October 2022 Topic Musically Speaking

Music means many different things to different individuals, but it can be hard to define. “Music is generally defined as the art of arranging sound to create some combination of form, harmony, melody, rhythm, or otherwise expressive content. Exact definitions of music vary considerably around the world, though it is an aspect of all human societies, a cultural universal.” (from Wikipedia)

Music is recognized as an art form, but also takes many forms. It appeals to the emotions, expresses thoughts or ideas, tells stories or poems, and creates color and images in the mind. While voices and instruments can create music, so too can computers! Music can be thought of as the “universal language.”

For the month of October, choose a biography or memoir of a musician, a history of a specific kind or time period of music, a study of musical forms in a particular culture, a mystery, romance, or historical novel that features music, or anything else related to or involving music.

Here are some suggestions from my shelves, but they represent a very small starting point:

Biographies/memoirs/nonfiction:
Black Mozart—Walter E. Smith
Bubbles: A Self-Portrait—Beverly Sills
Can’t Buy Me Love: The Beatles, Britain, and America—Jonathan Gould
Coal Miner’s Daughter—Loretta Lynn
A Devil to Play—Jasper Reese
Dreamgirl: My Life as a Supreme—Mary Wilson
Famous Father Girl—Jamie Bernstein
Forever Liesl: A Memoir of the Sound of Music—Charmaine Carr
Gold Dust Woman—Stephen Davis
How Music Works--David Byrne
Irving Berlin: A Daughter’s Memoir—Mary Barett
Lives of the Musicians—Kathleen Krull
The Mozart Effect--Don Campbell
Mozart Letters—(Translated by Lady Wallace, compiled Peter Washington, Michael Rose)
Mozart (Penguin Lives)—Peter Gay
Story of the Trapp Family Singers, and Family on Wheels—Maria Augusta Trapp
This is Your Brain on Music--Daniel J. Levitin
What Would Barbra Do? How Musicals Changed My Life—Emma Brockes

Fiction:
The Broken Wing (and others)—Mary Burchell
Nancy Drew Clue of the Whistling Bagpipes--Carolyn Keene
Murder in C Minor—Sarah Hoskinson Frommer
The Musician’s Daughter—Susanne Dunlap
Requiem for a Mezzo—Carola Dunn
The Sound of Murder (Musical Murder Mysteries)—K.L. Montgomery
The Vanishing Violinist—Sarah Hoskinson Frommer

More suggestions in the Classical Music group:

https://www.librarything.com/topic/270688#

Right now I'm thinking about The Song of the Lark by Willa Cather.

I've got Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (by Ted Gioia) stacked for this :-)

>2 kac522: Thanks, more suggestions are good!

I will either be reading The Waltz Kings: Johann Strauss, Father and Son, and Their Romantic Age by Hans Fantel
or The Life of Haydn, in a Series of Letters Written at Vienna written by Stendhal. A chance to get a couple of non-fictions in before the end of the year!

For something a bit offbeat, a scifi collection Stars: Original Stories Based on the Songs of Janis Ian (including one story by Janis herself).

If plays are acceptable, I’ll plan to reread The Piano Lesson by August Wilson. A fun read would be Death at La Fenice, the first novel in Donna Leon’s Commisario Brunetti mystery series.

How about Bel Canto by Ann Patchett?
An equal music by Vikram Seth
Nocturnes: five stories of music and nightfall by Kazuo Ishiguro

I read and enjoyed Do not say we have nothing by Madeleine Thien a few years ago. It's not about music, but music figures in the lives of several characters.

Another fictional work that I would recommend is The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes, which is an imagining of composer Dmitri Shostakovich's life in Russia under Stalin.

Last summer I read The Cello Suites: J. S. Bach, Pablo Casals, and the Search for a Baroque Masterpiece Playing each Suite in the background as I read, I learned so much about Bach, and Casals, and how the latter discovered Bachs works and made them popular again. I agree with the review below

"fA ascinating look at the Bach cello suites from 3 vantage points: Bach's life, cellist Pablo Casal's life, and the author's life. Provides a contemporary view of Bach's cello suites which I found positively delightful"

Also loved Music and Silence Probably my fav of Tremains works. This stoy tells about the king christian IV of denmark and his orchestra, that he keeps in the freezing cellar below his royal apts, ready to perform for him at a moments notice

also ragtime

I am currently reading paul mccartney the life which I am enjoying and will probably take the whole month to finish

>8 dianelouise100: I am sure plays are acceptable. I saw a series of August Wilson plays on stage and enjoyed them all. The Piano Lesson was one of my faves, as well as Gem of the Ocean and Radio Golf.

