We\u2019ll be updating this list on a monthly basis to keep you in the loop of all the best books about classical music released this year.<\/p>\n
The best books about classical music released in 2022 so far<\/h2>\nSilences So Deep: Music, Solitude, Alaska by <\/span>John Luther Adams<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\nPicador 208pp (pb)<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nIt\u2019s difficult to imagine the existence of John Luther Adams\u2019s extraordinary music without the \u2018silences so deep\u2019 he encountered over 30 years living in Alaska. Yet this beautifully written, disarmingly frank memoir is as much about community as it is about the solitude, music and closeness to the earth he explored from \u2018my own Walden \u2013 a rough cabin in the boreal forest.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nThe title quotes Alaskan poet John Haines who, alongside conductor Gordon Wright and Adams\u2019s wife Cynthia, were crucial among fellow outsiders, artists and environmental activists in sustaining Adams as his music evolved from being \u2018about place\u2019 to becoming \u2018in a real sense \u2026 a place of its own.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\nFrom the wood thrush song that \u2018started it all\u2019, via I\u00f1upiaq<\/i> drumming to the ecstatic \u2018sonic geometry\u2019 of A Strange and Sacred Noise<\/i> and the deep, sound-light engagement of The Place Where You Go to Listen<\/i>, Adams strives not just for musical topography, but for a music that \u2018resonates with the inaudible and the invisible\u2019. It\u2019s a powerful, richly human creative journey \u2013 for which we too surely owe Alaska thanks. <\/span><\/p>\nReview by Steph Power<\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n <\/div> - John Luther Adams on the process of writing Become Ocean, his Pulitzer Prize-winning climate change masterpiece<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n
- Six of the best pieces of music inspired by rain<\/strong><\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>
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<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nFive Straight Lines: A History of Music by <\/span>Andrew Gant<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\nProfile Books 608pp (hb)\u00a0 <\/span><\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\nIf you\u2019re searching for a comprehensive, engaging, hyper-informative history of classical music, look no further. Andrew Gant\u2019s encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject is seasoned and assimilated; his book has an instinctive sense of values that makes it a genuine history, not just a compendium of research. His writing style is concise and can be entertaining (as in the description of Weber\u2019s chaotic early career).<\/span><\/p>\nGant is excellent on the technical and spiritual intricacies of medieval and Renaissance music. He finds ways of avoiding shopping-list syndrome: the musical lives of Haydn and Mozart are intercut in a way that works very well. JS Bach gets just three pages, yet they beautifully encapsulate the vastness of his achievements. There\u2019s a gift for analogy: the opening of Wagner\u2019s Parsifal<\/i><\/strong><\/a> prelude is \u2018orchestrated like a sky painted by JMW Turner\u2019. The necessarily brisker gallop through the 20th century\u2019s multiple musical styles and riches (jazz and rock included) extends up to present-day talents like Errollyn Wallen, whose quoted words summarise the book itself: \u2018We don\u2019t break down barriers in music; we don\u2019t see any.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\nReview by Malcolm\u00a0Hayes<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n <\/div> ![\""Five_Straight_Lines_Andrew_Gant_cmyk"\"]( "\\"\"Five_Straight_Lines_Andrew_Gant_cmyk\"\\"\/")
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Picador 208pp (pb)<\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n It\u2019s difficult to imagine the existence of John Luther Adams\u2019s extraordinary music without the \u2018silences so deep\u2019 he encountered over 30 years living in Alaska. Yet this beautifully written, disarmingly frank memoir is as much about community as it is about the solitude, music and closeness to the earth he explored from \u2018my own Walden \u2013 a rough cabin in the boreal forest.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n The title quotes Alaskan poet John Haines who, alongside conductor Gordon Wright and Adams\u2019s wife Cynthia, were crucial among fellow outsiders, artists and environmental activists in sustaining Adams as his music evolved from being \u2018about place\u2019 to becoming \u2018in a real sense \u2026 a place of its own.\u2019<\/span><\/p>\n From the wood thrush song that \u2018started it all\u2019, via I\u00f1upiaq<\/i> drumming to the ecstatic \u2018sonic geometry\u2019 of A Strange and Sacred Noise<\/i> and the deep, sound-light engagement of The Place Where You Go to Listen<\/i>, Adams strives not just for musical topography, but for a music that \u2018resonates with the inaudible and the invisible\u2019. It\u2019s a powerful, richly human creative journey \u2013 for which we too surely owe Alaska thanks. <\/span><\/p>\n Review by Steph Power<\/i> <\/span><\/p>\n Profile Books 608pp (hb)\u00a0 <\/span><\/i><\/span><\/strong><\/p>\n If you\u2019re searching for a comprehensive, engaging, hyper-informative history of classical music, look no further. Andrew Gant\u2019s encyclopaedic knowledge of his subject is seasoned and assimilated; his book has an instinctive sense of values that makes it a genuine history, not just a compendium of research. His writing style is concise and can be entertaining (as in the description of Weber\u2019s chaotic early career).<\/span><\/p>\n Gant is excellent on the technical and spiritual intricacies of medieval and Renaissance music. He finds ways of avoiding shopping-list syndrome: the musical lives of Haydn and Mozart are intercut in a way that works very well. JS Bach gets just three pages, yet they beautifully encapsulate the vastness of his achievements. There\u2019s a gift for analogy: the opening of Wagner\u2019s Parsifal<\/i><\/strong><\/a> prelude is \u2018orchestrated like a sky painted by JMW Turner\u2019. The necessarily brisker gallop through the 20th century\u2019s multiple musical styles and riches (jazz and rock included) extends up to present-day talents like Errollyn Wallen, whose quoted words summarise the book itself: \u2018We don\u2019t break down barriers in music; we don\u2019t see any.\u2019 <\/span><\/p>\n Review by Malcolm\u00a0Hayes<\/span><\/em><\/p>\n
![\""SilencesSoDeep_cmyk"\"](\""https:\/\/images.immediate.co.uk\/production\/volatile\/sites\/24\/2022\/01\/SilencesSoDeep_cmyk-927a9b5.jpg?quality=90&resize=620%2C952"\" "\\"\"SilencesSoDeep_cmyk\"\\"\/")
<\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/source><\/picture><\/div>\nFive Straight Lines: A History of Music by <\/span>Andrew Gant<\/span><\/a><\/h3>\n
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