European music until 1900, An Italian Journey and The Sound of the City are three particularly engagingly written books in which classical music is never far away or serves as the thread running through the story and history. Different books, different authors, but one and the same inspiration: the love of Beauty.
A history of European music until 1900
Francis Maes, musicologist and professor at UGent, wrote a hefty tome of almost 800 pages about European music until the year 1900. He does not stop at the polyphonists or the Baroque composers. All of Europe is covered and that means: great diversity. The music that contemporary people know best, from before the year 1900, is the music from Western and partly Southern and Eastern Europe, and then mainly still limited to a number of countries. But do we already know the music and instruments from all that Europe? Read the book and you will be amazed at the fact that, however much we think we know, we know much less than what 'we think we know'. And yes, perhaps we should, just like Francis Maes with his book, go back to Antiquity, back to the Muses, to the soul and the emotions of that wealth of music? Music that is much more than the art form we gave the collective name 'classical music'…
An Italian Journey
To own an old violin and play it, that is certainly a dream for many. For Philipp Blom, the German author and accomplished amateur violinist, it became a dream that came true. His old violin became more than an instrument, it became his passion that led him on a quest, a journey of discovery. As befits an author, he had to share the story of his violin with everyone who wanted to hear it. Thus arose the magnificent book, which you could read in one sitting because it is also thrilling, 'An Italian Journey'. The book personally gives me the desire to go and search for where the little violin came from on which I learned to play. A three-quarter it is, but it has a particularly warm, hall-filling sound. Once the conductor of the orchestra class wanted to give 80,000 francs for it (1976). So it was worth more to him, of course, otherwise he would not have offered so much to me, a 15-year-old teenager. In any case, did Philipp Blom find out the what and how of his violin? To know that: read the book and discover a new old world!
The Sound of the City
And then there is Venice. The name of the city alone sounds like music. The doge city on and in the water that enchants everyone and has done so for centuries and – let us hope – will continue to do so for centuries more. Crossroads of cultures, inspirer of unprecedented creations by the greatest artists, that is Venice. It is not for nothing that Richard Wagner went there to die. Venice brought the authors Eric Min and Gerrit Valckenaers together and it led to a book that makes you savor Venice from A to Z. Whoever has never been there is actually there after reading this book. The only thing missing then is the physical visit. Or shall I reveal anything further about this book? No. It is too captivating and a review would lead me to rewrite the entire book… Reading is the message!
A history of European Music until 1900 by Francis Maes, published by Lannoo, EAN: 9789401457590, 744 pages
An Italian Journey by Philipp Blom, published by De Bezige Bij, ISBN: 9789403162300, 366 pages
The Sound of the City, a cultural history of Venice by Eric Min and Gerrit Valckenaers, published by Polis, ISBN 978-94-6310-205-6