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Catherine is an Irish woman who is musical. She becomes a pianist and a composer. MacLaverty got the musical bits exactly right in my opinion. Music is hard to describe in words yet he did so with excellence. MacLaverty unfolds this wonderfully well, enough to keep you interested but not so much that you want to throw the book across the room. He writes well, so well that I was surprised when I happened upon a disjoint. These disjoints clashed with the seamlessness of most of the book.
Overall this was an enjoyable book especially if you enjoy classical music. View all 4 comments. Nov 06, Krista rated it really liked it Shelves: Ever wonder how a musician composes? From whence the inspiration comes? This novel offers a glimpse, even as it also narrates the professional and personal challenges of being a post modern woman.
A lovely, honest, intensely real portrait that ponders questions of life, religion, and art -- particularly the question of where redemption is found Dec 06, Rob Twinem rated it liked it. Catherine McKenna returns home for a visit to her family in Belfast following the death of her father. The usual tensions still remain in the Provence a closed people at war with eachother the petty minded hatred of one religious side against the other. Against this background we learn of Catherine's career as composer and her rise to fame and adoration that she now receives from an adoring public.
A pleasant read but not my favourite by Bernard MacLaverty. Decent writing, easy reading, but not my kind of story. Jun 24, Phil rated it it was amazing Shelves: I finished reading this deeply moving novel three days ago and since then have been trying to organize my thoughts and reactions into a sort of review. What does the title mean? Catherine, the protagonist, is a musician. Grace notes in music are notes that embellish, but do not affect, the melody line.
Having a musical background, and having read this book and thought about it, I am not sure what there is anything that embellishes, but does not affect the story line. Another definition of grace is I finished reading this deeply moving novel three days ago and since then have been trying to organize my thoughts and reactions into a sort of review. Another definition of grace is: Notes is an equally ambiguous word: Catherine grew up in a loving, conservative, Catholic family in a town in Northern Ireland. Musically gifted, she leaves home to study in Glasgow, where she finishes with honors.
Breaking out of what she sees as the narrowness of her upbringing, she becomes estranged from her parents. She takes a job teaching music at a school on the island of Islay, Scotland, where she hopes she can devote herself to musical composition. But in her isolation and loneliness, she takes up with a man completely beneath her, and falls pregnant. The book can be described as two complementary novellas, a novel containing two ending.
The tension between daughter and mother is palpable, especially when her mother learns for the first time that she has a granddaughter over a year old and still unbaptized. The only potentially bright moment while home is visiting her first piano teacher, who is clearly dying. The second novella contains a magnificent crescendo, as she composes her piece, revises it with the conductor, sees it through rehearsal, and finally, finally. I did not find found anything extraneous to the melody of the plot, but well-modulated elegance and refinement noted every step of the way.
Nov 26, Sandy rated it really liked it. MacLaverty's mastery is awesome!
A grace note is a kind of music notation denoting several kinds of musical ornaments. The heroine of the story has post-natal depression, and is a very creative young woman who composes her own music. Notify me of follow-up comments by email. Harrowing description of post-partum depression -- or any depression for that matter. From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia. Your email address will not be published.
The story reads like a piece of well-crafted music. Love that the many human failings are wrapped up into a concert performance. Dec 09, Elaine rated it it was amazing. I am always skeptical when a male author has a woman protagonist -- and in this case, a woman protagonist who goes through childbirth. But darn if MacLaverty didn't pull it off so well that I had to go back and check that the author really was a man. He captures the relationship between Ireland and Scotland so well, and between the Scottish isles and the mainland cities. I only wished I knew more about musical composition, so I could have followed the protagonist's musical work composing and pl I am always skeptical when a male author has a woman protagonist -- and in this case, a woman protagonist who goes through childbirth.
I only wished I knew more about musical composition, so I could have followed the protagonist's musical work composing and playing more closely. It still works, but given his fluency in describing everything else from internal post-partum angst to the fishing life in the Scottish isles, I'm sure I would have been treated to a very insightful view of composing as well.
This was a truly beautiful novel. I am always a bit skeptic about male authors writing delicate experiences such as depression from a woman's point of view especially if it's postpartum depression but MacLaverty did a wonderful job telling the story of Catherine. It is very difficult to portray the ups and downs of a mental illness such as depression and the stigma that comes with it, especially as a woman but the way he weaves Catherine's trauma and feelings with her love for music as a healin This was a truly beautiful novel.
It is very difficult to portray the ups and downs of a mental illness such as depression and the stigma that comes with it, especially as a woman but the way he weaves Catherine's trauma and feelings with her love for music as a healing tool is incredible. I cannot recommend it enough. Jun 14, Merilee rated it it was amazing.
