Nicholas Kenyon

Having run the Proms, BBC Radio 3, and the Barbican Centre, as well as being on the board of just about every important music organisation in the UK, Sir Nicholas Kenyon has had more opportunities than most people to influence what we perceive as the "canon" or "standard repertoire" of western classical music. He's also held those positions during a period in which the elitist basis and (perceived) limited popular appeal of classical music were coming under increasing attack, when the whole show more notion of a standard repertoire based on "great composers" was being challenged, and when boundaries were being stretched by the reintegration of the former specialist category of "early music" into the mainstream and by the rediscovery of composers from under-represented groups. All of which left people like Kenyon in a position where every decision they take is going to be attacked by one side or another, especially over absurdities like the patriotic singing-spree of the last night of the Proms...

So Kenyon is in a good position to write a book like this, which brings together the history of music in western civilisation from Aristotle to Thomas Adès with a history of how the history of that music has been perceived, how different periods, regions, genres and composers have come and gone in the classroom and in the concert hall, through the influence of performers, later composers, or the accidents of fashion. It's a lively, very rapid but often surprisingly detailed account, focussing on what you need to know as a listener to orientate yourself in a concert programme or a Spotify playlist (needless to say, the book comes with its own playlist, a hundred carefully selected performances of milestone works).

Kenyon shares his personal opinions, of course, but he's rarely entirely negative about anyone. Maybe he is a bit too much focussed on large-scale orchestral work and opera, so that he overlooks some composers appreciated more for their chamber music, but really there isn't very much I would have expected to see that is missing. Samuel Coleridge Taylor is one odd omission: given the general British bias of the book and the efforts Kenyon makes elsewhere to include black and female composers, it's surprising not to find at least a discussion of why Hiawatha's wedding feast was so popular in the 19th century and then sank almost without trace.

I enjoyed this book, but, as a regular concert-goer and someone who's been listening to classical music — and reading about it — for a long time, I didn't learn very much from it that was really new to me. I think I would have appreciated it a lot more if I'd got my hands on a book like this when I was forty years younger and still trying to find my way around the repertoire: it would be a great present for a keen listener who has only recently been bitten by the classical music bug and wants to expand their horizons. Kenyon is careful to keep his writing accessible and uses only the necessary minimum of technical language. show less

Writing a history of “Western classical music” (for want of a better term) is a daunting task. Apart from the very vastness of the subject, there is the increasingly thorny issue of which composers should be considered to be part of the “canon” and whether any of them can objectively be called “great”. When I was a young student, in what now seems a different era, the “narrative” of the history of classical music tended to start in earnest with the “baroque era” (with show more anything before that dumped under the generic title of “early music”). Women composers were noticeably absent and it was implied, with little to no sense of challenge and irony, that men were more predisposed to writing music. Thankfully, views have changed quickly over the past of decades. There is greater recognition of the social mores which kept (and sometimes still keep) women back from composing. Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Alma Mahler to name but a few, were dissuaded from composing and/or publishing their music by the male composers in their respective lives. Perhaps it is even more surprising (should it be, though?) that, despite the challenges, there is indeed much music composed by women, even from earlier centuries, which is as yet either unknown or not given the attention it deserves. In other words, this is not just a question of women not having composed music – for whatever reason – but of active female composers having been shouldered off the musical map. The same arguments could apply to other under-represented groups still struggling for visibility.

These matters have become increasingly controversial in musical circles. I remember the 2000 Bach anniversary being widely marked with performances and recording projects, without much controversy. Not so last year’s Beethoven 250th anniversary, which provoked heated debates as to whether Beethoven is really as “great” as we make him out to be and whether the emphasis on his role in Western music was simply serving to entrench a fossilized canon.

Sir Nicholas Kenyon acknowledges these thorny issues in his introduction to The Life of Music, a new history of Western Classical music completed over the lockdown period and just published by Yale University Press. Kenyon, however, does not set out to be polemical. Instead, the underlying theme of his book – which is subtitled New Adventures in the Western Classical Tradition – is that music can only come to life through performance. In line with this approach, he does not just mention musical works, but very often also references specific performances or recordings. This is a recognition that actual music-making, whether live or recorded, not only creates the repertoire, but can actually shape our understanding of how it should sound. This is particularly true of medieval and Renaissance music where performance practice relies more heavily on the musician’s interpretative approach and where expectations will often depend on the recordings we have in our collections (the colour of David Munrow or the ethereal austerity of The Hilliards?). This seems to be an idea which Kenyon has long mulled over – I traced this article of his from 2005 examining precisely this concept, which is developed further in the book.

