Music Quickens Time
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- $13.99
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- $13.99
Publisher Description
In this eloquent book, Daniel Barenboim draws on his profound and uniquely influential engagement with music to argue for its central importance in our everyday lives. While we may sometimes think of personal, social and political issues as existing independently of each other, Barenboim shows how music teaches that this is impossible. Turning to his intense involvement with Palestine, he examines the transformative power of music in the world, from his own performances of Wagner in Israel and his foundation, with Edward Said, of the internationally acclaimed West-Eastern Divan Orchestra. Music Quickens Time reveals how the sheer power and eloquence of music offers us a way to explore and shed light on the way in which we live, and to illuminate and resolve some of the most intractable issues of our time.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
Why does music have such universal appeal, and how does music help us understand human nature? In this sometimes electrifying, sometimes pedantic journey through the world of music, world famous director, composer and conductor Barenboim engages these and other questions as he searches to unlock music's peculiar power. In the book's first part, he meditates on topics ranging from sound and thought, listening and hearing through a tale of two Palestinians from different backgrounds (one grew up in a Ramallah refugee camp, the other in Nazareth), in which he chronicles the ways that music changed their lives. He recalls how music bridged the gap of political hatred in the West-Eastern Divan project, an orchestra composed of Israeli and Palestinian musicians that he and the late Edward Said put together. For the young people in this orchestra, music provided the language for continuous dialogue. The book's second section gathers occasional pieces previously published in magazines and newspapers that range over topics from Schumann, Bach and Mozart to Pierre Boulez and Wilhelm Furtw ngler. In his tribute to his late friend Edward Said, for example, Barenboim recalls that for Said every musical masterpiece was a conception of the world. Barenboim concludes through these illuminating meditations that the power of music lies in its ability to speak to all aspects of the human being.
