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Abstract This is an intensely moving, as well as a very important book. It is the story of a distinguished American composer virtually stopping his ‘abstract’ composing, as it were, in mid-career and using his talents and energies to discover ways of helping by music mentally deprived children. I imagine Paul Nordoff previously knew little of this tragic side of life, and it was a shattering experience for him to come into contact with it: a glance at the illustrations at the back of this book can give a hint of that. This quietly written account of his and Mr. Robbins’ patient experiments, their journeys into the obscured world of these children, will not easily be forgotten.I am not qualified to comment on the importance of the psychological cures that these two men have achieved, nor of the extension of diagnosis. But this I can say-the book is as well highly important for musicians, particularly composers. At this curious moment in musical history the validity of communication in art has itself been called in question, and it is wonderful to have a book where the concentration is entirely on just this, on communication pure and simple. Any and every form of musical style and technique is tried and used: scales, old and new, chords, rhythms, new kinds of instruments-I long to introduce my friend Rostropovich to the one-stringed ‘cello, to find out what he could do with it. It is indeed salutary to have a description of a composer humbly and un-self-consciously indulging in every sort of freedom, and being guided solely by his success in communicating with, and concern for the wellbeing of, his young, sick listeners. I can recommend this book wholeheartedly not only to humanitarian readers, but to my musical colleagues as well.We can all learn from it.
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