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The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century
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Customer Reviews
Rating:  - Superb company as you listen to 20th century art music
In non-fiction, I look for incisive ideas, readable style, the hooks of interesting storytelling. This book has all that, plus subject matter that is dear to my heart: the ambitions, innovations, and personal histories of great music-makers. Follow along with music discussed in the book and you've got a gesamtkunstwerk of spectacular proportions.
Rating:  - A Fine Summary
Writing about music is hard. Over the years, musicians have developed systems of notation for music and yet many musicians have a hard time looking at a sheet of notes and hearing the music. Written words are even more difficult to transform into sound, let alone understanding. We may know what an escape tone is, but we can't always recognize it in listening. All this is by way of saying that even though "The Rest is Noise" is an excellent history of music of the twentieth century, it is no substitute for listening.
The book is primarily about classical music written in the twentieth century. It is organized temporally and then geographically, but the author necessarily jumps around a bit to develop his themes. One of the main themes seems to be the development of atonal music and then the evolution of that music into more current styles. The author will often try to describe a piece talking about its tonality and modulation. Even those trained in music theory may find it difficult to transform the words into an understanding of the nature of the music itself. This is not to suggest that the author is not an interesting writer. His style is sprightly, and surprisingly, for some of the technical discussions, quite interesting. It's no wonder he won a MacArthur award.
The history consists of detailed discussions of the lives of some of the century's great classical composers linked together by stories of about lesser composers and general movements, reflecting his original articles on the composers, which appeared in the New Yorker magazine. Although one might quibble that some important figures haven't gotten enough page space, Ross's emphasis seems to be about right, with a few exceptions. One area the author scants is American neo-romantic composers. At the same time the author does not focus on orchestras or audiences, with the result that one would never know from the book that many twentieth century listeners seemed to prefer to listen to more tonal music then that on which the author focuses. Similarly, while the author does occasionally explore what happened in non-classical music before the end of World War II, like the influence of the gamelan or jazz, little of the century's popular music before 1945 is explored.
Ross recognizes that words alone cannot tell the story of twentieth century music with just words and includes a list of thirty recommended recordings. No one should believe that hearing just these recordings will give the listener a full understanding of what happened in classical music in the last century. Instead, I can see that a person wishing to understand the direction of twentieth century music can keep this book at hand, and devote a lifetime to listening to the music that it discusses.
Some critics have complained that the content is too trivial or too difficult. On the other hand, a professor of early music I know, who has little experience with twentieth century music, said this was a fine introduction. I think that's a good summary.
Rating: - A Poetic History of the 20th Century as Only an Art Critic Can Give...
Other than the weather and traffic, and an occasional political talk show, audio CD's are the way to go while driving now, and this set was a unique and fascinating history of the 20th century from the vantage point of the classical musical world.
The author takes the reader through the landscape with the exquisite communication skills of a seasoned, in-depth critic, his analysis filled with beautiful, deep, and frightening metaphorical analysis of the classical creations and personas of the twentieth century, never straying from the vantage point of the classical music world.
I overlooked his occasional, obviously academically-indoctrinated, naively left-leaning personal interjections; and for a person involved so deeply with an art world that hates Bush so catatonically, they were admirably few and far between.
Rating:  - Knows nothing about music
I am astounded at the glowing reviews for this intellectual lightweight of a book about music in 20th century. Author Alex Ross does a frantic tap dance of maintaining a narrative with critical insights, but ultimately, he has created a vapid work of no real insight into 20th century music, except those created by popular tastes. In fact, no one I know in serious musical discussions considers his commentary worthwhile. I do not believe he understands anything about music in form, in taste, and in historical context. Really disappointing.
Rating: - jack's pick
This is a great read. There are very few books on this subject.
This book has taken some of the enigma out of this style of music.
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