The Rest is Noise
Some of you may know Alex Ross as the classical music critic of the New Yorker. There is another Alex Ross who does comic book paintings…so not him.
Anyways, I’ve been reading his brilliant book, The Rest is Noise, which is a very engaging and detailed look at how the classical world reflected or affected the 20th Century. It examines major composers and works with revealing analysis without losing sight of the larger forces of culture at work. You get to know them as people, and see how society accepted them, rejected them, or both. And you don’t need to know anything about the music, Alex does all the work for you with descriptions.
It’s been a bestseller. The book jacket quotes kudos from people as diverse as Bjork and Osvaldo Golijov. And a couple of days ago it was announced that he was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize.
And for those who get interested in the music but don’t know where to start listening, you can go to…Alex Ross. The guy’s thought of everything, including listening samples that correspond to his book chapters. Now you seriously have no excuse.
