The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century

by Ross, Alex
ISBN: 9780312427719
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Overview

Winner of the 2007 National Book Critics Circle Award for Criticism
A New York Times Book Review Top Ten Book of the Year
Time magazine Top Ten Nonfiction Book of 2007

Newsweek Favorite Books of 2007
A Washington Post Book World Best Book of 2007

In this sweeping and dramatic narrative, Alex Ross, music critic for The New Yorker, weaves together the histories of the twentieth century and its music, from Vienna before the First World War to Paris in the twenties; from Hitler's Germany and Stalin's Russia to downtown New York in the sixties and seventies up to the present. Taking readers into the labyrinth of modern style, Ross draws revelatory connections between the century's most influential composers and the wider culture. The Rest Is Noise is an astonishing history of the twentieth century as told through its music.

  • Format: TradePaperback
  • Author: Ross, Alex
  • ISBN: 9780312427719
  • Condition: Used
  • Dimensions: 8.22 x 1.17
  • Number Of Pages: 720
  • Publication Year: 2008

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  • If you love music, this book is an absolute must!

    Cole R. - 4 years 1 month ago

    A fascinating, wide-ranging survey of the impact of music on all of our lives and the way it is inextricably woven into our history. Alex Ross is able to distill his encyclopedic knowledge down into anecdotes and perspectives that the layperson can easily understand. The book also inspires you to expand your musical knowledge and revisit pieces that you thought you knew with fresh ears. If you love music, this book is an absolute must!

    HPB Staff Review

  • A wondrous journey through 20th Century classical music

    Wallace S. - 4 years 8 months ago

    With the emergence of jazz and pop music in the 20th Century, classical music's dominance began to recede. It retreated to the corners of culture and as a result is seen by many as overly intellectual, snobby, and rather forbidding. In The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross shows us that classical music of the 20th Century is not really the dying genre for cultural purists that many see it as, but actually a still vital art form that challenges and frequently outstrips pop and jazz in terms of daring and innovation, even as it mostly lacks the same popular appeal. Ross examines the various schools and styles of the 20th Century and makes them feel accessible by merely placing them in the correct historical and cultural context. Whether battling totalitarian regimes or influencing The Beatles, Ross makes classical music feel alive and as important as ever.

    HPB Staff Review