Broadcaster James Naughtie takes a spellbinding journey through the history of music.
Our Music is the story of our musical history, its origins and it has shaped us. We have all grown up with a common background noise, whether we realise it or not. The tradition of European music that took shape in medieval monasteries, then in churches and courts, and moved into the salons, concert halls and theatres in later centuries, is our cultural bloodstream.
James Naughtie delves into the colourful, turbulent world of music its characters, traditions and mysterious power in a delightfully lively and personal way. His story is richly peopled and animated by moments of drama: what it was like at the first night of The Rite of Spring, when the dancers could neither hear their instructions nor could Stravinsky continue conducting because the booing was so loud; how it must have felt for Beethoven to scratch Napoleon s name off the dedication page of the Eroica Symphony because he believed the emperor to have betrayed the French Revolution.
As when presenting the Proms, James Naughtie brings to Our Music that particular blend of expertise and approachability set to delight the aficionado and the uninitiated alike.
Romantic and rapturous, divertingly anecdotal and enthusiastic - The Times
[Naughtie s] real passion should easily entice anyone who reads about the works he praises to go and listen to them as soon as is practicable - Sunday Telegraph
Immensely readable a cracking good yarn - Scotsman
Consistently engaging It is enthralling, a very fine book. For Everyman - Herald
A genial, meandering but ultimately purposeful journey through the social history of music . . . this book is rich in anecdote, and it is all the better for it - Guardian