History: Fiction or Science? (Chronology, No. 1)

Book Description

Recorded history is a finely-woven magic fabric of intricate lies about events predating the sixteenth century. There is not a single piece of evidence that can be reliably and independently traced back earlier than the eleventh century. This book details events that are substantiated by hard facts and logic, and validated by new astronomical research and statistical analysis of ancient sources.

Customer Reviews:

Calculations are only as good as your numbers.......2007-08-03

Yes, we can all agree that mainstream history is nearly 100% BS due to politics, economics, ego, problems with dating techniques, and various conspiracies. Agreed. But, I've been researching the distinct possibility that human history (in terms of civilizations) are much more ancient than we've been told, so coming across this book was very interesting to me. I wondered how Fomenko could be wrong (if at all) because he is very persuasive in his presentations. Then it dawned on me. If at previous times in prehistory, due to the various catastrophies that are well documented (comets, asteroids, planetary disruptions, plasma discharge, pole reversals, etc) the Earth was in a different position in relation to the sun, different tilt on its axis, different orbit, different rotation (in terms of velocity and DIRECTION), and the continents were in different positions, then would this not cause the ancients to see the sky (constellations) differently? In other words, is Fomenko making erronious assumptions about the physics of the Earth in pre-history, which then corrupt his data with regards to dating the relevant astrology? The last event to seriously disrupt our planet occured roughly 3500 years ago, according to other good researchers, so is it possible Fomenko has been confused by this? The vastly different physics of our planet in the not so distant past may explain this confusion, which is not to say the "mainstream" version of history is correct; on the contrary. I am not an expert in these fields, but wanted to see if this idea could spark discussion.

Pants on fire?.......2007-07-19

Will people ever read before spamming? Yes, Jesuits could not rewrite world history alone, they had help. Anyway, Dr Prof Acad A.Fomenko does not point to jesuits as the driving force of world wide history manipulation in published volumes 1,2,3;, actually he barely mentions the poor devils. Check it with 'Search inside' feature, please. China is rarely mentioned either, in fact, Dr Fomenko is completely eurocentric. Right, his theory contradicts all mainstream schools of history, because in their actual state they are all built on blatantly erroneus chronology. You don't need a mysterious cabal (conspiracy) to falsify history, the falsification is its modus operandi. It is inherent to history(ians) to falsify (distort) events, as it is inherent to humans to boast as it is inherent to power (authority) to legimize itself by referrring to glorious past made to its own order. Dr Prof Fomenko and team have identified scores of instances of such manipulation in Russian, European, etc.. history, and delivered valid statistical proof thereof. His own 'reconstruction' is completely another story. Forget c14 as a valid method of dating. W.Libby has initially discovered a brilliant method of INDEPENDENT dating. Too bad, c14 method has become a joke after a forced marrige with dendrochronology with consensual chronological scale inbuilt. Radiocarbon method can't stand blind tests, but is so very productive as a rubberstamp.

Accepted History & Chronology Must Be Changed. .......2007-04-09

There is no doubt that history as most know it is a sham, & institution's version of History both University & Church is fradulent & inaccurate. Everything was established with an agenda, The real "Dark Ages" are now when we have access to incredible amounts of information past authorities & more important 'common folk' didn't have but our institutions & educators are slow to evolve because of what has ignorantly & arrogantly been taught for too long. This is on many subjects not just Chronology.

For anyone to question "Why would a Mathematician have anything credible to say of History?" The answer is from Dr. Fomenko's preface in the book: "It would be worthwhile to remind the reader that in the XVI-XVII century Chronology was considered to be a subdivision of Mathematics." These volumes could possibly be some of the most important works to date & should be read by everyone with an interest in History, especially professors & educators who have a duty to the public. I have read both books & must say that 'Chronology 1' has some very eye opening & revolutionary information. Even if these volumes are part true the implications are profound & opens the doors to further investigations & questions which must be done. I speak several different lanquages & must say the logic Dr. Fomenko uses with "inflection" of words & words being read from left to right in one region & right to left in another then written backwards, the removal of vowels & get down to basics of words, or different cities & locations having the same name etc. is correct. Vowel usage has always been optional & varied, actually complicating linquistics & study. The first thing one has to understand is that words never had a fixed spelling in history like we do now, the spelling of words was mutable & regional, as well as names & titles of people were vast, varied & changed, NOTHING WAS FIXED or understood linear. Matters of Life & Death as well as financial profiteering yesterday & today were & are made with ignorant, illogical & conspiratorial views of history & reality, it's time people get closer to the Truth & society collectively grow up.

Very Interesting.......2007-03-07

It is a good proposal and I believe it will mature into something even better in the future. I think it deserves to be read.

History as Science Fiction.......2007-01-10

Anatoly Fomenko has written a very intriguing book, full of pictures, charts, and computer 'proof' of his thesis: backwards of AD900 we don't really know what happened or when. Between AD900 and AD1600 there is more certainty, but there is still a lot of fuzzy ground, and things don't get reliable until we get past the 1600's where the printing press made it very difficult for the perpetrators of this timeline manipulation to change anything that had been committed to print. The Dark Ages did not happen. Books were burned for a reason. One organization has doubled the actual length of its existence by expanding the real chronology. Read why.

I had always wondered why Christ died about AD33 and yet men waited until the 11th century to form the Knights Templar, the Cathars, etc and go after the Holy Land by force. Why the 1000 year gap? Turns out there wasn't more than a 10-12 year gap and he proves it using astronomy. This also implies that the planet is not as old as we have been told, and current Christian and other creationist scientists are already championing that idea without being aware of Fomenko's book. The two groups, creationist scientists and the Russian mathematical analysts corroborate each other. Fascinating.

Of course, all this flies in the face of what we have been told traditionally is the 'proper' chronology of western civilization, and most readers will experience 'cognitive dissonance' in reading this book. It means that our history going backwards from AD1600 becomes progressively more incorrect and unreliable until it cannot be trusted at all... in the space of 700-800 years.

Naturally, the curious, open-minded reader will want to know WHO did this, WHY, and did any of the events we think of as really ancient ever happen?
Dr. Fomenko is a respected scientist/mathematician at Moscow State University who has already answered these questions to the satisfaction of his initially skeptical colleagues. Most of them are now believers, a few still refuse to believe (the usual diehards), and of course the western press has ignored Fomenko's work -- for obvious reasons when you read the book. The ones who perpetrated this chronology ruse have a lot to answer for. They are still with us. That's why this book is a well-kept secret.

