Listen with Father: How I Learned to Love Classical Music
![twitter](https://twitter.com/intent/tweet?url=&text=<p>When I was 4, I fell in love with the music of Mozart and my Dad was delighted.</p>
<p>When I was 8, I fell even more in love with the music of Davie Bowie, T-Rex and Slade: and Dad couldn’t understand it at all.</p>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.unbound.co/p/images/17187/small/58._Forest_Rise__November_1965.JPG?1634891054" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;">
<p>For the rest of his life, he tried to help me to rediscover my childhood penchant for classical music, but I was too busy take proper notice and I never got around to playing the CDs he gave me. Then much too soon, my Dad died. And then there was mourning, and no more music.</p>
<p>One day, I listened to Mozart again, and the symphony of emotions that swelled in me led to a resolution. I would choose eight pieces of music that Dad loved – one for each decade of his life – and listen to each with great care and attention. To try and discover what it was he so appreciated about classical music, as I should have done while he was alive.</p>
<p>The result of this musical journey is <em>Listen With Father</em>, a memoir of a beloved father, evoked through the classical music he cherished. Taking in Mozart, Stravinsky, Kathleen Ferrier, Brahms, Robert & Clara Schumann, Sibelius, Chopin, Richard Strauss and others, it is also an idiosyncratic listening guide, and an intro to classical music for anyone who finds it a little intimidating – as I once did.</p>
<p>Blending memoir with biography, history and travel writing, it records my attempts to lend an ear and listen, at last, with father.</p>
<img class="img-responsive" src="https://s3-eu-west-1.amazonaws.com/media.unbound.co/p/images/17186/large/1._Near_Stamford__June_1970.JPG?1634890743" style="float: left; margin-right: 10px; margin-bottom: 10px;"> <br>
<p><em>Image credits: Design by Mecob. Photographs: courtesty of author. © Shutterstock.com.</em></p>
<p><em>Book designs, cover and other images are for illustrative purposes and may differ from final design.</em></p>){kind=small}
About The Book
When I was 4, I fell in love with the music of Mozart and my Dad was delighted.
When I was 8, I fell even more in love with the music of Davie Bowie, T-Rex and Slade: and Dad couldn’t understand it at all.
For the rest of his life, he tried to help me to rediscover my childhood penchant for classical music, but I was too busy take proper notice and I never got around to playing the CDs he gave me. Then much too soon, my Dad died. And then there was mourning, and no more music.
One day, I listened to Mozart again, and the symphony of emotions that swelled in me led to a resolution. I would choose eight pieces of music that Dad loved – one for each decade of his life – and listen to each with great care and attention. To try and discover what it was he so appreciated about classical music, as I should have done while he was alive.
The result of this musical journey is Listen With Father, a memoir of a beloved father, evoked through the classical music he cherished. Taking in Mozart, Stravinsky, Kathleen Ferrier, Brahms, Robert & Clara Schumann, Sibelius, Chopin, Richard Strauss and others, it is also an idiosyncratic listening guide, and an intro to classical music for anyone who finds it a little intimidating – as I once did.
Blending memoir with biography, history and travel writing, it records my attempts to lend an ear and listen, at last, with father.
Image credits: Design by Mecob. Photographs: courtesty of author. © Shutterstock.com.
Book designs, cover and other images are for illustrative purposes and may differ from final design.
Blending memoir with biography, history and travel writing, this book records my attempts to lend an ear and listen, at last, with father.
Updates From The Author
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