Tuesday, August 4, 2009

READ: The Rest is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross

Tracing the history of classical music from Richard Strauss' opera Salome (1905) through the minimalist compositions of Philip Glass and John Adams, New York Times music critic Alex Ross weaves a story so compelling it’s hard to put down. Connecting a rare or difficult piece of music to a popular one is his forte and simply amazing. His prose style is lively and engaging, never pedantic, and his utter joy in listening to music and mining its depths is infectious.

Ross has provided a website with sound clips of music under discussion, and YouTube has hundreds of video clips that make the reading experience even more fun.

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