I gave the book a 4-star rating because I was unable to check out some of his claims; those I checked were as he said. But if even 1/3 of his claims are true, this punches a big hole in what we think is our history, the meaning of western civilization, our educational process (for repeating the ruse as gospel), and the trustworthiness of the organization that perpetrated this ruse, well-intentioned or not.

This book relates to current research into a Young Earth paradigm, to John Keel's discoveries about our planet, and Fr Malachi Martin's insights (in his now out-of-print books). We are indeed sheep who are manipulated and kept ignorant -- for a reason. While knowing what these men have to say may be the "booby prize" (as in: 'what can you do with this knowledge?'), it will provide interesting reading. Didn't someone say: "...and the Truth will set you free."?? For you to judge if this book contains the truth.

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Braunbehrens' Mozart etc.

Mozart in Vienna, 1781-1791
Volkmar Braunbehrens
Manufacturer: Harpercollins
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0060974052

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Braunbehrens' Mozart etc........2003-08-22

Braunbehrens' book is a well written account of Mozart and the intellectual, political, economic and cultural milieu that existed during the ascendant part of his creativity. Braunbehrens' is not the first Mozart biography I have read that explores these aspects of Mozart, nor is this book as lavishly illustrated as others. However, for my amatuer self, it the best written and most accessible; scholarly, but not academically dry or pedantic.

Braunbehrens dispelled for me the myth which has come down to amateurs since his death that Mozart was an unrelentingly tragic, Romantic and impoverished figure. Certainly that myth is not descernible in his music. Braunbehrens erudite insights have enhanced my listening experience, and have given me greater appreciation of this man of the Enlightenment.

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More for reference than reading or understanding.

As close as you canget to getting to know the REAL Mahler

Gustav Mahler : Vienna : The Years of Challenge (1897-1904)
Henry-Louis De La Grange
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Gustav Mahler: Volume 3: Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion (1904-1907) (Gustav Mahler)

Gustav Mahler: Volume 4 A New Life Cut Short 1907-1911

Gustav Mahler: Letters To His Wife

Gustav Mahler: Conducting Mahler/I Have Lost Touch With the World

Diaries 1898-1902

ASIN: 0193151596

Book Description

Gustav Mahler was one of the supremely gifted musicians of his generation. His contemporaries came to know him as a composer of startling originality whose greatest successes with the public never failed to provoke controversy among the critics. As a conductor, his relentless pursuit of perfection was sometimes viewed as tyrannical by the singers and musicians who came under his baton. Professor Henry-Louis de La Grange has devoted over thirty years of painstaking resarch to this study of Mahler's life and works. His biography, ultimately to be completed in four volumes, is drawn from a vast archive of documents, autographs, and pictures, assembled by La Grange at the Bibliotheque Musicale Gustav Mahler, Paris. This second volume covers the years 1897-1904, when the focus shifts to Vienna. It opens with Mahler's triumphant debut as director of the Vienna Court Opera, and follows with the revolution he wrought there in standards of performance and, with the Secession painter Alfred Roller, in scenic representation. An account is also given of Mahler's story and brief engagement as conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic Concerts, following Richter's resignation in 1989. La Grange depicts the brilliant society of pre-war Vienna, then the centre of the intellectual and artistic world; the extraordinary range of artists among whom Mahler lived and worked included the composers Dvorak, Gustave Charpentier, Richard Strauss, Zemlinsky, and Schoenberg and his two disciples, Berg and Webern; the painters architects and decorators of the Secession with Klmit at their head; the writers Hauptmann, Dehmel, Hofmannsthal, and Schnitzler. There he also met Alma Schindler, 'the most beautiful woman in Vienna', and La Grange tells the story of their engagement and marriage in 1902 and the early years of their tempestuous relationship. As his fame spread throughout Europe, Mahler travelled with his music to Germany, Russia, Holland, Poland, and Belguim, meeting many other leading musicians of his day, including Pfitzner, Mengelberg, Diepenbrock, Oskar Fried, and many others. During this period Mahler wrote some of his best-loved works, including the fourth and Fifth Symphonies, and the three orchestral song-cyles and collections - the Wunderhorn -, Ruckert-, and Kindertotenlieder. For each of these works La Grange provides full notes and analytical descriptions. Scrupulously researched, richly documented, this is a study worthy of the extraordinary artistic achievement of Gustav Mahler's Vienna years.

Customer Reviews:

More for reference than reading or understanding........2001-10-11

.
This is not biography in its best form.

De La Grange has done us a service by compiling a very detailed but largely chronological history of the events of Mahler's life. You'll find a largely blow-by-blow description of his life: compositional struggles; arguments with cast members, managers, and officials; correspondence with friends and colleagues; listings of cast members in the opera performances he conducted; reviews of his performances by the various publications; health problems, etc. The detail is extremely valuable.

However, De La Grange falls short because he rarely steps back from the detail in order to find the larger themes in Mahler's life, and he leaves that effort to the reader. This is asking too much: this is a projected four volume biography, and it will probably be well over 3,500 pages before it's done.

I imagine it will take a later biographer to come along and sift through all that De La Grange has delivered in order to write a more informative biography.

I have an additional issue with an editorial decision that's been made here. The first volume was published in the 1970's, by another publisher. Oxford has not re-published it, but will publish a second edition of the first volume when the fourth volume is published. They have styarted with the 2nd volume rather than the 1st, out of deference to those who might still have the 1st volume. Fair enough. But the footnotes that refer to content in the 1st volume only refer to chapters, not specific pages, and are thus incomplete. Perhaps the reasoning behind this is because the original 1st volume will be superceded by the 2nd edition 1st volume, and they don't want to be specific to something they imagine will be obsolete. However, at the current rate it could well be 5-10 years before that 2nd edition 1st volume is out. Will Oxford then ask readers to buy a 2nd edition 2nd volume that has page numbers in the footnotes? (The whole idea sounds like very little deference to those who might have the original 1st volume.)

