Violin Dreams by Arnold Steinhardt Summary and Reviews
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Book Reviews of Violin Dreams
Book Review: Adults students beware
Summary: 3 Stars
Bought this book for my wife who took up violin as an adult earlier this year. She said that some of the book was interesting from an anecdotal standpoint but didn't help her very much. The author apparently feels that anyone older than 5 or 6 who takes up the violin is wasting their time. Rather discouraging for students unless they started before they could read the book.Book Review: An apt title
Summary: 5 Stars
As others have said, this is a good read.
Personally though, it becomes evident the author is becoming more and more at home with his dreams (in general) and what they might mean for/to him as the book unfolds. A myriad of unconscious mechanisms are required to do virtually anything in the world, so the fact that the author embraces his subconscious, in the form of dreams, and quotes several dream memories in his book, makes it an all the more honest and accurate account.
The author also begins to delve into what death meant to Bach, finding his wife had died suddenly, and to the author himself. This appears as the realization, 'if you arent anything without the violin, you arent anything with the violin, either'.
If the book had a sequel it would invariably get further and further into the authors own perceptions of himself, his dreams, and how the seemingly separate elements of those two are intimately intertwined. As the song says: verily, verily, verily, verily -life is but a dream.
A violin dream in the authors case :-)
Book Review: Arnold Steinhardt's "Violin Dreams"
Summary: 5 Stars
This is the second of Steinhardt's autobiographical books, following "Indivisible by Four". Both books are warm personal accounts of the life of a gifted American musician who remains throughout an honest human being without pretense. Considering the wonderful contributions he has made to music and to the teaching of music, it is a pleasure to read more details written in his own conversational style. This book, with the accompanying CD of the Bach D-minor Chaconne, is a treasure.Book Review: Chaconne
Summary: 5 Stars
Charming and engrossing book about playing the violin and trying to come to terms with one of Bach's great masterpieces. In my opinion the book is at its best when it is about music and the violin - which is most of the time. I'm less convinced by the sections designed to give it universal appeal and at times the style gets a little too folksy. However, it is full of wonderful detail and has got me playing the Chaconne (in Steinhardt's impassioned performance on the CD) in the car all the time. And given me an entirely new understanding of what a violin is. And we see the true apostolic succession - that of the artist - the present standing upon the achievements of the past - we see that at work. The idea of dancing the Chaconne suffuses the book with a feeling of what it means to be human and mortal. A lovely work.Book Review: Enchanting.
Summary: 5 Stars
Wonderfully well-written. Most musicians' books are loose collections of stories. Steinhardt has stories, but also architecture that binds everything together: dreams, the individual sound of every violin, the making of the violinist and musician, the Bach Chaconne. His dreams are both hilarious and beautiful. A terrific book, and you get a CD of Steinhardt playing Bach, besides.