Andrew Ford: books


	Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz - 170 musicians get vocal on The Music Show ABC Books 2008 In Defence of Classical Music ABC Books 2005 Speaking in Tongues (with Martin Buzacott) ABC Books 2005 Undue Noise ABC Books 2002 Illegal Harmonies ABC Books 2002; Hale & Iremonger 1997 Composer to composer Hale & Iremonger 1997; Allen & Unwin (Aus) Quartet (UK)1993		Some of Andrew Ford's books are no longer available in bookshops. Contact Andrew directly to purchase a copy of In Defence of Classical Music (2005) or Speaking in Tongues - the Songs of Van Morrison (2005) at the price of AUD 25 + postage. Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz - 170 musicians get vocal on The Music Show ABC Books, March 2008 Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz is the title of a new book of interviews from ABC Books in which, as the subtitle has it, '170 musicians get vocal on The Music Show'. Ford has presented this radio program – something of a ABC Saturday morning institution – since 1995, and the new book, edited by Anni Heino, brings together conversations with guests such as John Adams, Victoria de los Ángeles, Robyn Archer, Pierre Boulez, David Byrne, Harry Connick Jr, Bob Geldof, k.d.lang, Tom Lehrer, Yehudi Menuhin, Pete Seeger, Mavis Staples, Karlheinz Stockhausen and Mitsuko Uchida. Visit the website of The Music Show, buy the book online or visit the special Online Companion to Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz. "The variety of musicians interviewed in the book - 45 of them at some length, another 125 of them or so represented by pithily related comments - corresponds to the amazing mixture of talent heard on ABC Radio National's The Music Show on Saturday mornings. Jazz musicians, opera conductors, concert soloists, country and western performers, orchestral composers, pop and rock composer-singers, directors, scene designers, even the occasional writer, all make their appearances . . . For wit I give first place to the peerless mouth-organ player Larry Adler; for deep-seated goodness and wisdom Bob Copper of Rottingdean, whose family has been singing traditional songs in parts for generations. Similarly inspiring is Kev Carmody's account of how the indigenous droving camps he knew in his younger days lapped up radio broadcasts of Bach and discussed at length the characters of Dylan Thomas's radio play Under Milk Wood." Roger Covell, Sydney Morning Herald "Radio National's The Music Show makes cleaning the house on a Saturday morning almost bearable. Just when I'm getting into an existential funk about the pointlessness of it all, I'll be diverted by pianist Mitsuko Uchida talking about the crucial differences between Beethoven and Mozart, or jazz singer Annie Ross recalling the time she had to fill in for Billie Holiday . . . As someone who isn't a music aficionado, I often don't know the interviewees but it usually doesn't matter. In radio and book form, these conversations are an entertaining education in what it means to make music." Fiona Capp, The Age "This was never going to be an unbiased review. Having said that, Talking to Kinky and Karlheinz more than lives up to the expectations of this rusted-on listener. One of the joys of The Music Show is its eclecticism: the show's charter is to cover as many types of music as possible, and it spans classical, jazz, folk, blues, country, gospel, comedy, rock and pop . . . [The book] reflects the element of suprise always present in [the show] . . . An interview with Chad Morgan, discussing the perfect country song (everyone dies), is immediately followed by Yehudi Menuhin's recollections of playing to recently liberated prisoners of Bergen-Belsen concertration camp." Robyn Murray, Southern Highlands News In Defence of Classical Music ABC Books, September 2005 In his new book, In Defence of Classical Music, Andrew Ford asks how the symphonies of Beethoven and string quartets of Brahms can possibly be relevant post 9/11. He argues that it is precisely because we live in discordant times that classical music is more valuable than ever. 'Classical music is not escapism,' Ford maintains, 'it is a form of consolation. A retreat, certainly, but a retreat into reality rather than away from it.' Following the essay which gives the book its title, there are ten shorter essays on individual composers: Dowland, Haydn, Beethoven, Berlioz, Brahms, Sibelius, Ravel, John Adams, Kaija Saariaho and Ross Bolleter. Finally, in an attempt to take the reader into the mind of a composer, Ford turns to his own music, with discussions of The Waltz Book, Learning to Howl, and Manhattan Epiphanies. *** "The book is brilliant - especially Part I, which is a necessary prelude to everything I have ever written about music, though neither I nor anyone else has ever done it!" Wilfrid Mellers Emeritus Professor of Music, University of York "Andrew Ford relishes the debate, arguing that the classical music audience must bring 'its ears, its concentration, its imagination and its memory' to the experience. No, classical music will not make you a better human being ('a particularly insidious myth'), yet why, Ford wonders, did he have a bigger appetite for the classics immediately after September 11, 2001, 'in particular the string quartets of Brahms'? Wonderful mysteries." Tony Maniaty, The Australian "He summarises his argument by bravely pointing out that 'classical music is a source not only of consolation but of certainty . . . it reaffirms creativity because it has survived'. Here is a cause that is elegantly, perhaps classically, argued." Martin Stevenson, The Examiner, Launceston "A great read!" Kate de Goldi, "Good Morning", TVNZ Read a sample! You can order this title at the price of AUD 25 + postage by contacting Andrew Ford directly.
