Beethoven's Skull: Dark, Strange, and Fascinating Tales from the World of Classical Music and Beyond
| Author | : | |
| Rating | : | 4.67 (740 Votes) |
| Asin | : | 1510712712 |
| Format Type | : | paperback |
| Number of Pages | : | 304 Pages |
| Publish Date | : | 2014-03-15 |
| Language | : | English |
DESCRIPTION:
Beethoven’s Skull is an unusual and often humorous survey of the many strange happenings in the history of Western classical music. Highlights include: A cursed song that kills those who hear it A composer who lovingly cradles the head of Beethoven’s corpse when his remains are exhumed half a century after his death A fifteenth-century German poet who sings of the real-life Dracula A dream of the devil that inspires a virtuoso violin pieceUnlike many music books that begin their histories with the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries, Beethoven’s Skull takes the reader back to the world of ancient Greece and Rome
Canticle said Hugely Entertaining. Tim Rayborn is a musician with special knowledge of medieval and renaissance instruments and music. He is a very skilled performer and singer. He is a scholar of medieval history and, as is apparent here, a grandly entertaining historian and humorist. These short, well-researched little essays are both entertaining and informative. These are bite sized essays on colorful people embroiled in even more colorful circumstances sometimes by fate and sometimes by their own doing. Regardless the reader can't fail to be entertained and w. Ellie said Music 501. If you ever want to know more about the music you listen to or play on any type of instrument then this would be the book one might pull up to compliment others on your shelf. Strange and full of odd discoveries it plays into so many people who lived short lives because they didn't have our public health system nor the understandings of diseases , illnesses and community welfare like we do today. Interest ing reading nonetheless if you have some free time and know who these musicians are, you aren't wasting your time.. Fun read This is a well-written book, a tour of the history of musical composition with a focus on the strange, often macabre aspects of the composer's lives.The author's breadth of knowledge, together with a voice that you can hear speaking to you, makes this book worthwhile. As I read this I became entertained by the stories/anecdotes, and by the relevant information gathered for support, and by the deft way the author linked the composer's works and their lives. This is an author I'd enjoy chatting with.
Painstakingly researched and darkly humorous, Beethoven’s Skull is one of those books that you buy as a gift for someone else and then end up keeping for yourself.” Tony Morris, producer of Classical Guitar AliveA witty, fun, and informative gavotte through musical history.” Hallie Rubenhold, historian and author of The Lady In Red and Mistress of My FateA fascinating volume, full of the unexpected, this book is for every concert-goer who wants to get beyond the program notes, for every grandparent looking for a gift for a grandchild studying music, and listeners who find themselves wonderin