In this last week of June, we keep exploring the theme of "Music and Art" in our 2019 Reading Challenge with a book that contains art and a book that contains music.
Sharon read a book about Margaret Olley, who was born on the 24 June, 1923, so seems a perfect choice for this week. It contains colour plates of many of her works, so you can see plenty of art in this book.
Brenda reviewed a "real book" - which sounds a bit odd until you know that a lot of music books (particularly for jazz) are called "fake books". "Fake books" give you chords and melody, so casual musicians and buskers can "fake it", and many of them might be sidestepping copyright a bit. "Real books" are... well, technically they're also "fake books", but they're legally approved and might give you more detailed musical notation so more "serious" musicians can play the songs like the original recordings. It's a fun world, isn't it?
Sharon Bryan read Margaret Olley, by Christine France.
Reading this book has left me a little in two minds as to what I want to say about it. I want to talk about what's in the book, but I also want to talk about what's not in the book. I'm going to try to do both.
To start with, this is a cross between a biography and a catalogue. It was published in 1990, while Olley was still alive, and consists of a short, four chapter overview of her life that draws attention to the works that take up the rest of the book. A four-chapter biography is a perfect introduction, and being able to see Olley's works in chronological order also helps you see how she grew as an artist over the decades. It's never explained why there are two sections for the reproductions (colour plates vs black-and-white figures), and I really wish the whole book had been in colour. Perhaps that was some sort of publication/cost thing at the time.
As an introduction to Olley and her art, it was a great book and I really enjoyed it. But...
But I didn't know much about the Australian art scene in the mid-20th century, and I didn't know until I read this book that Olley was a close friend of Donald Friend and used to visit him for long stretches of time in Bali. Donald Friend was a self-confessed, unrepentant pederast who abused underage boys in Bali (no doubt it wasn't just a Bali problem, but it was something that happened in Bali - it's famously documented in both his diaries and his art, as he painted portraits of the boys he molested). It is highly possible this is something Christine France would have known as she was writing this biography, as she had access to at least some of Friend's (then unpublished) diaries.
None of this was mentioned in the book, and I was left with a lot of lingering questions about what Olley knew of Friend's abuses, and what her response was to them. Perhaps, like a surprisingly large portion of the Australian art world (and potentially this book itself), she just decided to ignore it. Or, perhaps Friend's behaviour was better hidden from his friends at the time - it's hard to tell when reading a book that was produced before Friend's paedophilia became public knowledge. But now I'm in a strange place where I have a new-found appreciation for Olley, and some serious reservations about her at the same time.
Non-Fiction, Australian author I haven't read before 759.994 OLL/FRA
Sharon read a book about Margaret Olley, who was born on the 24 June, 1923, so seems a perfect choice for this week. It contains colour plates of many of her works, so you can see plenty of art in this book.
Brenda reviewed a "real book" - which sounds a bit odd until you know that a lot of music books (particularly for jazz) are called "fake books". "Fake books" give you chords and melody, so casual musicians and buskers can "fake it", and many of them might be sidestepping copyright a bit. "Real books" are... well, technically they're also "fake books", but they're legally approved and might give you more detailed musical notation so more "serious" musicians can play the songs like the original recordings. It's a fun world, isn't it?
Sharon Bryan read Margaret Olley, by Christine France.
To start with, this is a cross between a biography and a catalogue. It was published in 1990, while Olley was still alive, and consists of a short, four chapter overview of her life that draws attention to the works that take up the rest of the book. A four-chapter biography is a perfect introduction, and being able to see Olley's works in chronological order also helps you see how she grew as an artist over the decades. It's never explained why there are two sections for the reproductions (colour plates vs black-and-white figures), and I really wish the whole book had been in colour. Perhaps that was some sort of publication/cost thing at the time.
As an introduction to Olley and her art, it was a great book and I really enjoyed it. But...
But I didn't know much about the Australian art scene in the mid-20th century, and I didn't know until I read this book that Olley was a close friend of Donald Friend and used to visit him for long stretches of time in Bali. Donald Friend was a self-confessed, unrepentant pederast who abused underage boys in Bali (no doubt it wasn't just a Bali problem, but it was something that happened in Bali - it's famously documented in both his diaries and his art, as he painted portraits of the boys he molested). It is highly possible this is something Christine France would have known as she was writing this biography, as she had access to at least some of Friend's (then unpublished) diaries.
None of this was mentioned in the book, and I was left with a lot of lingering questions about what Olley knew of Friend's abuses, and what her response was to them. Perhaps, like a surprisingly large portion of the Australian art world (and potentially this book itself), she just decided to ignore it. Or, perhaps Friend's behaviour was better hidden from his friends at the time - it's hard to tell when reading a book that was produced before Friend's paedophilia became public knowledge. But now I'm in a strange place where I have a new-found appreciation for Olley, and some serious reservations about her at the same time.
Non-Fiction, Australian author I haven't read before 759.994 OLL/FRA
Brenda Carter read The New Real Book: Jazz Classics, Choice Standards,
Pop-Fusion Classics : Created by Musicians - for Musicians.
What a find! This is
the first volume of three ‘real books’ (a more legally sanctioned kind of 'fake book') of jazz standards musical scores,
endorsed by Chick Corea, Jamey Aebersold, McCoy Tyner, Ron
Carter and Richie Beirach, among others.
The New Real Book contains accurate, easy-to-read charts for hundreds of the most important tunes
in the jazz canon, including favourites
such as ‘Basin Street Blues’, ‘Nature Boy’, and ‘Blame
it on my youth’. All living composers have approved these charts; many of them are from
the composer's own lead sheets. Charts for the
standards were derived from a consensus of the best recorded jazz versions. The
Index of Tunes shows the range of tunes included, but the library also holds Volume
2 and Volume
3 for even
more charts.
Whether you are a musician, jazz fan or would
just like to expand your musical knowledge, the series of New Real Jazz Books
are an essential resource.
Non-fiction, Author I haven’t read before, 786 NEW
Comments