This book, about a young, Irish composer who mainly lives on an island off Scotland, is absolutely pitch-perfect. I kept having to remind myself that the female narrator was written by a man. View all 8 comments. May 28, Cynthia Paschen rated it really liked it Recommended to Cynthia by: One of those books where you keep saying, "This was written by a MAN? The author knows a lot about post-partum depression and music. May 27, Theresa rated it really liked it. The author weaves together a fine contrapuntal story of musical composition, loss of a parent, young motherhood, relationship angst, and postpartum depression.
The story itself is depressing at times, but eventually also life-affirming. He manages to speak from a feminine POV very convincingly, and knows quite a bit about musical trends of the time. I Want to Hear the Music Breathtaking. When I realized that the story was actually the music I was entranced. A must read for music lovers. And lovers of powerful stories. Mar 26, Alan Swift rated it really liked it. This novel made me want to listen to classical music. It is wonderfully well observed,honest and at times raw.
It tells the story of Catherine and how she recalls her young life through her musical composition. The writing is superb and the rhythm of the book pulls the reader along as Catherine comes to terms with her depression and the tensions with her family at home in Ireland. Nov 16, Laura Santoski rated it liked it.
This was fine and interesting, but definitely a little slow. Oct 12, Alex Nye rated it it was amazing.
However, I do remember precisely when and where I read it, and why it was so important to me. I read it on Calgary Beach during a summer vacation on the Isle of Mull. The title itself was significant, as was the content. The heroine of the story has post-natal depression, and is a very creative young woman who composes her own music. The sounds she hears around her, and her memories of her childhood in Northern Ireland, all inform her creative output.
Like many young mothers, after the birth of my second child I simply could not bear to read anything too heavy or distressing at the time - I even had to avoid watching news items on the TV - and as I had always been such an avid reader of literature, I missed being able to read 'proper stuff'. The town where I lived had recently suffered a terrible tragedy involving the deaths of very young children, in such a way that I felt unable to read about anything sad which might trigger those thoughts. After a year, I came across Grace Notes, read the blurb, and realised this was probably going to be the book that would ease me back into 'serious and challenging literature'.
I read it sitting on the white sand of a remote Hebridean island, with a blue sky above and a sharp wind chill factor in the air. It was Scotland, after all. Thank you, Bernard MacLaverty! As the book begins, there were some hints of mystery to it. This is one of those books that I picked up without paying too much attention to the blurb and as it happens, it is exactly as described and no more: May 18, Sarah rated it really liked it Shelves: It also broke my heart a little What I probably liked the most was the way that it made me think differently about classical music and composition.
Such a fascinating feat, to write about music with words, and to do such a beautiful job conveying it. I have been listening to classical music with new ears since finishing I liked it. I have been listening to classical music with new ears since finishing this book. More or less a one-character book, inside the head of a single person. Maybe the best female character by a male writer I've seen. Harrowing description of post-partum depression -- or any depression for that matter. A little disturbing how casual she is with her antidepressant medication; this isn't an aspirin, but needs to be taken consistently to have effect.
Very enjoyable description of the perception and process of music composition, and performance. Jul 29, Anne rated it liked it. Grace Notes was a good book but it jumped around in time a lot, in ways that I did not always enjoy. It turned out to be about postpartum depression as well as musical genius, which was very interesting. I'm glad I stuck it out to the end, which was very interesting, but it was hard for a while. Another of the books voted for by members in our local library's Perfect Library List.
Such a joy to find so many great books on hand in this display. And this is one. Great storytelling with authoritative insight into both characters and the underlying musicality. Apr 10, Marsha Sullivan rated it it was ok. Sentence structure like gunshots, short, rapid. So so story about young woman from Belfast in depression, who writes music. Oct 12, Karen B rated it did not like it. The best part of this book happens in the last chapter.
MacLaverty's writing of way the Catherine's musical Suite mimics her life is brilliant. Wish the rest of the book was near as good. Oct 27, GS Seda rated it really liked it. I was a little circumspect picking it up to read because I thought - incorrectly as it turned out - that it would be quite intimidating if one is not totally au fait with musical concepts, genres, and symbols. However, as I progressed through its pages, I was happy to discover that the writer has woven a sensitive, tender tale in which art intersects with life and its vicissitudes in a delectable manner revealing a cathartic process that is both triumphant and inspiring.
