Musical Revolutions

March 15, 2022
Fortune favors the bold, but sometimes the rewards come only later, as this book on musical pioneers reaffirms. Unlike his previous book, When the World Stopped To Listen, which focused only on American pianist Van Cliburn, Isacoff's latest describes many moments in music history that "ushered in a new direction--often unexpected, like a planet following an invisible orrery, discernible only after the fact." Those moments sometimes were met with hostility, as when Carnegie Hall audiences reacted violently to Steve Reich's "Four Organs" in 1973, with one attendee shouting in response to the electric organs and relentless maraca accompaniment, "All right, I confess!" In erudite if truncated chapters, Isacoff covers dozens of landmarks in Western music: 11th-century monk Guido of Arezzo, who invented "a staff of four lines, unlike the five lines used today, on which musical note symbols were placed"; 12th-century composers L�onin & P�rotin, who were key to the development of polyphonic techniques; the birth of opera, which "delivered flamboyant spectacle, enticing music, and engaging theater"; the pioneers of jazz, "perhaps the most important development in the modern era--America's musical gift to the world"; and the influence of Juilliard dropout Miles Davis' Kind of Blue, the 1959 "recording that turned the jazz world upside down." The narrative is randomly organized, but Isacoff's encyclopedic knowledge of music is still very much in evidence. The book is an excellent choice for readers who want a quick survey of Western music's major developments, and it's filled with memorable tidbits--e.g., that Florentine stage designer Bernardo Buontalenti "was credited with inventing gelato as well as enhancing opera stagecraft" and that Arnold Schoenberg feared the number 13 so much that he misspelled Aaron's name in his opera "Moses und Aron" to avoid a title with 13 letters. Too-short yet informative and often astute essays on some of the biggest moments in Western music.

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Starred review from April 1, 2022

Isacoff (Temperament: How Music Became a Battleground for the Great Minds of Western Civilization; A Natural History of the Piano) deftly underscores how every attempt to contain, suppress, or manipulate music results in new innovations and revolutions, from Franz Liszt to John Coltrane. Whether it was the development of opera in direct defiance to religious restraint or John Cage recording silence to underscore the importance of attention, musicians have always found inspiration in exceptions to the laws of art and music. Though Isacoff leaves the advent of modern musical forms (rap, rock) to other musicologists, he seamlessly contextualizes their evolution through performers such as James Reese Europe and Philippa Schuyler--uncompromising artists who challenged both musical and societal expectations. VERDICT Much like Isacoff's previous books, this is a sprawling narrative, intertwining history, politics, and musical biography, that's as entertaining as it is informative. Whether readers are dedicated musicologists or casual fans, they'll enjoy this thought-provoking dive into the history of Western music.--Joshua Finnell

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Starred review from April 1, 2022
The different meanings of the word revolution--upheaval, a turn or arc, radical change--all apply to the tectonic shifts in musical composition and performance brilliantly covered by prize-winning music writer Isacoff. Focusing on pivotal periods of transformation, Isacoff begins more than 1,000 years ago with the invention of musical notation. Capturing a musical phrase in a series of marks on a clef was the groundbreaking achievement of an Italian monk, Guido of Arezzo (990-1050). Proceeding from the advent of notation systems, Isacoff magnificently connects future innovations in music to developments in history, literature, and the arts. The origins and drama of opera, the influences of J. S. Bach and his family, and the magical performances of artists like Paganini and Liszt are examined in detail. Early-twentieth-century composers, such as Schoenberg, Stravinsky, Berg, and Webern, concentrated on the interplay between tonality and dissonance and paved the way for newer experimental forms from composers like John Cage and Steve Reich. As the time line progresses, Isacoff covers ragtime, bebop, and jazz and focuses on the influential women, Black, and Asian artists and performers who broke new ground in fields for so long dominated by white men. Musical Revolutions is enchanting and enlightening, an inspiring chronicle of the sounds that reflect the creativity, artistry, and "revolutionary spirit" of humanity.

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