{"id":37807,"date":"2016-07-28T11:15:50","date_gmt":"2016-07-28T15:15:50","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/?p=37807"},"modified":"2016-07-28T11:52:26","modified_gmt":"2016-07-28T15:52:26","slug":"summer-reading","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/2016\/07\/28\/summer-reading\/","title":{"rendered":"SUMMER READING | Music Under Tyranny: Us Conductors and The Noise of Time"},"content":{"rendered":"<figure id=\"attachment_37809\" aria-describedby=\"caption-attachment-37809\" style=\"width: 950px\" class=\"wp-caption aligncenter\"><img decoding=\"async\" loading=\"lazy\" class=\"size-full wp-image-37809\" src=\"http:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/summer-reading-music.jpg\" alt=\"Summer Reading: Us Conductors by Sean Michaels; The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes\" width=\"950\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/summer-reading-music.jpg 950w, https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/summer-reading-music-300x221.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"(max-width: 950px) 100vw, 950px\" \/><figcaption id=\"caption-attachment-37809\" class=\"wp-caption-text\">Summer Reading: Us Conductors by Sean Michaels; The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<h3>Us Conductors by Sean Michaels \/\/ The Noise of Time by Julian Barnes<\/h3>\n<p><span class=\"wpsdc-drop-cap\">S<\/span>ummer vacation is a time to savour personal freedom and indulge in delayed gratifications. \u00a0For music lovers, this includes not only listening to music but also reading about it.\u00a0 Two books on the theme of music under the tyranny of the U.S.S.R. may seem like a dispiriting choice for vacation reading, but what better time is there to celebrate how lucky you are to be free enough to read, and free altogether from the brutality of a totalitarian regime?<\/p>\n<p><em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Noise-Time-Julian-Barnes-ebook\/dp\/B014NZ6RVS\/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&amp;ie=UTF8&amp;qid=1469718872&amp;sr=1-1&amp;keywords=The+Noise+of+Time\" target=\"_blank\">The Noise of Time<\/a><\/strong><\/em>, by Julian Barnes, recounts the life of composer Dimitri Shostakovich, who lived from 1906 to 1975.\u00a0 <em><strong><a href=\"https:\/\/www.amazon.ca\/Us-Conductors-Sean-Michaels\/dp\/0345815769\" target=\"_blank\">Us Conductors<\/a><\/strong><\/em> by Sean Michaels is the story of\u00a0 Leon Theremin (1896 to 1993), the inventor of an early electronic instrument known variously as the etherphone, thereminphone, termenvox and the theremin. Though not widely played today, it is still in use and was showcased last January in a performance of <a href=\"http:\/\/www.musicaltoronto.org\/2016\/01\/08\/32977\/\">Alexander Rapoport\u2019s sonata for piano and theremin<\/a> at Gallery 345.<\/p>\n<div class=\"jetpack-video-wrapper\"><span class=\"embed-youtube\" style=\"text-align:center; display: block;\"><iframe loading=\"lazy\" class=\"youtube-player\" width=\"640\" height=\"360\" src=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/embed\/XP6TwCJODjo?version=3&#038;rel=1&#038;showsearch=0&#038;showinfo=1&#038;iv_load_policy=1&#038;fs=1&#038;hl=en-US&#038;autohide=2&#038;wmode=transparent\" allowfullscreen=\"true\" style=\"border:0;\" sandbox=\"allow-scripts allow-same-origin allow-popups allow-presentation\"><\/iframe><\/span><\/div>\n<p>Music is not created in a vacuum, and neither man escaped the dark terror of Soviet despotism, though the nature and severity of its intrusion differed drastically.\u00a0 Shostakovich lived with the threat of imprisonment or murder during the period of The White Terror, as well as a kind of soul murder \u2014 lifelong creative coercion and exploitation as a musical poster boy for the regime. Theremin spent close to twenty years in the Gulag camp system, between 1938 and 1956.<\/p>\n<p>These brutal periods are described in the two books.\u00a0 Covering the same period of time and the same political regime, they have interesting similarities even though they are each unique, idiosyncratic works.\u00a0 The Noise of Time remains close to the known facts of Shostakovich\u2019s life, and is drawn from two main sources, a biography and Shostakovich\u2019s memoir, <em>\u00a0Testimony. <\/em>In this respect, there is little novelty in the novel.\u00a0 Instead, it captures the voice, personality, reflections and inner life of the composer as he weathers life\u2019s vicissitudes.\u00a0 One of his main strategies was irony:\u00a0 \u201cWhen truth-speaking became impossible \u2014because it led to immediate death \u2014 it had to be disguised\u2026 And so, truth\u2019s disguise was irony.\u00a0 Because the tyrant\u2019s ear is rarely tuned to hear it. ..In an ideal world, a young man should not be an ironical person. .. (it) prevents growth, stunts the imagination\u2026 But this was not an ideal world, and so irony grew\u2026overnight, like a mushroom; disastrously, like a cancer.\u201d \u00a0Eventually, such irony creeps into his compositions, such as the Fifth Symphony, premiered in 1937 after his first denunciation by Stalin.\u00a0 \u201c\u2026those with asses\u2019 ears (were permitted) to hear in his symphony what he wanted to hear.\u00a0 They missed the screeching irony of the final movement, that mockery of triumph.\u00a0 They heard only triumph itself\u2026He had ended the symphony fortissimo and in the major.