beautiful music book for mom

December 19, 2021 6:51 AM

Another last-minute gift question. My mom has recently taken up playing the keyboard, and she's suggested that she might enjoy a book about music--not a practical guide, but something more lyrical, beautiful, that gets at the experience of playing or listening to music. Maybe a memoir, maybe something else. Could be related to piano or opera, but not necessarily.

I've looked at some memoirs by famous pianists, as well as some books on opera, but I'm having trouble figuring out the actual tone and content of these books. I'm looking for something that really gets at the experience of music, rather than the musician's life otherwise. Also looking for something that has really *beautiful* writing--this is a must. I don't know much about music writing, but I'm thinking perhaps something like Maggie Nelson's Bluets, if it was about music rather than the color blue. I'm also thinking about getting her Queen of the Night by Alexander Chee as kind of a supplemental gift, but I think I'm looking for creative non-fiction for the gift I'm asking after here. Thanks in advance for any advice!

posted by dysh to Writing & Language (8 answers total)

I once got this book as a gift for a music lover… https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Musicophilia
posted by sleepingwithcats at 6:54 AM on December 19, 2021

Seconding Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks. Beautiful and fascinating non fiction account of the relationship between music and the human brain and psyche.
posted by Zumbador at 7:14 AM on December 19, 2021 [5 favorites]

Try Piano Lessons: Music, Love and true Adventures by Noah Adams. From one of the LibraryThing reviews:

But the thing is, Piano Lessons is really mostly a love story. It's about loving music, of course, but it's also, at least peripherally, about how much Adams loves his wife and how he keeps on plugging away over the course of a busy year, trying to make time to learn the piano, so he can play this one beautiful piece ("Traumerei") as a special gift to her. And he succeeds. Admittedly, he makes mistakes and falters, but it's a gift that matters. And this is a book that matters too, especially if you are a music lover.

posted by Logophiliac at 7:21 AM on December 19, 2021 [1 favorite]

Vikram Seth's novel An Equal Music is really gorgeous.
posted by yarntheory at 8:39 AM on December 19, 2021

Leonard Bernstein's The Joy of Music.
posted by gregoreo at 1:53 PM on December 19, 2021

T.E.Carhart: The Piano Shop on the Left Bank: A beautiful memoir and meandering meditation on pianos, piano-makers and pianists, among other things.

Doe she like Bach? This might not meet your brief but I loved Evening in the Palace of Reason: Bach meets Frederick the Great in the Age of Enlightenment by James Gaines.
From this review in the Guardian: Evening in the Palace of Reason is a wonderful work of popular history, intelligent, stylish, wryly witty, serious yet never solemn, and above all passionate in its celebration of a great composer whose music "makes no argument that the world is more than a ticking clock, yet leaves no doubt of it".


Fiction: 2nding Vikram Seth's An Equal Music.
posted by Coaticass at 4:55 PM on December 19, 2021

This operatic memoir is a great read: Galina: A Russian Story
posted by Coaticass at 5:06 PM on December 19, 2021

How about Beck’s album of sheet music? (amazon link)
posted by bruceo at 7:31 PM on December 19, 2021