Description:The Joy of Music is Bernstein in book form. Seven of Leonard Bernstein_s most memorable Omnibus television programs, which millions remember as marvelous adventures in musical understanding, have been illustrated and expanded to form the heart of the book. They are accompanied by a collection of essays and conversations of great wit and warmth, which move across - and illumine - the whole world of music.
The contents range from a magically lucid exposition of the subleties and grandeurs of Bach to a chapter on the mysteries of composing entitled "Why Don_t You Run Upstairs and Write a Nice Gershwin Tune?" The book glows with Bernstein_s exuberant genius for enriching our pleasure in music.
To Bernstein all music is one - whether he is illustrating the blues with lines from Shakespeare or fathoming the peculiar greatness of Beethoven, explaining the construction of a scale with the aid of a baseball diamond, showing what makes grand opera grand, or sweeping the abracadabra from the art of conducting.
His book has been widely hailed as superb reading for all those who are ready to take an imaginative leap into the fuller, deeper experience of The Joy of Music.