Another thread which runs through the book is that the history of classical music is not linear, but tends to be characterised by “tipping points” which nudge the course of history into a new direction, without necessarily doing so in a neat fashion.

Kenyon, who was appointed Controller of BBC Radio 3 in 1992, director of the BBC Proms in 1996 and Managing Director of the Barbican since 2007, boasts a wide knowledge of the classical repertoire, including its peripheral reaches, and has a generous enthusiasm to match it. His account starts with music in ancient civilisations, and then takes us, via Gregorian chant and Hildegard of Bingen, to the towering works of Leonin, Perotin and Machaut. Indeed, some of the best chapters in the book are those which deal with “early music”, delving in detail into its development leading to the masters of Renaissance polyphony.

Not that the subsequent chapters are any less questing. Yes, the usual suspects are there – J.S. Bach gets an important chapter (as he deserves, I hasten to add), but rather than being portrayed as some lone beacon in a musical wasteland, Kenyon shows us how much the great composer owed to other luminaries. This account of the Baroque is not monopolized by any one figure, but features a roll-call of composers, from Monteverdi to Francesca Caccini, Vivaldi to Barbara Strozzi, Rameau to Lully, Purcell to Zelenka. Kenyon applies the same approach to more recent eras – the general reader will recognize many well-known composers but will surely discover others in the process. Indeed, one need not be a specialist to enjoy this volume – I would say its ideal reader would be a lover of classical music keen to gain a better understanding of the subject and seek new repertoire.

The book is complemented by an appendix with “100 great works by 100 great composers in 100 great performances”. It’s an interesting list to dip into and explore. You can look up the corresponding playlist on Spotify – its eclecticism gives a good idea of the “new adventures” which this book takes us on.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2021/05/The-Life-of-Music-New-Adventures-West... show less

Writing a history of “Western classical music” (for want of a better term) is a daunting task. Apart from the very vastness of the subject, there is the increasingly thorny issue of which composers should be considered to be part of the “canon” and whether any of them can objectively be called “great”. When I was a young student, in what now seems a different era, the “narrative” of the history of classical music tended to start in earnest with the “baroque era” (with show more anything before that dumped under the generic title of “early music”). Women composers were noticeably absent and it was implied, with little to no sense of challenge and irony, that men were more predisposed to writing music. Thankfully, views have changed quickly over the past of decades. There is greater recognition of the social mores which kept (and sometimes still keep) women back from composing. Fanny Mendelssohn, Clara Schumann, Alma Mahler to name but a few, were dissuaded from composing and/or publishing their music by the male composers in their respective lives. Perhaps it is even more surprising (should it be, though?) that, despite the challenges, there is indeed much music composed by women, even from earlier centuries, which is as yet either unknown or not given the attention it deserves. In other words, this is not just a question of women not having composed music – for whatever reason – but of active female composers having been shouldered off the musical map. The same arguments could apply to other under-represented groups still struggling for visibility.

These matters have become increasingly controversial in musical circles. I remember the 2000 Bach anniversary being widely marked with performances and recording projects, without much controversy. Not so last year’s Beethoven 250th anniversary, which provoked heated debates as to whether Beethoven is really as “great” as we make him out to be and whether the emphasis on his role in Western music was simply serving to entrench a fossilized canon.

Sir Nicholas Kenyon acknowledges these thorny issues in his introduction to The Life of Music, a new history of Western Classical music completed over the lockdown period and just published by Yale University Press. Kenyon, however, does not set out to be polemical. Instead, the underlying theme of his book – which is subtitled New Adventures in the Western Classical Tradition – is that music can only come to life through performance. In line with this approach, he does not just mention musical works, but very often also references specific performances or recordings. This is a recognition that actual music-making, whether live or recorded, not only creates the repertoire, but can actually shape our understanding of how it should sound. This is particularly true of medieval and Renaissance music where performance practice relies more heavily on the musician’s interpretative approach and where expectations will often depend on the recordings we have in our collections (the colour of David Munrow or the ethereal austerity of The Hilliards?). This seems to be an idea which Kenyon has long mulled over – I traced this article of his from 2005 examining precisely this concept, which is developed further in the book.

Another thread which runs through the book is that the history of classical music is not linear, but tends to be characterised by “tipping points” which nudge the course of history into a new direction, without necessarily doing so in a neat fashion.

