Time's Echo

Resumen del libro

The New York Times Book Review Editors' Choice x{0026}bull A stirring account of how music bears witness to history and carries forward the memory of the wartime pastIn 1785, when the great German poet Friedrich Schiller penned his immortal x{0026}ldquoOde to Joy,x{0026}rdquo he crystallized the deepest hopes and dreams of the European Enlightenment for a new era of peace and freedom, a time when millions would be embraced as equals. Beethovenx{0026}rsquos Ninth Symphony then gave wing to Schillerx{0026}rsquos words, but barely a century later these same words were claimed by Nazi propagandists and twisted by a barbarism so complete that it ruptured, as one philosopher put it, x{0026}ldquothe deep layer of solidarity among all who wear a human face.x{0026}rdquoWhen it comes to how societies remember these increasingly distant dreams and catastrophes, we often think of history books, archives, documentaries, or memorials carved from stone. But in Timex{0026}rsquos Echo, the awardwinning critic and cultural historian Jeremy Eichler makes a passionate and revelatory case for the power of music as culturex{0026}rsquos memory, an art form uniquely capable of carrying forward meaning from the past.With a criticx{0026}rsquos ear, a scholarx{0026}rsquos erudition, and a novelistx{0026}rsquos eye for detail, Eichler shows how four towering composersx{0026}mdashRichard Strauss, Arnold Schoenberg, Dmitri Shostakovich, and Benjamin Brittenx{0026}mdashlived through the era of the Second World War and the Holocaust and later transformed their experiences into deeply moving, transcendent works of music, scores that echo lost time. Summoning the supporting testimony of writers, poets, philosophers, musicians, and everyday citizens, Eichler reveals how the essence of an entire epoch has been inscribed in these sounds and stories. Along the way, he visits key locations central to the musicx{0026}rsquos creation, from the ruins of Coventry Cathedral to the site of the Babi Yar ravine in Kyiv. As the living memory of the Second World War fades, Timex{0026}rsquos Echo proposes new ways of listening to history, and learning to hear between its notes the resonances of what another era has written, heard, dreamed, hoped, and mourned. A lyrical narrative full of insight and compassion, this book deepens how we think about the legacies of war, the presence of the past, and the renewed promise of art for our lives today.

Biografía del autor

Jeremy Eichler (1974) es crítico e historiador cultural. Se doctoró en Historia Europea Moderna en la Universidad de Columbia. Desde 2006, Eichler ejerce de crítico jefe de música clásica en The Boston Globe. Ha recibido el premio ASCAP Deems Taylor por sus artículos publicados en The New Yorker, también una beca en el Radcliffe Institute for Advanced Study de la Universidad de Harvard y el premio Public Scholar de la National Endowment for the Humanities. Es un antiguo crítico de The New York Times y fue colaborador de muchas otras publicaciones nacionales.<br> Su primer libro es El eco del tiempo, una obra sobre música, guerra y memoria que ha sido preseleccionada para el principal premio de no ficción del Reino Unido, el Baillie Gifford Prize. Publicado por Alfred A. Knopf en Norteamérica y Faber en el Reino Unido, el libro se está traduciendo actualmente a seis idiomas. Para más información, consulte x{0026}lt;www.timesecho.com .