Sound Within Sound

Opening Our Ears to the Twentieth Century

Kate Molleson

• Publisher: Faber & Faber
• Year: 2022
• eBook ISBN:
  9780571363247
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Classical Music

A radical new book by journalist, critic and BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Kate Molleson, which fundamentally changes the way we think about classical music and the musicians who made it on a global scale.

'Wonderful . . . This is a book of discovery that speaks of music as a life force, that urges us to live our lives through music. '
COSEY FANNI TUTTI

'A marvellous book that opens our ears to sonic worlds that will enrich and delight us, whoever and wherever we are.'
IAN McMILLAN

'A clear-eyed, utterly fascinating exploration of outsiders in classical music. Molleson's excellent book challenges and enlightens.'
SINÉAD GLEESON

This is the impassioned and exhilarating story of the composers who dared to challenge the conventional world of classical music in the twentieth century.

Traversing the globe from Ethiopia and the Philippines to Mexico, Jerusalem, Russia and beyond, journalist, critic and BBC Radio 3 broadcaster Kate Molleson tells the stories of ten figures who altered the course of musical history, only to be sidelined and denied recognition during an era that systemically favoured certain sounds - and people - over others.

A celebration of radical creativity rooted in ideas of protest, gender, race, ecology and resistance, Sound Within Sound is an energetic reappraisal of twentieth-century classical music that opens up the world far beyond its established centres, challenges stereotypical portrayals of the genre and shatters its traditional canon.

' Sound Within Sound is absolutely inspiring. Everyone who loves music should own this book.'
CHARLOTTE HIGGINS

'Introduces us to thrilling dreamers from the last century who believed that music could fundamentally - and disruptively - recalibrate our lives . . . Molleson's enthusiastic style and eye for character and place give them life.'
JUDE ROGERS, OBSERVER

'The vividness and passion of Molleson's portraits of these ten extraordinarily gifted, exasperating, headstrong individuals is wonderfully engaging.'
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Table of contents

• Landing Page
• Title Page
• Dedication
• Epigraph
• Contents
• Introduction
• Julián Carrillo (1875–1965): Mexico’s microtonal wars and the thirteenth sound revolution
• Ruth Crawford (1901–53): Wakingup, shakingup: a new American dissonance
• Walter Smetak (1913–84): From Brazil to caossonance: introducing Tak-Tak, godfather of Tropicália
• José Maceda (1917–2004): Filipino drone time: orchestrating city and century
• Galina Ustvolskaya (1919–2006): Sound poet of St Petersburg: sonic realism, holy terror
• Emahoy Tsegué-Mariam Guèbru (b. 1923): Waltz for Addis Ababa: Ethiopia’s piano royalty
• Else Marie Pade (1924–2016): Denmark’s electronic music pioneer: truth, trauma and fairy tales
• Muhal Richard Abrams (1930–2017): Tradition wide as all outdoors: an awakening on Chicago’s South Side
• Éliane Radigue (b. 1932): Occam Ocean: in search of sound within sound
• Annea Lockwood (b. 1939): New Zealand river crossings: hung up on serenity
• Timeline
• Thanks
• Further Reading: The Essentials
• Sources
• Image Credits
• Index
• About the Author
• Copyright