Hymns to the Silence: Inside the Words and Music of Van Morrison

Description

Hymns to the Silence is a thoroughly informed and enlightened study of the art of a pop music maverick that will delight fans the world over. In 1991, Van Morrison said, Music is spiritual, the music business isn't. Peter Mills' groundbreaking book investigates the oppositions and harmonies within the work of Van Morrison, proceeding from this identified starting point. Hymns to the Silence is a detailed investigative study of Morrison as singer, performer, lyricist, musician and writer with particular attention paid throughout to the contradictions and tensions that are central to any understanding of his work as a whole. The book takes several intriguing angles. It looks at Morrison as a writer, specifically as an Irish writer who has recorded musical settings of Yeats poems, collaborated with Seamus Heaney, Paul Durcan and Gerald Dawe, and who regularly drops quotes from James Joyce and Samuel Beckett into his live performances. It looks at him as a singer, at how he uses his voice as an interpretive instrument. And there are chapters on his use of mythology, on his stage performances, and on his continuing fascination with America and its musical forms.

Peter Mills is Senior Lecturer in Media & Popular Culture at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. Hewas singer and lyricist for the band Innocents Abroad who made two albums, Quaker City and Eleven. He has taught music, literature and philosophy at universities in the UK , Hungary, Romania and Croatia, and has published work on, amongst others,Samuel Beckett,Olaf Stapledon,Hungarian folk music, Pink Floyd, national anthems and The KLF.

"Littered with sparkling quotes from such artists as Kevin Rowland, Maria McKee, Kate Rusby and Fiachra Trench (themselves armed with an acute knowledge and understanding of Van Morrison's work), I cannot praise this book highly enough. Its investigative validity is agglutination to that of the musical importance of its subject." www.davidmarx.co.uk May 2010 Review on http://www.leedsmet.ac.uk/as/index_news_hymns_to_the_silence.htm "As a highly academic treatment of an artist who deserves as much, Hymns to the Silence is a book that is long overdue, and Peter Mills opens many doors for fellow scholars in a variety of fields:music, literature, Irish studies, among many others. As a comprehensive analysis of Morrison's multi-decade body of work (one that remains very much "in progress" as Iwrite this), Hymns to the Silence should initiate many subsequent conversations across disciplines regarding Morrison's influences, songs, performances, and place in the history of popular music." - John P. McCombe - Popular Music and Society "Hymns to the Silence represents an important contribution to the critical literature on this enigmatic, compelling musician, one that will hopefully inspire both a greater appreciation and a wider acknowledgement of Morrison's achievements." - Gerry Smyth, Irish Studies Review Review on http://www.vanmorrisonnews.blogspot.com "Mills, who clearly holds Morrison in the highest esteem and shows an exhaustive knowledge of the singer's body of work, has written an analysis of interest to academics in the field as well as any devoted fan. The complexities of Morrison's oeuvre are made visible in discussion that encompasses his vocal style; his use of jazz, gospel, folk, and blues; and the meaning and possible symbolism of repeated poetic themes and places in his music. In addition to lines from the songs, many quotations from interviews with Morrison are included." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc. "Mills ... is clearly a huge fan [of Van Morrison] who has drawn a lot of emotional succour from Morrison's work over the years."The Word Magazine Interview with author in Yorkshire Post, 18th June 2010 Record Collector - Terry Staunton -- Terry Staunton Reviewed in Leeds Guide, Wednesday 29th September 'An in-depth, passionate and eloquent study of Van Morrison as a performer both live and in the recording studio' 'It is one of my favourite Morrison songs, a perfect ball of love and desire, belief and rock'n'roll, and, perhaps more oddly, one of the most frequently performed songs at his shows. Peter Mills, in Hymns to the Silence, refers to it as ''this dark horse of a song'' - a way to describe the surprising appeal of a song that was never a hit, but has proved compelling to many.' * The Guardian *