\u00a0 What if he had ended it pianissimo and in the minor?..\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Leon Theremin\u2019s inventive genius was a major contributor to his remarkable endurance, (he lived to age 95). By devising a way for his team to increase productivity in the labour camp, he got himself transferred to a more civilised incarceration in a secret laboratory. \u00a0Though music is central to his story, and Theremin performed on his instrument, he does not seem passionately connected to music, though he is passionate about certain female musicians.<\/p>\n<p>In each book, the protagonist has a direct, destabilising interaction with Power.\u00a0<span class=\"s1\">Theremin is unexpectedly asked\u00a0<\/span>to teach Vladimir Ilyich Lenin a lesson on his instrument in front of a coterie of powerful Commissars.\u00a0 This hands-on demonstration gives new meaning to the term \u2018performance anxiety\u2019.<\/p>\n<p>\u201c(Lenin\u2019s) arms were relaxed.\u00a0 I lifted his left hand away from the volume antenna\u2026 then I moved the right, adjusting pitch\u2026 I adjusted Lenin\u2019s arms and felt him opening and closing his fingers, \u2026I gradually sensed that he was anticipating the moves\u2026 I looked at\u2026 Lenin, Lenin himself, drawing music from the air.\u00a0 He had a narrow smile.\u00a0 H was fumbling and also certain\u2026When he finished, Lenin lowered his hands.\u00a0 The theremin wailed and screamed.\u00a0 I dashed in to silence the device as Lenin yelped\u2026and he shook his head with a mixture of embarrassment and self-satisfaction\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>In The Voice of Time, Shostakovich has to tell Josef Stalin that his music has been banned, a fact the dictator seems not to know even though he sanctioned the ban.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cPart of him was conscious that the slightest wrong syllable might land him in a labour camp, while another part of him to his surprise, was beyond fear. .. \u201cover here (my music) is not played\u2026 It is forbidden\u2026 by the State Commission for Repertoire\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cAnd who gave such an order?&#8230; No,\u201d the voice of Power replied.\u00a0 \u201cWe didn\u2019t give that order\u2026 The mistake will be corrected.\u00a0 None of your works has been forbidden\u2026 this has always been the case.\u00a0 There will be an official reprimand.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>A few days later\u2026 he received a copy of the original banning order.\u00a0 Stapled to the top of it was a document recognising the decree as illegal and reprimanding the State Commission for Repertoire for having issued it.\u00a0 The correction was singed, \u201cChairman of the Council of Ministers of the USSR.\u00a0 I Stalin.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>Whether either of these encounters actually took place is hard to say, but the scenes create a vivid impression of how terrifying the tension was under which they worked.\u00a0 It would be interesting to ask Julian Barnes and Sean Michaels whether they reflected on how much easier their own creative tasks were, arduous as they may have been, writing in\u00a0 London, England and\u00a0 Montreal, Canada.\u00a0 Aside from being absorbing narratives, both books will elevate your appreciation of the security and safety in which you enjoy your leisure.<\/p>\n<p><strong><em>#LUDWIGVAN<\/em><\/strong><\/p>\n<p><em>Want more updates on Toronto-centric classical music news and review\u00a0before anyone else finds out? Get our exclusive newsletter\u00a0<\/em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LudwigVanToronto\/app_100265896690345\">here<\/a><\/span><em>\u00a0and follow us on\u00a0<\/em><span style=\"color: #ff0000;\"><a style=\"color: #ff0000;\" href=\"https:\/\/www.facebook.com\/LudwigVanToronto?fref=ts\">Facebook<\/a><\/span><em>\u00a0<\/em><em>for all the latest.<\/em><\/p>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Summer vacation is a time to savour personal freedom and indulge in delayed gratifications.  For music lovers, this includes not only listening to music but also reading about it. Here are two books on the theme of music well worth your while.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":21,"featured_media":37809,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[5723,7,52],"tags":[5201,6278,6277],"yst_prominent_words":[],"acf":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/2\/2016\/07\/summer-reading-music.jpg","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p9bakr-9PN","amp_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37807"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/21"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=37807"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37807\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":37817,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/37807\/revisions\/37817"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/37809"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=37807"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=37807"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=37807"},{"taxonomy":"yst_prominent_words","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.ludwig-van.com\/toronto\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/yst_prominent_words?post=37807"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}