As close as you canget to getting to know the REAL Mahler.......1997-09-08

This is the Classic Mahler biography by the major Mahler scholar, Henry ouis de La Grange. Though this only covers the middle years, de La Grange's excellent use of primary sources let us learn first hand what Mahler was like as a musician, conductor, and human being. No other Mahler biography is so erudite and completely non-judgemental

Schubert in the European Imagination: Volume 2: Fin-de-Siecle Vienna (Eastman Studies in Music) (Eastman Studies in Music)

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Schubert in the European Imagination: Volume 2: Fin-de-Siecle Vienna (Eastman Studies in Music) (Eastman Studies in Music)
Scott Messing
Manufacturer: University of Rochester Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1580462138

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Schubert in the European Imagination: Fin-de-Siècle Vienna examines the composer's historical and cultural reception by Viennese modernists. By 1900, issues of gender had crossed with those of nationalism, especially in the city that came to consider Schubert as its favorite musical son. As Messing here explains and explores in rich detail, composers, writers, and visual artists manipulated the conventions of the composer and gender in ways that critiqued the very culture that had created this image. In order to expose the hypocrisy of social relationships, painter Gustav Klimt and writers Arthur Schnitzler, Hugo von Hofmannsthal, and Peter Altenberg exploited the collision between innocence and sexuality, and Schubert was a readily familiar sign for the former. The composer Arnold Schoenberg substituted his own formulation of Schubert in place of the older, popular conceptions of the composer, adding him to an illustrious list of figures whose significance he sought to redesign.

Vienna: A Guide to Its Music and Musicians

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Vienna: A Guide to Its Music and Musicians
Franz Endler , Leo Jecny , and Leonard Bernstein
Manufacturer: Amadeus Pr
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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Gustav Mahler: Volume 3: Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion (1904-1907) (Gustav Mahler)

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A Mixed Blessing
Engrossing
A full life of Mahler?
Towers over them all.

Gustav Mahler: Volume 3: Vienna: Triumph and Disillusion (1904-1907) (Gustav Mahler)
Henry-Louis De La Grange
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 019315160X

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Customer Reviews:

A Mixed Blessing.......2007-08-07

For any devotee of Mahler's music, De La Grange's biography of the composer is, without doubt, required reading; the sheer mass of details in these volumes guarantees that. Yet despite this truly monumental effort, I think De La Grange has missed something utterly essential about Mahler's art. It is true, as even a cursory examination of Mahler's scores will reveal, that he was absolutely obsessive about matters of musical detail. But these details were always meant to serve over-arching, ineffable artistic ideas; ultimately, they are to be kneaded seamlessly into the fabric and sweep of the music. Even though Mahler's markings are much more detailed than most composer's, he consistently insisted that what was greatest and most elemental in music could not be expressed in the notes and the markings; they are a means to an end. A precise recreation of everything Mahler wrote on each page of a given symphony does not necessarily equal a compelling recreation of his vision. And by analogy, this is the problem with De La Grange's biography. If the cliche of "missing the forest for the trees" was ever apt, it is in this case. The amount of pedestrian detail in these books renders them semi-lifeless, and as a result Mahler's truly compelling spirit is utterly missing from most of the pages. Simply put, more is simply not always better. And with Volume 4 about to be published at a length of over 1700 pages, one starts to wonder if this is less a case of thoroughness and more a reflection of an obsessive-compulsive disorder. Just because a person may have an encyclopedic knowledge of the history of the widget doesn't mean that he can express it effectively in writing. I find myself wondering if the folks at OUP were simply too intimidated by De La Grange's knowledge of his subject to insist on what he needed most: an editor.

In my view, this sort of pedestrian literalism is antithetical to Mahler's art; remember, this is the man who felt that the orchestration of the Beethoven 5th Symphony would be better-served by the inclusion of a part for E-flat Clarinet, and who drove his publishers crazy with revisions. His approach to art was fluid, imaginative and always changing; he found the notion of quantifying art and life in a fixed place abhorrent. De La Grange's literalist approach says much more about our time than Mahler's; in the performance sphere, this approach has become quite common, and the result has been a lot of quite dull performances of Mahler's works, something I hadn't thought was possible. It is an outlook we would do well to reject, even as we gather more information about Mahler's music and life.

Engrossing.......2001-06-07

I had read the previous volume 2 of the life of Mahler several years ago and had anxiously awaited the issuance of this, the third in a four part series with high expectations.

I have not been disappointed. The extensive detail, expansive footnoting, and thorough research that went into this work is evident from the very first paragraph.

Highly recommended for any serious Mahler enthuasist.

A full life of Mahler?.......2000-06-02

The monumental biography of Mahler by Henri de la Grange has been available in French for some years, and the latest volume to appear in English is part of an ongoing project to make the work available to a wider audience. It is unique in the sheer mass of factual detail it presents, especially as regards contemporary critical reaction to Mahler's works and conducting. There is new material on William Ritter, an early admirer who left some colorful accounts of Herr Mahler in person; a

detailed physical description of Mahler by Alfred Roller, a Hofoper associate; and much other information that will be new and interesting even to long-standing Mahlerites who thought they knew it all.

However, de la Grange's almost exclusive focus on the externals of Mahler's life works to the detriment of the inner life, and this is the major shortcoming of his biography. There is little probing of the wellsprings of the mighty Mahlerian will that powered a colossal productivity, nor of the fierce vitality coexisting with neuroses. Nor, surprisingly, is much explanation offered as to why a tyrannical ascetic like Mahler would suddenly decide to marry someone half his age, a decision that took even his closest friends completely by surprise. Why didn't he stay single, or marry someone his own age, such as the devoted and musical Natalie Bauer-Lechner?

This question is important because it bears on the crucial one: Would Mahler have succeeded in solving the central problem of his last years -- keeping reality at bay in order to maintain the inhuman intensity needed to complete his unique artistic mission -- without the tension generated by this inappropriate (but for him richly symbolic) and largely sexless marriage, for which he, and to some extent also Alma's parents, were guilty? Did he feel this guilt and at a certain level feed on it? de la Grange draws a blank on these questions. Here Alma's book "Gustav Mahler, Memoirs and Letters" is a better source, though one has to read between the lines.

de la Grange clearly dislikes Alma and would minimize her role. He also worships Mahler and will not permit him the slightest fault. Two examples: He cannot conceive that the hero may have had a congenital heart defect, it must have been acquired from throat infections. He omits to mention that Mahler's idolized mother Marie was born lame and with a defective heart. According to Alma, who'd have no reason to make this up, all the children were handicapped by the mother's heart disease; there is also anecdotal evidence provided by Bruno Walter and others. Another example: de la Grange will not admit that the finale to the Seventh may be a miscalculation, however interesting. Thus he advances a tortured argument to turn black into white, and puts himself in the position of an "apologist nervous to the point of obduracy" (Adorno's words). In the process, he

completely ignores evidence that Mahler himself was uncomfortably aware of the problem (see the foreword by Redlich to the Eulenberg pocket score of the Seventh).