>9 markon: Our book club read Bel Canto and we had a good discussion. I liked the book better than I thought I would.

>12 cindydavid4: Oh, Ragtime! I read it when it was first published and recently bought a new copy with a nicer cover. I recall that my middle school students were reading it too.

Didn't realize just how much I have on this topic in TBR, in fact an entire music-related banker's box and that's just for starters with other books catalogued through other boxes.

I have one book I was given as a child but never read, autographed by the author as well as by several members of her family: Maria Augusta Trapp, The Story of the Trapp Family Singers (1964). It's well over fifty-years old, and I must have been given it brand new right around the time The Sound of Music was released or maybe a year or so later. I don't know that I ever read it. Time to get around to it.

A couple others I might try to get to are Janis Ian's Society's Child: My Autobiography and if I have time (though it's a long read) Thomas Mann's Doctor Faustus.

But I guess I'll start by climbing every mountain looking at the edelweiss....

>16 CurrerBell: I have two copies of The Story of the Trapp Family Singers, one of which dates back to when I was in 8th grade and saw the movie with my class. The cover is a movie tie in. I also have a copy of Maria Augusta Trapp's biography and a copy of Family on Wheels. The Sound of Music is still one of my fave films. When I was a kid, my sisters and I knew all the words to the songs and sang them together (we probably still remember the words to those songs too).

>17 LadyoftheLodge: Totally off-topic, but talking of movie tie-ins, I've got a couple copies of a hard cover movie tie-in to Lillian Gish's The Scarlet Letter, containing quite a number of photo shots from the movie. One of my copies is in excellent condition and has a very nice dust jacket with it. The other copy is one I picked up on eBay years ago and is purportedly autographed by Gish.

>11 cindydavid4: You have inspired me! Purchased a copy of Casals' CDs and a copy of the book online. (I have YoYo Ma's set, but want to listen to Casals as well.)

I am going to be reading The Chilbury Ladies Choir by Jennifer Ryan. I have had this book on my shelf for quite some time so this is a great reason to finally get it read.

>20 DeltaQueen50: I think it is on my Kindle. I once saw a copy at a Little Free Library, but it soon disappeared.

>19 markon: I also have Yo Yo Ma's set. I had the opportunity to see him in concert three times and it was well worth the time and effort.

>14 LadyoftheLodge: one of the few in my rl book group who liked it, led me to read just about anything by Patchett, and with few exceptions enjoyed them!

I forgot to add to our list any of the 44 Scotland Street books by Alexander McCall Smith that deal with Bertie, the saxophone playing child prodigy.
The Importance of Being Seven
The World According to Bertie
Bertie's Guide to Life and Mothers
The Unbearable Lightness of Scones

Also the Isobel Dalhousie novels that feature Jamie, her bassoon-playing husband, could be read for this challenge.

>24 LadyoftheLodge: Perfect! I'm just about finished with The Sweet Remnants of Summer, the latest Isabel Dalhousie, and Jamie has asked Isabel to "assist" in a problem with the conductor of his orchestra!

Will need to try Casals as well. Hope you enjoy the reading and listening!

For a middle-reader Newberry and Coretta Scott King winner, Bud, Not Buddy by Christopher Paul Curtis. African American child goes on the road during the Depression looking for his father, a player in a jazz band.

the jazz palace read this a while back and remember liking it

I’m now thinking that Ragtime fits both this thread and the next quarterly read time period. Many great choices here…

>28 cindydavid4: Thanks for the suggestion, checking that one out.

>27 CurrerBell: That is a great suggestion. I will have to look for a copy that I might still own, but not sure if it survived the great weeding of 2021.

There are also some Carolyn Haywood books for younger children that involve music.
Betsy's Busy Summer
Eddie Makes Music

There are always the Miss Read and Jack Sheffield novels that include school and village pageants, plays, and musical evenings.

