Publisher Description

From the My Favourite series - favourite stories on different themes by different authors, each volume edited by a celebrity in the field. "Music, be it Beethoven, Bartok or the Beatles," writes Yehudi Menuhin, "brings us together in a sharing of sound and feeling" which transcends boundaries. Thus, through the stories, poems and accounts in this anthology, we may join African slaves in 19th-century New Orleans as they create their spontaneous, vital, rhythmic music; and may walk with the exiled Bartok as he remembers the joyful honesty, and the vigorous tenderness, of the songs of Hungary. Exemplified in these stories is the deep attachment of composer and musicians to the land of their roots - "the lands that gave them their ears, their voices, the particular musical language they use." Here are stories illustrating the music of men and women living 'in tune' with the earth: Aborigine and Inuit, Bushman and American Indian; a woman singing to the Hebridean seals, whose voices answer hers; a Celtic prince entranced by 'the music of the world'. Here are composers and conductors, makers and lovers of music from other times and other countries, other cultures and other landscapes. The lilt of Gypsy music and the haunting chants of the Balkans; girls dancing in Rhodes, and children dancing in a Japanese grove; the songs of a Somerset soldier and of the peasants in Russia; the discipline and complex beauty of Indian music and the deep sense of melody in Hasidic tales: all these illuminate the infinite range of music, within which we may, each retaining perfect individuality, share a universe "in which music and life are one and the same thing."

Author Biography

Yehudi Menuhin, the world-famous violinist, founded the Menuhin Music School.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1. A Song for Spain from A Rose for Winter by Laurie Lee 2. Bartok in Vermont from The Naked Face of Genius by Agatha Fassett 3. Song-Cousins from The People of the Deer by Farley Mowat 4. The Story of Baba from My Music My Life by Ravi Shankar 5. The Magic of the Csardas from In Sara's Tents by Walter Starkie 6. With Grass and Lyre from The Lost World of the Kalahari by Laurens van der Post 7. The Dance in Place Congo from an article by George Cable 8. Sir Thomas at Rehearsal from Sir Thomas Beecham by Neville Cardus 9. Delius in the Cathedral from Peninsular Verse by Derek Parker 10. The Musickers from Under the Greenwood Tree by Thomas Hardy 11. An Hasidic Theme from Tales of the Hasidim by Martin Buber 12. Notes from the Balkans from Under a Lilac-Bleeding Star by Lesley Blanch 13. In Quires and Places Where They Sing from Musick's Monument by Thomas Mace 14. A Flourishing Time from Memoires of Musick by Roger North 15. The Hermit's Hut from A Celtic Miscellany by Kenneth Hurlstone Jackson 16. The Music of the Seals from The People of the Sea by David Thomson 17. A Communal Rite from Reflections on a Marine Venus by Lawrence Durrell 18. Orpheus in America from A Dream of Governors by Louis Simpson 19. 'Breakers Roll More Gently' from a speech by Frances Densmore 20. Father and Son from Charles Ives and His Music by H. and S. Cowell 21. Music of the Dreamtime from The Passing of the Aborigines by Daisy Bates 22. The Chime Child from The Chime Child by Ruth L. Tongue 23. A Merry and Musical People from Russia In Miniature by Frederic Shoberl 24. Insect Voices from Insect Summer by James Kirkup 25. My Best-Beloved Mistress from Musick's Monument by Thomas Mace 26. Musick at Midnight from The Life of Mr George Herbert by Izaak Walton 27. Welcome to Bath from a guide to the city by John Wood 28. Music for Suitors from the Memoirs of Hector Berlioz, translated by David Cairns, and Legends of the Maori by Sir Maui Pomare and James Cowan 29. The Last Night from Sir Malcolm Sargent by Charles Reid 30. The Choirmaster's Burial from The Collected Poems of Thomas Hardy

Review

"A rather charming literacy anthology illustrating the uplifting power of music" Sunday Telegraph "A splendid collection from a gracious maestro" Methodist Recorder "We owe so much to him; but not least this heart-warming, mind-enriching publication which is, on almost every page, a refreshment to the spirit" Yorkshire Post

Long Description

From the My Favourite series - favourite stories on different themes by different authors, each volume edited by a celebrity in the field. "Music, be it Beethoven, Bartok or the Beatles," writes Yehudi Menuhin, "brings us together in a sharing of sound and feeling" which transcends boundaries. Thus, through the stories, poems and accounts in this anthology, we may join African slaves in 19th-century New Orleans as they create their spontaneous, vital, rhythmic music; and may walk with the exiled Bartok as he remembers the joyful honesty, and the vigorous tenderness, of the songs of Hungary. Exemplified in these stories is the deep attachment of composer and musicians to the land of their roots - "the lands that gave them their ears, their voices, the particular musical language they use." Here are stories illustrating the music of men and women living 'in tune' with the earth: Aborigine and Inuit, Bushman and American Indian; a woman singing to the Hebridean seals, whose voices answer hers; a Celtic prince entranced by 'the music of the world'. Here are composers and conductors, makers and lovers of music from other times and other countries, other cultures and other landscapes. The lilt of Gypsy music and the haunting chants of the Balkans; girls dancing in Rhodes, and children dancing in a Japanese grove; the songs of a Somerset soldier and of the peasants in Russia; the discipline and complex beauty of Indian music and the deep sense of melody in Hasidic tales: all these illuminate the infinite range of music, within which we may, each retaining perfect individuality, share a universe "in which music and life are one and the same thing".

Details