The Life of Music

“A wonderfully engaging survey...It is what every music lover needs close by...We are left in no doubt about music’s extraordinary power.”—Ian Thomson, Financial Times

“Nicholas Kenyon is an amiable and enthusiastic guide to a thousand years of classical music.”—Neil Fisher, The Times

“A typically wise and thoughtful book, which manages to combine a wealth of unexpected information with an immensely readable style  - it should grab anybody, whatever their level of musical knowledge.”—Sir Simon Rattle, music director, London Symphony Orchestra

"What better moment to ponder the question of where music has been, where it might be headed and the existential issue of what meaning it may hold? The Life of Music ponders these questions with wit and a depth of information."—Deborah Borda, president and CEO, New York Philharmonic Orchestra

"Nicholas Kenyon brings a lifetime of listening and wisdom to his encyclopaedic survey of the Western classical music canon. In a narrative of breadth and critical acumen, The Life of Music traverses a millennium of music-making with stopping points along the way to ponder its past, present and future."—John Adams, composer
 

'As critic, author, broadcaster, and administrator, Nicholas Kenyon has seen the art and life of music from every possible angle, and the breadth of his experience is evident on every page of this hugely absorbing volume. He also brings to bear keen insight, an aversion to dogma, and a wisdom steeped in humility. Classical music has a tendency toward grandiose rhetoric: Kenyon unfurls the entire monumental story in unwaveringly human terms.'—Alex Ross, music critic at The New Yorker and author of The Rest is Noise

“Nick Kenyon takes us to the very heart and soul of music, by surveying the past, he gives us hope for the future."—Gustavo Dudamel, artistic and music director, Los Angeles Philharmonic