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Surprised by Beauty: A Listener's Guide to the Recovery of Modern Music
The best music of the 20th century "developed our capacity for feeling, deepened our compassion, and furthered our quest for and understanding of what Aristotle called 'the perfect end of life'".
-- from the Foreword by NPR music critic Ted Libbey
The single greatest crisis of the 20th century was the loss of faith. Noise--and its acceptance as music--was the product of the resulting spiritual confusion and, in its turn, became the further cause of its spread. Likewise, the recovery of modern music, the theme to which this book is dedicated, stems from a spiritual recovery. This is made explicitly clear by the composers whose interviews with the author are collected in this book.
Robert Reilly spells out the nature of the crisis and its solution in sections that serve as bookends to the chapters on individual composers. He does not contend that all of these composers underwent and recovered from the central crisis he describes, but they all lived and worked within its broader context, and soldiered on, writing beautiful music. For this, they suffered ridicule and neglect, and he believes their rehabilitation will change the reputation of modern music.
It is the spirit of music that this book is most about, and in his efforts to discern it, Reilly has discovered many treasures. The purpose of this book is to share them, to entice you to listen--because beauty is contagious. English conductor John Eliot Gardiner writes that experiencing Bach's masterpieces "is a way of fully realizing the scale and scope of what it is to be human". The reader may be surprised by how many works of the 20th and 21st centuries of which this is also true.
-- from the Foreword by NPR music critic Ted Libbey
The single greatest crisis of the 20th century was the loss of faith. Noise--and its acceptance as music--was the product of the resulting spiritual confusion and, in its turn, became the further cause of its spread. Likewise, the recovery of modern music, the theme to which this book is dedicated, stems from a spiritual recovery. This is made explicitly clear by the composers whose interviews with the author are collected in this book.
Robert Reilly spells out the nature of the crisis and its solution in sections that serve as bookends to the chapters on individual composers. He does not contend that all of these composers underwent and recovered from the central crisis he describes, but they all lived and worked within its broader context, and soldiered on, writing beautiful music. For this, they suffered ridicule and neglect, and he believes their rehabilitation will change the reputation of modern music.
It is the spirit of music that this book is most about, and in his efforts to discern it, Reilly has discovered many treasures. The purpose of this book is to share them, to entice you to listen--because beauty is contagious. English conductor John Eliot Gardiner writes that experiencing Bach's masterpieces "is a way of fully realizing the scale and scope of what it is to be human". The reader may be surprised by how many works of the 20th and 21st centuries of which this is also true.
- GenresMusicNonfiction
352 pages, Paperback
First published November 1, 2002
About the author
Robert R. Reilly
19 books37 followersRobert R. Reilly is a writer and senior fellow at the American Foreign Policy Council (since 2008). He has published on topics of US foreign policy and "war of ideas".
During 1968 to 1970, he served as tank platoon leader (1st Lieutenant) in the 1/18th Armored Cavalry at Fort Lewis, Washington. He worked in the private sector 1977 to 1981, and for The Heritage Foundation (1981, 1989) the U.S. Information Agency (1981–1983) and as Special Assistant to Ronald Reagan during the latter's first term (1983–1985). He was Senior Advisor for Public Diplomacy at the US Embassy in Berne, Switzerland (1985–1988). He produced and hosted a weekly talk-show on foreign policy, On the Line, for Voice of America & Worldnet TV (1990–2001) and was director of Voice of America (2001–2002).
He acted as Senior Advisor for Information Strategy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during 2002 to 2006 and as Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Information Ministry during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. In 2007 he was Assistant Professor of Strategic Communications, School for National Security Executive Education, National Defense University.
Reilly in 2010 published The Closing of the Muslim Mind, published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. In the book, he draws a connection between the decline of the "rational" theological school of Mu'tazila in favour of the rise of Ash'arism, which would become the mainstream Sunni theology, in the 10th century. In this the author sees an act of "intellectual suicide", the nucleus of the end of the Islamic Golden Age and the decline of Islamic civilization into a "dysfunctional culture based on a deformed theology" locked in determinism, occasionalism and ultimately fatalism.
