I also have a hard time believing any of the “ordinary people” he invokes here would be swayed by this passage. I found it strange that he would capitulate to such anti-intellectual critics of classical music. It raises the question, if you take the tastes of “ordinary people” to be the deciding factor of what music is important or worth discussing, why not simply write about Brahms? Why wield the music of the canon as a cudgel against new composers, when your book is ostensibly about new music? This passage may seem like a populist defense of “ordinary people” against the “snob aesthetes” who eagerly attend new music festivals, but to me it reeks of condescension. The audience at the average symphony-orchestra subscription concert was more socially diverse those in the upper galleries made modest wages and came out of a simple love of music. Ordinary people could not book a hotel for a week in Venice or Zurich.
The audience at the new-music festivals was a motley gathering of elites-culture-building captains of industry, American heiresses looking to acquire European status, snob aesthetes with no pressing responsibilities, members of the new leisure classes. Yet, as in the salons of Paris, this discussion about music and modernity took place within an unreal ecosystem that was removed from daily life. I first sensed that something was awry in this excerpt where Ross describes the “politics of style” that emerged in the 1920s: I may not have found the center of the issue, but I can at least gesture towards it and look inwards from the periphery. But as I read some reviews and meditated on it, I came to a nearer understanding of what my problems are with The Rest is Noise. For a while, I thought I was being contrarian––my instinct is usually to be skeptical when I hear nothing but uncritical praise for something. It was as if Ross was revealing something to us here, dropping the pretense of being a well-reasoned critic for a moment. However, as I’ve been re-reading The Rest is Noise, a couple passages stuck out to me as feeling deeply odd or confusing. And to be sure, it deserves its reputation as an eminently-readable overview of the history of music in the twentieth century. Nearly every one of my professors and colleagues highly recommends it.
The New York Times named it one of the ten best books of 2007 it was a finalist for many prestigious literary prizes including the Pulitzer Prize for General Nonfiction the cover copy is littered with praise from critics, historians and musicians, everyone from Osvaldo Golijov, Rishard Taruskin and Emanuel Ax to Colin Greenwood and Björk. The Rest is Noise, Alex Ross’ first book, was an instant hit.
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