The Whole Music Experience

Book review How to Listen to Great Music   A Guide to its History, Culture & Art Robert Greenberg   Plume Book/Penguin I’m a music appreciation junkie and when I find a music appreciation book with a flowing narrative, theory that’s explained in a way I can understand, and biographical details of composers tossed in, I climb on board.   I have taught music appreciation courses, but my focus was on world and folkloric music.   Robert Greenberg, a composer and music historian not only teaches through the pages of How to Listen to Great Music , but he also teaches a series through his teaching company, Great Courses. In this book, he gets us started with medieval and renaissance music and then we’re off into the baroque, classical, romantic and post modern eras--starting with Gregorian chant and landing in the terrain of Arnold Schoenberg.   We learn about fugues and musical structures from each of the musical/cultural eras as Greenber...

Silvia Nakkach and Valerie Carpenter Free Your Voice Awaken to Life Through Singing Sounds True Cross-cultural sound healer and vocalist Silvia Nakkach provides a handbook for healing yourself and others through voice with Free Your Voice .   Only the first 64 pages of the book give an overview of the physiology of voice, a description of vocal techniques from around the globe, as well as a list of benefits that come from working with your voice. The second half of the book acts as a virtual workshop with exercises with online music samples.   The exercises range from simple mind-body meditations to singing raga scales.   (Note: I wasn’t able to do the exercises because I did not have access to the online music). However, I’m impressed with the breadth and scope of Nakkach’s vocal wisdom, her musical expertise, and her engaging writing style.   Personally, I would enjoy going deeper with this book and the exercises in it.   The powe...

Christine Stevens Music Medicine The Science and Spirit of Healing Yourself with Sound Sounds True (publishing date: August 1, 2012) I joined my first drum circle at a Northwest Folklife Festival in Seattle during the 1990s.   A master Brazilian percussionist handed out exotic percussion and drums, gave us a quick lesson, then off we went.   The drum circle took place in a large tent that vibrated with polyrhythms of the 20+ drummers and percussionist that gathered. While I felt self-conscious, I still enjoyed myself and all the drummers participating in the circle.   You didn’t even need to know the others’ names and still feel bonded to them. Flash forward to 2009, when I interviewed master percussionist Will Clipman, mainly known for his musical contributions to Canyon Records artists, especially R. Carlos Nakai.   Will opened up the world of drumming to me with his masterful global percussion practice and his debut solo album, Pathfinder....

I'm posting the following book review here because people with accute sensitivities respond well to music therapy and sound healing.  In addition, musicians are also sensitive and can benefit from the wisdom presented in this book. Dr. Judith Blackstone Belonging Here A Guide for the Spiritually Sensitive Person Sounds True Where was Dr. Judith Blackstone and Dr. Judith Orloff (who also writes about sensitivities), back in the 1990s when I began experiencing acute sensitivities? Back in the 1990s the concept of sensitivities, especially environmental sensitivities were seen as a neurosis of hysterical housewives.   This did not help me in employment where my employers saw me more as a troublemaker than a sensitive person with talents and useful skills.   I did not enjoy living in my body due to the abuse I suffered daily because of my sensitivities and it wasn’t until I took a workshop at the Women of Wisdom conference in Seattle that I learned about...

A Romance on Three Legs Glenn Gould’s Obsessive Quest for the Perfect Piano Katie Hafner Bloomsbury USA In 1982 or 1983 I experienced a supernatural encounter in a department store in north Bellingham. My mother and I both recall me walking up to one of those electronic keyboards in fashion at the time, turning it on, and then playing something virtuosic. I only remember turning the keyboard on and then waking from a trance and seeing a small crowd of people standing around applauding. My mother recalls the actual impromptu performance. Prior to this “episode” I had never taken piano lessons, thought I sucked as a musician based on a personal tragedy I experienced when I auditioned for the high school band and I had nearly flunked music theory at Western Washington University. I had given up the notion of ever pursuing my dream career as a musician or composer until a boost of confidence from the department store incident changed the course of my life. That was my firs...

The Cello Suites J.S. Bach, Pablo Casals And The Search For A Baroque Masterpiece By Eric Siblin Atlantic Monthly Press Possibly a literary equivalent of Francois Girard’s film, The Red Violin , Canadian journalist/writer Eric Siblin’s The Cello Suites blends mystery, with biographies that read as multiple narratives. Certainly this page turner transforms the stuff shirt-stiff wig image of J.S. Bach into a man of intrigue and the cello from a melancholic to a magical instrument. Siblin’s journey into the Bach realm began when his career as a pop music journalist was on the wane and he stepped into a concert hall where the mysterious Cello Suites were performed, all 6 of them. This journey led the author to Belgium, France, Spain, and even to discoveries in his hometown, Montreal. He learns cello, joins a Bach chorale camp, and explores the Cello Suites in depth—experiential journalism. While the readers are left hanging in regard to the suite’s origins, Siblin draws h...

