Words about Music: A Treasury of Writings Paperback - 1995

From the publisher

Words About Music is an enchanting, lively, and delightfully varied anthology of writings about music - musicians, music critics, music-lovers, music-haters, musical performances, musical instruments, and musical history - by over five hundred celebrated figures, including George Gershwin, P.J. Wodehouse, Lenin, Richard Wagner, and George Sand. The selections of anecdotes, prose, poetry, criticism, letters, and memoirs gathered here range from a few lines to a few pages and are linked irregularly by entertaining informal comments and explanatory asides from the editors. Compiled by Michael Rose, editor of The New Grove, and John Amis of the BBC, this treasury of writings takes us from the hilarious and outrageous to the metaphysical and deeply moving, from the beloved and familiar to the unexpected and wonderfully surprising. Here is Madame Bovary's unforgettable night at the opera, Shaw's pleading with the authorities at Covent Garden to protect him from a woman who wore on her head the pitiable corpse of a large white bird - her hat; Nietzche's complaint that listening to Wagner annoys his feet, upsets his stomach, saddens his bowels, and inflames his throat; Rossini's observation, How wonderful opera would be if there were no singers; and Franklin Roosevelt's confession, It got to the point where I had to get a haircut or a violin. A wonderfully idiosyncratic, unique collection, Words About Music never ceases to delight. As the Observer has praised, Words About Music is enormous fun. Amis and Rose have a fine selective eye for wit and wisdom.