What music-related book are you reading now?

This is a thread that needs to exist, so come on up!

I'm just now at A Singer's Notebook by British tenor Ian Bostridge, a miscellany of memoirs, essays and articles. Quite a lot on Britten and Schubert in there of course but a more unexpected spotlight is Janaček whom I only know through his piano music and not his vocal works. I need to work on that...

Two little anecdotes herein about Britten have really surprised me: first, that for all the expressive power in his work he was apparently terrible at expressing himself in writing; and second, that Isaiah Berlin, a writer I absolutely adore and a champion of liberalism and cultural pluralism, opposed his nomination for the post of musical director at the Royal Opera in the late fifties on homophobic grounds.

I just completed The Radetsky March by Joseph Roth. The Radetsky March was written by Strauss and "almost" a national anthem of Austria, especially during the Hapsburg Era prior to WWI. Very will written and a very interesting book. Not really about "music", though.

Not a current book, but one I would recommend that I read in 2017 is Absolutely on Music: Conversations with Seiji Ozawa by Haruki Murakami. Murakami is an avid collector of classical and jazz recordings, and was a friend of conductor Ozawa. Their discussions cover recordings; performance; Japanese vs. Western approaches to music; and artistic creativity. Fascinating conversations.

>3 kac522: Enthusiastically seconded!

If you like his music this is an interesting read. Don't know why it's such a hard book to run down.

Not reading it at present, but try Music in the Castle of Heaven by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, about Bach. I almost understood Bach after this.

>6 haydninvienna: Yes, indeed.

Also interesting is Music in 1853 : the biography of a year. In April of that year the young Brahms leaves his parents' home to journey through the land, and meets Joachim. Through the course of that year all of Brahms, Berlioz, Liszt, Wagner and the Schumanns cross paths multiple times, and Brahms is influenced in one way or another by them all.

>7 librorumamans: looks interesting!

I just finished The Woman in the Moonlight by Patricia Morrisroe. This was about Countess Giulietta Guicciardi, to whom Beethoven dedicated the Moonlight Sonata. Beethoven appeared often. It was an average read. I've read better!

I have been browsing through _Beethoven's Symphonies_ by Ernst Elterlein (1890) which has a brief chapter on legends of a 10th symphony.

There are a few other old commentaries I find to be of interest (at least to me) on the archive.org website

October's theme in the Reading through Time group is "Musically Speaking":

https://www.librarything.com/topic/343817

I read two books by Rose Tremain, The Gustave Sonata (good read, 4*) and Music and Silence--heavily packed with unimportant characters (2.5*)

Appassionata by Eva Hofmann

Jeremy Denk's Every Good Boy Does Fine is a delight. Loved getting into the head of a musician and "hear" what they hear as they listen. Every chapter has a Listening List at the beginning. And he's a very good writer! Highly recommend.

>14 gretuccia: going off to find that one now........have heard only good things about it!

>6 haydninvienna: Music in the Castle of Heaven by Sir John Eliot Gardiner, about Bach.

This looked interesting, and I read maybe 50 or so pages. By that time I was getting the feeling that it was more about Sir John than Johann.

Maybe I should have pressed on, but it seemed to me to be a bit too pretentious for my taste.

I had already read ... was it Schweitzer that did the biography many years ago? Anyway, I read that one long ago, so I left Gardiner on the shelf.

But it is a nice book, as far as binding and paper and the physicality of it as a BOOK. I like having it there in case I want to give it another try. Don't let me dissuade.

I'm currently reading the Quadrivium from the Wooden Books series. Skimmed it since it came in yesterday and i can't wait to sit with it properly!

"This is Your Brain on Music, the Science of a Human Obsession" is excellent, probably regardless whether you have any musical training. I thought the technical things I'd learned (& forgot) about chords and keys and stuff would be boring, but it's not! author is Daniel J. Levitin, p'back Plume edition 2007 - it's nicely leaded for smooth reading, too, if you care about such printing matters -

I'm on the last chapter of Casals and the Art of Interpretation and its a fascinating read for any performer or teacher.

Should arrive tomorrow. I will be reading several each week and then matching them (hopefully) with performances on Youtube.

Sergei Rachmaninov: An Essential Guide to His Life and Works by Julian Haylock.