fifth Symphony is invoked by several of the contributors, but not his article on the composer’s Op. 70 piano trios, where, in the slow movement of the Ghost Trio, he heard ‘floating sounds that embraced the soul like shadowy dream figures, and enticed it into the magical sphere of strange presentiments’. That quintessentially Romantic sphere is, however, explored in some of the articles here, while others deal with more down-to-earth topics such as musical forms and the advance of technology and its influence on musical spectacle. The writing is occasionally somewhat professorial in tone, but the book provides a useful background to the context in which 19th-century composers worked. Misha Donat ★★★★
The Complete Songs of Hugo Wolf – Life, Letters, Lieder Richard Stokes Faber 672pp (hb) £30
Sixty years on, we have a successor to Eric Sams’s serviceable account of Hugo Wolf’s songs. Yet Richard Stokes’s magnificent ‘companion’ is anything but simply serviceable. No song is unturned, each elegantly and accurately translated. Every poet who Wolf set is given a short pithy biography, and interspersed through the text are extracts from the composer’s letters in German and English. As a reference book, this is indispensable.
Yet it is much more than a reference book. The admirable biographies of Goethe or Mörike or Heyse or Friedrich von Matthisson, the poet whose Adelaide Beethoven set, give us a remarkable picture of German intellectual life and the richness of its cultural connections in the 19th century.
Hugo Wolf also emerges warts and all, convinced in so many letters that he has just written his greatest song, irascible with a short fuse to a violent temper and finally driven insane by syphilis. Over his friend’s open grave Michael Haberlandt read Justinus Kerner’s poem set by Wolf in June 1883. ‘Night must come/ That you may find light’. Richard Stokes moves Wolf into that light for us. Christopher Cook ★★★★★
The Happy Music Play Book Cordelia Williams Arc Books 208pp (hb) £16
Any parent of young children will recognise the ingenuity with which pianist Cordelia Williams, author of The Happy Music Play Book, manages to eke out ten minutes of piano practice by framing it as a ‘bedtime concert’ for her energetic toddlers. This, and similar ideas, form the heart of this new book, a useful and joyful manual to help parents with young children explore the joys of music.
Split in to sections full of ideas for musical activities covering everything from ‘morning wriggles’ to bedtime lullabies and rescue kits for ‘exhausted parents’, The Happy Music Play Book is filled with flashes of humour, interesting tips and warm insight.
One could argue that there is nothing particularly new in some of Williams’s intuitive solutions, and I was a little disappointed that some of the music suggestions were not more off the beaten track. But Williams is keen to speak to all parents, not just the converted, and the book is the result of thoughtful and personal musical experience, touching on the psychology of musical learning, child development and of the great benefits and joys of early musical exploration. Sarah Urwin Jones ★★★★
Once Upon a Tune – Stories from the Orchestra James Mayhew Otter-barry Books 96pp (hb) £16.99
If you’re looking for some bedtime story material, then look no further than this collection of six sumptuously illustrated stories. Each of the tales here inspired pieces of famous classical music, from Goethe’s The Sorcerer’s Apprentice to Schiller’s William Tell, and are adapted and illustrated by James Mayhew.
Like all the great fairytales, it’s not all sweetness and light – Lemminkainen is chopped up into bits in The
Swan of Tuonela and Peer Gynt is very nearly eaten alive by trolls in In the Hall of the Mountain King. The stories give equal billing to both the composer and author of each work, and Mayhew shares a list of recommended recordings at the end – so there’s a more immersive option, should you wish to read and listen as you go, a perfect way to introduce these works to young ears. Of course, that’s all wonderful, but it’s the illustrations that truly dazzle. Adults and children alike will get lost in the colour and detail of Mayhew’s awesome artworks; he even layers in sections of relevant musical score.
