Music For Life

How does music reflect the key moments in our lives? How do we choose the works that inspire, delight, comfort or console? Fiona Maddocks selects 100 classical works from across nine centuries, arguing passionately, persuasively and at times obstinately for their inclusion, putting each work in its cultural and musical context, discussing omissions, suggesting alternatives and always putting the music first.

Full of joy and discovery, Louis Thomas' The Music of Life is a simple, melodious picture book about finding big inspiration and beauty in the smallest of details. At night when everyone else is asleep, one artist sits awake--pencil in hand, stuck. Lenny is a composer, but this evening, no music floats from his head. Then as night breaks into dawn, Lenny's cat, Pipo, begins lapping milk. Lick lick lick. Birds yawn awake, singing in the trees. Tweet tweet! A bike bell tings on the street below. Suddenly, Lenny notices a rhythm to the world around him. He pulls on his coat and walks through the city to write down every sound he can find. Lenny listens to a gardener, a jogger, a dogwalker, and more neighborhood characters. Finally, the morning's sounds culminate in a sun-dappled symphony that Lenny conducts in the center of the park.

Presents the life of the inventor of the piano, explaining why, how, and when he created the musical instrument.

"Making Music for Life is the adult novice's friend. First, it cheerleads for music's salutary benefits to the music-maker's soul. Then it becomes a useful how-to handbook: finding a teacher and learning how to practice once you have one. How do you hook up with like-minded enthusiasts and what are all the ways you can learn to make music together? How about performing for others? And maybe you will end up teaching others yourself. This useful book is a doorway into the endless joys of making music, for everyone at any age." — Bernard Holland, Music critic emeritus, The New York Times and author of Something I Heard Do you hope to expand your musical circle? Need inspiration and practical ideas for overcoming setbacks? Love music and seek new ways to enjoy it? Roots musician Gayla M. Mills will help you take your next step, whether you play jazz, roots, classical, or rock. You'll become a better musician, learning the best ways to practice, improve your singing, enjoy playing with others, get gigs and record, and bring more music to your community. Most importantly, you'll discover how music can help you live and age well. "A keen road map that supports musicians and the expansion of their craft. Gayla's done the work. All you have to do is step on the path and follow her lead." — Greg Papania, music producer, mixer, composer "Gayla Mills shares the nuts and bolts of fostering one's hidden musical talent. But perhaps most importantly, she shares the power behind music. . . . anyone seeking to awaken their musical passion will find this book ideal." — Dr. Lynn Szostek, psychologist and gerontologist "Making Music for Life absolutely fascinated me. It's beautifully written and engagingly constructed and it helped me better understand why music has remained central to my life. I found it entrancing." — Steve Yarbrough, author of The Unmade World and guitar player "Gayla Mills' precision with language, delight with music, and intrinsic joie de vivre make her the perfect author for Making Music for Life. Everyone who has tapped a foot or hummed along with a band will love this book, and maybe, just maybe, make music a bigger part of their lives." — Charlotte Morgan, author of Protecting Elvis "Gayla Mills shares the nuts and bolts of fostering one's hidden musical talent. But perhaps most importantly, she shares the power behind music. It boosts creativity and reduces stress. It strengthens social bonds, helping us find harmony while resonating with others. From amateur musician to Grammy-winning performer, anyone seeking to awaken their musical passion will find this book ideal." — Dr. Lynn Szostek, psychologist and gerontologist "What better way to counteract boredom, stress, anxiety and even depression than playfully learning a new instrument, singing, jamming, or just learning to hear the pitch, rhythm and timbres of sounds around you. Gayla Mills, in her book, Making Music for Life, offers tips for learning to hear and live life like a musician, while boosting your dopamine and improving cognition at the same time." — Dr. Jodie Skillicorn, psychiatrist "Gayla and I were part of a motley group of musicians who gathered monthly to play and sing. The years passed. My guitar strings rusted; my piano went out of tune. I felt remorse and sadness. But now I realize that I'm the perfect audience for this thoughtful, detailed book, and I'm very thankful she had the vision and heart to write it." — Liz Hodges, author and guitar/piano player "Music can be a powerful part of your life even if it is not your livelihood and Gayla's book Making Music for Life is like a table setting for this magical, mystical, musical table setting of love." — Michael Johnathon, musician and WoodSongs Old-time Radio Hour producer "As a scientist who frequently speaks about the benefits of music on the brain, I'm often asked: is it too late for me? Mills provides a highly readable and practical guide that democratizes music's promise." — Dr. Nina Kraus, Professor, Brainvolts Auditory Neuroscience Lab, Northwestern University

Cleoni Crawford shares her journey with bipolar disorder and how God, music and a strong support system helped her navigate through her illness and eventually discover her purpose. You will receive insights into the lens of a woman living with Bipolar Disorder and how you can spot some of the signs in your friends and love ones. The Music of my Life is filled with various emotions from laughter, tears, to shock. This book promises to leave you inspired, educated and the ability to know-how to support someone with a mental illness.

Teachings on sound presenting a vision of the harmony which underlies and infuses every aspect of life. Science of breath, law of rhythm, the creative process, healing power and psychological influence of music.

What is Life? Decades of research have resulted in the full mapping of the human genome - three billion pairs of code whose functions are only now being understood. The gene's eye view of life, advocated by evolutionary biology, sees living bodies as mere vehicles for the replication of the genetic codes. But for a physiologist, working with the living organism, the view is a very different one. Denis Noble is a world renowned physiologist, and sets out an alternative view to the question - one that becomes deeply significant in terms of the living, breathing organism. The genome is not life itself. Noble argues that far from genes building organisms, they should be seen as prisoners of the organism. The view of life presented in this little, modern, post-genome project reflection on the nature of life, is that of the systems biologist: to understand what life is, we must view it at a variety of different levels, all interacting with each other in a complex web. It is that emergent web, full of feedback between levels, from the gene to the wider environment, that is life. It is a kind of music. Including stories from Noble's own research experience, his work on the heartbeat, musical metaphors, and elements of linguistics and Chinese culture, this very personal and at times deeply lyrical book sets out the systems biology view of life.

A brief but extraordinarily powerful novel by the author of Dreams of My Russian Summers and Requiem for a Lost Empire, Music of a Life is set in the period just before, and two decades after, World War II. Alexeï Berg’s father is a well-known dramatist, his mother a famous opera singer. But during Stalin’s reign of terror in the 1930s they, like millions of other Russians, come under attack for their presumed lack of political purity. Harassed and proscribed, they have nonetheless, on the eve of Hitler’s war, not yet been arrested. And young Alexeï himself, a budding classical pianist, has been allowed to continue his musical studies. His first solo concert is scheduled for May 24, 1941. Two days before the concert, on his way home from his final rehearsal, he sees his parents being arrested, taken from their Moscow apartment. Knowing his own arrest will not be far behind, Alexeï flees to the country house of his fiancée, where again betrayal awaits him. He flees, one step ahead of the dreaded secret police until, taking on the identity of a dead soldier, he enlists in the Soviet army. Thus begins his seemingly endless journey, through war and peace, until he lands, two decades later, in a snowbound train station in the Urals, where he relates his harrowing saga to the novel’s narrator. An international bestseller, Music of a Life is, in the words of Le Monde, “extremely powerful . . . a gem.”