Ways of Hearing

An outstanding anthology in which notable musicians, artists, scientists, thinkers, poets, and more—from Gustavo Dudamel and Carrie Mae Weems to Ruth Bader Ginsburg and Paul Muldoon—explore the influence of music on their lives and work.

What happens when extraordinary creative spirits—musicians, poets, critics, and scholars, as well as an architect, a visual artist, a filmmaker, a scientist, and a legendary Supreme Court justice—are asked to reflect on their favourite music? The result is Ways of Hearing, a diverse collection that explores the ways music shapes us and our shared culture. These acts of musical witness bear fruit through personal essays, conversations and interviews, improvisatory meditations, poetry, and visual art. They sound the depths of a remarkable range of musical genres, including opera, jazz, bluegrass, and concert music both classical and contemporary.

This expansive volume spans styles and subjects, including Pico Iyer's meditations on Handel, Arnold Steinhardt's thoughts on Beethoven's Grosse Fuge, and Laurie Anderson and Edgar Choueiri's manifesto for spatial music. Richard Powers discusses the one thing about music he's never told anyone, Daphne Brooks draws sonic connections between Toni Morrison and Cecile McLorin Salvant, and Ruth Bader Ginsburg reveals what she thinks is the sexiest duet in opera. Poems interspersed throughout further expand how we can imagine and respond to music. Ways of Hearing is a book for our times that celebrates the infinite ways music enhances our lives.

Contributors include: Laurie Anderson, Jamie Barton, Daphne Brooks, Edgar Choueiri, Jeff Dolven, Gustavo Dudamel, Edward Dusinberre, Corinna da Fonseca-Wollheim, Frank Gehry, Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Jane Hirshfield, Pico Iyer, Alexander Kluge, Nathaniel Mackey, Maureen McLane, Alicia Hall Moran, Jason Moran, Paul Muldoon, Elaine Pagels, Robert Pinsky, Richard Powers, Brian Seibert, Arnold Steinhardt, Susan Stewart, Abigail Washburn, Carrie Mae Weems, Susan Wheeler, C. K. Williams, and Wu Fei.

Ways of Hearing features extraordinarily interesting people responding to diverse kinds of music. When the gathering includes the likes of Gustavo Dudamel and the late Ruth Bader Ginsburg, how could one not want to read this book and find out what they think?' - Don Michael Randel, University of Chicago

Music conservatories have a required course called Ear Training that teaches students not to impose affect, narrative, or imagery on the music itself. Counter to this, Ways of Hearing offers testimonies by leading figures in the arts and humanities, eloquently redressing aesthetic reactions stripped away by professional pedagogy. May this volume become required reading for musicians and music lovers alike! - Susan McClary, author of The Passions of Peter Sellars