Uncommon Measure

A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time

No cover

Uncommon Measure (2022, Bellevue Literary Press)

224 pages

English language

Published Jan. 13, 2022 by Bellevue Literary Press.

ISBN:
9781942658979

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4 stars (1 review)

3 editions

Review of "Uncommon Measure" by Natalie Hodges

4 stars

I enjoyed this overall, but perhaps not as intended. It's a vivid portrayal of a kind of person I've often known but never quite understood: the classically trained musician who seems imprisoned and tortured by music while professing to love it. It's several sad stories told well — of lifelong performance anxiety, of inhibiting perfectionism, of being an outsider — but perhaps the saddest story is that of the person who might be happy if they could understand just one thing, yet you know they never will. I never bought in to the "time" theme, and the attempts to weave physics in were strained, but I found much to learn from and admire here.

Subjects

  • Music, history and criticism