My book Nocturnes and the Fascination of Night Music comes out today from Yale University Press.
Tomorrow (Wednesday 25 March at 7pm) I’ll be talking about it at Toppings Bookshop in Edinburgh.
When I did a radio interview recently, the presenter asked me, before we went on air, how I was feeling about the fact that the book was coming out. I said it was a huge relief – partly because there have been so many adminstrative stages to deal with between writing the book and seeing it in print.
Copy-editing. Choosing images, exploring which ones were available and how much it would cost to use them. Checking that people I’d interviewed were happy with what I’d said. Sorting out copyright issues relating to poetry I’d mentioned. Endorsements. What goes on the cover, where and how. Proof-reading. And of course preparing the index, a huge job nobly taken out of my hands by Bob who has become a demon index-compiler.
The presenter replied that whenever he has authors on the show, he asks them how they’re feeling about their book coming out. They always say what I’d just said – that it was a huge relief because it meant they had finally bitten their way through all those preparatory stages. Hooray!
So here’s to the book and its journey towards readers.
I greatly look forward to reading the book and am sure it will be worth all that work. I sometimes wonder, even if a piece is not about the night, how it is affected by the time of day of its performance or composition. Most concerts are (at least in Britain) in the evening. I usually only play the piano in the evening, but if I do occasionally play in the afternoon I seem to play in a different way – livelier, and less intense. This is surely only natural as our music-making reflects time as well as other emotional circumstances. Although I am not sure how many of the great composers worked at night, I know it was common for Puccini and Sibelius. Perhaps this accounts for some of the particular intensity in their works!
James, you have hit on many interesting points, which I try to address in the book. The topic of how we play and what we choose to play at different times of day or night is a fascinating one.