Reviews

Time's Echo: The Second World War, the Holocaust, and the Music of Remembrance by Jeremy Eichler

mcr1955's review

adventurous challenging dark informative reflective sad

5.0

kirkdean547's review

5.0

If you are a musician involved in any form of what we would call western classical music, then this book is a required read. How does music become a living, breathing memory and in what ways can it help us to remember the history, traumatic or joyous, of humanity's collective existence? That is a question that Mr. Eichler attempts to answer by looking at four composers and four seminal works of remembrance in the aftermath of the Second World War and the Shoah. In discussing these works, he also gives the historical context of music within the three distinct geographies of the composers themselves-Germany, England, and Russia.

I think, now that we are mostly separated by more than one generation from WWII, we are starting to slip into the very apathy and forgetfulness that many authors of the time were afraid of. But this book reveals and reminds us that music, its history, its meaning, the people who write it, the people who perform it, are all brought to full focus again when compositions are performed. Maybe this will help save us from ourselves.

I could write a whole lot more but my thoughts are not connecting well here. Please read and please remember.

andrewb21's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

A deeply impactful and utterly original history that blends history, biography, and musicology to create an incredibly powerful work of nonfiction. A must-read.

hezaasan's review

challenging informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

4.0

How do you review a book covering the impact of WWII and the Holocaust on four different composers coming from four different vantage points (physically and philosophically), and their impact in return on their world and ours now as an inevitable result? Do you cover the lyrical, novel-esque prose of the author? Do you wax rhapsodic about how frightfully easy it is to find yourself in each of the varying life stories? Do you recommend that while reading it, to put on the pieces being discussed in each chapter in your actual background? I'm thinking you do it a little bit like that. Wonderful read -- challenging because the subject is challenging -- but it's worth the discomfort, and through it all there is hope, compassion, and many critical lessons to learn. 

adep02's review

challenging informative reflective

3.75

talia1007's review against another edition

challenging emotional hopeful informative slow-paced

3.0

corneliawooo's review

dark emotional informative reflective sad slow-paced

5.0

kumipaul's review

challenging emotional informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0

 Absolutely outstanding book, especially for readers who are also lovers and students of classical music. It features primarily four composers: Schoenberg, R. Strauss, Britten and Shostakovich and surrounds them in the Great War, giving us a new view of the war and the Jewish genocide through their music. Each of the four was highly controversial in their work, in their beliefs, and in their musical response to that era, and Eichler described each controversy with originality and with a perspective that delivered shock and surprise over and over. I listened to Schoenberg's disturbing Survivor from Warsaw as I read about his commitment to save Judaism; I listened to Richard Strauss' gorgeous and poignant Metamorphosen as I struggled with my feelings about Strauss himself; I listened to Britten's War Requiem and was deeply moved, learning how he brought the music to life; I listened to Shostakovich's 13th and 14th symphonies and could feel the intense sadness and loss. This is not a biography of these four composers, but more like a historical telling of the tragedy and horror of the Second World War through the eyes of these men and through their music. I must say that the final chapter called Coda: Listening to Lost Time was brilliant. In just a few pages, it pulled together all the biggest ideas and philosophies, and it made me want to read the book again immediately.
So can you enjoy this book if you don't know these composers, and other composers who were important but not one of the central four, such as Bach and Beethoven and Mendelssohn? I think, maybe, but I think the text and the music truly hit home for readers with a decent knowledge about these men, their backgrounds, and their music. I am a relative novice in all of this, but I had enough base knowledge and loads of curiosity, and every word and every note moved me. 

mattbenard's review

5.0

One of the best non-fiction books I have read in years.

Eichler's "Time's Echo" focuses on the lives and post war works of 4 composers (Schoenberg, Strauss, Britten, and Shostakovich) in relation to the concepts of remberance, memorial, and trauma.

Also discussed at length are three of my most favorite authors: Vasily Grossman, W.G. Sebald, and Stefan Zweig. When I started this book I was not aware of their inclusion...it gave a thick layer of icing to an already delicious cake.

HIGHLY RECOMMENDED

jay_catsby's review

challenging dark emotional hopeful informative inspiring reflective sad medium-paced

5.0