Books about art that are not boring.
July 26, 2010 8:50 AM Subscribe
What are your favorite books about art and music? I'm looking for meat and potatoes.
Looking for good books to read about art and music. Ideally they'd be less theoretical and more practical. I guess 'helpful' is the word that I'd use, things that help you understand the things you like, or helped you to understand a thing to you that was previously abstract.
To start things off:
Deep Blues by Robert Palmer
Truly excellent book about the roots of the Delta Blues. I've always been interested in the blues but had a hard time getting in to certain aspects of it (particularly very early recordings). Since reading the book I've become really fascinated with some people I hadn't listened to in the past, particularly Charlie Patton.
Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences by Laurence Weschler
This book examines 'convergences', sort of like coincidences in art and talks about their meaning. I think I might have been aware of this subconsciously in the past (that's sort of the theory of the book, I think, that we're attached to images we've seen in the past and that artists will express those images when they make new work). Some really interesting stuff in this book.
Vermeer in Bosnia - Lawrence Weschler (again)
I haven't read this book in a while so I can't talk about it at length, but I found the writing in it to be really lovely and interesting and he examines art from a less theoretical and more emotional standpoint. At least, that's what it felt like to me.
Things I don't generally like: Sasha Frer Jones and the guy who writes about art for the New Yorker (Peter Schendahl sp?). Really theoretical stuff where I start at the beginning of a sentence and by the end of it I have to go back to read it three times and never really figure it out.
Looking for good books to read about art and music. Ideally they'd be less theoretical and more practical. I guess 'helpful' is the word that I'd use, things that help you understand the things you like, or helped you to understand a thing to you that was previously abstract.
To start things off:
Deep Blues by Robert Palmer
Truly excellent book about the roots of the Delta Blues. I've always been interested in the blues but had a hard time getting in to certain aspects of it (particularly very early recordings). Since reading the book I've become really fascinated with some people I hadn't listened to in the past, particularly Charlie Patton.
Everything that Rises: A Book of Convergences by Laurence Weschler
This book examines 'convergences', sort of like coincidences in art and talks about their meaning. I think I might have been aware of this subconsciously in the past (that's sort of the theory of the book, I think, that we're attached to images we've seen in the past and that artists will express those images when they make new work). Some really interesting stuff in this book.
Vermeer in Bosnia - Lawrence Weschler (again)
I haven't read this book in a while so I can't talk about it at length, but I found the writing in it to be really lovely and interesting and he examines art from a less theoretical and more emotional standpoint. At least, that's what it felt like to me.
Things I don't generally like: Sasha Frer Jones and the guy who writes about art for the New Yorker (Peter Schendahl sp?). Really theoretical stuff where I start at the beginning of a sentence and by the end of it I have to go back to read it three times and never really figure it out.
"Mozart in the Jungle" by Blair Tindall. Only one person's perspective and could've used some editing, but otherwise very engaging.
Is fiction ok? Chaim Potok's "My Name is Asher Lev" and "The Gift of Asher Lev". I got a great sense of how artists think from these books, especially the latter.
Also, I enjoyed "Seven Days in the Art World", in a gawking-at-a-car-accident sort of way.
posted by Melismata at 8:59 AM on July 26, 2010
Is fiction ok? Chaim Potok's "My Name is Asher Lev" and "The Gift of Asher Lev". I got a great sense of how artists think from these books, especially the latter.
Also, I enjoyed "Seven Days in the Art World", in a gawking-at-a-car-accident sort of way.
posted by Melismata at 8:59 AM on July 26, 2010
I recently enjoyed "Kill Your Friends" by John Niven. It's set in the music industry, rather than about music itself and the protagonist is one of the most offensive characters I've come across in a long while. Needless to say, it's hilarious.