This is a perfect Christmas gift for the children, or even for yourself. Michael Beek ★★★★★
Pick a Pocket or Two – A History of British
Musical Theatre
Ethan Mordden
Oxford 352pp (hb) £22.99
The West End and Broadway have largely gone arm in arm, high kicking their way through history. For the uninformed it’s easy to think the American stage has the upper hand in terms of its influence on the genre of musical theatre. While the stages on either side of the Atlantic have often been interchangeable – especially in recent years – where deep roots are concerned, the Brits have it. That’s the underlying message in Ethan Mordden’s detailed and colourful take on British Musical Theatre history. Not a stone is left unturned as our wise and witty guide steers us through the centuries, from The Beggar’s Opera to Everybody Loves Jamie, via Gilbert & Sullivan and The Boy Friend. With just a single chapter devoted to Andrew Lloyd Webber, those hoping for a book about popular stage juggernauts such as Phantom and Cats might be disappointed. Such confections are present and noted for playing their part in the story, though not always with praise – Mordden isn’t afraid to share his opinions. This is a somewhat breathless account, imparted in a gleeful, gossipy tone. Michael Beek ★★★★
Symphonies for the Soul – Classical Music to Cure
Any Ailment
Oliver Condy
Cassell Books 192pp (hb) £15
‘Many men are melancholy by hearing Musicke, but it is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth… a most present remedy,’ declares Robert Burton in The Anatomy of Melancholy. In this wise and playful new book, Oliver Condy takes the musical ‘remedy’ a step further, offering us a series of musical ‘prescriptions’ to cure everything from a nasty case of regret to a pang of embarrassment.
The book presents a witty A-Z of maladies, with each affliction paired with a suggested piece of music to listen to, alongside insightful commentary on each work discussed. A broken heart is met by two kinds of remedy: for ‘Heartbreak (getting over)’, Condy prescribes a balanced diet of Purcell, Rachmaninov and Schubert, while for ‘Heartbreak (wallowing in)’ we are recommended a dose of Tchaikovsky’s Sixth Symphony. Condy’s musical choices are commendably eclectic and range from much-loved classics to the more experimental (for ‘Urban malaise’ we are directed to Finnish composer Rautavaara’s Cantus Arcticus for orchestra and recorded soundtrack of arctic birds). Written with wry humour, the book is nonetheless sincere in its message: there is perhaps no better remedy for a troubled soul than music.
Kate Wakeling ★★★★★
Ways of Hearing – Ref lections on Music in 26 Pieces
Ed. Dorothea von Moltke, Scott Burnham, Marna Seltzer Princeton 216pp (hb) £16.99
In 26 written and visual poems and essays, great minds from the worlds of music, literature, politics and science share their thoughts on the influence music has on humankind. Conceived in celebration of Princeton University Concerts’ 125th anniversary season, the anthology sees the likes of soprano Jamie Barton, writer Richard Powers and even the late Supreme Court justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg reflecting on the ways composers or particular works have shaped their experiences or relationship with music more broadly. It would be wise to refer to the companion playlist online to listen to the pieces discussed, because the essays are often highly specific about a note or bar of music.
The most impactful are those essays which approach music through a different artistic lens. Architect Frank Gehry explains why musicians should be at the forefront of the decisions in helping shape the design of a space. Laurie Anderson is joined by Edgar Choueri, professor of applied physics at Princeton, to outline the future of ‘spatial music, while New York Times dance critic Brian Seibert describes his experience of seeing music brought to life through dance. Freya Parr ★★★★
Who is Florence Price? Students of the Special Music School at Kaufman Music Center Schirmer Trade 48pp (hb) £8.99
Hats off to the enlightened teacher at the Special Music School in New York who, to light the creative spark of her Sixth-, Seventh- and Eighthgrade pupils (11-13 year-olds), got them to collaborate on writing a short book about Florence Price. Over 30-or-so pages, charmingly and stylishly illustrated by the pupils themselves, we are told the story of the US composer and pianist, including her upbringing in Arkansas, the obstacles she regularly faced due to her race and gender, the triumph of having her First Symphony premiered by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra in 1933 and, long after her death, the rediscovery of her music in an attic. With a more formal biography of Price at the end, plus a page of ‘Further ideas’ to discuss, this excellent short guide is probably aimed at readers of a similar age to the authors. Those of us of an older persuasion may well find it equally engaging and informative. Jeremy Pound ★★★★