Year of Wonder – Classical Music for Every Day

I’m posting a few hours after arriving home from work because I received a package from a friend back home in London! I’d left some history books with him last year that I’ve been meaning to collect and earlier this Spring he asked for my address in Rome to send them on to me.

However, to my surprise on opening the package there was a book I’ve been meaning to buy on classical music! It was such a lovely surprise from one of my closest friends! The book is titled ‘Year of Wonder’ by Clemency Burton-Hill. I’ve attached photographs below, hot off the press, or rather, out of the package!

Clemency Burton-Hill was born in London and is an author, broadcaster and journalist. She also presents the ‘Breakfast’ show on BBC Radio 3, as well as the Proms, BBC Young Musician and New Generation artists. She’s also an award-winning violinist and has on her resume performances as a soloist, chamber musician and orchestral player in some of the world’s greatest concert halls.

On reading the introduction and to summarise, she created this book to share much-loved classical music that’s more all-encompassing. It includes music from female composers, composers of colour, as well as those who are gay and differently-abled. She has also dug out music from all eras of classical music from past to present, which will surely be a treat to anyone out there hitherto uninitiated into the world of classical music!

The book is laid out for each day of the year starting from the 1st of January until the 31st of December, sharing a piece of music to be listened to every day and in this way designed to fit every lifestyle. Burton-Hill is pretty to the point on this! The book is intended for anyone who would like to learn more about classical music, bar none! I intend to start listening to her recommendations as of today and should finish it this time next year.

I’m so excited about this book and feel it will be a valuable resource, as well as a source of inspiration on my classical music journey! One of the things I deeply appreciate about the reasons Burton-Hill wrote this book was to help make classical music accessible and break down a lot of pre-conceived notions about this increasingly marginalised genre of music and I feel much the same way as she does on this!

Her introductory message really resonated with me, as someone who finds classical music opens up channels of communication between the self and our experiences of everyday, ordinary life, of how the music can magnify and deepen our appreciation of a kaleidoscope of moments in our lives. These are the things I will appreciate and treasure on reading this book and listening to the pieces that she has recommended.

This book is not about the technicalities, each page contains information about the piece and the composer in manageable portions. It’s designed to educate of course, but mostly through the experiencing of the music itself and in also deciding for ourselves what we make of the pieces. She expresses in her introduction that you don’t have to be an expert and I totally agree with her! You like what you like and you won’t like what you just don’t like!

The ‘Year of Wonder’ playlists are available on Apple Music: www.applemusic.com/yearofwonder which I will soon be checking out!

One very important thing that she stressed is how fortunate we are to be able to so easily access classical music in this day and age. She wrote how this is something to consider when, at the time when music was performed in the Baroque era (for example) music was only available by attending performances, which some would have taken quite some trouble to attend.  The example she highlighted was that of J.S Bach walking 250 miles uphill in the snow during winter!

It’s something to consider in an age where the ease of accessibility in the digital age has spoilt us for musical choice. On the one hand, it’s a wonderful thing because we are able to enjoy music in the comfort of our own homes. However, on the other hand, perhaps we don’t always appreciate what we’ve got, that what someone would have gone to such great lengths to experience is something we can access at the click of a button and don’t have to work so hard to experience. Perhaps that can at times lessen our perceived value of what we have at our fingertips!

As long as we all continue to learn about history in general and not solely that of music, we can consider more deeply the perks of the modern age that most of us are fortunate to experience. In turn, we can appreciate the absence of such luxuries in the past, that ultimately, help us foster a sense of admiration and awe at the musical treasures that have been handed down to us.   

I’m looking forward to writing about some of the pieces that Burton-Hill has suggested and I hope that by doing so it might inspire you to consider purchasing her book also.

I leave you with the belated birthday card that my friend sent to me, which I absolutely love and is the perfect Italian style card to send to a British expat abroad! I hope it gives you a smile too!