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 Lela Barnes, Edward Bumgardner, Thomas C. Wells, And George A. Root.

Contributing Authors Include Berlin B. Chapman, Edward R. DeZurko, And Waldo W. Braden.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft, George A. Root, Russell Hickman, And Kirke Mechem.

Contributing Authors Include Louise Barry, James C. Malin, William B. Faherty, And Helen M. McFarland.

Contributing Authors Include Martha B. Caldwell, Sheldon Jackson, Kirke Mechem, Helen M. McFarland And Many Others.

Contributing Authors Include Walker D. Wyman, Samuel A. Johnson, And Marvin H. Garfield.

Contributing Authors Include John Francis McDermott And Martha Caldwell.

Contributing Authors Include Esther Clark Hill, Marvin H. Garfield, George A. Root And Helen M. McFarland.

Contributing Authors Include J. T. Willard, Dean Trickett, And Helen M. McFarland.

Contributing Authors Include Louise Barry, Russell K. Hickman, And Martha B. Caldwell.

Contributing Authors Include Emory Lindquist, Lorene Anderson, Alan W. Farley, Theo. H. Scheffer, And James W. Covington.

Contributing Authors Include Walker D. Wyman, George A. Root, Samuel A. Johnson, Martha B. Caldwell, And Kirke Mechem.

Contributing Authors Include George A. Root And Russell K. Hickman.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft, Lee Howard, And Ray H. Sandefur.

Contributing Authors Include James C. Malin And Cora Dolbee.

Contributing Authors Include George A. Root And Russell K. Hickman.

Contributing Authors Include Robert Taft, George A. Root, William Stanley Hoole, Thomas Amory Lee, O. W. Mosher, Jr. And Kirke Mechem.

Contributing Authors Include Cora Dolbee, George A. Root, Marie A. Olson, James C. Malin And Helen M. McFarland.

Contributing Authors Include Wallace S. Baldinger, Louise Barry, James C. Malin, And Kirke Mechem.

Contributing Authors Include Douglas C. McMurtrie, Walker D. Wyman, George A. Root And Marvin H. Garfield.

Contributing Authors Include Alberta Pantle And Kirke Mechem.

Contributing Authors Include Russell K. Hickman, Stanley Clark And Louise Barry.

Contributing Authors Include Emory Lindquist, Louise Barry, Joseph W. Snell, And Many Others.