A review by emlocke
The Rest Is Noise: Listening to the Twentieth Century by Alex Ross

4.0

For me, the companion playlist (http://www.therestisnoise.com/2007/10/twentieth-centu.html) and audio samples (http://www.therestisnoise.com/2007/01/book-audiofiles.html) online are essential and enlightening elements. Alex Ross and the music he explores enhanced my understanding of historical events and figures that I already knew and made approachable those that were unfamiliar. It reads a little like a snapshot album or a timeline, going from chapter to chapter (from piece to piece in The New Yorker) without showing tight, linear connections (maybe they just don't exist). Tackling classical music for the first time (you can't even Google the lyrics!) was less daunting in the comfortable territory of the 20th-century.