Table of Contents

List of Illustrations
Preface
Electra Slonimsky Yourke
A Note about This Edition

I. Perfect Pitch

1. St. Petersburg

2. My Grandfather Invented the Telegraph

3. Joyless Youth, Joyful Revolution

4. Exodus

5. Paris

6. Rochester

7. Koussevitzkiana

8. Boston Beginnings

9. Three Places in New England

10. Time Out

11. Disaster in Hollywood

12. Puella

13. Lofty Baton to Lowly Pen

14. Jailed Friend

15. Exotic Journeys

16. Interpolation: Grossmutterakkord

17. Back in the Family Fold

18. America Loves Russia

19. I, Diaskeuast!

20. Fame and Fortune

21. The Future of My Past

22. California, Here I Come

23. The Age of Absurdity

II. Oral History and Other Writings

Oral History

Edgard Varèse
1. Conversation with Nicolas Slonimsky on Edgard Varèse
2. Analysis of Ionisation

Heitor Villa-Lobos
1. A Visit
2. The Flamboyant Chanticleer

Cultural Explosion in the U.S.S.R.

Lexicographis Secundus Post Herculem Labor

Index

About the Author

Nicolas Slonimsky (1894–1995) was a Russian-born United-States-based writer, lexicographer, pianist, composer, conductor, and champion of contemporary music. His many books include Thesaurus Of Scales And Melodic Patterns; and Lexicon of Musical Invective: Critical Assaults on Composers Since Beethoven's Time.

Reviews

From the Original Reviews

"A rewarding, compelling and very funny read." — New York Times

"If you combine the Encyclopedia Britannica with a history of music written by Oscar Wilde, you will have something resembling the extraordinary Slonimsky memoirs." — Leonard Bernstein

"Rare is the book that can be praised both for its wisdom and for raucous humor. This is such a book." — Washington Post