Mahler is a Freudian figure if ever there was one, and one can argue that the ideal of the eternal feminine, as symbolized by the composite Alma/Marie, became crucial to Mahler's sense of purpose, a major engine of his drive to create. Toward the end, he was psychologically completely dependent on her, even to the point of spouting nonsense regarding her abilities as a composer -- this, from the stern, inflexible director of the Hofoper! (The sad spectacle of Berlioz and his second wife Marie Recio comes to mind as another example of great-composer weakness.) That he had a mother fixation is attested by many, including Alma and Freud, and this would account for his lack of sexual interest; according to Alma, sex played only a very small part in his life. In any case, artistically the union was a brilliant success, even the marital crisis at the end serving to spur him on to new heights -- witness the Tenth Symphony with its impassioned marginalia addressed to Alma. With perfect timing, death then supervened to carry him off at the peak of his powers.

Although the music has lost none of its power and can speak for itself, there is still an unsatisfied need for a different kind of Mahler biography, one that is better balanced and probes the psychology of the man. For hagiography aside, Mahler's maladjustment was staggering even for his time, the hothouse atmosphere of fin-de-siecle Vienna just barely making his unique kind of greatness tenable. A great tortured artist on the scale of a Gustav Mahler is inconceivable today, our time doesn't allow it; we've been there, done that. He would be cured or killed at once, and in either case silenced. And for you computer game programmers out there, take heart -- in addition to a "Freudian" biography, there may be material here for an oeuvre of another sort perhaps more congenial to our age -- a soft-core computer game called "Let's cuckold Mahler". In any case, the music remains.

Towers over them all........2000-05-23

Much as Mahler himself towers over Romantic era composer, so does La Grange tower over all other Mahler biographers. Not that Mitchell et. al. don't do a fine job, they do. But for comprehensive detail and deep probing and understanding of Mahler's life and music, La Grange is simply at the highest peaks. This latest installment of his massive series sustains his high standards of research, realiability and readability and for all you devoted Mahlerians out there is a must read. For those curious about Mahler, this is actually not a great place to start; the cost alone to read these three books, so far, on Mahler is a bad investment if you don't yet worship his music! There are many single books that give a good overview of his life as a companion to his music, if not a real guide. For those of you, try Cooke or Kennedy, for the rest, worship here!

Schubert's Vienna (Aston Magna Academy Book)

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Schubert's Vienna Fascinates
Step back in time

Schubert's Vienna (Aston Magna Academy Book)

Manufacturer: Yale University Press
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0300070802

Book Description

The Vienna in which Franz Schubert lived for the thirty-one years of his life was a city of music, dance, and coffeehouses-a center of important achievements in the arts. But it was also the capital of an empire that was constantly at war in the composer`s youth and that became a police state during his maturity. Now, in the bicentennial of Schubert`s birth, this elegantly written and richly illustrated book paints a vivid picture of the culture, society, and politics of Schubert`s Vienna.

Customer Reviews:

Schubert's Vienna Fascinates.......2001-09-27

I picked-up this book by accident as I had never heard of the Aston Magna Academy. I certainly know about them now. They have produced a book that is a must read for those interested in either Vienna in the late 18th and early 19th century or Franz Schubert & the arts. It is a collection of essays by prominent experts arrayed in three sections;Politics and Social Life, Musical Life and The Other Arts. These different essays give the reader a broad view of the times and influences that gave us the extraordinary music that we enjoy today. A bibliography at the end of each essay points to further resources. This is a fascinating and effective format for presenting history.

Step back in time.......2000-09-04

Anne Frank wrote "If I read a book that impresses me, I have to take myself firmly in hand before I mix with other people; otherwise they would think my mind rather queer". This is the very sensation I have when closing this book.

Schubert's Vienna is a must-read for anyone who wishes to truly understand the man behind the music. This wonderfully written and masterfully edited book details nearly every aspect of life in Vienna during the time of Franz Schubert. The age is defined historically, politically, socially, and even culturally (referring to the other arts). This makes the book an engaging read even for those who have only a casual interest in the composer but are interested in the city of Vienna or the Romantic era in general. A scholarly work that can be enjoyed by nearly any level student, I defy you to walk away without a sigh of nostalgia for the beauty of Schubert's Vienna.

Book Description

In this provocative account Tia DeNora reconceptualizes the notion of genius by placing the life and career of Ludwig van Beethoven in its social context. She explores the changing musical world of late eighteenth-century Vienna and follows the activities of the small circle of aristocratic patrons who paved the way for the composer's success.
DeNora reconstructs the development of Beethoven's reputation as she recreates Vienna's robust musical scene through contemporary accounts, letters, magazines, and myths--a colorful picture of changing times. She explores the ways Beethoven was seen by his contemporaries and the image crafted by his supporters. Comparing Beethoven to contemporary rivals now largely forgotten, DeNora reveals a figure musically innovative and complex, as well as a keen self-promoter who adroitly managed his own celebrity.
DeNora contends that the recognition Beethoven received was as much a social achievement as it was the result of his personal gifts. In contemplating the political and social implications of culture, DeNora casts many aspects of Beethoven's biography in a new and different light, enriching our understanding of his success as a performer and composer.

Customer Reviews:

The Pits!.......2007-07-29

The reasoning in this book is so full of holes that anyone could drive a fleet of Mack trucks right through it. Don't waste your time and money on this book. The other three individuals who also have given this book a single star are so on target. I can't add anything to the excellent points they have already written. This book is amazingly bad.

Yes, genius alone is not enough........2004-04-04

If it was true for Michelangelo and the Medicis, why not for Beethoven and the Lichnowskys, Lobkowitz and other "Medicis" of his time? In fact it's odd that a book like this one, about so obvious a fact should be written at all. The underlying thesis is super-well known in the N.T. (Matthew 13:4): "And when he sowed, some seeds fell by the way side, and the fowls came and devoured them up: Some fell upon stony places, where they had not much earth: and forthwith they sprung up, because they had no deepness of earth: And when the sun was up, they were scorched; and because they had no root, they withered away. And some fell among thorns; and the thorns sprung up, and choked them:But other fell into good ground, and brought forth fruit, some an hundredfold, some sixtyfold, some thirtyfold. Who hath ears to hear, let him hear.."

As clearly expressed by historian Arnold Toynbee society is not made by human beings but by the RELATIONS between them. For a collection of people is only a crowd, not a society.

