Understanding Modern Music

Style and Idea 

by Arnold Schoenberg

The principal function of form is to advance our understanding. It is the organization of a piece which helps the listener to keep the idea in mind, to follow its development, its growth, its elaboration, its fate.   - Arnold Schoenberg

This is a collection of music-related essays from the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Included are essays on twelve-tone music by composers such as Brahms and Mahler. Schoenberg's style is portrayed as not only understandable and appealing, but it also communicates significant details about the nature of modern music.

It is considered by some to be one of the most important compilations of musical essays ever released, Schoenberg's Style and Idea, has long been out of print. Only a small portion of Schoenberg's literary output was represented by the volume's few essays when it first came out. Leonard Stein, Schoenberg's assistant and editor of his theory and composition books, examined Schoenberg's entire body of work for this new edition and selected a significant number of essays to go with the reprint of the original papers. The result is a treasure trove for those interested in Schoenberg's musical thoughts.

The Beauty of Provincial Spain

Journey To The Alcarria 

by Camilo José Cela

"Going through th Entrepena, the traveler sees a beautiful stage setting, exactly as if it were in a theater, of great craggy naked rocks and dead trees split by lightning."   -  Journey to the Alcarria, Camillo Jose Cela.

A sensitive portrayal of provincial Spain. Its people are thoughtful and caring in their physical appearance, psychology, and values.  A few days were spent in Alcarria by Camilo José Cela, the undisputed master of the Spanish novel of the twentieth century and the author of The Family of Pascal Duarte and The Hive. His travel sketch has a brilliant sheen to it. It describes a trip to several different parts of the peninsula, such as Cifuentes, Soledad, and Guadalajara. You leave with the impression that you were actually there, taking part in the adventure firsthand. In this translation, it is an enjoyable journey.

Completely Subversive

James 

by Percival Everett

 “At that moment the power of reading made itself clear and real to me. If I could see the words, then no one could control them or what I got from them. They couldn’t even know if I was merely seeing them or reading them, sounding them out or comprehending them. It was a completely private affair and completely free and, therefore, completely subversive.”
― Percival Everett, James

 

 While some people believe Percival Everett's James, a retelling of The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn, is a must-read, I found it to be self-serving and subversive. The book examines issues of violence, language, and the risks associated with claiming one's own language, but these topics alone did not convince me to read the book. The book gives Jim a fresh start in the first section, and James is a vividly imagined human being.

In my opinion, the book exploits the moments in Huckleberry Finn when Jim and Huck are apart. Everett's language games can be humorous at times, and there are touching and humorous moments in the book. I thought the book ended in a way that left the reader wondering if James was actually captured.

I feel conflicted about this one. I adore how the author retells the traditional Huckleberry Finn story while reclaiming Jim's story. However, I also thought that the narrative was very forced. Retellings are difficult, and in my opinion, hearing Jim tell his own story differs greatly from Huck's point of view. But I struggled to connect.

Peking Mystery

René Leys 

by Victor Segalen

  Exoticism's power is nothing other than the power to conceive otherwise. ... I conceive otherwise, and immediately the vision is enticing. All of Exoticism lies herein.

 

 

A Westerner in Peking searches for the mystery at the center of the Forbidden City in this captivating tale of spiritual adventure. The young Belgian René Leys, who claims to be aware of strange happenings in the Imperial Palace, such as love affairs, family disputes, and conspiracies that jeopardize the empire's very existence, is taken on by him as a Chinese tutor. However, whether he is telling the truth or playing tricks, the enigmatic and endearing René gives his ever-more-astonished disciple a glimpse of "an essential palace built upon the most magnificent foundations." This is enigmatic and entertaining - a read that I enjoyed.