Sample quote: "Madonna, Bono, The Spice Girls, Noel Gallagher, Kylie...do you really think any of that lot are talented? Don’t make me fucking laugh. What they are is ambitious. This is where the big money is. Fuck talent. Forget Rock and Roll. If he’d just turned the other way out of the school yard Bono could have been a very successful CEO of a huge armaments manufacturer."
posted by rhymer at 9:29 AM on July 26, 2010
Sample quote: "Madonna, Bono, The Spice Girls, Noel Gallagher, Kylie...do you really think any of that lot are talented? Don’t make me fucking laugh. What they are is ambitious. This is where the big money is. Fuck talent. Forget Rock and Roll. If he’d just turned the other way out of the school yard Bono could have been a very successful CEO of a huge armaments manufacturer."
posted by rhymer at 9:29 AM on July 26, 2010
Classical music
Piano Notes by Charles Rosen
Concerto Conversations by Joseph Kerman (accompanied by a CD)
Beethoven by Donald Francis Tovey
The Symphony by the late Michael Steinberg (close analyses of lots of symphonies, with plenty of interesting biographical background on the compositions)
Jazz
Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation by Paul F. Berliner (the most meticulous and dry analysis of jazz I know of, which doesn't always befit the subject matter -- but the extensive quotations from jazz musicians give the book a sense of authenticity)
The Beatles
Tell Me Why by Tim Riley (excellent analysis of how their vocal delivery interacts with the lyrics)
Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald (emphasis on the cultural context, plus some music-theory analysis)
About music in general, but with a classical slant
What to Listen for in Music by Aaron Copland (very readable primer on music theory by one of the great 20th-century composers)
Music, the Brain and Ecstasy by Robert Jourdain (this really changed how I think about music)
Also, I generally recommend the Cambridge Music Handbooks. Each one looks at a particular work in depth. I specifically recommend the ones on Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Debussy's La Mer. (They're almost all classical, but there's one on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.)
posted by Jaltcoh at 9:34 AM on July 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Piano Notes by Charles Rosen
Concerto Conversations by Joseph Kerman (accompanied by a CD)
Beethoven by Donald Francis Tovey
The Symphony by the late Michael Steinberg (close analyses of lots of symphonies, with plenty of interesting biographical background on the compositions)
Jazz
Thinking in Jazz: The Infinite Art of Improvisation by Paul F. Berliner (the most meticulous and dry analysis of jazz I know of, which doesn't always befit the subject matter -- but the extensive quotations from jazz musicians give the book a sense of authenticity)
The Beatles
Tell Me Why by Tim Riley (excellent analysis of how their vocal delivery interacts with the lyrics)
Revolution in the Head by Ian MacDonald (emphasis on the cultural context, plus some music-theory analysis)
About music in general, but with a classical slant
What to Listen for in Music by Aaron Copland (very readable primer on music theory by one of the great 20th-century composers)
Music, the Brain and Ecstasy by Robert Jourdain (this really changed how I think about music)
Also, I generally recommend the Cambridge Music Handbooks. Each one looks at a particular work in depth. I specifically recommend the ones on Gershwin's Rhapsody in Blue and Debussy's La Mer. (They're almost all classical, but there's one on the Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band album.)
posted by Jaltcoh at 9:34 AM on July 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Faking It by Yuval Taylor and Hugh Barker is great, about authenticity and image-making in music, from Leadbelly to Jimmie Rogers to the Monkees to Neil Young to Moby.
Also, On Record is an anthology of some really good music writing, with Paul Willis' 'Golden Age' about motorcycle boys and why they like the music they like as a total stand-out.
posted by carbide at 9:47 AM on July 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
Also, On Record is an anthology of some really good music writing, with Paul Willis' 'Golden Age' about motorcycle boys and why they like the music they like as a total stand-out.
posted by carbide at 9:47 AM on July 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
This thread is incomplete without This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession. Accessibly written, fascinating stuff on the neuroscience of why we enjoy what we enjoy, musically.
posted by softlord at 9:50 AM on July 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
posted by softlord at 9:50 AM on July 26, 2010 [1 favorite]
One that I haven't read but that's supposed to be excellent:
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
posted by Jaltcoh at 10:00 AM on July 26, 2010
Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks
posted by Jaltcoh at 10:00 AM on July 26, 2010
How the Beatles Destroyed Rock n Roll: An Alternative History of American Popular Music, despite its misleading title, has a lot of interesting things to say about how and why Americans appreciated particular styles of music.
posted by Sculthorpe at 10:04 AM on July 26, 2010
posted by Sculthorpe at 10:04 AM on July 26, 2010
If you haven't read it yet, Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man was formative in my aesthetic development. Also, My Name is Asher Lev on the inner conflicts of inspiration/religion. Art and Physics by Leonard Schlain. Godel, Escher, Bach, mind bendingly challenging and enlightening.