I have Lady Sings the Blues by Billie Holiday on my tbr.

Also possible:
Forever Liesl / Charmian Carr

I saw Station 11 listed on 50 books about music. I have that on my TBR. Anyone who has read it, please let me know if it fits this cat. I don't like to know much about a book before jumping in. I am aware this has a focus on a pandemic. Thanks

>33 beebeereads: I am sorry, I do not know about that one. Maybe someone else in our group can help.

>33 beebeereads: had to go back and look, but yeah there is the traveling symphony!

Zin! Zin! Zin! A Violin jumped off my shelf, and is a good picture book intro to the symphony. I just received my (used)copy of Bud, Not Buddy and it has a very different cover than the one I once had when I was in library school.

Oh my, used that book for years with my preschoolers, such a fun book. Thinking of others: Peter and the Wolf was one the children acted out, with play instruments as they heard the real music. Oh and the kids would play dress up with costurmes when I put on blue danube, and showed them how to dance to it. So cute.

>35 cindydavid4: Thank you! I'll push it up my list. I already own it on Kindle. I'm also considering The Master Butcher's Singing Club.

>38 beebeereads: Read The Master Butcher's Singing Club and found it brutal! I also felt as if it were 5-6 short stories put together and called a novel. Although from looking at the reviews, I think most liked it more than I.

I remember reading that for a book group decades ago and remember really liking it. Wondering, my memory is shot, brutal how?

>39 Tess_W: Thank you for your insight. I'm not really in the mood for brutal right now.

>40 cindydavid4: The way people treated each other and the place of women. I know the woman thing is historical, but there was just too much for me.

I completed The Gustav Sonata by Rose Tremain. I love Tremain as an author. This book was a bit unlike her other works that I read in that it was dark and bleak and all of the characters were miserable and had unfulfilled lives. That being said, it was still a good read, just depressing!

>42 Tess_W: oh yeah Id forgotten about that. More and more its getting harder to read those themes written about the past that is actually going on in our own time

I have finished Vivaldi und seine Töchter which told me a lot about the life and works of the famous Italian composer.

I have Really the Blues a mystery featuring an American Jazz musician in Paris in 1941. Sounds interesting.

Completed Music and Silence by Rose Tremain. This is the story of a lutenist in the court of King Christian IV of Denmark during the 17th century. The first 100 pages were "interesting" as the characters were introduced. I was waiting for a plot, but it was never developed. The characters could not carry the story by themselves; there were too many of them with only superficial or trivial roles. 485 pages 2.5 stars

Technically, this doesn’t really count; but I wanted to mention that in The Proud Tower (by Barbara W. Tuchman), there’s a chapter called “Neroism” which heavily features Richard Strauss. My Classical musical knowledge is rather limited overall, but especially at the turn of the 18th -> 19th century; but this contextualizes the cultural movements with the zeitgeist of the era in a clear and enlightening way. This weekend, my husband and I are actually going to sift through his music library and listen to some Gluck, Wagner and, Richard Strauss (The first two for contrast with what came before Strauss)! :-)

I read The Bell in the Lake by Lars Mytting last month and want to mention it in this thread. The magnificent bells themselves are a crucial element in the plot, and their beautiful sounds are heard throughout the story, enriching and defining mood.
I’m still deciding on my intentionally musical read for this month.

>47 Tess_W: mmmm I read this decades ago and really liked it; but it might be that tastes have changed.. Might be due for a reread

Hi all, this is my first time joining in here!

I read The Welsh National Anthem - Its Story, Its Meaning by Siôn T. Jobbins, which, as the title states, is a look at the history of this anthem from its creation until today, and also an explanation of the words. You can find my review here.

>51 MissBrangwen: Welcome! I hope you enjoy the group. I certainly do.

>51 MissBrangwen: Welcome, Mirjam, enjoy your Reading Through Time reading!

I've started Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (by Ted Gioia) :-)

>52 marell: >53 DeltaQueen50: Thank you for the friendly welcome!

>51 MissBrangwen: How nice to see you here!

>56 MissWatson: Thank you!

Plans are underway for 2023: https://www.librarything.com/topic/345058#

Please come over and join in!

I have completed The Chilbury Ladies Choir and I felt it fit this months theme excellently. Set in a small English village during WWII, the story is set amongst the practices and performances of the Ladies Choir.

