Soundscapes: A Musician's Journey through Life and Death

(Paperback, Main)

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In 2008, the renowned violinist Paul Robertson suffered a ruptured aorta. After dying momentarily on the operating table, he remained in a coma for many weeks. During this time, he experienced visions which afforded him a profound insight into the relationship between music and the mind. When he awoke, he found his understanding of the world - and beyond - fundamentally altered.

This surprising and rewarding memoir offers a singular perspective on creative endeavour: the rigours of learning, the challenges of performance and the spiritual nourishment that drives us on. It is a poignant and wise book that draws on a lifetime's experiences, in both life and death.

Reviews

Absolutely remarkable ... an incredible gift to leave the world. - Tom Service A fascinating, honest and moving book. - Ivan Hewett, Sunday Telegraph Robertson, who died in July, was the founder and leader of the Medici Quartet, having come from an unconventional wrong-side-of-the-tracks background for a classical musician. Like Dusinberre he focuses on Beethoven, but this is also an extremely personal book, in which a near-death experience as the result of a stroke leads to an idiosyncratic but absorbing meditation on the relationship between music and mysticism. - Adam Lively Sunday Times In 2008, during an operation to repair a torn aorta, Robertson spent a lengthy period clinically dead. From his out-of-body experiences grows a new understanding. The leader of the Medici String Quartet, who died in August, tells of becoming a musician, his mentors, his life with the string quartet, and how music can aspire to a higher state of consciousness. - Richard Fairman Financial Times Soundscapes isn't just a book for violinists, quartet players or those fascinated by the interface between mind and music ... a timely memoir following Robertson's all-too-early death. - BBC Music Magazine [A] delightful memoir full of bizarre anecdotes, intriguing thoughts and, most of all, amusing stories. What begins as an alarming attempt to explain the nature of our place in the universe - after a welcome death, we unite in harmony with the cosmos - turns into an extraordinary man's life and its deep links to the music that has always been his guide ... [an] engaging, guileless book. - Jewish Chronicle

Author Bio

For nearly forty years Professor Paul Robertson performed throughout the world as leader of the internationally renowned Medici String Quartet, of which he was a founder member. They recorded and broadcast prolifically and appeared at International Festivals across four continents. He died in 2016.