Kenyon, who was appointed Controller of BBC Radio 3 in 1992, director of the BBC Proms in 1996 and Managing Director of the Barbican since 2007, boasts a wide knowledge of the classical repertoire, including its peripheral reaches, and has a generous enthusiasm to match it. His account starts with music in ancient civilisations, and then takes us, via Gregorian chant and Hildegard of Bingen, to the towering works of Leonin, Perotin and Machaut. Indeed, some of the best chapters in the book are those which deal with “early music”, delving in detail into its development leading to the masters of Renaissance polyphony.

Not that the subsequent chapters are any less questing. Yes, the usual suspects are there – J.S. Bach gets an important chapter (as he deserves, I hasten to add), but rather than being portrayed as some lone beacon in a musical wasteland, Kenyon shows us how much the great composer owed to other luminaries. This account of the Baroque is not monopolized by any one figure, but features a roll-call of composers, from Monteverdi to Francesca Caccini, Vivaldi to Barbara Strozzi, Rameau to Lully, Purcell to Zelenka. Kenyon applies the same approach to more recent eras – the general reader will recognize many well-known composers but will surely discover others in the process. Indeed, one need not be a specialist to enjoy this volume – I would say its ideal reader would be a lover of classical music keen to gain a better understanding of the subject and seek new repertoire.

The book is complemented by an appendix with “100 great works by 100 great composers in 100 great performances”. It’s an interesting list to dip into and explore. You can look up the corresponding playlist on Spotify – its eclecticism gives a good idea of the “new adventures” which this book takes us on.

https://endsoftheword.blogspot.com/2021/05/The-Life-of-Music-New-Adventures-West... show less

I should first of all declare: I am musically illiterate. Though I do enjoy listening to classical music and have on occasion been to a concert or two, my understanding of and ability to talk about the music itself is virtually non-existent.

Which is precisely why I picked up this book when it was on offer. Purporting to be "an accessible guide" and advertising itself as "the place to start" when wishing to learn a bit more about the symphonic form, this book seemed perfect for someone like show more me, who would be likely to listen in to the BBC Proms but very unlikely to turn up and get his hands on the programme. In the introduction, Nicholas Kenyon explains that this book was designed to provide the information prepared for the programme notes produced for the Proms to a much wider audience of music lovers.

As a first volume (Kenyon hints there might be more) they have stuck to the more mainstream pieces in the repertory, and the choices are perfectly reasonable: whilst the selection won't please everyone, the usual suspects are all present and correct, no doubt covering most of the bases for a typical Proms season. Each symphony summary is designed to be read on its own, with each composer given a little introduction beforehand. On the whole, the form works nicely, with the majority of the nearly three dozen contributors producing very concise pieces packed with historical details, personal motivations and an overview of the music itself. There are just over 100 symphonies from nearly 30 composers described here, which should mean a little something for everyone's tastes.

Sadly, there are some things which detract from making this guide wholly recommendable. The composers are listed alphabetically, which I couldn't help but feel was the least helpful order they could have chosen. The introduction could have been a little longer, and given more of an overview of the development of the symphony as a recognised form, though this is just a personal gripe. Whilst the introduction admits that there may be some repetition, each summary designed to be readable independently, it nevertheless made skimming through the book rather tedious at times. As I decided to read the full section on Haydn, for example, I think I read the history and reasoning behind the naming of his London symphonies 3-4 times, and given that this introduction might take up half a page out of a 2-3 page summary, it's clear just how much space is almost tangibly wasted.

Far more of a blot on the book, however, was the fact that some summaries were probably more dense to read than the music itself is to listen to. Whilst the best contributors could condense a short history of the composer and his period, as well as an elucidation of a symphony's movements and peculiarities all within a couple of pages, others might ramble on for four or five pages of what I found to be unfathomable description riddled with unexplained musical terminology. Particularly galling if that happens to be a favoured piece. And whilst the German time-markings of Mahler's symphonies, for example, would be helpfully translated, all Italian was reproduced verbatim without even a glossary for us illiterati.

In summary, a bit hit and miss. For casual listeners and people interested in the history and workings of the symphonies and their composers, it certainly is a reasonable place to start, at least if you don't buy the book for those symphonies finding themselves in particularly sticky chapters. I imagine that my feelings about the book have been coloured somewhat by their inclusion, and that there are in fact many more 'good' summaries than 'bad' ones, but they do sadly leave the book only recommendable with reservation. For a guide to the composers themselves, however, I can wholeheartedly recommend The Lives of the Great Composers. Whilst not at all focussed on their symphonies, the book does give a excellent introduction to many if not all of the great composers on that list, placing them in historical context and describing their contributions to the great classical music lineage. show less