>59 DeltaQueen50: I’m glad you liked it. I did too.

>60 marell: I thought the author captured the war-time feel of 1940s Britain perfectly. There was a lot of music discussed and performed, yet there was also quite an exciting story what with baby-swapping, spies and bombs!

I just learned about this group from a posting over on another thread and would like to join in. I have Coal Miner's Daughter on my TBR table and want to read it before the end of the month. I am also reading Parrot in the Pepper Tree by Chris Stewart. He was the drummer for the rock group Genesis but this memoir is not historical (even if it was written in 2002) so I won't count that one.

>62 benitastrnad: It's great to see you here, Benita. If you have any questions about "Reading Through Time", please don't hesitate to ask, we are all very friendly and helpful. :)

oh my completely forgot Time of Our Singing. "On Easter day, 1939, at Marian Anderson's epochal concert on the Washington Mall, David Strom, a German Jewish émigré scientist, meets Delia Daley, a young Black Philadelphian studying to be a singer. Their mutual love of music draws them together, and--against all odds and their better judgment--they marry. They vow to raise their children beyond time, beyond identity, steeped only in song. Jonah, Joseph, and Ruth grow up, however, during the civil rights era, coming of age in the violent 1960s, and living out adulthood in the racially retrenched late century. " There is history here, but oh so much music. I found my self googling anything i didn't recognize. Its a very powerful book.

>64 cindydavid4:
That's a BB!

BB?

>66 cindydavid4: That's a "Book Bullet", Cindy. When we are hit by a book that we just have to read - it's called a Book Bullet or BB!

gotcha, and yes, you do! hope you enjoy it!

I put in an ILL request for Coal Miner's Daughter and in the meantime I am listening to Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust: My Friendship with Patsy Cline by Loretta Lynn. This one is a real hoot! Lots of great stories about the country music biz.

>64 cindydavid4: BB for me too Cindy.
>69 benitastrnad: Me & Patsy sounds fun too.

I started Coal Miner's Daughter yesterday. It is my lunch book and it is OK, but so far I liked Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust. There is more history of Country Music in it than in Coal Miner's Daughter - but that is to be expected. Coal Miner's Daughter is Loretta Lynn's memoir, while the other book is Loretta Lynn's memoir of a friendship. That said, Coal Miner's Daughter is good, so I will keep reading it - and it isn't long either.

>70 markon:
The audio version of Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust is very well done. I listened to it, and would happily recommend it for those who like to listen to books.

Forever Liesl: A Memoir of The Sound of Music / Charmian Carr
3.5 stars

Charmian Carr was the actress who played Liesl in “The Sound of Music”. She was actually 21-years old playing 16. The first half of the book is memories of making the movie, and the second half looks at some of her own life and family, as well as the ongoing friendships she had with the other children from the movie (and more). Before each chapter is a brief reminisce of someone who loved the movie. And there are plenty of photos throughout.

“The Sound of Music” is one of my all-time favourite movies. Every time she mentioned a scene or some dialogue or a song, I was able to easily picture it in my head. So it was fun to learn of so much that happened behind the scenes. Have to admit I knew none of the child actors’ names (until now!). At 21, but playing one of the children, Charmian was sort of between the adult and child actors on the set.

She was primarily very positive with things she said about the people and the making of the movie. But there were a few little things. But I really think she is sincere in how much making the movie meant to her. So I did learn a few things about Christopher Plummer (Chris) and Julie Andrews, as well. There was a chapter near the end that told more of the actual von Trapp family and their real story, since so much of the movie was fictionalized; that was very interesting.

I was tempted to rate this a bit higher, but I’m certain that’s only due to how much I love the movie itself, so I’ve kept it at a “good” rating.

>72 LibraryCin: The one child actor whose name I know very well is Angela Cartwright. She played Danny Thomas's daughter in the Make Room for Daddy sitcom as well as the daughter in the scifi-comedy series Lost in Space.

Incidentally, Ann Sothern's daughter, Tisha Sterling, tried out unsuccessfully for the role of Liesl.

