Classically Speaking

 Read any good music books lately?  

Right now, I’m re-reading Doo-Dah!: Stephen Foster and the Rise of American Popular Culture for a class that I’m teaching this fall. I highly recommend it as not just a way to learn about Stephen Foster, but also as a portrait of nineteenth-century American music and culture. It’s actually more engaging than some of my "fun" summer reading, which included a pretty silly musical thriller, The Chopin Manuscript. Check out my review of The Chopin Manuscript over on the West Virginia Book Festival blog.  

If historical fiction is more your style, here’s another light read: The Four Seasons (A Novel of Vivaldi’s Venice).This book is more fiction than history, but it tells an engaging story and has some pretty descriptions. Plus, it wins points in my book for paying attention to Vivaldi’s operas, in addition to all those concertos.

Be sure to check out the posts below, where Jim Lange and I have interviewed several authors who are worth your time and attention:

* Christopher Wilkinson, “Richard Strauss’s Visit to the kleines Stadchen of Morgantown, West Virginia”
* Glenn Kurtz, Practicing: A Return to Music
* Larry Todd, Fanny Hensel, the Other Mendelssohn
* Lloyd Bone, Guide to the Euphonium Repertoire

Any other reading suggestions?