posted by madred at 10:11 AM on July 26, 2010
posted by madred at 10:11 AM on July 26, 2010
> Piano Notes by Charles Rosen
Concerto Conversations by Joseph Kerman
I was going to recommend two different books by those guys: Rosen's The Classical Style and Kerman's Opera as Drama. Those two books taught me more about music than the courses I took in college.
posted by languagehat at 10:31 AM on July 26, 2010
Concerto Conversations by Joseph Kerman
I was going to recommend two different books by those guys: Rosen's The Classical Style and Kerman's Opera as Drama. Those two books taught me more about music than the courses I took in college.
posted by languagehat at 10:31 AM on July 26, 2010
Try The Old Way of Seeing by Jonathan Hale. About how older art and architecture becomes understandable once we understand how designers saw things differently. Will lead you in a lot of other directions too, most of which would be fascinating if only I had the money and time.
posted by Logophiliac at 10:48 AM on July 26, 2010
posted by Logophiliac at 10:48 AM on July 26, 2010
I was going to recommend two different books by those guys: Rosen's The Classical Style and Kerman's Opera as Drama. Those two books taught me more about music than the courses I took in college.
I was originally going to recommend Rosen's The Classical Style (about Haydn, Mozart, and Brahms) and also his The Romantic Generation (about Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, and a few others). I had misread the question as saying the OP does want dry, theoretical, hard-to-understand texts! Once I read it correctly, I deleted those books. Now that you mention The Classical Style, I have to second your recommendation, but with the caveat that Rosen isn't the most exciting writer and doesn't hold back from getting very deeply into technicalities.
posted by Jaltcoh at 11:05 AM on July 26, 2010
I was originally going to recommend Rosen's The Classical Style (about Haydn, Mozart, and Brahms) and also his The Romantic Generation (about Mendelssohn, Schumann, Chopin, and a few others). I had misread the question as saying the OP does want dry, theoretical, hard-to-understand texts! Once I read it correctly, I deleted those books. Now that you mention The Classical Style, I have to second your recommendation, but with the caveat that Rosen isn't the most exciting writer and doesn't hold back from getting very deeply into technicalities.
posted by Jaltcoh at 11:05 AM on July 26, 2010
I thought that Positively 4th Street: The Lives and Times of Joan Baez, Bob Dylan, Mimi Baez Farina and Richard Farina was entertainingly written and educational if you're at all interested in the 60's folk scene.
Also, there's some compilations of Lester Bangs out there that are bound to be a riot.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:16 AM on July 26, 2010
Also, there's some compilations of Lester Bangs out there that are bound to be a riot.
posted by Devils Rancher at 11:16 AM on July 26, 2010
Alex Ross, The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century.
Your dislikes seem to rule out some of my favorites, including Greil Marcus's Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century and Dave Hickey's Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy, but I'd urge you to flip through them both and make up your own mind.
posted by mishaps at 11:37 AM on July 26, 2010
Your dislikes seem to rule out some of my favorites, including Greil Marcus's Lipstick Traces: A Secret History of the Twentieth Century and Dave Hickey's Air Guitar: Essays on Art and Democracy, but I'd urge you to flip through them both and make up your own mind.
posted by mishaps at 11:37 AM on July 26, 2010
Response by poster: ok I'll open it up to dry and theoretical, but not hard to understand.
posted by sully75 at 12:10 PM on July 26, 2010
posted by sully75 at 12:10 PM on July 26, 2010
Definitely would second Dave Hickey. There's a difference between theoretical and dryly-theoretical, and frankly it's difficult to talk about this stuff without talking about theory.
The best piece of music writing I've encountered recently is Carl Wilson's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste. Really really well considered examination of taste, through the lens of the author's distaste for Céline Dion. Don't be put off, it's an absolutely phenomenal essay.
posted by cmyr at 12:35 PM on July 26, 2010
The best piece of music writing I've encountered recently is Carl Wilson's Let's Talk About Love: A Journey to the End of Taste. Really really well considered examination of taste, through the lens of the author's distaste for Céline Dion. Don't be put off, it's an absolutely phenomenal essay.
posted by cmyr at 12:35 PM on July 26, 2010
Bootleg: The Secret History of the Other Recording Industry, by Clinton Heylin
posted by Joe Beese at 12:54 PM on July 26, 2010
posted by Joe Beese at 12:54 PM on July 26, 2010
Conversations before the end of time, by Suzi Gablik, is a series of conversations between Gablik and various artists and arts-related people (some extreme performance artists, some conservative curators) wherein they discuss, among other things, the role of the museum, the ways in which economics can and should influence art, why art seems not to be relevant to contemporary society, etc. It's all conversation and thus not at all dense and theoretical.
posted by shakespeherian at 12:55 PM on July 26, 2010
posted by shakespeherian at 12:55 PM on July 26, 2010
> Now that you mention The Classical Style, I have to second your recommendation, but with the caveat that Rosen isn't the most exciting writer and doesn't hold back from getting very deeply into technicalities.