ETA: It's not unusual for adult actresses to play teen-aged characters. Hayley Mills was 19 or 20 when she made The Trouble with Angels, and her co-starring second banana, June Harding, was several years older, both of them playing teenagers in a Catholic girls' boarding school. Naomi Watts was around 23 in her break-through appearance as a Catholic boarding school girl in the Australian miniseries Brides of Christ. Post-teen actresses seem able to "play down" their ages a bit better than actors, I guess because of the different puberty ages of females versus males.

There's a practical reason for casting adults as teenagers, at least nowadays. Minors can be awfully difficult to work with because of child labor laws limiting the hours per day and per week and the need to make sure they keep up with their schooling. Also, a movie set can be a dangerous place; and if a juvenile gets seriously injured or even killed, there can be all bleep to pay (as in the case of the movie The Twilight Zone). Not that you want anyone getting killed, of course; but when the victim's a juvenile, it's that much more explosive.

>73 CurrerBell: Yes, Angela played Brigitta (sp?). She (and I think Nicholas... (aka Nikky) can't recall his last name now! "Friedrich") were the two child actors who had been more active with acting previous to "The Sound of Music" from what I'm remembering.

ETA: And she talked about the child actors only being able to work 4 hours/day, I think. It made it a bit trickier when they filmed on location in Austria (also because the weather made things difficult, as well). They spent more time and money in Austria than they'd planned.

>73 CurrerBell: then there are the silent movie actresses like Mary Pickford who was at least twice the age of the child she was playing (eso in Daddy Long Legs) but manages to pull it off and make it believable.

I finished reading Coal Miner's Daughter by Loretta Lynn last night. It was an interesting read, and chronicles here life from rags to riches, but I can say that I was shocked by the language in it. Let's just say that it is not politically correct and many of the terms used to describe people would not be tolerated today. Of course, the book was written in 1976, actually it was recorded on tape and then transcribed by her ghost writer, and that explains how she is able to describe Native Americans in those terms and stereotypes. I am also surprised at her feminist views and wish that she had gone into more detail about them and how she came to have them. At the same time she adamantly denies that she is a feminist, and, frankly, her continuous statements that she is just an uneducated bashful country girl doesn't hold up with the words to her some of her biggest hits. This makes me want to explore her life in full by reading her other memoirs.

I have had this book, and her other memoirs, on my TBR list for many years, and have wanted to get to them for some time. Previously, I had read Me & Patsy Kickin' Up Dust and Since Lynn's death a few weeks ago, I thought now was a good time to get the entire series of memoirs read. I can also say that Ken Burn's TV documentary series on Country Music also reminded me that I want to read this memoir and a few others (a book by Dolly Parton and a biography of Conway Twitty are on the list) because this music is part of the culture and heritage of the U. S. I wish that this book had been more forthcoming and detailed about some events in her life and about the music industry, but it isn't. It was written in a different time, and is meant to be a fan book. I hope that more detailed biographies will come out in the future that tell her story and that of her relationship with the music industry.

I just finished Maria Augusta Trapp's The Story of the Trapp Family Singers 4****. I'm not that crazy about The Sound of Music (for an early Julie Andrews, I much prefer Mary Poppins), but the autobiography/memoir is interesting. Note that the movie only covers about the first third of the book, up until the flight from Austria; with the climax of the book being the Baron's death not too long after WW2.

Note that none of the children are named Liesl.

My copy's autographed by Maria, Hedwig, Johannes, and Father Wasner (a priest and their music conductor). It's the 1966 printing (the original published in 1949), so it must have been given to me as a gift not all that long after the movie.

I might try to get hold of one of the group's LPs from eBay. Only problem is, the only "new in wrapper" is $70 and the more moderately priced seem to have scratches.

I have read The Rainaldi Quartet by Paul Adam. This is a reread, I first read it 10 years ago. The setting is Italy in the 1960s, the protagonist is a lutheir, and a friend of his is murdered. The murder revolves around antique violins and the lutheirs who made them. Or possibly a lutheir who copied them and sold them as original.

>78 clue:
That's a BB. Well, actually three BB's, as it is the first in a triology, so naturally I had to add the other two to the ever growing TBR list.

I am deep into reading Still Woman Enough: A Memoir by Loretta Lynn. This is the second volume in of her three memoirs. I will post here on this thread when I finish it - which will be sometime later this week.

