While the Music Lasts
A Memoir of Music, Grief and Joy
Published on 27. March 2025
Book
Hardback
320 pages
978-1-914613-63-0 (ISBN)
Description
A TLS BOOK OF THE YEAR
'As finely tuned as the very best of orchestras. I loved it' Alice Vincent, author of Why Women Grow
When her father dies, music historian and trombonist Dr Emily MacGregor finds that music has become too much. Listening, let alone playing, music is suddenly too difficult. This is problematic given that she's a broadcaster, writer and academic working with classical music.
It leads her on a journey of discovery: from the arrangement of an Isaac Albeniz piece she finds on her father's guitar stand, through encounters with psychologists, orchestras, summer schools and funeral celebrants, to the lives and works of individual composers who wrote music so often in the midst of loss. What is it about our experience of music that cuts so sharply to the heart of our emotions? And why is it more than any other artform painfully, exquisitely crucial in the evoking of memories?
An erudite, lyrical, gently humorous and healing journey to rediscover the purpose of making and participating in music.
'As finely tuned as the very best of orchestras. I loved it' Alice Vincent, author of Why Women Grow
When her father dies, music historian and trombonist Dr Emily MacGregor finds that music has become too much. Listening, let alone playing, music is suddenly too difficult. This is problematic given that she's a broadcaster, writer and academic working with classical music.
It leads her on a journey of discovery: from the arrangement of an Isaac Albeniz piece she finds on her father's guitar stand, through encounters with psychologists, orchestras, summer schools and funeral celebrants, to the lives and works of individual composers who wrote music so often in the midst of loss. What is it about our experience of music that cuts so sharply to the heart of our emotions? And why is it more than any other artform painfully, exquisitely crucial in the evoking of memories?
An erudite, lyrical, gently humorous and healing journey to rediscover the purpose of making and participating in music.
Reviews / Votes
'Beautifully written. By turns moving and funny, Emily MacGregor's debut is a powerful testament that music is life' Michael Spitzer, author of The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth 'A book about grief that transforms into a book about life. MacGregor explores her relationships and work with an intensity leavened by warmth and wry humour. Finally, joyously, music and love break through' Laura Tunbridge, author of Beethoven: A Life in Nine Pieces 'While the Music Lasts combines the grace and erudition of a great essayist with the deep and howling humanity of a proper novel. It's the best book I've read on grief - and possibly one of the finest on music too. Make no mistake, this is the heavy stuff, but I can think of no better nor more brilliant guide than Emily MacGregor' Oskar Jensen, author of Vagabonds 'Emily MacGregor takes two things people are often scared of - classical music, and death - and made them winningly accessible, warm, funny and real. This book is as finely tuned as the very best of orchestras. I loved it' Alice Vincent, author of Why Women Grow and Hark 'A profound, erudite and moving book about grief and a personal unwinding that slowly becomes about so much more: about families, dogs, friends, sounds, language, travel and silence. A meditation on what it means to be human - constantly witty, wistful and stimulating' Tobias Jones, author of The Dark Heart of Italy 'This is a book about all the big things in life - time, memory, grief, death, the loss of a parent. It's also about music and (just possibly) its power to save us' Rachel Morris, author of The Museum Makers 'Touching and beautifully crafted' Sir Stephen Hough, composer and pianist 'MacGregor is good in contrasting the amateur experience of music and the chillier, more codified relationship of the professional' Gramophone 'In this beautiful, moving, and rigorously honest memoir, we are taken on an emotional, musical, and geographical journey, and into a dialogue with organised sound as she navigates her anger... Anyone who has lost a loved one will empathise with MacGregor's journey' Jonathan Arnold, Church TimesMore details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Duckworth Books
Dimensions
Height: 145 mm
Width: 224 mm
Thickness: 31 mm
Weight
426 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-914613-63-0 (9781914613630)
Copyright in bibliographic data and cover images is held by Nielsen Book Services Limited or by the publishers or by their respective licensors: all rights reserved.
Schweitzer Classification
Person
Dr Emily MacGregor is a writer, broadcaster, and music historian. She appears regularly on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and has written for the Guardian. Her academic CV includes a doctorate from Oxford University and subsequent research positions at Harvard University and King's College London, where she's currently based. She's the author of Interwar Symphonies and the Imagination: Politics, Identity, and the Sound of 1933 (Cambridge University Press) and is winner of the Jerome Roche Prize. Emily cohabits in London with an unapologetically fluffy dog.