Jacob Bronowski applied this same thesis in explaining the social essence of modern science, where individual discovery is framed - fostered and checked - by social dynamics. If "revelation" takes place in science is only because it makes sense to the scientific community in being a proved representation of reality. On the other hand, discovery of factual reality is eagerly pursued by every member of it. "Quest" and "production" of knowledge go hand in hand in science, we know that; we only have to add that such quest and production is a SOCIAL phenomenon. Otherwise scientific products would be "filling the walls", like pictures in a museum, where "everything is valid" or "beautiful", being the quest and production of mere individuals that might not need to address or fulfill any social demand or inspiration.

This is the problem of Art when regarded as a strictly individual task, where every quest or production can be beautiful and /or useless at the same time. That modern Art is indivitualistic to the extreme, there can be no doubt about it. But what about Beethoven? And what about Beethoven's society?

This is a book that PROVES - yes, no speculation, full of fresh DATA about performance, audiences, and general musical activity in 18th and beginning of 19th century Vienna - how SOCIALLY bound was Beethoven's art,with no downplaying of Beethoven EVER -if you've followed my argument. For if you think, like me, that Beethoven'art is GREAT, then it must have necessarily been meaningful to the society of his time. But on the other hand, it must have been the end and succesful result of a SOCIAL QUEST or demand (therefore it's social meaning). The highly disturbing fact for us, today, is that such high aspirations that led to such a great art could not come from "everyone". They were, as in 15th century Florence the aspiration of a MINORITY of men, like the creative minorities of Toynbee's theory of civilizations.

Of course, to talk like this is nowadays political incorrect. We like, for instance, to picture the French Revolution as a popular, people-led social movement, when in fact it was really started, ironically, by the French avant-garde intellectual aristocracy. Same with Beethoven: who has not heard, even once, the ode-to-joy tune or the beginning of the Fifth Symphony? That's "popular" Beethoven. Then add to this the Christ-like, rejected-by-society - romantic, to be precise - image of the lone creator guided by his sole divine inspiration and you have the whole picture we like to hang on our walls. This is the artist as the crucified and yet savior of humanity.

In the "classic" (Greek), more real picture, the most excellent men (aristoi) achieve the most excelent deeds. As wonderfully stated by Ortega y Gasset: "Nobility is conquered, not inherited." Classical Greece, Renaissance Florence and Beethoven's Vienna are three magnificent examples of how sublime greatness in man is factually achieved through history.

Make no mistake, don't miss the point. This is not a book about music or "sociology". It's sheer fact that, probably, will open your eyes!

She starts with her conclusion and then works backwards.......2001-12-22

It's tempting to start this review by saying sociologists should stay away from musical topics, at least if they can't appreciate music, and I mean *appreciate* rather than "enjoy." But maybe a fairer criticism would be if you're going to upset the apple cart this much, you'd really better have a sturdier theory than Tina DeNora has here. DeNora is a sociologist at the University of Exeter, and she thinks Beethoven's genius was constructed by society. She says Beethoven's place in the musical firmament was a result of certain aspiring elite aristocrats of the time having a predilection for Beethoven's "difficult" music in an attempt at social one-upmanship and wanting to use him to advance their own standing in Vienna. To put it simply, Ludwig was at the right place at the right time, he had the luck. There is no analysis of the music itself in this book, because she has decided it is irrelevant. I'm not kidding.

DeNora would likely argue that our criteria for "greatness" have been pre-determined by the very elements that we then go into a "great work" looking for. The aesthetics of criticism are a social construct, and so is the music; therefore it's no wonder the two fit together so well. Music criticism is taste writ large, that's all. (Sociology, on the other hand, is not subject to these social tastes and trends, of course.)

Actually, I felt upon approaching this book there may be something to her argument. As Michael Walsh jokingly and insightfully remarked in his book Who's Afraid of Classical Music, "Ludwig 'Rights o' Man' Beethoven was always sucking up to royalty in his dedications." It's hard to deny: he knew who buttered his bread. It's easy to view talent, especially when from the distant past, in a vacuum that we don't extend to the present. In today's world I find myself wondering, for just one example, if a fine but unremarkable actress such as Gwyneth Paltrow would be where she is were her mother not Blythe Danner and her father not a prominent TV producer who is good buddies with Steven Spielberg. Is it any coincidence that Gwyneth's first role was in a Spielberg film, Hook?

So what does DeNora say? After several chapters on the state of the aristocracy and aristocratic taste of the time--chapters I enjoyed and am not prepared to defend or debunk--she focuses relentlessly on the famous quote about Beethoven from Count Waldstein, saying he would go forth to receive the spirit of Mozart from the hands of Haydn. DeNora argues, repeatedly, (she seems to think that by repeating a groundless assertion she can make it stick) that this statement played a huge role in elevating Beethoven to greatness in the minds of the Viennese aristocracy. Of course this begs the question how did Mozart and Haydn achieve *their* reputations? Sure Beethoven understood how he could benefit socially from the patronage of Haydn--he?d have to be an idiot not to understand it--but seeing it solely on those simplistic terms ignores the fact that he was innovating, and that except for Mozart and Haydn his contemporaries were not. DeNora seems to make a big deal out of this, saying they were thrown on their own as freelancers because they lacked Beethoven's connections (while giving us no real evidence that this is in fact the reason they "went commercial" and he succeeded as a serious artist). She conveniently ignores the fact that Schubert had no significant connections, yet has also come down to us as a "great composer." Hummel's sonatas, written around the same time as Beethoven's and Schubert's, show just how far ahead of their time Beethoven and Schubert were. But this is not mentioned.

Furthermore DeNora either underplays or seems unaware of the reputation of Mozart, of how his music was also considered extraordinarily difficult well into the 19th century. Beethoven himself singled out the fifth "Haydn" quartet of Mozart and said that in this work Mozart was showing to the world what he could do if only they were ready for it. Of course, some of Beethoven's patrons had also been Mozart's, but this shows the idea of serious music did not begin with Beethoven, and this makes her thesis about changing tastes in the aristocracy weaker.

