Beethovenrsquo;s Skull is an unusual and often humorous survey of the many strange happenings in the history of Western classical music. Proving that good music and shocking tabloid-style stories make excellent bedfellows; it presents tales of revenge; murder; curious accidents; and strange fates that span more than two thousand years. Highlights include: A cursed song that kills those who hear it A composer who lovingly cradles the head of Beethovenrsquo;s corpse when his remains are exhumed half a century after his death A fifteenth-century German poet who sings of the real-life Dracula A dream of the devil that inspires a virtuoso violin pieceUnlike many music books that begin their histories with the seventeenth or eighteenth centuries; Beethovenrsquo;s Skull takes the reader back to the world of ancient Greece and Rome; progressing through the Middle Ages and all the way into the twentieth century. It also looks at myths and legends; superstitions; and musical mysteries; detailing the ways that musicians and their peers have been rather horrible to one another over the centuries.
2016-06-12 2016-06-12File Name: B01HDMGD4O
Review
