When comes the wind that billows our words' sails?

Sounds Beyond: Arvo Pärt and the 1970s Soviet Underground
by Kevin C. Karnes

This book looks at a pivotal point in Arvo Part's career and how that point intersected with the underground music scene in Soviet Estonia and Latvia. In particular, Karnes looks at underground festivals and discotheques in Riga and Estonia and their role as important venues for the performance of Part's emerging tintinnabulaton and religious works.
I am a huge fan of Part's music and found this book fascinating. It looks at a particular moment in Part's career and compositional development and the role of a set of underground musicians and presenters in that moment. I loved seeing that slice of musical life and what it meant for Part and his contemporaries. I loved getting another glimpse into Part's compositional activities and methods. Plus, it's always heartneing to see how artistic expression finds a way even under oppressive regimes.

Music in India: The Classical Traditions
by Bonnie C. Wade

I've been reconnecting with my love of Indian classical music lately, and decided to do some reading on the subject to help me better understand how the music works. Wade's book is very much written for western audiences who are interested in Indian music. A reasonable amount of knowledge of western music theory is assumed. Wade does a good job of explaining raga and tala to the reader, and uses comparisons to western music that are helpful without implying any hierarchy between the two.

We Sold Our Souls
by Grady Hendrix

This horror novel centers around Kris Pulaski, a rust belt kid who started a metal band, Durt Wurk, with four friends. They spent 10 years playing in small venues, putting out a couple of albums, and touring. Just as they were on the cusp of success, their lead singer Terry decided to go solo, offering the other band members a gig as his supporting band under a contract that reduced them to Terry's employees. Kris rejected the contract, and is now stuck back in the rust belt with a dead end job in a hotel. When she makes a couple of discoveries about the band's breakup, Kris begins to suspect that those contracts weren't a normal business deal and money and creative rights weren't the only things on the table.
I loved this horror novel. It was so fucking metal. Kris is a great character - she's stubborn, a bit abrasive, ground down but not defeated. She never truly stopped believing in her music and its power and worth, and she doesn't give up. Hendrix really delivers on the scares, with a couple really chilling scenes and a nice variety of kinds of horror. I loved all the metal, blues, and rock references. Hendrix also weaves in some great themes around how late corporate capitalism sucks the creativity out of people, and the way music can be the way out.

The Cambridge Companion to Film Music
edited by Mervyn Cooke and Fiona Ford

This book of essays about film music was really interesting. One of its big strengths is the breadth of films and genres it covers: everything from animated family films to Japanese noir. Although the one caveat about that breadth, also my one main gripe about the book, is that it barely steps outside American and European film making. Even in the section entitled "Music in World Cinemas", three out of the five chapters are about films from central Europe. South American and African cinema are entirely absent.
I found the chapters about spaghetti westerns and Takemitsu's scores for three Shinoda films particularly illuminating in the ways they delve into how specific motives and instrumentations work with the narrative and visuals of the films. I also liked the chapters on music in horror and science fiction films and in noir films.

Roadrunner: A Song by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers
by Joshua Clover

This short book is a meditation on "Roadrunner" that starts and ends with the song and in between takes a trip backwards through time to the early rock n roll evoked in the song and forwards to the ways the song has been quoted and invoked in more recent pop songs. In particular, he looks at M.I.A. and her song "Bamboo Banga" which quotes "Roadrunner", and at Cornershop's "Brimful of Asha" which reuses "Roadrunner"s chords and melody to look at the Desi diaspora. Clover weaves in commentary on the political and social events surrounding each song. He muses about the nature of cultural circulation, critiques capitalism and the world order it has produced, and takes pop music seriously. It was a very interesting read and made me think about a very familiar and beloved song in new ways. I do wish he had spent a little more time on the song itself and on Jonathan Richman, but that's a minor quibble.

Chen Yi
by Leta E. Miller and J. Michele Edwards

This book covers Chen Yi's life and music very well. The focus is on her music rather than biographical details, but given that her work is not examined in isolation from her life, the authors provide a full and rich picture of both. The book's biggest strength is in Miller and Edwards' approach to discussing Chen's music. They avoid descriptive narration and instead concentrate on the compositional processes and materials at play. Musical examples and analytical charts are always clear and well-annotated. I got a very deep and thorough understanding of what Chen does and how she does it. I think my future experiences of Chen's music will be all the better and more meaningful for having read this book.

On Music Theory, and Making Music More Welcoming for Everyone
By Philip Ewell

This book was precipitated by the storm that ensued after Ewell gave a presentation at the 2019 Society for Music Theory conference that addressed music theory's white racial frame and touched on Heinrich Schenker's racism. The Journal of Schenkerian Studies responded the following year with a very controversial and problematic issue responding to Ewell's talk. On Music Theory elaborates and enlarges on Ewell's talk and subsequent article, addresses the journal issue, and provides some recommendations for solving the problems he illuminates.
On Music Theory is an excellent, timely, and necessary book. Ewell is one of the best scholarly writers about music I've encountered. The way he lays out and progresses through his arguments is elegant, persuasive, and satisfying. I especially loved the more open, expansive, and inclusive vision for the study of music that he promotes. I want that. I will keep finding ways that I can help make it happen through my role as a music librarian.

Plague and Music in the Renaissance
by Remi Chiu

This book was very good and very timely. Published in 2017, it also seems unintentionally prescient. Seeing some of the parallels and differences between the past experience of plague and our present pandemic was very illuminating. Chiu discusses how music was used and perceived in dealing with the recurrences of the Black Death that happened in Europe from the 15th through the 17th century. He covers how music was used to both commemorate and protect against the plague, with a focus on sacred works. I especially liked the discussion of the cult of St. Sebastian and how Chiu used music to explain and illustrate it. I also liked the examination of private and public devotional activity. A really nice touch is how Chiu labeled the music examples, adding brackets and other annotations to make it easy to see what he was discussing - it was really helpful for those of us who are a bit rusty on our score analysis skills.

Beethoven's Letters
by Ludwig van Beethoven

This volume of letters is fairly illuminating. Beethoven is a very bold and direct letter-writer. Once he becomes an established composer, he is pretty sure of his abilities and his worth. He's thus quite direct and even demanding in his dealings with publishers. He has strong feelings about the people around him. He's generally optimistic.
The selection of letters is strangely lacking much of anything deeply personal or intimate. This is possibly because such letters were destroyed, but it does still leave a bit of a hole. I found it odd that the letters written in French were not translated; my French is good enough that this was not really a problem, but I could see if being very frustrating for those who don't read French. Still, this set of letters is a good introduction to Beethoven as a person, and worthwhile for that.

Louise Talma: A Life in Composition
by Kendra Preston Leonard

This fascinating biography of Talma and her music examines the ways in her works reflect and process events and relationships in her life. Leonard discusses not only individual works but also Talma's overall compositional techniques and style. I really liked how she wove in analyses of works and how beautifully those analyses used representative sections to illuminate a whole work. I never found any of it tedious. The weaving together of material on the music and on Talma's life was balanced and seamless - Leonard achieved an ideal integration of the two elements.