Believe Your Ears is the memoir of composer Kirke Mechem, whose unorthodox path to music provides a fascinating narrative. He wrote songs and played music by ear as a newspaper reporter, a touring tennis player, and a Stanford creative-writing major before studying composition and conducting at Harvard. He describes his residencies in San Francisco, Vienna, London, and Russia, and gives detailed attention to his choral music, operas, and symphonies. He writes that "the twentieth century gave us much brilliant music" but shows how atonality came to dominate the post-war period. His lyric style belongs to no particular "school," avoiding the trends, -isms, experiments, fads, and lunacies of the period. He encourages younger composers who are trying to bring back beauty, passion, and humor-even entertainment-to classical music. He asks music lovers to believe their own ears, not the lectures of "experts." Believe Your Ears is addressed to all who love classical music. Along the way, readers will meet Dimitri Shostakovich, Wallace Stegner, Billie Jean King, the Grateful Dead, Richard Rodgers, Benjamin Britten, Bill Tilden, and Aaron Copland-a who's who in Mechem's storied career.

Believe Your Ears is the memoir of composer Kirke Mechem, whose unorthodox path to music provides a fascinating narrative. He wrote songs and played music by ear as a newspaper reporter, a touring tennis player, and a Stanford creative-writing major before studying composition and conducting at Harvard. He describes his residencies in San Francisco, Vienna, London, and Russia, and gives detailed attention to his choral music, operas, and symphonies. He writes that "the twentieth century gave us much brilliant music" but shows how atonality came to dominate the post-war period. His lyric style belongs to no particular "school," avoiding the trends, -isms, experiments, fads, and lunacies of the period. He encourages younger composers who are trying to bring back beauty, passion, and humor-even entertainment-to classical music. He asks music lovers to believe their own ears, not the lectures of "experts." Believe Your Ears is addressed to all who love classical music. Along the way, readers will meet Dimitri Shostakovich, Wallace Stegner, Billie Jean King, the Grateful Dead, Richard Rodgers, Benjamin Britten, Bill Tilden, and Aaron Copland-a who's who in Mechem's storied career.

Contributing Authors Include Edgar Langsdorf, William Frank Zornow, Todd L. Wagoner, And Alberta Pantle.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft, Louise Barry, And Julia Louisa Lovejoy.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft, James C. Malin And Edgar Langsdorf.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft, Emory Lindquist, Louise Barry, And Edgar Langsdorf.

Contributing Authors Include Clifford P. Westermeier, Alberta Pantle, Kirke Mechem, Helen M. McFarland, And Many Others.

Contributing Authors Include Douglas C. McMurtrie, Walker D. Wyman, George A. Root And Many Others.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft, C. W. McCampbell, Louise Barry And Helen M. McFarland.

Contributing Authors Include Angelo Scott, Alan W. Farley, Robert Taft And James C. Malin.

Contributing Authors Include Robert S. Fletcher, Martha B. Caldwell, Paul H. Giddens, And Domenico Gagliardo.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft And Kirke Mechem.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft And James C. Malin.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft, James C. Malin And Powell Moore.

Contributing Authors Include Martha B. Caldwell, Mahlon Bailey And Hortense B. C. Gibson.

Contributing Authors Include Harold Henderson, Theo. H. Scheffer, Orin Oliphant, And Lilliana Owens.

Contributing Authors Include Louise Barry, Margaret Evans Caldwell, J. Neale Carman, James C. Malin, Edgar Langsdorf And R. W. Richmond.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft, Russell Hickman, Kirke Mechem, And Helen M. McFarland.

Contributing Authors Include H. B. Mollhausen, Ralph W. Edwards, And Louise Barry.

Contributing Authors Include John Rossel, Frank A. Root, George A. Root, Edith Walker, Kirke Mechem, Helen M. McFarland, And Many Others.

Contributing Authors Include Lela Barnes, Roscoe Wilmeth, Nyle H. Miller, Joseph W. Snell And Alberta Pantle.

Contributing Authors Include J. Neale Carman, Walter H. Schoewe, James C. Malin And Emory Lindquist.

Contributing Authors Include Cecil Howes And Martha B. Caldwell.

Contributing Authors Include James C. Malin, Robert Taft, Power Moore And Helen M. McFarland.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft And Helen M. McFarland.