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Maybe someday
30
/100
I Index Overall Rating
Readers
16/100Critics
44/100Scholars
Author:
Amit Chaudhuri
Publisher:
New York Review of Books
Date:
March 30, 2021
An autobiographical exploration of the role and meaning of music in our world by an Indian author, himself a vocalist and performer.
What The Reviewers Say
A modern masterpiece that's elegantly written.
[Chaudhuri] improvises on a number of themes, among them autobiography, writing, and his relationship with music, deftly weaving them all together in crisp and compelling prose. His analysis of the concepts and experience of listening to music is illuminating, and his exploration of music’s place in cultures and in the world is enlightening. To the Western ear, Indian music can be an unfamiliar challenge, and Chaudhuri’s insights will motivate readers to expand their musical horizons. Musicians and listeners of all kinds will recognize a kindred spirit here.
... a syncretic work that draws on a great variety of Western and Indian sources and genres, combines memoir and musicology, and reads like an essay. At times the vocabulary is technical, yet one doesn’t necessarily feel instructed. This narrative could be studied, but it’s nothing like a textbook. Instead, it is an inquiry into a method and a way of life, a work of praise and of belief suspended.
Chaudhuri sometimes wanders deep in the musicological weeds when exploring the music’s complex rhythmic and melodic patterns. Though he provides some points of comparison to Western music, from Beethoven to John Lennon, there’s little that’s analogous.
