Publication date:
09 July 2015Length of book:
224 pagesPublisher
Rowman & Littlefield PublishersDimensions:
235x160mm6x9"
ISBN-13: 9781442250765
Believe Your Ears is the memoir of composer Kirke Mechem, whose unorthodox path to music provides a fascinating narrative. He wrote songs and played music by ear as a newspaper reporter, a touring tennis player, and a Stanford creative-writing major before studying composition and conducting at Harvard. He describes his residencies in San Francisco, Vienna, London, and Russia, and gives detailed attention to his choral music, operas, and symphonies.
He writes that “the twentieth century gave us much brilliant music” but shows how atonality came to dominate the post-war period. His lyric style belongs to no particular “school,” avoiding the trends, –isms, experiments, fads, and lunacies of the period. He encourages younger composers who are trying to bring back beauty, passion, and humor—even entertainment—to classical music. He asks music lovers to believe their own ears, not the lectures of “experts.”
Believe Your Ears is addressed to all who love classical music. Along the way, readers will meet Dimitri Shostakovich, Wallace Stegner, Billie Jean King, the Grateful Dead, Richard Rodgers, Benjamin Britten, Bill Tilden, and Aaron Copland—a who’s who in Mechem’s storied career.
He writes that “the twentieth century gave us much brilliant music” but shows how atonality came to dominate the post-war period. His lyric style belongs to no particular “school,” avoiding the trends, –isms, experiments, fads, and lunacies of the period. He encourages younger composers who are trying to bring back beauty, passion, and humor—even entertainment—to classical music. He asks music lovers to believe their own ears, not the lectures of “experts.”
Believe Your Ears is addressed to all who love classical music. Along the way, readers will meet Dimitri Shostakovich, Wallace Stegner, Billie Jean King, the Grateful Dead, Richard Rodgers, Benjamin Britten, Bill Tilden, and Aaron Copland—a who’s who in Mechem’s storied career.
Kirke Mechem’s recent memoir proves captivating throughout. . . [He] delves into the narrative behind his varied and rich compositional output as well as his personal successes and challenges, intimately weaving biography, philosophy, and humor as he reflects on the why of his life. Akin to his compositional style, Mechem’s prose is nuanced, lyrical, and is often as humorous and witty as it is serious and cautionary. His elegant voice inspires future generations of musicians to be more reflective and to follow their own path, just as he avoided the trends and fads of the post-war period.
Believe Your Ears is a book for everyone, from the music enthusiast to the conductor interpreting one of Mechem’s choral works to the composer-conductor for whom Mechem provides frequent compositional advice. Such advice and anecdotes illuminate the essence of what this composer values most in music and in life: simply put, an inventive and expressive lyrical melody that supports a captivating story.... Mechem does not shy away from sharing his pain and failures as well as his joy and accomplishments. As a cornerstone in American classical music, Kirke Mechem not only greatly contributes to the choral canon but, through this honest, engaging, and remarkably entertaining memoir, he also imparts wisdom and much needed perspective to readers of younger generations.
Believe Your Ears is a book for everyone, from the music enthusiast to the conductor interpreting one of Mechem’s choral works to the composer-conductor for whom Mechem provides frequent compositional advice. Such advice and anecdotes illuminate the essence of what this composer values most in music and in life: simply put, an inventive and expressive lyrical melody that supports a captivating story.... Mechem does not shy away from sharing his pain and failures as well as his joy and accomplishments. As a cornerstone in American classical music, Kirke Mechem not only greatly contributes to the choral canon but, through this honest, engaging, and remarkably entertaining memoir, he also imparts wisdom and much needed perspective to readers of younger generations.