Beethoven's Skull

September 26, 2016
The 19th-century Austrian composer Anton Bruckner was obsessed with his music idols: there are accounts of him cradling and kissing Beethoven’s skull after it was exhumed from a Vienna cemetery. This bizarre anecdote provides the title for Rayborn’s unusual and diverting tour through musical history, from ancient Greece to the modern era. At his best, Rayborn, himself a musician, combines historical anecdotes and factoids into meaningful vignettes, as when he observes the consequences of Russian composer Sergey Prokofiev dying on the same day as Josef Stalin. The Communist leader’s state funeral swamped the composer’s memorial and commandeered all available fresh flowers in Moscow, leaving organizers with only paper flowers and potted plants for Prokofiev’s farewell. Rayborn has a lighthearted tone that many readers will enjoy. However, when there are few facts around an historical event he’s intent on developing, Rayborn’s own speculation feels thin. For example, he suggests with little evidence that the tale of the pied piper of Hamelin is based on a nobleman, Count Nicholas von Spiegelberg, who took a band of youngsters to colonize lands east of Germany. The target readership for this volume includes both trivia buffs and classical music fans, for whom this book will be an enjoyable source of well-researched material and quirky anecdotes.

October 1, 2016

Sex, drugs, and rock and roll: certainly a modern rallying cry, and not usually what the average person visualizes when thinking about classical music. Professional musician and music historian Rayborn gleefully proves that kind of thinking wrong in this rollicking, if grisly, stroll through the history of music. He takes readers way back to ancient Greece and Rome and forward through the ages into the 20th century, with a deliciously repulsive collection of the curious, shocking, and gruesome events that have surrounded music and its composers for centuries. Included are incidents of murder, wife swapping, and the inspiration for "The Devil Went Down to Georgia" (actually a dream by Paganini and a violin concerto). This impeccably researched yet eminently approachable book is sure to keep readers engrossed (pun intended) to the very end. VERDICT This title takes what is usually a dry and academic subject and gives it an almost tabloid feel. It will be of special interest to musicologists and performers but will also appeal to readers of true crime and even those who enjoy a Ripley's-believe-it-or-not view of the world.--Virginia Johnson, East Bridgewater P.L., MA

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