Chris
You really don't need a review to tell you if you're going to enjoy this book, which is a well-written socialist polemic about the way that contemporary classical music interacts with neoliberal capitalism. If that description interests you, then pick up this book. Ritchey dissects complex theoretical topics from other writers and presents them in an easily digestible way. The only real reason I didn't give it five stars: the book is rigidly ideological to the point of being occasionally tiresome. Also, there are a couple of distracting errors that shouldn't have made it past an editor (Nancy Pelosi is a member of the House of Representatives, not the Senate, for instance). Still, if you're interested in a genuine left perspective on the current state of classical music, you'd be hard-pressed to find better than this book.
Dazzling.Much of the discourse around Station Eleven centers around the concept of a traveling performance troupe trying to preserve culture in the aftermath of the fall of humanity. That's true; indeed, it's the reason I picked up the book in the first place. But Station Eleven is much more than that. Mandel skillfully weaves in and out of storylines that take place before her fictional pandemic and at various points during it. This timeline-jumping component of the narrative has earned the book comparisons to [b:Cloud Atlas 49628 Cloud Atlas David Mitchell https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1563042852l/49628.SX50.jpg 1871423], but in truth, Mandel manages the plotwise and thematic connections between timelines much better than David Mitchell did, and she does so by staying focused and by not overplaying her hand.In spite of the inherent horror of the pandemic premise (this one's a timely read right now, during COVID-19), there is a serenity and beauty that pervades the entire novel. Plot elements can be a bit slow-going, but Mandel's world-building could not have been rushed. Her understated prose is extremely effective at immersing the reader in the world she has crafted. Even so, many motifs and allusions enrich the work. Shakespeare, Yeats, Star Trek, Sartre, and the Book of Revelation are all there.It's a bit surreal to think that this novel was published in 2014. At one point a character ponders the existence of an alternate universe in which the pandemic he lived through didn't destroy society as completely. I read this passage and realized, despite our hardships, how fortunate we are to be living in that alternate universe.A couple of minor qualms with the writing style: Mandel's insistence on referring to certain musicians by their chair in their ensemble grows grating, and I say this as a musician. Then again, there are already a lot of names to know, and perhaps she didn't want to confuse the reader further. The liberal use of sentence fragments seems welcome at times but is at other times distracting.Station Eleven very nearly reaches five-star territory for me, but not quite. Still, a magnificent work.
I'll keep it spoiler-free at the risk of being vague.
I recommend going into Cloud Atlas without knowing too much about Cloud Atlas. If you're already familiar with the novel's structure, then Mitchell's repeated, explicit attempts to bash the concept into your skull will be tedious. Nonetheless, there is a beauty to some of the more subtle and nuanced connections between the stories. I don't mean to bash the book with my two-star rating, as I do genuinely believe, in accordance with Goodreads rating guidelines, that “it was ok.”
There is a lot to chew on in Cloud Atlas: religion, immortality, oppression, discrimination, capitalism, metaphysics, and more. (Mitchell has some genuinely interesting ideas about some of these topics.) Plato, Nietzsche, Freud, and Solzhenitsyn are all there too, in addition to other thinkers whose influence I am perhaps too ignorant to notice. It's debatable whether the heavy thematic concepts are a good match for the pulpy or comedic tones of certain sections, but that might be a matter of personal preference. (In different ways Mitchell seems to paradoxically take his concept both too seriously and not seriously enough.) In contrast with my desire for greater subtlety in other aspects of the work, I wish that some examples of prejudice within Cloud Atlas had received more explicit challenges. While the characters' racism is generally addressed, some men in the story express a misogynistic sentiment that in my view Mitchell doesn't adequately explore, in my opinion.
A flawed work for sure, but at least a thought-provoking one. If this “genre” of interconnected storytelling had more time to mature, I wager that it could be a vehicle for some genuine masterworks, but the pool of writers capable of writing in such different styles as Mitchell does is probably rather small. Frustrating in some respects, and not a life-changing work of literature (at least not for me). Perhaps my expectations were too high, but it's a book that has stuck in my mind, and that has to count for something.
