Product Description

In 65 perceptive pieces, including some of the work that earned him the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 1997, Page offers what he calls "a collection of illumined moments," now gathered in a single volume for the wider audience who will treasure their insights.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #314706 in Books
• Published on: 2002-01-01
• Original language: English
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 364 pages

Review
"A welcome addition to the classical music library, [a] book one can dip into at random for enlightenment and delight." -- Ann McCutchan, The Bloomsbury Review

"A welcome addition to the classical music library, [a] book one can dip into at random for enlightenment and delight." -- Ann McCutchan, The Bloomsbury Review

"I heartily recommend Tim Page on Music . . . . This Pulitzer Prize-winning critic is wise, humanistic, well-rounded and direct in his prose." -- Joan Peyser, The Washington Post , August 18, 2002

"Tim Page on Music picks up where his 1992 collection left off. . . . Page's youthful enthusiasms—and outrages—are still in place." -- Ken Smith, Gramophone

"What makes this collection so enjoyable . . . is the way Page approaches his wide-ranging material. . . .The opinions are strong yet instructive." --Jonathan Rabb, Opera News, February 2003

"I heartily recommend Tim Page on Music . . . . This Pulitzer Prize-winning critic is wise, humanistic, well-rounded and direct in his prose." -- Joan Peyser, The Washington Post , August 18, 2002

"Tim Page on Music picks up where his 1992 collection left off. . . . Page's youthful enthusiasms—and outrages—are still in place." -- Ken Smith, Gramophone

"What makes this collection so enjoyable . . . is the way Page approaches his wide-ranging material. . . .The opinions are strong yet instructive." -- Jonathan Rabb, Opera News, February 2003

About the Author
Tim Page won a Pulitzer Prize in 1997 for "his lucid and illuminating music criticism" in The Washington Post. His books include Dawn Powell: A Biography and a previous collection of his music criticism, Music from the Road, among others. As a boy, Page was the subject of the documentary A Day With Timmy Page 1967), which chronicled his activities as a 12-year-old filmmaker growing up in Storrs, Connecticut. He has served as a radio producer on WNYC-FM, as the founder and executive producer of BMG Catalyst, and as the artistic advisor for the St. Louis Symphony Orchestra. He lives in Washington, D.C., where he has recently rejoined the Post.

Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.
Throughout much of the 1980s I was the host of a radio program on New York’s WNYC-FM. My emphasis was on contemporary music; however, one afternoon I devoted an entire show to works by the 12th-century composer Perotin---spare, ethereal, yet startlingly intense vocal compositions based on the sound (still fairly rare in Western music) of stark parallel fourths. The record played for a while, then the studio phone rang and I was confronted with a furious gentleman who claimed I’d ruined his drive home (and, one might have surmised, his life as well). He swore that he would never again contribute to public radio until we stopped playing what he called "all that damned new music"!

Obviously, 800 years on, Perotin is still not exactly an "easy listen." In fact, almost any musical language with which we are unfamiliar will seem "new" to us at first. But let’s face it: for many well-disposed music lovers, this has been an especially tough century. Indeed, so far as the absorption and appreciation of 20th-century concert music and opera go, a lot of people out there pretty much missed it.

Exactly why and how this happened can and will be debated for many years to come (some possible reasons---the collapse of music education in many countries, including the United States; the split between the "high arts" and popular culture; the decline of the concert and the increased importance of mass media; and the perceived impenetrability and/or ugliness of much 20th-century creation). In any event, rightly or wrongly, many listeners never came to terms with the main classical music trends of this century.

Customer Reviews

One of the most important books I've read in a while...
I've been gaining a greater appreciation for classical music over the last year or two, so this book could not have come at a better time for me. I first heard of Tim Page back in September, when I heard his 1982 Glenn Gould interview on the bonus disc of the new "State of Wonder" CD, which brings together Gould's 1955 and 1981 recordings of Bach's "Goldberg Variations." While that interview sounded a bit awkward and overly pre-planned, it did reveal some wonderful things about Gould the performer and music fan. I decided to find out more about Mr. Page.

This book is what I discovered, and boy am I glad I did. I covers a variety of writings by Page, mostly about classical music, some of them essays, some concert reviews. I loved his chapter on Sibelius -- it made me drag out my hardly-ever-played copy of Symphony #4 and gain a huge appreciation for it. His chapter on Messiaen made me a Messiaen fan. His article on Kevin Oldham, the composer who contracted AIDS, was deeply moving. He may not have won any conservative classical fans with his candid observations about Vladimir Horowitz, but I for one appreciated the dissenting view. I loved the chapter "Radical Music That Will Remain That Way." With all the corny how-to guides to "accessible" classical music, it was nice to see somebody write about the hard stuff.

Page doesn't stop with just classical music. He also expresses a love for rock music, albeit the more daring and exciting of the genre. He writes about Captain Beefheart, Magnetic Fields, Frank Sinatra and the High Llamas, among others. In his mind (as it should be), non-classical music shouldn't be looked down on by classical fans -- unless it's the paint-by-numbers stuff that you hear so much on the radio. Page acknowledges true originals, regardless of their musical leanings.

I could go on and on. There's so much about this book to love. Anyone with a budding interest in classical music who would like to expand their horizons would gain much from reading this book.

Thank you, Tim Page.

Essential views and reviews by one of the great art music critics of our time
More provocative and insightful food for thought by Tim Page, whose "Music from the Road" remains one of my all-time favorite music reads.