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For the Love of Music
- A Conductor's Guide to the Art of Listening
- Narrated by: John Mauceri
- Length: 6 hrs and 8 mins
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Publisher's summary
With a lifetime of experience, profound knowledge and understanding, and heartwarming appreciation, an internationally celebrated conductor and teacher answers the questions: Why should I listen to classical music? How can I get the most from the listening experience?
A protégé of Leonard Bernstein - his colleague for 18 years - and an eminent conductor who has toured and recorded all over the world, John Mauceri helps us to reap the joys and pleasures classical music has to offer. Briefly, we learn the way a musical tradition born in ancient Greece, embraced by the Roman Empire, and subsequently nurtured by influences from across the globe, gave shape to the classical music that came to be embraced by cultures from Japan to Bolivia. Then Mauceri examines the music itself, helping us understand what it is we hear when we listen to classical music: how, by a kind of sonic metaphor, it expresses the deepest recesses of human feeling and emotion; how each piece bears the traces of its history; how the concert experience - a unique one each and every time - allows us to discover music anew. Unpretentious, graceful, instructive, this is a book for the aficionado, the novice, and anyone looking to have the love of music fired within them.
Critic reviews
"Mauceri’s love letter will provoke newbies to give classical a whirl and inspire fans to listen with fresh ears.” (Publishers Weekly)
“Classical-music aficionados will enjoy Mauceri’s discussions of composers and their works. Newbies will find them instructive, but the author would caution all readers to not just take his word for it, but to experience the music and hear for themselves.” (Joan Curbow, Booklist)
“The author’s joy for music is infectious.... Even those who know classical music well will learn something from this lively and enthusiastic primer.” (Kirkus Reviews)
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In a major work of scholarship both erudite and very funny, Jeremy Dauber traces the origins of Jewish comedy and its development from Biblical times to the age of Twitter. Organizing his book thematically into what he calls the seven strands of Jewish comedy - including the satirical, the witty, and the vulgar - Dauber explores the ways Jewish comedy has dealt with persecution, assimilation, and diaspora through the ages. He explains the rise and fall of popular comic archetypes such as the Jewish mother, the JAP, and the schlemiel and schlimazel.
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Not funny
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The Art Instinct combines two of the most fascinating and contentious disciplines, art and evolutionary science, in a provocative new work that will revolutionize the way art itself is perceived. Aesthetic taste, argues Denis Dutton, is an evolutionary trait, and is shaped by natural selection. It's not, as almost all contemporary art criticism and academic theory would have it, "socially constructed".
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In The Artisan Soul, Erwin Raphael McManus, author, thought leader, and founder of MOSAIC in Los Angeles, pens a manifesto for human creativity and the beginning of a new renaissance. McManus not only calls us to reclaim our creative essence but reveals how we can craft our lives into works of art. There are no shortcuts to quality, and McManus celebrates the spiritual process that can help us discover our true selves.
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Bravo
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From "the most exciting individual in American theater" ( Newsweek), here is Anna Deavere Smith's brass-tacks advice to aspiring artists of all stripes. In the manner of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet, Deavere Smith mentors her young artist over a period of five years, sharing her hard-won wisdom about the challenges and rewards of the artistic life.
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Great advice for artists of any age.
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Not Great
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What is genius? The word evokes iconic figures like Einstein, Beethoven, Picasso, and Steve Jobs, whose cultural contributions have irreversibly shaped society. Yet Beethoven could not multiply. Picasso couldn’t pass a fourth grade math test. And Jobs left high school with a 2.65 GPA. The Hidden Habits of Genius explores the meaning of this contested term, and the unexpected motivations of those we have dubbed "genius" throughout history, from Charles Darwin and Marie Curie to Leonardo Da Vinci and Andy Warhol to Toni Morrison and Elon Musk.
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Click-bait title, minimal substance inside
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Dig If You Will the Picture
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Ben Greenman, New York Times best-selling author, contributing writer to The New Yorker, and owner of thousands of recordings of Prince and Prince-related songs, knows intimately that there has never been a rock star as vibrant, mercurial, willfully contrary, experimental, or prolific as Prince. Uniting a diverse audience while remaining singularly himself, Prince was a tireless artist, a musical virtuoso and chameleon, and a pop-culture prophet.
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Reads like a indepth career review & analysis
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Kundera brilliantly examines the work of such important and diverse figures as Rabelais, Cervantes, Sterne, Diderot, Flaubert, Tolstoy, and Musil. He is especially penetrating on Hermann Broch, and his exploration of the world of Kafka's novels vividly reveals the comic terror of Kafka's bureaucratized universe. Kundera's discussion of his own work includes his views on the role of historical events in fiction, the meaning of action, and the creation of character in the postpsychological novel.
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Informative and Inspiring
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The Courage to Create
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What if imagination and art are not, as many of us might think, the frosting on life but the fountainhead of human experience? What if our logic and science derive from art forms rather than the other way around? In this trenchant volume, Rollo May helps all of us find those creative impulses that, once liberated, offer new possibilities for achievement. A renowned therapist and inspiring guide, Dr. May draws on his experience to show how we can break out of old patterns in our lives.
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May takes on the Creative Act
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What listeners say about For the Love of Music
Average customer ratingsReviews - Please select the tabs below to change the source of reviews.
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- Jian
- 12-29-23
A great learning from the author's own experience with classical music.
Thank you for the author’s unique insight into classical music. Listening to his reading is pleasant along with the learning.
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- Alex Fuller
- 06-21-23
Perfect!
I was looking for a primer on classical music to expand my knowledge on the subject but instead found myself enthralled in the myths and icons of the classical canon. Loved every second.
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2 people found this helpful
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- Tom
- 08-16-23
A great experience sullied only by how little I knew.
Mauceri does a magnificent job of immersing the Reader in his World of fifty years of conducting The Classical Canon all over the World. His book is not a dry analysis of the History and Components of the Music he loved so well, but rather a journey through all the elements that he feels gives it value.
I learned so much about the roots of its forms and their evolution over the Centuries, the characters and motivations of its Masters, and the Context and History of its iconic Works. I won’t say that I listen to Classical Music that often, but I feel that it has served as a Mile Marker for various events and times of my Life. Reading this book has filled in the colors of the pictures those moments have evoked.
If I had one reservation about For the Love of Music it would be that I would have loved to have been able to hear the Pieces he refers to immediately upon his mention. He addresses us as an audience with total familiarity with the whole range of Music that I’m sure most of us don’t possess. The Audiobook should be twice as long, accompanied by a Spotify Playlist. Then it would be perfect.
Four Stars. ****
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- Meg
- 12-18-19
Divine Time with a Maestro
This book was an astounding gift for me. Listening felt as if I was having a long conversation with a renown conductor who just happens to have time to answer my questions regarding classical music - over coffee, in my favorite coffee shop, Mauceri's narration is so pleasant (pitch perfect one might say) that the book is calming. The content is well organized so that one can listen to smaller or larger sections at a time and still find enjoyment. Content includes explanations of musical structures, biographical information about composers, historical background on compositions, even information about neuroscience and listening perception that adds to key concepts. Mauceri draws relationships between music from various cultures, time periods, and genres, e.g. even relating the music of Harry Potter. All is presented so expertly that listening to classical music will become a new adventure in each and every opportunity.
Again, all is presented as if in a pleasant leisurely afternoon conversation. Mauceri weaves the story of his journey into music among the chapters. To have such a vicarious experience was an aspect of the book that I found especially enthralling. If the passion and magic of music are a wonder to you, put yourself in a seat with Maestro Mauceri. This audiobook is a treasure.
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15 people found this helpful