			Speaking in Tongues: the Songs of Van Morrison ABC Books 2005 by Martin Buzacott and Andrew Ford Not another biography but something rare in pop music and unique in the literature about Van Morrison: a detailed examination of his words and music, and of how they collide and intersect when he sings them. Speaking in Tongues falls into two main parts. Part One, “A Sense of Wonder”, examines the themes and variations in his songs: images of childhood; musical heroes; transcendence and religion; responses to nature and literature; and Morrison's consistently truculent relationship with the rest of the world's population. Building on this exploration of the building blocks of Morrison's work, Part Two, “A Working Man in His Prime”, looks at Morrison's studio work album by album, song by song. Finally the book returns the reader to the central concern in any Morrison song – the sound of his voice. "It must be said that Speaking in Tongues is not for the casual acquaintance with Morrison's work. If you used to hum Jackie Wilson Said and like Michael Buble's version of Moondance and think that makes you a Morrison fan, this book, with its exhaustive critiques of each album going back to 1968 and lists of the musicians and writers namechecked in Van the Man's songs (Ray Charles, Piaf, Blake, Camus, Plato and so on) will disabuse and confuse you. "But for the devotees, and there must be many of them, because his albums still make it into the charts and his concerts always sell out, this will be like an extended soak in a gigantic bath of warm Golden Syrup." Shaun Carney, The Age You can order this title at the price of AUD 25 + postage by contacting Andrew Ford directly. Read a sample!
			Undue Noise ABC Books 2002 "Erudite, unpretentious, provocative, passionate, succinct, kind, combative and sometimes wildly funny, Ford is the least pompous musical essayist I've encountered. Ranging from Arnold Schoenberg's last years to the vicissitudes of historically informed performance . . . Ford's essays are pitched somewhere between the dinner party anecdote and the post-doctoral lecture." Anna Picard, The Independent on Sunday "There's nothing stuffy or pious here, just a refreshingly inclusive, embracing and playful tone, underpinned with sound scholarship." Caroline Baum, Good Reading "Undue Noise provides the collective evidence of what most of us already knew: that Andrew Ford is one of those rare masters of both the musical and the verbal genres. And more: his writings are not just some verbal accompaniment to the music in question, but mysteriously resonate with the music." Malcolm Gillies, Sounds Australian "Beware John Howard! Don't read this book, don't even think about it. Don't be sucked in by the catchy graphics on the front cover depicting those ubiquitous icons of populist music, the electric guitar and drums, This book is NOT for you. It's by a bone fide member of the chattering class, an elitist and, God forbid, an intellectual. However, it is for anyone who is genuinely interested in the musical life of Australia in particular, with timely reality checks to the rest of spaceship Earth." Claudio Pompili, Music Forum "Ford's intellectual energy, his preparedness to expound on anything tangentially connected with music, his confident, sustained and entertaining pronouncements on the sheer indispensability of music to world civilisation are cornerstones that give some stability and sense of cohesion to so multifarious a group of often very brief articles." Ian Holtham, Australian Book Review This book is out of print. Read a sample from Undue noise!
			Illegal Harmonies: music in the 20th century "Listen. What do you hear?" The original 10-part radio series that has since its completion been broadcast several times on ABC Classic FM and ABC Radio National: "Illegal Harmonies is regarded by many as one of the finest programs produced by ABC Radio in the past decade. " Bruce Elder, Sydney Morning Herald The book published by ABC Books (2002 paperback) and Hale & Iremonger (hardback 1997): "Modern audiences need to learn how to listen and Andrew Ford might be just the man to do the teaching." Chris Boyd, Australian Financial Review" Andrew Ford's mastery of that lively, engaging clarity of style which one associates with seasoned radio broadcasters, enables him to perform a service for non-specialists similar to that provided by Paul Davies in connection with the modern revolution in physics." Joe Rich, Australian Book Review "You could write a review of this book in four words: Buy it and rejoice." Geoffrey Tozer, 24 Hours "Illegal Harmonies is a book very hard to put down. It brims with useful information, very up-to-date, and it is splendidly researched, above all written in a friendly, even chatty, but never condescending manner. The finely honed style of writing is a pleasure in itself. And if reading it makes me want to argue about some of its mission statements, that is totally to its credit. I wish I could hear all the music it mentions ..." Fred Blanks, Quadrant "It's both highly and deeply illuminating, and is a delight to read since it sounds like Andrew Ford talking: off the cuff, but with a vivacious lucidity that not many professional authors can rival . . . Ford offers a series of 'moments' that remind us of the pristine nature of each musical experience, yet at the same time reveal connections between things superficially disparate. Spotting the links is the heart of intelligence, and I'll hazard that this is the most intelligent book about modern music that, over a long life, has come my way. . . I can't do better than conclude with the words with which Ford ends this bravely brilliant book: 'We all need to engage with music to some degree or other: with minimalist music, hardly at all; with a composer like Schoenberg, rather a lot. But however good our powers of concentration, however acute our critical faculties, if we want music to be strong enough to help, we must begin by listening, and listening hard. So, listen. What do you hear?'" Wilfrid Mellers, The Musical Times This book is out of print. Read a sample from Illegal harmonies!
			Composer to Composer: conversations about contemporary music Interviews with 30 composers including Andriessen, Birtwistle, Boulez, Cage, Carter, Donatoni, Ferneyhough, Gubaidulina, Lim, Meale, Reich, Saariaho, Sculthorpe, Stockhausen, Tavener and Tippett "Tell your friends about this book, especially those who think there hasn't been any decent music written since Tchaikovsky, or Beethoven." Tony Gould, Editions "The real value . . . may be to encourage its readers to seek out the sounds that these many different and fascinatingly individual voices have created, and perhaps even to enjoy them." David Matthews, Times Literary Supplement "The recounting of . . . moments of human struggle and the discreetly helpful background commentary [make] it a better introduction to contemporary music for the general reader than any textbook could ever be" Ivan Hewett, BBC Music Magazine ". . . one of the best collections of its kind I have read . . . concise, sharp and stylistically responsive to the different characters under scrutiny." Michael White, The Independent on Sunday "Ford is skilled at drawing out the personalities behind the techniques." Arnold Whittall, The Musical Times Buy book from Hale & Iremonger Read a sample from Composer to Composer!