- Paperback: 288 pages
- Publisher: Kennedy And Boyd (20 Jan 2008)
- Language English
- ISBN-10: 1904999689
- ISBN-13: 978-1904999683
- Product Dimensions: 23.1 x 18.8 x 1.8 cm
- Average Customer Review: 5.0 out of 5 stars See all reviews (3 customer reviews)
- Amazon Bestsellers Rank: 321,625 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)
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Product Description
Product Description
When a schoolboy in Glasgow, Marshall Walker became addicted to the music of Sibelius. In 1996 he made a pilgrimage to Finland, visiting places of special significance to the composer, his birthplace in Hämeenlinna, the villa 'Ainola' where he lived for over 50 years, the forests and lakes near Koli in the Karelia. Back home in New Zealand Walker began to write Sibelius a thank-you letter for a lifetime's companionship. Walker tells Sibelius how his music helped him overcome childhood ordeals in Scotland. He discovers Sibelian connections in his family, tracing the steps of his grandfather from a Sunday stroll in a Glasgow park to the Elliot Junction railway disaster of 1906 and commemorating his uncle's service on the Salonika front in WWI. The scene shifts to student days at Glasgow University, problems with God, the kindness of the Scottish conductor, Ian Whyte, and the music of Arnold Bax, Sibelius's 'son in music'. In apartheid South Africa Sibelius becomes Walker's medicine man. There's a glimpse of the composer fêted in the USA and a connection between his music and the American writer, Robert Penn Warren. A child falls in love with Sibelius's Third Symphony. From New Zealand Walker sets out on the compulsive pilgrimage which prompts him to try to show how an artist can be a continuous, sustaining presence in a life. There's talk of Sibelius's music throughout the letter - a grateful junky's talk, not a critic's. 'You have taught me about Sibelius.' Osmo Vänskä 'A true writer. Excellent. I must repeat, excellent.' Lygia Fagundes Telles 'Compellingly human stories in a masterly fusion of music and life'. Hugh Macdonald Marshall Walker was born and educated in Scotland where he is currently Senior Research Fellow in the Department of Scottish Literature at the University of Glasgow. He lectured in English at Glasgow University from 1965 to 1980 after a spell at Rhodes University in South Africa. From 1981 until 2006 he was Professor of English at the University of Waikato in Hamilton, New Zealand with time out for visiting appearances in the USA, Poland, Germany, Italy and Brazil. His publications include The Literature of the United States of America and Scottish Literature since 1707. An occasional broadcaster on literary and musical topics for Radio New Zealand and the Australian Broadcasting Corporation, he introduced broadcasts of the 2005 Sydney Sibelius Festival in which Sibelius's symphonies were performed by the Sydney Symphony Orchestra conducted by Vladimir Ashkenazy. He lives in Hamilton, New Zealand, with his Brazilian wife, the writer, Cláudia Pacce.
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
6 of 6 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Thank you for your letter,
By
This review is from: Dear Sibelius: Letter from a Junky (Paperback)
This is a magnificent account of a life-long liaison. Marshall Walker gives us the flavour of his passion for Sibelius, taking us into the composer's sound world and into his own, ranging from war-time Glasgow to rural New Zealand, encompassing life, love and loss. It is a potent mix of music, politics, biography, history, literature and landscape, all delineated with a sympathetic eye. If you want to understand the influence of an artist on an individual life, read this perceptive and moving book now.
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
A Beautifully Produced Book,
This review is from: Dear Sibelius: Letter from a Junky (Paperback)
Other readers have already expressed their joy in this fascinating book. It has heightened my love of Sibelius even more - in fact my admiration for him over the years has grown whereas that for Mahler, so self-indulgent in comparison, has tended to diminish. The book may seem expensive at first sight but it is a high-quality paperback, solidly bound, with a large number of black and white photos and, most important of all, wide margins and really good, readable type, which is essential with this book, which needs to be savoured like a vintage whiskey (Sibelius's favourite drink).
3 of 3 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Dear Sibelius letter from a junky,
By
This review is from: Dear Sibelius: Letter from a Junky (Paperback)
This is a magnificent book, that rings true. The sincerity, and depth of Marshall Walker's admiration, gratitude & "oneness" with the music of Sibelius is very apparent, and reinforces my belief in the power of music to help us through troubled times
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