The cello suites: J.S.. Bach, Pablo Casals and the search of a baroque masterpiece by Eric Siblin

This was an enjoyable read, with biographical information about JS Bach and Pablo Casals, the cello player who brought the six suites into the public eye. I especially enjoyed hearing about Casals, who I knew nothing about.

>81 markon: oh so glad you got to read that
I knew very little about casals, always wondered how theses works were discovered. Lots of fun listening to this music while reading

>81 markon:
That's another BB. Thanks.

gosh I looked everywhere for a book I know I have, and wanted to reread. Its about the bands from 1970 who broke up that year: the beatles, natch, Crosby stills nash and youn, the Who, simon and garfunkle and the rising of artists like Joni Mitchelle, James Taylor. I loved reading about the connections between them all and others doirn that time. Anyway If I can find it Ill pass it along. well worth reading

I finished reading Still Woman Enough: A Memoir by Loretta Lynn. This is book two of Loretta Lynn's memoirs. It was published in 2002 and covers Lynn's life from 1975 - 2002 and is about her life after the events of Coal Miner's Daughter. This book had a different co-author, so in style it is very different from the previous book. Lynn tells all about her marriage and in the end I felt like it boiled down to "stand by your man." There is more about the Country Music business and history, and there is much in there about her relationship with various country music stars of that era. This was a better book than the first one is some ways, and not as good in others. I felt like the "shock" of her personal life and worn off of me, as a reader, so what she had to say in this book wasn't as shocking as it might have been. Reading the two books close together provided a fairly good understanding of Lynn's life but to a lesser extent her place in country music. For that I will have to wait on an outside biography. Now that she has died that might not be that far in the future.

>85 benitastrnad: as an interesting side note, my uncle played guitar for Loretta Lynn for about 10 years. When she collapsed on-stage from drug use and was on hiatus for about a year, her husband fired all the band members as he felt they either had a hand in her drug use or enabled her. Loretta did come to my uncle's funeral.

>86 Tess_W:
According to the books, her husband was the cause of most of her financial problems. He died from diabetes but she says he was a raging alcoholic and womanizer. She does mention in the second book, that because she quit touring and couldn't preform on-the-road, that she had to let the "Coal Miner's" go and that upset her. However, she says there was no way to pay them, which was true. She also says that the pills she was taking, she thought were high powered aspirin she took to provide relief from her migraine headaches. She took them because her husband told her to take them. There is a real juxtaposition between her statements about women and women's rights as wives and business women and her dependence on her husband. She said in the book that when he died it took her three years to go out in public, and it took her four hours to go on stage at the Grand Old Opry, to sing one song when she did. It was an interesting book in many ways and a disappointment in others.

>87 benitastrnad: Very interesting! Will have to read more about Ms. Loretta!

Really the Blues was the book I read to fit the musical theme. It was about an American Jazz musician working in Paris at the time of the Nazi takeover. He was still playing but his audiences were largely made up of the SS, a problem as he had a past to hide.

A very late finish to October's prompt; but I did finish! I read Delta Blues: The Life and Times of the Mississippi Masters Who Revolutionized American Music (by Ted Gioia) which traces blues history from its murky beginnings in Africa to the Mississippi Delta region where it spawned notable figures and influenced future musicians worldwide. The author creates a dozen profiles of seminal blues musicians from Son House to B.B. King and wraps it up with a chapter on the Blues Revival in the 1960s. Gioa is a noted music historian known for his work in the field of jazz (the fraternal twin of the blues) and in the area of the blues, his love of the genre and his analytical discernments are evident and unparalleled. Where the writing suffers is in the speculations he makes where there is no evidence and in a prophesy about the future of the blues that, fourteen years after the publication of the book has yet to pass. Nonetheless, his astute insights about the music itself, coupled with the Recommended Listening List at the back of the book, make for a richly rewarding experience.

Just popping into this older thread to post about my reading of Heroes and Villains: the True Story of The Beach Boys by Steven Gaines. This group bio provides a detailed account of the individuals' troubles with drugs, bad business decisions, bad romances and each other, with special emphasis on the damage wrought by the Wilson Brothers' father, Murray. It's a well-written narrative, but while this book is a good place to go to learn about the group's lives, the discussion of their music and creative processes is cursory.