Jessye Norman
(Illustration by Jillian Tanaki)
(Illustration by Jillian Tanaki)
June 5, 2014
The
singer and author of “Stand Up Straight and Sing!” cried when she read
Marian Anderson’s autobiography, “My Lord, What a Morning”: “She blessed
this earth by walking upon it.”
What books are currently on your night stand?
“At
the Bottom of the River,” by Jamaica Kincaid. In this book I find wild
imagination keeping joyful company with real life. The broadest, magical
mind on display full of dreams and unbridled thought. My eyes grew
misty most particularly with “My Mother,” a loving treatise of all that
one can imagine, wish and hope a mother to be. I was reminded of the
great care lavished on five children — my siblings and myself, not in a
dream, but in real life.
“Elder
Grace,” by Chester Higgins Jr. A gorgeous book of photographs with the
wisdom that living imparts accompanying the portraits. The glory of this
book is the glow of time streaming from the faces of these “divine
works in progress,” these elders with so very much grace.
“The
Law of Love and the Law of Violence,” by Leo Tolstoy. I cannot explain
this great book, this guide to nonviolence, better than to take a short
passage from it, which for me represents the essence of what Tolstoy
would have us understand: “True religion consists in establishing the
relation of each of us towards the infinite life that surrounds us, the
life that unites us to the infinite, and guides us in all our acts.” A
complete world of wisdom in just that sentence!
Do you enjoy reading about composers and musicians? Any books you’d especially recommend?
I
enjoy reading about the lives of musicians, and find many similarities
in their ideas of preparation and their utter devotion to this great,
eternal language: music.
I
have enjoyed most particularly reading the correspondence between
Gustav Mahler and Richard Strauss. The genuine friendship,
competitiveness and support that thread through their communications are
life lessons for us all.
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