But DeNora's argument spectacularly self-destructs on page 119. She describes the first time pianist Gelinek competed with a young Beethoven in a duel in 1793. Gelinek expressed confidence he would destroy Beethoven--make mincemeat of him by one account. The next day the father of the person telling the tale asks Gelinek how he did and the pianist admitted he was the one pulverized. Keep in mind he did not know of Beethoven or his reputation before the duel. You'd think DeNora would see this as a strike against her thesis, but she actually says (p. 121): "First, whatever Galinek thought of Beethoven is less relevant in this context [!!] than the ways his conversations were converted subsequently into topics in their own right--material for further discussion within the music world." Never mind that this person who never heard Beethoven before and was unaware of his reputation, by DeNora's own admission, was blown away and humbled, what matters is how the result elevated Beethoven's position. It never occurs to her that perhaps it elevated his position because it was deserved! But she doesn't stop there: "Once again, we see that Beethoven's reputation *can be conceived of as the accumulation of a repertoire of recorded, publicized stories about his talent.* [emphasis mine, out of disbelief] She goes on: "In telling the story of Beethoven's talent, Gelinek positioned himself as subordinate to Beethoven (as a less talented but admiring colleague); thus Galinek testified to and helped to publicize a favorable view of Beethoven's talent by aligning his own abilities as inferior to Beethoven's." What is one to make of this idiocy that passes for sociology? DeNora never for a moment considers that perhaps Gelinek simply believed what he said. I think it's obvious she reached her conclusion before she began and worked backwards, determined to cram every fact she uncovered into her theory even if she had to pound the loose ends down with a sledgehammer.

Musicologist and pianist Charles Rosen, in a rebuttal shortly after the DeNora book was published, commented that an ethnomusicologist once told him there surely must be hundreds of "Eroica" symphonies that we just don't know about, written by unknown geniuses galore. As Rosen points out, we do indeed know many if not most of the works of Beethoven's contemporaries; many have been analyzed, revived and recorded. They do not come close to Beethoven in originality, breadth of thought, or structural sophistication. But DeNora, like so many revisionists with an agenda, loses her finely-honed sense of skepticism when dealing with alternative interpretations to events. Then she really tips her hand: "While these programs [of cannonic revisionism] obviously vary in levels of ambition, they share a concern with the ways exclusive or ?high? cultural forms are both inaccessible and inappropriate to the lived experience of a large proportion of the people to whom they are upheld as inspirational."

That astonishing remark could be interpreted in ways ranging from merely patronizing to racist, and it sets DeNora up as a sort of cultural arbiter herself. *Inappropriate?* Says whom? Inappropriate to whom? And why?

After all this, there is still one remaining gripe, and that is DeNora?s writing style. It is repetitious in the extreme. She really has a thin point, and takes well over 200 pages to make it. This book could have been a magazine article or two- or three-part series in a journal. Trash.

perhaps unintentionally awry.......2001-08-21

The author states more than once, in one way or another, that she does not mean to detract from Beethoven's greatness as a creator, but the effect is peculiar nonetheless. As the other reviewer of this book exclaimed, listen to the music! The IMPRESSION the author perhaps inadvertently gives, anyway, is that the world as we know it after Beethoven did his work might have been a world instead impressed by the greatness of Pfart, or whoever that circle of Viennese influencers otherwise settled on. Whereas someone totally unaware of Vienna and its doings would still have taken amazed note of Beethoven, then and since. Some folk are not that enamored of B even now, but they certainly know his power.

An astonishing thesis that disregards the music!.......1998-10-11

Are we really to believe that the music of this man does not speak for itself? Was it really his "political connections" and "who he knew" that led to his success in 19th century Vienna? Are there really other Beethovens running around out there who just haven't gotten a break. A nice parlor exercise perhaps, but really.....how about a serious listen to what he actually wrote down! What I am suggesting is a serious listen. Why, for example, does his work seem to have a much higher density of sheer thought (form if you like) than that of any other composer? Why are his thematic constructs so intellectually exhilarating as well as emotionally moving? Why does he exemplify the most startling development of style of almost anyone you can think of in the arts? What is it about his almost extra-material universal appeal? Listen to the music. Maybe the answers are found there.

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A TYPICAL LOVE AFFAIR IN BELLE EPOQUE ERA

Alma Mahler: or the Art of Being Loved
Francoise Giroud
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 0198161565

Book Description

Born in 1879, the daughter of a Viennese painter, Alma Mahler inspired the passionate love and devotion of an astonishing array of creative artists. She married three of them--the composer Gustav Mahler, the architect Walter Gropius, and the writer Franz Werfel--and had a host of admirers and
lovers, including the painters Oscar Kokoschka, Egon Schiele, and Gustav Klimpt. The composer Alban Berg dedicated his opera Wozzeck to her and a violin concerto to the memory of her daughter, Manon, who died of polio.
In Alma Mahler, Francoise Giroud provides a spirited portrait of one of Europe's great femme fatales, ranging from her childhood (she was raised on a steady diet of Nietzche) to her heyday as a leading figure in Europe's art scene, to her later life as an exile in California and New York. We meet
a woman of remarkable beauty and unconventional mind, the possessor of a fine, demanding intelligence, who was highly conscious of herself as a member of the elite, a woman never truly conquered by her lovers. Her last husband, Franz Werfel, called her "one of the very few sorceresses of our time."
And indeed when she appeared, her presence attracted all eyes as she moved like a queen through a room. And what eyes she drew. Virtually all the great figures of 19th-century Vienna march through these pages, including Sigmund Freud, Richard Strauss, Arnold Schonberg, Hugo van Hofmannsthal, Karl
Kraus, and Elias Canetti, and Giroud pens striking portraits of each. There are also many memorable scenes: Franz Werfel singing Verdi arias with James Joyce in a Paris cafe; the young Gropius, having an affair with then-married Alma, chased from the Mahler home by guard dogs and taking refuge under
a bridge; Kokoschka, after his affair with Alma has died, commissioning a life-sized doll, a faithful reproduction of his former lover. But the heart of the book is Alma's marriage to Mahler. We read Alma's own first impression of Mahler--"He is terribly nervous. He paced around the room like a wild
animal. He's pure oxygen. You get burnt if you go too near." Unfortunately for Mahler, his attempt to subjugate his young wife to his will--"you have only one profession from now on: to make me happy"--led to disaster, and he himself was burnt.
Alma Mahler stood at the center of the creative world, the intimate friend (if not lover) of the major artists of her age, and Giroud paints an unforgettable portrait. It was awarded France's Grand Prix litteraire de la femme in 1988.

