Books April 2009
Sticking to craft
A review of Music Quickens Time, by Daniel Barenboim (Verso).
Daniel Barenboim --> reviewed by Peter Schwendener -->
The subject of Music Quickens Time is music’s relationship to what is called, simply, “life.” There are disclaimers to the effect that its author will “attempt the impossible,” but, in general, the “parallels” shared by music, politics, and other things are drawn without much strain.
It would be odd if Daniel Barenboim, the outspoken conductor and pianist, had nothing interesting to say about music, and in a chapter entitled “Sound and Thought” his argument repays attention. He sets up a contrast to his own Romantic approach by quoting John Locke’s assertion that, despite the social prestige it confers, music “wastes so much of a young man’s time to gain but a moderate skill...
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