Learning to Cry

  

Sophie’s Choice 

 by William Styron

  “I have learned to cry again and I think perhaps that means I am a human being again. Perhaps that at least. A piece of human being but yes, a human being.”   ― William Styron, Sophie’s Choice

 

 

 

 Sophie's Choice is largely regarded favorably, despite criticism for its intricacy and examination of challenging subjects, such as the novel's examination of survivor guilt and the decisions made by survivors to safeguard themselves. The reader is better able to comprehend Sophie's experiences because the story is told from the viewpoint of an outsider, Stingo. The reader cannot dispute Styron's dedication to comprehending the horrors of American history and the Holocaust. Although Styron is a talented storyteller, she also points out certain problems with the story, like awkward transitions between the elaborate dialogue and the Auschwitz flashbacks. The book looks at issues including love, guilt, and the lingering effects of trauma.
Sophie Zawistowski, a Polish Holocaust survivor, and her relationship with a young writer named Stingo are the subjects of the 1979 novel Sophie's Choice, which is set in Brooklyn in 1947. In 1983, Meryl Streep played Sophie Zawistowski in the film adaptation of the novel.

The significant—and unquestionably underrepresented—question of what becomes of the Holocaust survivors is addressed in Sophie's Choice. Such comprehensive, self-admitted immorality ought to absolve a man, and it does, sort of.

Twentieth-Century Music

The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century 

by Alex Ross

“Bernstein poured his unfulfilled ambition into stupefying powerful performances of the Mahler symphonies, freighting them with the themes that he should or would have addressed in his own music if only he had the time or the energy or whatever it was that he ultimately lacked:"







This is an immersive introduction to twentieth-century music. Ross explains musical and cultural in novel-like prose that is often mesmerizing. The intimate activities of composers and their interaction with the world around them come alive in this amazing book.

Reading New Yorker music critic Alex Ross's outstanding essay on Schoenberg, Mahler, Strauss, or even Philip Glass will make anyone who has ever tried their hardest but failed to fully comprehend, appreciate, or even grasp their complex works smile. The Rest Is Noise. Not only does Ross manage to give historical, biographical, and social context to 20th-century pieces both major and minor, he brings the scores alive in language that's accessible and dramatic.

Consider Ross's portrayal of Schoenberg's Second Quartet: "He finds himself at a crossroads, pondering the different paths that are unfolding before him." Written the year before, the first movement retains a fairly traditional late-Romantic language. In contrast, the second movement is a Scherzo that sounds hallucinogenic and is unlike any other music of the era. It includes excerpts from the folk ballad "Ach, du lieber Augustin," which Mahler associated with Freud. Schoenberg saw the song as a representation of a world gone by collapsing, with the line "Alles ist hin" being crucial. A terrifying series of four-note figures, consisting of fourths divided by a tritone, culminates the movement. Traces of the bifurcated scale that starts Salome can be seen in them. Nevertheless, the feeling of tonalities colliding has vanished. As an alternative, a matrix of intervals is replacing the idea of a chord altogether.

Most of The Rest is Noise by Alex Ross The 20th Century is worth listening to because it explores the music of the stormy decade and how it influenced political and cultural history. The book is approachable and has the power to simplify complicated musical subjects due to the author's readable style and use of personal experiences to illustrate the book's themes.

She Hated Men as a Class

The Bostonians 

by Henry James

“She thought him very handsome as he said this, but reflected that unfortunately men didn't care for the truth, especially the new kinds, in proportion as they were good-looking. She had, however, a moral resource that should always fall back upon; it had already been a comfort to her, on occasions of acute feeling, that she hated men, as a class anyway.”   ― Henry James, The Bostonians

To give a fair synopsis of The Bostonians, the three main characters—Verena Tarrant, Olive Chancellor, and Basil Ransom—are the focus of in-depth analysis and discussion, with a special emphasis on their perspectives. All three are young adults without children, and the two ladies, along with most of the other characters, are from Boston. With long pauses in New York and on Cape Cod, most of the action takes place in Boston.

The reader may notice that the characteristics of "proper Bostonians" have not changed much, despite the fact that this is set in the late 1870s. I will admit that I saw a lot of this as ironic satire, but still satire. According to historian Paul Jehle, even after the Puritans rejected Christian orthodoxy, they continued to act in ways consistent with their Puritan upbringing. They were searching for fresh mental exercises. They conducted experiments with various philosophies and religions. And they were still looking for causes to advocate for and believe in. 

This early work by James is a good candidate for someone who is not familiar with his novels.