|
|
|
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
Book Type: Hardcover
Published: 03 March 2008
Publisher: Fourth Estate
RRP:£20.00
Best Discount: £6.01 (30%)
Cheapest price: £13.99
Prices last checked: 05/07/2008 13:35:46
|
|
|
Price comparison results for Alex Ross - The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century are listed below. The cheapest price including postage is listed first, this assumes
that the purchase does not qualify for free delivery. Many of the retailers offer free delivery above a certain total order value.
If you are thinking of purchasing more books than just Alex Ross - The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century it may be that the top (cheapest) price is not necessarily the best.
Others may be cheaper, you are advised to check the latest postage free prices by clicking the relavant links .
|
|
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross
|
| Retailer |
Book
Cost |
Post
Cost |
Total
Cost |
Total
Savings |
Retailer price check link
(click to confirm latest price) |
|
Zavvi
|
£13.99 |
£0.00 |
£13.99 |
£6.01 (30%) |
Zavvi
|
|
Browse For Books
|
£11.28 |
£2.75 |
£14.03 |
£5.97 (30%) |
Browse For Books
|
|
Base.com
|
£14.71 |
£0.00 |
£14.71 |
£5.29 (26%) |
Base.com
|
|
Amazon UK
|
£12.00 |
£2.75 |
£14.75 |
£5.25 (26%) |
Amazon UK
|
|
Foyles
|
£15.20 |
£0.00 |
£15.20 |
£4.80 (24%) |
Foyles
|
|
Waterstones
|
£14.00 |
£1.50 |
£15.50 |
£4.50 (23%) |
Waterstones
|
|
Tesco
|
£13.00 |
£2.74 |
£15.74 |
£4.26 (21%) |
Tesco
|
|
Pickabook
|
£13.40 |
£2.50 |
£15.90 |
£4.10 (21%) |
Pickabook
|
|
Woolworths
|
£13.99 |
£2.74 |
£16.73 |
£3.27 (16%) |
Woolworths
|
|
Blackwells
|
£20.00 |
£0.00 |
£20.00 |
|
Blackwells
|
|
Penguin
|
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
Penguin
|
|
BBC Shop
|
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
BBC Shop
|
|
The Hut
|
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
The Hut
|
|
Play
|
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
Play
|
|
Listen2Online
|
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
Listen2Online
|
|
Asda
|
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
Asda
|
|
Dixons Entertainment
|
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
Dixons Entertainment
|
|
Currys Entertainment
|
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
n/a |
Currys Entertainment
|
|
Review:
v
A communal review for the Cote d'Azure Men's book group of
The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross
Written for the book group by Sidney Freedman and Barry Hibbitt
Music, according to the Oxford English Dictionary, is the art of combining sound, voices and instruments to achieve beauty, an expression of emotion. Shakespeare's said it more succinctly in Twelfth Night: "if music be the food of love play on."
Many people listen to it for pleasure, whether it be the might of a major orchestra, the wall- to -wall modern or rap music, or for merely a relaxing hour or so while meditating on the meaning of life. A concerto can alter moods, stimulate the senses, hypnotise and encourage soldiers and citizens alike to follow The Flag,.
The Rest is Noise is a scholarly commentary on music allied to history in the twentieth century, from Bruckner to The Beatles; Debussy to Duke Ellington, and covers the lives and works of nearly every musician of note in that century
The group read this book by the music critic of The New Yorker. Most members agreed that it was a good choice. It is up- to- date and many found it enlightening. It opened up a new world of music previously unknown, which they now feel inspired to explore further. Like all books on music it suffers from the disadvantage that one does not hear the music on turning the pages, rather like a programme note at a concert where no music is actually played. However, Alex Ross has to some extent remedied the problem by setting up a web site (www.therestisnoise.com), on which examples of the music he discusses can be found
It was suggested that greater insight into the musical revolution of the 20th century could be found elsewhere. Leonard Bernstein's lecture at Harvard in 1973 under the title of `The Unanswered Question' is one example and, despite being written in the 1930s, Constant Lambert's book Music Ho! is still as good a guide as any, because many of the truly radical changes in music occurred before World War I, when Debussy broke away from the rhetoric of German Romantic music, introducing a style of composition which required its audience to listen with their nerves rather than their minds.
Egon Wellesz, a notable composer of atonal music, gave a somewhat similar answer when asked why for so many listeners modern music was 'a terrible noise', saying that they were listening with the wrong ears! Our attempt to distinguish music from noise led nowhere. At least one member of the group found no problem at all in listening to atonal music. There followed a discussion on why others found it so difficult to assimilate. Could it be that the human ear is attuned to tonality by overtones or harmonics or is it simply the case that we get used to certain sounds?
Our psychologist pointed out that very little is known about the way in which the human ear assimilates music. He knew of only two works that deal with the subject Some earphones, for example, seem to reproduce recorded sound very clearly, but only because the ear supplies the bass tones which are missing
. We all agreed that Ross was very interesting on music both under Stalin and Hitler. There was less agreement on the importance he gives to the operas of Benjamin Britten, although it was recollected that Rostropovich said the 20th century had seen four great composers, of whom three were Russian and the other was Benjamin Britten.'
In a sense the book is more a guide to the icons, their compositions, what drove them to create works of genius and the relationship between classical, modern, rock'n roll and jazz All methods feed off each other. All are meant to entertain with the exception of dirges, requiems and the like, i.e. music for the formal occasion.
We can hear the soulful strings, the urgent trumpets and the rolling of the drums and we can visualise the great violinist Yehudi Menuhin feathering the strings and Jacqueline Du Pre playing Elgar's concerto for cello in E Minor with a passion that overwhelms the senses.
Music of the past fifty years invokes memories for many, from the opening explosion of music that burst upon the world in Star Wars back to the frenzied Rock Around The Clock of Bill Haley and the Comets.
It must be said that, on first reading, one or two members struggled with the book before appreciation set in.. It is a history of one hundred years of music, a compendium that combines historic events with the music of the day. Ross explains the creation and ideas that gave birth to many of the world's most loved works.
He spent fifteen years on this book. Some of his methods may be a bit technical for the average reader, yet seldom has this art form been word painted in better colours.
His scope is vast, from Richard Strauss and Gustav Mahler at the debut of Salome in Graz in 1906 to the drum banging battle cries of the two world wars, Shostakovich's patriotic Leningrad and that famous war tribute to Russia that angered Stalin because it was not patriotic enough. Nostalgia; The Warsaw Concerto, The Star-Spangled Banner t he Vietnam peace peons, We will Overcome, then Rock `n Roll era, Let's Twist Again, the modern operas where Ross emphasis the works of Benjamin Britten, in Peter Grimes and Billy Budd operas that spell out an allegiance to a then persecuted section of society.
Within the brotherhood of men- not many women- great names pass by like leaves in the wind, visible one moment and then gone, blown away, but leaving behind the subtle rustling sound of greatness.
Here is the naïve Richard Strauss, rejuvenated for a time and thinking the Nazis are his friends. Finally disillusioned when his daughter-in-law's passport is stamped Sara, the German title given to female Jews. His genius overrides, it seems, his compassion and he works on as millions die in The Holocaust. Many, many fellow musicians play in concentration camps for the death dealing SS, not for their supper but for their lives
Alex Ross has written a splendid book. Those who like music but do not know how or why it was written will find a new world to explore and possibly new sounds of music to enjoy. His superb website is a concert hall, just a few clicks away on the computer, to discover a veritable minefield of musical information. Bravo, Mr Ross, Bravo. END
|
|
|
|
|