A captivating read and a nice counterpart to the standard music history textbooks. Gioia presents a compelling theory about the development of musical styles and argues his case persuasively with regard to each era and style that he covers. Much of the evidence presented is truly illuminating. Who knew that the Lydians and Phrygians were actually ethnic groups enslaved by the Greeks, for instance? I bristled a bit at Gioia's insistence upon the universality of music, but he's referring more to its social functions and patterns of development, not the particulars of any given theoretical framework such as 12TET.The book is not without notable flaws. The testimonial from Fred Hersch at the very beginning boldly asserts that Gioia argues the universality of music from all cultures, which leads one to believe that the book will present a balanced, global perspective. To Gioia's credit, Music is significantly less Eurocentric than many other music history books, especially in the beginning. However, as the book goes on, it increasingly falls into the groove of the conventional European music history timeline. Gioia gives many forms of African-American and/or popular music their due (finally), but the book is only half-committed to the idea of a global perspective. A few references to Rumi or the Shijing ultimately amount to a shallow multiculturalism. The lack of substance with which Gioia discusses Latin American music is striking in comparison to his discussion of certain other topics: references to Sid Vicious abound, yet the words “Cuba” or “Mexico” do not even appear once. A couple of distracting typographical errors made their way into the first edition, and whether they will be corrected in future editions remains to be seen.Nevertheless, I enjoyed Music for what it really is: an alternative Western music history text, [b:A People's History of the United States 2767 A People's History of the United States Howard Zinn https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1494279423l/2767.SY75.jpg 2185591] for music, if you will. It's certainly a hell of a lot more exciting than my undergrad textbook. Because of the vastness of the topic and the relative brevity of the work, many seminal figures within even the Western classical tradition don't receive their proper due, and I'd recommend reading this book as a supplement to more traditional music history material.
The book contains a good deal of accurate, up-to-date information about dinosaur paleontology. Unfortunately, there are issues with the writing that prevent this book from being as excellent as it could have been. The tone is relatively informal for a science book, and as someone with a basic level of knowledge of paleontology from an intense childhood interest in the field, I found some of the introductory material borderline patronizing.
The principal issue plaguing the book is that Brusatte is trying to write, at the same time, a summary of dinosaur paleontology and a memoir of his experiences in the field. I had to force myself to slog through passages in which Brusatte describes his specific fossil-hunting expeditions or biographizes a paleontologist he knows. Those readers searching for insight into the current state of paleontology academia may find such passages interesting, but even then, these passages are limited to Brusatte's own experience and perception; as other reviewers have noted, a great deal of emphasis is placed on male contributors to the field.
If the book were organized in such a way that readers could easily skip Brusatte's anecdotes without missing any of the paleontological conclusions therein derived, I would be more willing to forgive him, but the portions in question are nested within the paleontological information of each chapter.
Paleontology is one of the fastest-advancing fields of science. If you're not up-to-date on recent discoveries concerning dinosaurs, this book might be worth reading to glean some new information. I definitely picked up at least a few new pieces of knowledge. However, if you're looking for the definitive dinosaur book for adults, then you and I will have to keep looking together.
An interesting and well-researched overview of the acoustical principles behind tuning and the various tuning systems that have existed in the Western musical culture prior to the current hegemony of 12TET. The title is, in my estimation, printed clickbait; the work doesn't make a solid case that equal temperament “ruined” harmony, but instead leaves the reader with the conclusion that 12TET is just one potentially valid option out of many, depending on context.
If you're a fretted string player or a pianist who has never had to grapple with the issues of 12TET before, portions of this book will be revelatory. Duffin pays a lot of attention to the minutiae of historical tuning systems, and these details may not have practical relevance or application outside of historical practice performance environments. There are also some issues with presentation; Duffin regularly interrupts the flow of text with biographies, some of them taking up a full two-page spread, and many of which contain information already present in the main text.