Customer Reviews:

A TYPICAL LOVE AFFAIR IN BELLE EPOQUE ERA.......2002-10-09

Like CAROLINE OTERO,MISIA SERT and a few others,ALMA MAHLER came to symbolize the emerging power of women in the arts,at least in terms of the influence they had over their famous husbands.What FRANCOISE GIROUD tried to establish with that book,is that GUSTAV MAHLER gradually destroyed his wife's personnality.We've come a long way since then,but back then,it was almost impossible for a woman to made a name for herself ,even if she had a strong personnality.It was simply put a man's world,and FRANCOISE GIROUD in a true feminist way has found herself a good subject with the love affair between the composer and ALMA.I enjoyed reading this a lot.It's actually not a so called biography,more an essay about love and the way it can alter your life.

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Butterfly among the ashes, a biography of Alma Rose
A brilliantly presented biography of a gifted musician
great work
A lasting impact
a fascinating story

Alma Rose: Vienna to Auschwitz
Richard Newman
Manufacturer: Hal Leonard Corporation
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

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ASIN: 1574670514

Amazon.com

Part family biography, part European and Holocaust history, this book traces the life of violinist Alma Rosé, along with that of other members of her illustrious musical family, from her birth in 1906 in one of the world's foremost cultural capitals to her death in a Nazi extermination camp in 1944. It will be particularly fascinating and wrenching to anyone with similar roots. Alma was the niece of the famous composer and conductor Gustav Mahler, at the time director of the Vienna Opera, and the daughter of Arnold Rosé, concertmaster of the Opera Orchestra and the Vienna Philharmonic and leader of his own renowned string quartet. Her older brother Alfred became a noted pianist, conductor, composer, and teacher. Alma, named after her aunt and godmother, Alma Mahler, was taught by her father and, both inspired and intimidated by the family's musical tradition, she became a fairly successful violinist.

In 1930, she established a girls' orchestra called the Viennese Waltz-Girls, with which she toured throughout Europe as conductor and soloist, and which surprisingly had her austere father's blessing because of the high quality of the playing. Her marriage to the famous, dashing Czech violin virtuoso Vása Príhoda soon ended in heartbreak and divorce. Disaster struck in 1938, when Hitler annexed Austria, whose population welcomed him enthusiastically; the country's always latent anti-Semitism erupted swiftly and violently. Though the Rosé family were completely assimilated and had even converted to Christianity, Arnold immediately lost his orchestra position and pension. His wife was ill and died that year, leaving him stranded financially and emotionally. Alfred and his wife managed to flee to Holland, England, and eventually Canada, where he died in 1975; Alma mistakenly thought she was protected by the Czech passport gained through her marriage. With dauntless determination, and with the help of old friends, including the famous violinist Carl Flesch, she got her father and herself to England only months before the outbreak of World War II. The Rosé Quartet's cellist and former principal of the Vienna Philharmonic, Friedrich Buxbaum, had arrived there earlier; he later joined the re-formed quartet.

So far, Alma's story parallels my own. Born in Vienna 20 years later to musical parents who encouraged my violin studies, I grew up near enough the Rosé house to encounter the illustrious concertmaster not only on stage but on the streetcar. We witnessed Hitler's triumphant arrival, but our Czech passports enabled us to escape to Czechoslovakia. When Hitler caught up with us in 1939, we, too, managed with the help of friends to get to England just before the war. A few years later, I was thrilled to be the violinist in a trio with the venerable Buxbaum, who still played with the facility and tone of a man half his age. Here the resemblance ends. While we survived the war in England and ultimately came to America, Alma was tempted by performing opportunities to leave the comparative security of England for Holland, where her career flourished and she earned enough money to help her father.

She was still fulfilling engagements when the Germans overran Belgium and the Netherlands; her efforts to get back to England, or join her brother in America, failed. Staying with friends, she was almost picked up by the Nazis despite a hastily arranged marriage to an "Aryan" Dutchman, and in 1942 she went into hiding, tried to get into Switzerland, but was betrayed, arrested, and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau.

From here on, the story takes on a surreal character. Shortly after her arrival at what has been called "a wound in the order of being," it was discovered that Alma was a violinist, and, in a grotesque replay of her past, she was asked to take over a poor, threadbare musical ensemble of women inmates. By sheer courage, fortitude, and determination, she turned this motley group into a viable orchestra, training and coaching the players; arranging music for its ill-matched instrumental makeup, from mandolins to sopranos; and driving herself and her musicians to exhaustion. Gaining unprecedented stature and exploiting some of the most brutal camp functionaries' love of music, she saved her musicians from the gas chambers and also obtained some favors and privileges for them. Forty years later, one of them said that there is not a day when she does not remember Alma and thank her. Alma herself succumbed to an undiagnosed illness, which deepened the mystery surrounding her.

Author Richard Newman made friends with Alfred Rosé and his wife in Canada in 1946. The impetus for writing this book was the publication of a memoir called Playing for Time by Fania Fénelon, a singer with Alma's orchestra, which gives a very harsh portrayal of her. Newman's search for the "real" Alma lasted 22 years and took him around the world. His sources are family letters, interviews, and correspondence with family, friends, and surviving members of the orchestra, lending the book an overwhelming immediacy and authenticity. Included are Mahler and Rosé family trees, many pages of photographs, a map of Auschwitz-Birkenau, and a list of the orchestra players. The section dealing with camp life (and death) is written in an unemotional, reportorial style full of facts and figures. That approach may have saved Newman's own sanity, and, by its incongruity with the grisly content, it both blunts and heightens the impact of the indescribable, unimaginable details it recounts. This is a book to numb the mind and sear the soul. --Edith Eisler

Book Description

Alma Ross's story first came to public attention through the intriguing 1980 film Playing for Time. The true story of this heroic woman is now told for the first time. Rose was born to musical royalty in Vienna when the imperial city was the center of the musical world. Her father was violinist and concertmaster Arnold Rose; her uncle was Gustav Mahler. In the 1930s she founded and led a brilliant womens touring orchestra. Like many other Viennese Jews, the Rose family was caught off guard by the rise of Nazism. Alma assisted her family to flee but was herself caught and deported to Auschwitz-Birkenau. There, Alma again formed and led a women's orchestra---the only women's musical ensemble in the Nazi camps---thereby saving the lives of some four dozen women. In telling Alma's full story, the authors honor her and the valiant prisoner-musicians for whom music meant life.

Customer Reviews:

Butterfly among the ashes, a biography of Alma Rose.......2007-08-30

Alma Rose was an incredible human being. After spending the last few evenings immersed in her biography "Alma Rose: Vienna to Auschwitz", I was touched by her ability to use her violin to transcend the evil around her.
Alma was born into the musical elite of turn-of-the-last-century Vienna, the capital of arts and music in Europe. Her uncle was Gustav Mahler and her father, Arnold Rose, the famous concertmaster and conductor of the Vienna Philharmonic. She had a fabled childhood surrounded by musicians and artists.

