‘Chacona, Lamento, Walking Blues..This essay is Alex Ross’s own chaconne, one that only he could have written – a display of lateral thinking as virtuosic, in its own way..It alone is worth the price of the book, which I strongly encourage you to buy’ Damian Thompson, Sunday Telegraph

‘These hugely enjoyable and serendipitous essays were written over more than a decade, resulting in a rewarding historical perspective. Ross's rapid-fire discourses on music from very different parts of the musical spectrum create fascinating perspectives. One minute, you're immersed in Mozart, and then suddenly you're on tour with Radiohead and contemplating what it must have felt like for an unworldly Finnish conductor, Esa-Pekka Salonen, to take the reins of the LA Philharmonic. Reading the book is the literary equivalent of an iPod on shuffle; it offers fresh and unexpected stimulation at every turn.’ Charles Hazlewood, Guardian

‘The qualities that make him a top-notch critic become clearer in concentrated reading…Ross is an avowed buff. He loves music with a nerdish obsession and he wants you to love it as much as he does’ New Statesman, Norman Lebrecht

Praise for ‘The Rest is Noise’:

‘It’s a history of 20th-century music so vivid and original in approach that it made me listen again to many pieces I thought I knew well.’ Philip Pullman, Guardian (Books of the Year)

‘Ranks as my non-fiction book of the year. Erudite and engaging, written with flair and passion.’ Boyd Tonkin Independent (Books of the Year)

The main body of musical portraits and essays follows, with pop and classical topics intermingled. I will experiment with different options, and am open to suggestions, but I have in mind the following sequence: Mozart, Radiohead, and Esa-Pekka Salonen (music as a synthesis of disparate parts); Verdi, the St. Lawrence Quartet, and various innovators in music education (music as an act of communication and communal feeling); Debussy, Mitsuko Uchida, and Björk (the music of those who have traveled wide distances, either in physical space or in their imaginations); and, finally, Schubert, Lorraine Hunt Lieberson, and Bob Dylan (music as a radical expression of the individual consciousness).

Table of Contents:

1. LISTEN TO THIS: A Memoir of Listening
2. CHACONA: The History of a Bass Line
3. THE RECORD EFFECT: Music and Technology
4. THE STORM OF STYLE: Mozart
5. ORBITING: Radiohead
6. THE ANTI-MAESTRO: Esa-Pekka Salonen and the LA Philharmonic
7. VA, PENSIERO: Giuseppe Verdi
8. ALMOST FAMOUS: The St. Lawrence Quartet
9. LEARNING THE SCORE: Music Education
10. TITLE TK: Debussy
11. TITLE TK: Mistuko Uchida
12. EMOTIONAL LANDSCAPES: Björk
13. GREAT SOUL: Franz Schubert
14. FERVOR: Remembering Lorraine Hunt Lieberson
15. I SAW THE LIGHT: Bob Dylan