Parallels and Paradoxes

By Edward W. Said

Subjects: Beethoven, ludwig van, 1770-1827, Musique, Nonfiction, Music, interpretation (phrasing, dynamics, etc.), Criticism and interpretation, Wagner, richard, 1813-1883, Music, philosophy and aesthetics, Music, Interpretation (Phrasing, dynamics, etc.), Interprétation musicale, Philosophy and aesthetics, Aspect philosophique, Social aspects, Esthétique musicale, Aspect social, Music, social aspects

Description: These free-wheeling, often exhilarating dialogues--which grew out of the acclaimed Carnegie Hall Talks--are an exchange between two of the most prominent figures in contemporary culture: Daniel Barenboim, internationally renowned conductor and pianist, and Edward W. Said, eminent literary critic and impassioned commentator on the Middle East. Barenboim is an Argentinian-Israeli and Said a Palestinian-American; they are also close friends.As they range across music, literature, and society, they open up many fields of inquiry: the importance of a sense of place; music as a defiance of silence; the legacies of artists from Mozart and Beethoven to Dickens and Adorno; Wagner's anti-Semitism; and the need for "artistic solutions" to the predicament of the Middle East--something they both witnessed when they brought young Arab and Israeli musicians together. Erudite, intimate, thoughtful and spontaneous, Parallels and Paradoxes is a virtuosic collaboration.From the Trade Paperback edition.