Alma studied violin from her father at an early age and later with Sevcik. She toured Europe as concertmistress of an all women's orchestra she organized, and was briefly married to violin virtuoso Vasa Prihoda.

All of the fame and glamour ended however when she was captured and interned in the dreaded Auschwitz. Fearing that she was about to be eliminated she asked for her last wish to be able to play the violin. Word quickly spread that she was the Alma Rose of the Rose Quartet and before she knew it, the camp supervisor, assigned her to lead a women's orchestra. For many of the players, the orchestra was the only chance of survival. Alma took pity on people who auditioned and tried to fit them in, whether it was as accordion player, or guitarist, or if they had no playing talent, as copyist and scribe. She took her job seriously, practicing 10-12 hours a day in addition to giving "concerts". All this was under the constant stress and threat of elimination if they did not prove their worthiness to the SS in charge.

Alma maintained a musicality, and in those moments while playing music, they were transported out of their nightmare and back to the preWar Vienna, playing in a cafe. The music also affected both SS and prisoners alike, and on the Sunday concerts, prisoners strained to hear and grasp a small slice of beauty while SS overlords sat in the front row weeping with emotion. How they could love music so much and then turn around and kill mercilessly was beyond the comprehension of the survivors.

Alma saved the lives of many women, and even though she perished, her bravery and dedication lives on in the stories of the survivors she helped.

The author Richard Newman based the book on firsthand knowledge, primary sources such as letters and interviews with survivors, relatives, friends and contemporaries. He maintained a historical accuracy and honest portrayal of Alma's life. You will be touched while unable to grasp the enormity of the horrors that faced the people who were interned in the death camps.

I read this book alongside with "Night" by Elie Wiesel who arrived at Auschwitz shortly before Alma's death. Both books are highly recommended although extremely sad, they show the resilience of the human spirit in absolutely horrible conditions.

A brilliantly presented biography of a gifted musician.......2002-02-11

Alma Rose was born to musical royalty in Vienna (the daughter of famed violinist Arnold Rose and niece of Gustav Mahler). She studied with distinction at the Vienna Conservatory and the Vienna State Academy, and consequently enjoyed a very respectable and successful musical career. In 1932 Alma formed a women's orchestra (Vienna Waltzing Girls) and toured throughout Europe. But like so many others of her class and background, she was totally caught off guard by the Nazi onslaught. Courageously assisting her family's flight from the Nazi's antisemitic pogroms, she was nonetheless caught and sent to the Auschwitz-Birkenau death camp. There she took a group of terrified and untrained women and transformed them into an orchestra whose music saved them from being summarily gassed by their Nazi captors. Forty women were to survive that horrific place because of their participation in Alma's prisoner orchestra. But Alma herself was to die of illness in the camps before they were able to be liberated by the Allies. A welcome contribution to Holocaust studies, as well as a brilliantly presented biography of a gifted musician, Alma Rose: Vienna To Auschwitz is a memorial to a gifted musician and a testament to Alma's personal struggle to help as many women survive as she could. It is also a damning indictment of the Nazi horror and an effective counter to the pernicious attempts of historical revisionists to suppress both the atrocities and the courage of those dark times.

great work.......2001-11-10

Richard Newman has spent many years working on this book and it paid off, there can't be a biography on hardly anyone that is better researched. And he has written it in a way that doesn't judge the person, he relates the facts but doesn't try any psychological insight. He leaves this up to the reader. A beautiful, compelling book on a woman that used a difficult position to save as many lives as possible. If ever anyone deserved a monument, it is Alma Rosé. Richard Newman`s book lays the foundation. I will publish the German version in Fall 2002.

A lasting impact.......2001-06-26

My review is best expressed in a letter to the authors. While the letter speaks little of the content of the story, it does the reflections of the reader:

I have just finished your book, Alma Rosé, Vienna to Auschwitz and felt compelled to write a word of thanks for such an excellent book. I have lived in Vienna for 23 years and in our early years I walked by the Rosé house in the Pyrkergasse each day, taking our oldest to the Volkschule. Of course, at that time, I had no idea the importance of number 23. Through your book and others of Viennese history I have gained a profound sense of history that a midwest American, growing up in the suburbs, rarely has a chance to learn.

We have since moved from the 19th district, but each time I am in the city the enormity of life that has gone on before me deeply tugs at my soul. The stones I walk on have carried the lives of so many, each woven into a history of joy and often of utter loss and evil.

I believe your book was one of those that has allowed me to enter into a life past. Through it I have gained new perspective that the joy and beauty I now enjoy is not without the marring of tragedy and sorrow of many who were innocent. I was also able with my family to visit Auschwitz this summer. The visit has left a lasting impact on our minds and it certainly allowed me to have even deeper sense of personal presence as I read your book. The immensity of the tragedy leaves one lost for thoughts and words. The life of Alma Rosé puts a reality to that part of history that seems unbelievable, yet was played out in the very places I have lived and walked.

I visited the Rosé grave in Grinzing last week and noted that Alma's name is inscribed on the headstone (unfortunately, the date is 4/4/44 and not 5/4/44). In honor of her courage and for the lives she most certainly helped spare, I left a memorial candle on her grave. I did not seem fitting to leave the grave without some acknowledgement and sign of respect of her family's life.

Again, thank you for the fine research and excellent presentation of her life. The book must also be considered a memorial not just to one life, but to many who's stories will never be told.

a fascinating story.......2001-04-10

I read this book on recommendation after I read Martin Goldsmith's The Inextinguishable Symphony. This book is an extremely compelling story about the fascinating and tragic life of Alma Rosé, a Viennese violinist with a heavy music pedigree (she was the niece of venerated composer Gustav Mahler and the daughter of violinist Arnold Rosé) who, in spite of her efforts to get out and then to stay alive by leading the women's orchestra in Birkenau, meets her demise in the revier hospital. The story made me gasp and I had to read several paragraphs over again so that I could digest what I was reading. The only problem that I had with this book was that events seemed very out of order throughout. Little stories were stuck in here and there that interrupted the flow of the story. What also surprised me and made me a little angry at the same time was that there were so many events in Alma's life that can't be definitely corroborated, including her behavior as the conductor of the women's orchestra at Birkenau and her death.

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