This book review first appeared in the Autumn edition of Primary Music Magazine, which you can read by following this link, if you are a primary school music teacher want to read many more fascinating articles to give you inspiration for your work the classroom:
Playlist: The Rebels and Revolutionaries of Sound takes a look at the lives and music of seven Classical Composers.
BACH. MOZART. BEETHOVEN
These guys were the original rock stars. This book will show you why.
Pianist James Rhodes’ jaw dropping introduction to classical music uncovers the rebels and revolutionaries behind the masterpieces – and reveals why they’re responsible for every track on your phone today.
Lose yourself in his online playlist as you read…. because music can change everything, from your mood to your mind.
Blurb from the back of the book Playlist The Rebels and Revolutionaries of Sound by James Rhodes.
What is the book about?
The subtitle of this book, The Rebels and Revolutionaries of Sound rather sets the tone. James Rhodes is trying to get the reader to look at the composers he writes about in a different way; to see them as the society of the day would have seen them. These days we may think of composers like Bach and Mozart as old fashioned, but at the time they were celebrities, A-listers, pushing the boundaries of what was acceptable and established in music composition. He writes in the book’s introduction that he hopes that reading this book will inspire readers to give the music he mentions a listen and see what they think of it.
Rhodes has chosen seven composers as a springboard to getting people to have a look at Classical music (and I used a capital C here to mean any music that wouldn’t be considered as rock, pop, jazz music etc). For each of these composers Rhodes tells us a little bit about their life story, a bit about the influence their music has had on future generations and then he chooses two pieces by each composer, and writes more about those pieces. Each biography and each composition has a beautifully illustrated double page spread.
For the lives of the composers, Rhodes gives basic biographical information, like dates of birth and death, tells you a little bit about their family situation, and he also tells you a bit about what they were like as a person. He doesn’t shy away from mentioning the fact that they had a dreadful temper (looking at you, Chopin), or that they had a disgusting sense of humour (there’s Mozart for you). This is not a reverent, stiff, distant biography, but rather paints a very human picture of who each composer was as a person. I don’t know about the children in your classes, but certainly reading this book with my 9 year old, he was giggling away as we read about Mozart’s obsession with all things, shall we say, bowel related and he was definitely more amenable to listening to some of his music knowing a bit about Mozart as a person! Rhodes’ style of writing is easy, chatty, friendly, a little irreverent and highly readable. He makes what can seem like a very dry and boring subject matter fun and approachable.
For each piece of music Rhodes highlights he tells the reader about the piece, maybe when it was composed, what was going on in the composer’s life at the time. For some pieces he tells the reader what stories or pictures he imagines as he listens to the music. He asks the reader to think about how a composer’s physicality may have affected the music they wrote (looking at Rachmaninoff and his enormous hands here). Here I should tell you that there is, of course, a playlist that accompanies this book. You can find the playlist in full towards the start of the book where he gives you a link to follow to find the playlist on Spotify. He suggests particular performers or ensembles to listen to, and when writing about each of the pieces later in the book he does often explain why he has chosen this particular performer to listen to – one of them is James Rhodes himself.
The book does give a brief timeline of music history, which is quite useful to orient the reader in the music history they are reading about, a little information about the make-up of an orchestra, and also a glossary of musical terms used in the book at the end. It includes a poster, which would look good on any music classroom wall. The artist for this poster, and all illustrations throughout the book is Martin O’Neill.
The composers featured in here are all of a type – they are all male and they are all white European. Rhodes does acknowledge this in the Introduction of the book, and while he does give suggestions as to some female composers and some composers of colour that readers could check out after reading this book, he talks a little bit in here about the unfair advantages that white men had as composers, and performers, and how all the fame and celebrity went to them. He hopes that in the future a book like this one would be more diverse. I would hope so too.
Who is the book for and how could you use it at home?
I would recommend the book, in terms of who should read it for themselves for children around 9-12 or 13. I think the book is rather too detailed for younger readers to read themselves, and there are references to for example, relationships and drinking habits that you may feel uncomfortable with your children reading – certainly at a younger age. Don’t get me wrong, there are no salacious details in there, but nor are these details in composers’ lives completely ignored. At the older end of my suggested age range, I think the book may not be detailed enough. And while the book makes a plea for readers to give classical music a chance, I think readers around 13 and older may be less impressed and influenced to do so by this book. However, if you are reading the book with your children, then I think younger children (6 or 7 – 9 years old I would suggest), may get a lot out of the book.
If you homeschool your children, or if you just want to follow up on reading the book with more practical activities, you could:
- The first, and most obvious use for the book is as a springboard to start introducing Music History and the various different periods, and which of these composers fit into the different periods you are talking about.
- You could listen to the pieces suggested in the book together and talk about their form – this piece of music is a concerto, what is a concerto, etc – or about what instruments you can hear, what voices are singing.
- Rhodes talks a lot, in his discussion of the pieces, about what he imagines when listening. You could ask your children to write a story based on the music, or paint what they imagine when listening.
- For some of the composers, Rhodes talks about artists who have sampled music by the composer in question. Taking care to have listened to the piece in advance to see if it is age appropriate, you could play the original work and the song with that work sampled in to talk with your children about the differences and similarities between the pieces of music. I should tell you that for some of the works discussed it is far easier to spot the original work – Kelis’ Like You – than others – Massive Attack’s You’ve Never Had A Dream. And this is a great way for the more reluctant Classical Music listeners to see that music in a new light, and as being relevant to them, the music they prefer to listen to, and the way they might want to use that music in the future. As well as being fun to play spot that tune!
This is a really nice book that could inspire your students to look at music they may see as old and boring differently, and see it as something they actually want to explore more. It is currently available in good book retailers, including Amazon, where it is currently priced at £7.80, though as always, Amazon’s prices are subject to change depending on demand, and can go up as well as down.
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