I guess it depends what you like in a piece of writing. No, Rosen isn't Stephen King, but I certainly wouldn't call him dry or hard to understand. Here's a couple of sentences I got by opening the book at random (p. 333 of my edition):
posted by languagehat at 1:08 PM on July 26, 2010
I guess it depends what you like in a piece of writing. No, Rosen isn't Stephen King, but I certainly wouldn't call him dry or hard to understand. Here's a couple of sentences I got by opening the book at random (p. 333 of my edition):
The freshness of this new mass appeal of high art has never been recaptured. It was, at least socially, bound to disappoint: the snob value of music has never been taken off the market but it has also rarely paid the dividends hoped for.If that sounds dry to you, you may not like the book; to me, it sounds lively and interesting.
posted by languagehat at 1:08 PM on July 26, 2010
I've recommended him time and time again elsewhere (obsessed fan, much?), but I've gotta say it again. Simon Schama. I recommend his companion coffee table book to Power of Art as a basic primer to the "great" painters of Western art history. Landscape and Memory is a little more esoteric, but fits your criteria to an outstanding degree. I was never much interested in landscape paintings until I read that.
I really enjoyed Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, even though I am not necessarily a huge fan of the Sistine Chapel. It's the story of how it came to be painted that's fascinating.
Ways of Seeing is short and sweet, but it's a classic introduction to visual analysis.
Seconding Positively Fourth Street.
posted by Sara C. at 1:17 PM on July 26, 2010
I really enjoyed Michelangelo and the Pope's Ceiling, even though I am not necessarily a huge fan of the Sistine Chapel. It's the story of how it came to be painted that's fascinating.
Ways of Seeing is short and sweet, but it's a classic introduction to visual analysis.
Seconding Positively Fourth Street.
posted by Sara C. at 1:17 PM on July 26, 2010
Here's a couple of sentences I got by opening the book at random (p. 333 of my edition):
Oh, of course the book has plenty of accessible sentences. But I'm talking about his more technical analyses and the fact that his books include lots of reproductions of sheet music. And let's face it: Rosen's writing doesn't have the personality or warmth of Joseph Kerman or Michael Steinberg.
Jan Swafford says: "Mr. Rosen’s books are written for musicians, and I am one of those who admires them not for their prose, but for the often remarkable things they say about the music." The subtext of that "not for their prose" is clear.
posted by Jaltcoh at 1:33 PM on July 26, 2010
The freshness of this new mass appeal of high art has never been recaptured. It was, at least socially, bound to disappoint: the snob value of music has never been taken off the market but it has also rarely paid the dividends hoped for.If that sounds dry to you, you may not like the book; to me, it sounds lively and interesting.
Oh, of course the book has plenty of accessible sentences. But I'm talking about his more technical analyses and the fact that his books include lots of reproductions of sheet music. And let's face it: Rosen's writing doesn't have the personality or warmth of Joseph Kerman or Michael Steinberg.
Jan Swafford says: "Mr. Rosen’s books are written for musicians, and I am one of those who admires them not for their prose, but for the often remarkable things they say about the music." The subtext of that "not for their prose" is clear.
posted by Jaltcoh at 1:33 PM on July 26, 2010
Mystery Train by Greil Marcus is the first (and best imho) serious study of rock and roll.
Hole in Our Soul by Martha Bayles is a good one- if a bit academic. It looks at modern music in a sociological light.
Seconding Deep Blues.
posted by bluejayway at 10:00 AM on September 10, 2010
Hole in Our Soul by Martha Bayles is a good one- if a bit academic. It looks at modern music in a sociological light.
Seconding Deep Blues.
posted by bluejayway at 10:00 AM on September 10, 2010
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posted by Pickman's Next Top Model at 8:55 AM on July 26, 2010