Catherine McKenna is the only child of Irish parents, living in a small town close to Belfast. Somehow, during her education in Scotland, she ends up disappointing her parents, first by drifting away from the Catholic faith that her deeply religious parents tried to induct her into during her early years, and subsequently, by bearing a child out of wedlock. Catherine's art is struggling due to post-natal depression.
She is overwhelmed by the demands of motherhood and is mortally afraid that she may end up harming her daughter Anna who she unbearably adores. She seeks redemption in composing a symphony that is a part of a program commissioned by BBC and broadcast to several countries. Her emotional turbulence is further accentuated by the passing away of her beloved father unaware of her motherhood.
She visits her old home to attend his funeral and ends up further alienating her mother who does not take the news of her pregnancy and motherhood kindly. Let me point at an oddity in the structure of the book. The story unfolds non-chronologically with the events in the second half of the book actually occurring earlier than those described in the first half. Bernard MacLaverty manages to convey with tenderness and sensitivity the struggle that Catherine undergoes to find that elusive balance between three forces that are buffeting her life — her catholic heritage one against which she rebels , her motherhood that leaves her overwrought, and her art that nurtures her soul.
She is craving for creative independence in a field that is dominated by men, where hardly any woman has made a mark. I mentioned at the beginning of the review that I was not sure whether I would be able to enjoy a book with classical music as it theme - a field that I have yet to learn how to appreciate fully. At yet another place in the book, he dwells at length on reading music exactly as looking at a painting and, as an example, uses a Vermeer painting to highlight the cadence and nuances of musical notes.
I will go with 4 out of 5. MacLaverty is from Belfast but moved to Scotland in his thirties. Grace Notes is partly set on Islay, with some scenes in Glasgow. However, Part One occurs entirely in Northern Ireland to where Catherine Anne McKenna is returning to her childhood home for the funeral of her father. Such a group of small printed notes may or may not have an accompanying principal note, and so may or may not be considered as grace notes in analysis.
A grace note represents an ornament , and distinguishing whether a given singular grace note is to be played as an appoggiatura or acciaccatura in the performance practice of a given historical period or in the practice of a given composer is usually the subject of lively debate. This is because we must rely on literary, interpretative accounts of performance practice in those days before such time as audio recording was implemented, and even then, only a composer's personal or sanctioned recording could directly document usage.
As either an appoggiatura or an acciaccatura , grace notes occur as notes of short duration before the sounding of the relatively longer-lasting note which immediately follows them. This longer note, to which any grace notes can be considered harmonically and melodically subservient except in the cases of certain appoggiaturas, in which the ornament may be held for a longer duration than the note it ornaments , is called the principal in relation to the grace notes.
A Grace note or notes is always noted in terms of exactly half of its principal note, but may be double or more. Where they are multiple, their proper notation must always equal exactly half of the principal note. If the principal note is a quarter-note the grace note must be notated as an eighth- note, two sixteenth notes, four thirty-second notes, or eight sixty-fourth notes, if we are to set aside the concept of unnatural subdivisions of the beat such as the triplet, etc.
Grace notes, unlike what are referred to as cue-notes , never affect the rhythmic subdivision, or musical "count" of the bar in which they are contained - and therefore, do not require other notes to be dropped from the bar to keep the time signature intact. In bagpipe music there is extensive use of grace notes. Indeed, because the chanter is not tongued but supplied by a continuous air source from the bag, grace notes are sometimes the only way to differentiate between notes.
For example, inserting a grace note between two crotchets quarter notes played at the same pitch is the only way to indicate them as opposed to them sounding like a single minim half note. Various multiple grace note ornaments are formalised into distinct types, such as doublings , throws , and birls. A single grace note is played on the beat as is the first grace note of a complex ornament such as a doubling. Some complex ornaments, such as taorluath can be played starting or ending on the beat. Grace notes are typically played as short as possible by lifting the fingers quickly and a short distance off the chanter.
In modern editions of Western classical works, editors often seek to eliminate the potential for different interpretations of ornamental symbology, of which grace notes are a prime example, by converting a composer's original ornamental notation into literal notation, the interpretation of which is far less subject to variation. Most modern composers, although by no means all of them, have followed this trend in the prima facie notation of their works. In the context of Indian classical music Hindustani North Indian , Carnatic South Indian some specific forms of notes swara-s fulfill the technique of playing a note swara.
Such ornamentic in Indian Classical Music is important for the proper rendition and essential to create the beauty of a raga. These grace notes acciaccatura are often referred to as sparsh-swars. Kan-swars or sparsh-swars can be executed vocally and on instruments in three ways:. In a book on Sitar compositions, Kan has been defined as 'fast deflection which can be approached while descending or ascending'.
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.