In his review of the book, Frank Griffith describes it as "war literature", and "a Catholic refutation of Ash'arite Muslim theology", complaining that Reilly constructs an undue equation between Ash'arism and contemporary Jihadism, while most Jihadists in fact follow Salafism and are hostile towards Ash'arism.
During 1968 to 1970, he served as tank platoon leader (1st Lieutenant) in the 1/18th Armored Cavalry at Fort Lewis, Washington. He worked in the private sector 1977 to 1981, and for The Heritage Foundation (1981, 1989) the U.S. Information Agency (1981–1983) and as Special Assistant to Ronald Reagan during the latter's first term (1983–1985). He was Senior Advisor for Public Diplomacy at the US Embassy in Berne, Switzerland (1985–1988). He produced and hosted a weekly talk-show on foreign policy, On the Line, for Voice of America & Worldnet TV (1990–2001) and was director of Voice of America (2001–2002).
He acted as Senior Advisor for Information Strategy in the Office of the Secretary of Defense during 2002 to 2006 and as Senior Advisor to the Iraqi Information Ministry during Operation Iraqi Freedom in 2003. In 2007 he was Assistant Professor of Strategic Communications, School for National Security Executive Education, National Defense University.
Reilly in 2010 published The Closing of the Muslim Mind, published by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. In the book, he draws a connection between the decline of the "rational" theological school of Mu'tazila in favour of the rise of Ash'arism, which would become the mainstream Sunni theology, in the 10th century. In this the author sees an act of "intellectual suicide", the nucleus of the end of the Islamic Golden Age and the decline of Islamic civilization into a "dysfunctional culture based on a deformed theology" locked in determinism, occasionalism and ultimately fatalism.
In his review of the book, Frank Griffith describes it as "war literature", and "a Catholic refutation of Ash'arite Muslim theology", complaining that Reilly constructs an undue equation between Ash'arism and contemporary Jihadism, while most Jihadists in fact follow Salafism and are hostile towards Ash'arism.
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Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews
July 10, 2019
I had such fun with this, discovering many late 19th and 20th century composers who had not rejected melody and western harmony for serialism and atonalism. Read the chapter, then go and listen on line.
March 19, 2020
Surprised by Beauty is a truly remarkable book. What makes it all the more incredible is the potential it has to become much more than it already is. It reacquaints you with some of the best 20th-Century and modern composers while introducing you to more that have been lost in the shuffle. Although it can occasionally be patronizing, the language and style of the book is accessible and easy to comprehend. I truly admire both Robert R. Reilly and Jens F. Laurson for their contributions to this book. It has helped me to expand my musical tastes and planted the seed of wanting to explore more composers in this field.
August 11, 2024
There is so much here, it is truly a critical book for all music lovers. It pairs well if you have read Ross's The Rest is Noise, as it shows the other side of the 20th Century musical coin. The essays are well written and the reccomendations are all worth looking into (you may find yourself taking a long time to get through the book as you stop to listen and build a Playlist, my Amazon Playlist stands at 173 hours and will be growing). I learned a lot and will be grateful for the new discoveries and having my biases enforced (I also happen to think Sibelius's 5th is the best, but that is hardly controversial or edgy). My one quibble, is all the essays are in alphabetical order based on the subject's last name. Given the interplay, relationships, time frames, and locations of these composers I think an ambitious editor could layer the essays in a more organic way. Still, this is required reading for any lover of classical music.
March 13, 2025
An incredibly unique, delightful treasure trove. Even those who are more than obsessed with classical music (such as yours truly) will likely never have heard of a great deal of composers in here, and Reilly's write-ups are consistently great. If you're feeling starved for something new to listen to, this will keep you occupied for months, and potentially years.
Displaying 1 - 4 of 4 reviews