Samantha Krueger
Education 386

Kathleen Krull’s Lives of the Musicians: Good Times, Bad Times (And What the Neighbors Thought) has a unique approach to the humorous biographies of twenty popular classically trained musicians. These musicians come in many different shapes, sizes, temperaments, and lifestyles, from the various countries and historical periods, beginning with Vivaldi and ending with Woody Guthrie. The life stories of famous musicians –Bach, Chopin, Tchaikovsky, Woody Gunthrie – are familiar to many. This book emphasizes what the composers were really like, what kind of children they were, how they died, what they wore, how they spent their money, what were their phobias, what were their quirks and bad habits, who were their significant others, and what the neighbors thought.

Krull believes the musicians in this book have something in common. She writes, "About their music, they had a perseverance and single-mindedness that led not only to success, but also to eccentricities, sometimes amusing, sometimes sad." What we think of as acceptable music often caused passion and controversy during its time. Of all these musicians, it could be said that their work shook up the times they lived in: It provoked riots (Stravinsky and Satie), led to three deaths (Prokofiev), required police to control the crowds (Schumann), shaped entire generations of students (Boulanger), created wealthy superstars (Gilbert and Sullivan), was condemned as addictive and immoral (Joplin), and left blood on the piano keys (Gershwin).

The classical music of some of these wonderful composers written about in the book can still raise a person’s emotions and claim new listeners. Actually if Mozart were alive today, he’d be earning $20 million a year from sales of his records. The reason people remember these musicians today is because of their music.

About The Author

Kathleen Krull’s favorite composers are Bach, Joplin, and Satie. She learned to love music from her early childhood years. As a child she enjoyed practicing guitar, piano, organ, violin, viola, and she went on to study music at Northwestern University, the North Shore School of Music, and Lawrence University. She lives in San Diego, California.

About the Illustrator

Kathryn Hewitt, a lover of both music and art, has played piano, guitar, clarinet, autoharp, psaltry, and spoons: she claims that spoons are her favorite, perhaps because of their relevance to food. Her appreciation for the good things in life leads her to paint, read books, and eat chocolate-covered raisins. She and her energetic family live in Santa Monica, California.

Reader Response

I love the way this book is organized. It is organized by the historical timeline of the composer. I especially enjoyed the clever little titles for each of the sections. I think it especially catches the reader’s interest to read a chapter. For example, I read Johannes Brahms’s biography, because it is titled "The Checked Cotton Underwear of Johannes Brahms. Usually a chapter had unique episodes from the composer’s childhood and adult life. The chapter ends with some musical notes about the stories behind the composers’s repertoire.

The emphasis of the book resides on the unique episodes from the composer’s titled chapter. It also has many more juicy tidbits about their personal life. I was really impressed with Kathleen Krull’s knowledge of the composers. After four semesters of music history, there were items that I didn’t even know. For example, I didn’t know that Gershwin could polish off a quart of ice cream in one sitting. I think it is information like this that will pull young reader’s interest to this book. It shows the composers as everyday people with everyday problems. Students can relate to that. For example, students could compare or contrast their childhood upbringing with the childhood upbringing of a famous composer.

This book is a good read for young teenagers, boys and girls alike. For teenage girls there are chapters of the book that address romance and dating. For boys there are chapters of the book that focus on sports. There are also chapters about topics that could interest both boys and girls. For example, the topic of a composer’s favorite food is occasionally discussed in the book’s chapters. Or perhaps the colorful illustrations by Kathryn Hewitt will catch the attention of young readers. Students could get interested in a composer by the book’s illustrations.

The book’s illustrations are just wonderful. The illustrations really catch the reader’s interest. They are drawn to perfection. The first thing I thought about the illustrations is that I could copy off the pictures and decorate my room with them. They are so adorable. It is important to realize how important the pictures are to the chapter. Many of the chapters’s interesting tidbits are drawn in the composer’s caricature.

My Rationale for Selecting This Book

Usually in music classrooms the teacher presents classical composers to have the students learn the composers’ factual repertoire history. As a student in high school, I thought the topic was incredibly boring. I thought, "Why do we need to learn about the history of all these dead people? What made them so important?"

Even my music history training here at UWSP was boring. I liked learning about the composers. However, we would only briefly discuss a composer’s personal history. I found myself wanting to know more about their personal life. This really made sense because I love reading biographies.

This led me to think, "Why can’t students learn about composers’ personal lives as well as their factual repertoire history?" One day my sister came home with a book with composer caricatures in it. I thought it was so clever. It really had interesting details about composers’ personal lives. However, my sister had borrowed the book. I was obsessed. I had to find this book. It was everything I was looking for to answer my question. I was determined. So one day I went book hunting at the Book Look. I found it.

This book really caught my attention. Its focus on the composers’ unique lives really captured my interest. The book was very readable and very humorous. I could see students relating their personal history with that of the composers. I think this was important. I believe students learn best when they relate the material to their personal lives.

I think each composer’s unique history can influence students to learn more about him/her. I also hope it will fascinate them to know more about composers’ lives as well as their music. Therefore, I believe this book will be used in my presentation of composers’ repertoire history in my general music classes.

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