Binding: Paperback
Dewey Decimal Number: 780
EAN: 9780312427719
Edition: Reprint
ISBN: 0312427719
Label: Picador USA
Manufacturer: Picador USA
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 704
Publication Date: October 14, 2008
Publisher: Picador USA
Studio: Picador USA

---

Related Items:

• The Age of Wonder: How the Romantic Generation Discovered the Beauty and Terror of Science
• Netherland
• This is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession
• Works of Igor Stravinsky [22cd]
• The Suspicions of Mr. Whicher
• see more

Alternate Versions: Click to Display

Browse for similar items by category: Click to Display

---

Rating: - Brilliant and compelling
I was given this hefty book for Christmas. Five days later I have just finished it, and I've read one of my other Christmas presents in the meantime.

Alex Ross is one of the wisest music critics I have read. He appears to have listened to more or less everything and read more or less everything there is to read about the music - and "the music" in this instance consists not just of all the "serious" music composed in the last hundred years but also all of the popular stuff. He is ... Read More

---

Rating: - I thought the book had flaws; but it was still inspiring
I am not quite as ready to praise this book as some other reviewers. The Rest is Noise has had the most amazing reviews, and won several prizes, and maybe that kind of overkill made my expectations too high. But a few things disappointed me:

This book has got no overarching narrative, which sometimes leads to a sense of confusion about where you are supposed to be in time and space. It's too bitty; there's not enough focus on particular stories or composers, so that it flies off tangentially ... Read More

---

Rating: - Over-hyped perhaps?
This has been the subject of a great deal of hype but (perhaps because of that) I found I didn't enjoy it very much. Anyone looking for something as crisply written and as intellectually stimulating as, say, The Shock of the New by Robert Hughes is likely to be disappointed. It's a curiously baggy and unfocussed book, which perhaps reflects some of the difficulties surrounding modern music and its reception among the cultured classes, where it's OK not to know Schoenberg's Five Pieces For Orchestra, but ... Read More

---

Rating: - Not what it could or should have been
I started reading this hefty tome with eager anticipation. I get much pleasure from listening to classical music from the 20th Century and the prospect of getting an overview of this was of great interest. However it really should have been presented as a less of an overview and more of a personal selection.

It would be impossible to cover all of the composers and all of the history - the book would need to be many times longer than what we are given. However the focus is rather too limited ... Read More

---

Rating: - A great read, recommended to anyone with even a passing interest in music
This is a huge subject, and Alex Ross does a great job of covering it. Not everyone will be happy if their pet composer or movement has been tackled only briefly (if at all), but it would be impossible to fit the entire century into a single volume. As a result of reading this I have been moved to listen to Schoenberg and Strauss (esp. the Metamorphosen) for the first time; they are challenging works but rewarding and it has been great to have my musical horizons expanded by reading this book.
For me, ... Read More

---