Alex Ross - The Rest is Noise

Fourth Estate

An imprint of HarperCollinsPublishers Ltd.

1 London Bridge Street

London SE1 9GF

www.harpercollins.co.uk

Published by Fourth Estate in 2007 and by Harper Perennial in 2009

First published in 2007 by Farrar Straus and Giroux in the United States

Copyright © Alex Ross 2007 and 2009

Alex Ross asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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Source ISBN: 9781841154763

Ebook Edition © DECEMBER 2012 ISBN: 9780007380862

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ALEX ROSS, music critic for the New Yorker, is the recipient of numerous awards for his work, including an Arts and Letters Award from the American Academy of Arts and Letters, the Belmont Prize in Germany, three honorary doctorates and a MacArthur Fellowship.

In 2013, a groundbreaking, year-long festival at the Southbank Centre will bring The Rest is Noise to life – with concerts, talks and other events inspired by the book

SHORTLISTED FOR THE SAMUEL JOHNSON PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2008

WINNER OF THE NATIONAL BOOK CRITICS CIRCLE AWARD 2007

SHORTLISTED FOR THE PULITZER PRIZE FOR NON-FICTION 2008

‘Just occasionally someone writes a book you’ve waited all your life to read. Alex Ross’s enthralling history of twentieth-century music is one of those books’

Guardian

‘A superb and inclusive account by a champion of modern music’

Sunday Times

‘Print is silent. Which is why the task of writing about music is so difficult. I should therefore probably explain that the noise you now ought to be hearing is the sound of my hands as they stop typing and start applauding this vital, engaging, happily polyphonic book’

Observer

‘Magnificent: a study of the politics of music and also of the impact of political movements on music. A harmonious mix of musical gossip and politics’

Sunday Telegraph

‘To write a book that convincingly describes the path of classical music through the turbulent twentieth century is an act worthy of celebration. To write one, as Alex Ross has, that is entertaining, enlightening and inspiring to both devotees and less classically literate music fans is worth breaking out the bunting for’

Time Out

‘A remarkable achievement, quite outstripping comparable surveys. A highly enjoyable book of impressive scholarship and critical intelligence that every music lover should read’

Spectator

‘Alex Ross’s incredibly nourishing book will rekindle anyone’s fire for music’

BJÖRK

‘It’s a history of 20th-century music so vivid and original in approach that it made me listen again to many pieces I thought I knew well’

PHILIP PULLMAN, Guardian, Books of the Year

‘An audacious, pacy, thrilling survey of 20th-century composition’

The Times, Books of the Year

‘Essential …An engrossing survey of classical music in the 20th century’

CASPAR LLEWELLYN SMITH, Observer, Books of the Year

‘Stunning …Visionary music critic Alex Ross comes closer than anyone to describing the spellbinding sensations music provokes. The Rest is Noise spins out seamlessly and is a joy to read. Ross shadows musicians and their intimate worlds in vibrant detail’

BLAIR TINDALL, Financial Times, Books of the Year

‘The Rest is Noise combines scrupulous and inventive analyses of the 20th century’s music with lavish care over that music’s improvised history’

ADAM THIRLWELL, Guardian, Books of the Year

‘A gripping account’

ROBERT SANDALL, Sunday Times, Books of the Year

‘The New Yorker’s supremely gifted critic tells the story of musical composition through the 20th century – and makes it sound brand new. Here is a writer who can link life and work without trivialising either. This history of modern sounds develops into an intimate history of modern souls as well’

BOYD TONKIN, Independent, Books of the Year

‘Puts the history back into music and the music back into history. Alex Ross’s brave avoidance of musical notation and brilliant use of metaphorical and descriptive language, means that The Rest is Noise grapples with the actual stuff of music as few other books have done’

TLS

‘A panoramic history of music in the last century. Magisterial’

DAMIAN THOMPSON, Daily Telegraph

‘An utterly gripping account of the relationship between music and public life in the last century. The Rest is Noise is a wonderful book, both as an account of 20th-century music and as something of a cautionary tale about the influence of politics on art’

Scotland on Sunday

‘There is so much in it that is good, and so much of the discussion of particular works is likely to make any reader want to go off and listen to the music, for themselves. If it does encourage more people to explore, it will be a work of cultural importance’

Prospect

‘The Rest is Noise looks set to become the definitive reference point for everyone who loves modern music’

LRB

‘Alex Ross, music critic at the New Yorker, has confronted this colossal task with all the necessary qualities and produced a book that makes some sense of the most convoluted musical century of human history. Ross takes the extremes, the wild diversity and contradictions as manifest realities to be understood through their relationships, rather than antagonisms that must cancel each other out’

The Wire

‘Full of material you really need to savour. It is the superb selection of image and anecdote that makes this book work so well. Warm, joyful and unfailingly adroit in his evocation of music in words – Ross, with this book, establishes himself as the supreme champion of modern music’

Sunday Times

By the same author

Listen to This

For my parents and Jonathan

It seems to me … that despite the logical, moral rigor music may appear to display, it belongs to a world of spirits, for whose absolute reliability in matters of human reason and dignity I would not exactly want to put my hand in the fire. That I am nevertheless devoted to it with all my heart is one of those contradictions which, whether a cause for joy or regret, are inseparable from human nature.