Time's echo : the Second World War, the Holocaust, and the music of remembrance /
When it comes to how societies remember these increasingly distant dreams and catastrophes, we often think of history books, archives, documentaries or memorials carved from stone. But in Time's Echo, the award-winning critic and cultural historian Jeremy Eichler makes a passionate and revelato...
| Main Author: | |
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| Format: | Book |
| Language: | English |
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New York :
Alfred A. Knopf,
[2023].
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| Edition: | First edition. |
| Subjects: |
| Summary: | When it comes to how societies remember these increasingly distant dreams and catastrophes, we often think of history books, archives, documentaries or memorials carved from stone. But in Time's Echo, the award-winning critic and cultural historian Jeremy Eichler makes a passionate and revelatory case for the power of music as culture's memory, an art form uniquely capable of carrying forward meaning from the past. With a critic's ear, a scholar's erudition and a novelist's eye for detail, Eichler shows how four towering composers, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitri Shostakovich and Benjamin Britten, lived through the era of the Second World War and the Holocaust and later transformed their experiences into deeply moving, transcendent works of music, scores that echo lost time. Summoning the supporting testimony of writers, poets, philosophers, musicians and everyday citizens, Eichler reveals how the essence of an entire epoch has been inscribed in these sounds and stories. Along the way, he visits key locations central to the music's creation, from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral to the site of the Babi Yar ravine in Kyiv. As the living memory of the Second World War fades, Time's Echo proposes new ways of listening to history, and learning to hear between its notes the resonances of what another era has written, heard, dreamed, hoped and mourned. A lyrical narrative full of insight and compassion, this book deepens how we think about the legacies of war, the presence of the past and the renewed promise of art for our lives today. |
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| Physical Description: | 386 pages : illustrations ; 25 cm. |
| Bibliography: | Includes bibliographical references and index. |
| ISBN: | 9780525521716 0525521712 |