Music critic Alex Ross writes for The New Yorker, a popular
highbrow magazine in the United States. For some 15 years, he
has been the magazine’s classical (well, not entirely)
music critic, and has written a previous book, The Rest is
Noise, a history of 20th century music. His latest book
is not a narrative like the first one, but rather a collection
of columns from The New Yorker, revised for book publication,
together with some new essays.
Ross refuses to be locked into classical music - which he would
prefer be called “the music” - and the book “offers
a panoramic view of the musical scene, from Bach to Björk
and beyond.” Ross is an excellent writer, and has encyclopaedic
knowledge of music. Interestingly, he grew up listening only
to classical music, and only discovered other genres when in
college; his first non-classical purchases were punk rock, notably
Pere Ubu and Sonic Youth. But he has caught up on those missed
years, and, in addition to a number of essays about classical
music, also writes about Radiohead, Bob Dylan, Björk and
others.
Ross seems to love music for the sheer pleasure of it, and writes,
at one point, about listening, over a period of three months
to all of Mozart’s works in the 180-disc Philips edition.
He discusses Brahms, Mozart and Schubert, but also gives some
in vivo reports on the Marlboro Music festival, looks
at music education, takes a road trip with the St. Lawrence
Quartet, and attends ten Bob Dylan concerts to try to understand
the latest iteration of this great performer. He’s a hands-on
type of writer, combining criticism and reporting, and his articles
are open to the world, not closed to the uninitiated.
This is a hugely entertaining book; there is no music theory
here, but rather a look at music from the eyes - or ears - of
the common listener. While the printed word cannot express music,
Ross has two ways to go beyond print. First, the audio-book
version, read by the author, contains some thirty musical extracts,
something impossible to include in the book. And, his web
site features a plethora of audio samples for readers to
check out, as well as photos, videos and more.
Ross proves, through this book, and through his New Yorker
articles, just how vast music can be. He is a fine advocate
for the view that one should not limit one’s listening
to just a single genre (if “classical” could indeed
be reduced to a genre), and should explore the variegated types
of music that are around us. If anything, the lesson from this
book is that all music can be interesting if you just open your
ears.
Kirk McElhearn
Fourth Estate 978-0-00-731906-0