Song Catchers In Search of the World’s Music By Mickey Hart with K.M. Kostyal National Geographic (2003) I found this gem at Village Books in Bellingham, Washington. I wasn’t planning on buying any books, but then I made the mistake of checking out the arts section in the store. Tucked in with the music theory and Rough Guide to Classical Music , I found Song Catchers (In Search of the World’s Music). I made the mistake of picking up the book and turning each lovingly crafted page portraying both the history of ethnomusicology and recording devices as seen through the passionate eyes of Mickey Hart. Grateful Dead drummer/ethnomusicologist, Hart caught the anthropological bug early in life when he found a recording of African pygmies at his family home. He delved into this secret world without knowing where it would lead him later in life. And similar to the other famous song catchers he mentions through the book, (Frances Densmore, John and Alan Lomax, Moses Asch…), he ...

The Spiritual Significance of Music Justin St. Vincent  Independent    Justin focused on mainstream entities such as metal, Christian, pop and new age musicians and authors. This leaves me to wonder who was included in the other nine hundred interviews that did not make the cut. Voices such as Native American musicians Sharon Burch, R. Carlos Nakai and Mary Youngblood are missing from the pages, though Native American percussionist Will Clipman contributes his take on spirituality and music.  I am pleased to see Will contribute his reflections, as I am pleased to see Ravi Shankar represented his views in the book. And while you would think the new age authors who focus on the significance of spirit in their personal and professional quests would contribute the most profound insights in this regard, instead provided similar rhetoric or in the case of the German new age couple, Reinhard and Cornelia Flatischler used the opportunity to promote their worksh...

Tuning in the key of 440 Thad Carhart The Piano Shop on the Left Bank Discovering at Forgotten Passion in a Paris Atelier Random House, 2001 As a child, I gravitated towards any piano that I encountered, at people’s houses, at the church and in stores. I never learned how to play piano and my family did not own one, but the instrument, in all of its wooden glory, with white and black keys beckoning for my fingers to caress them, called to me.  And I adored it. Now, as an adult, I listen to many solo piano recordings, from Bach and Beethoven to Ravel. Some of the pianists in my collect include, Glenn Gould, Angela Hewitt, Pèter Nagy, Andràs Schiff, Murray Perahia and many others. These virtuosos have no awareness that I exist in some tucked away small city, enchanted by the music they recorded. And the author Thad Carhart who wrote The Piano Shop on the Left Bank , has no awareness of me luxuriating in his every word as he waxed on about every aspect of the piano...

Oliver Sacks Musicophilia Tales of Music and The Brain hardback: Alfred A. Knopf (2007) I spent a good part of the weekend reading about the effects of music on the brain compliments of Neurologist/Author Oliver Sacks' book, Musicophilia (Tales of the Music and The Brain). While I do not come from a science background myself, I have read in the past about music therapy for people with autism, Parkinson's, clinical depression and dementia. I have also read a little about the renowned hearing and speech specialist Alfred Tomatis as well as, Joshua Leeds work with psychoacoustics. Sacks book delves deeper into diseases, injuries and birth defects of the brain. In the synopsis for his book found on his website, the description of this book reads "how music heals and haunts us" or something to that effect. Sacks explores music hallucinations, brainworms, epilepsy and fear of music (because some types of music can bring on seizures and convulsions in list...

Book Review Why Birds Sing David Rothenberg Penguin/Allen Lane I come from a family of bird enthusiasts. This year for my birthday, my sister surprised me with David Rothenberg's amusing and informative book, Why Birds Sing . Rothenberg marries his musical and philosophical talents with an unusual quest. Yet, he is not alone since he cites scientists, poets and others who also took similar quests at one point or another. Rothenberg takes us through a little history of songbird science as well as, noting improvements in technology that still for whatever reason, cannot fathom why birds sing. Do they sing for pleasure? Possibly. Do they enjoy the music of humans? Possibly. Rothenberg explores mimics of the bird kingdom from the common starling, (were you aware of the talent of this bird?), to the less common Albert's Lyrebird of Australia. We learn a little about finches, mockingbirds, canaries and blackbirds, among others. And in this fascinating quest, we m...

The Healing Energies of Music (1995 edition) by Hal A. Lingerman Quest Books I recently found The Healing Energies of Music by music therapist Hal A. Lingerman at the library. This book delves into the spiritual and more intuitive aspects of healing with music. While Lingerman does quote some scientific studies in regard to healing with music, and also cites projects with Medical Doctor Bernie S. Siegel, this book focuses on the metaphysical end of music for the most part. And the fact that some of this material was written as early as 1983 is prophetic and currently manifesting. The author writes in a flowing style and offers stories of people transformed and healed by music, mostly classical music, but world, some new age, and Native American music are also brought into the mix. The book also includes a chapter on women composers and their contribution to music throughout history. Mostly the book provides lists of compositions and the best recordings to hear those famous compo...