We were listening to The Rest is Noise Alex Ross’ audiobook (and book) about music in the twentieth century last night, as myself and the Puffin engaged in our epic knitting response to recessionary Xmas. We began at CD 18. Previously we have listened to some of the early parts but in order to persuade the Puffin of its merits I had suggested it may mention the 80’s band Europe, knowing full well it was unlikely to, but the promise of it would be enough, since Puffin is muy interested in classical music once someone is blathering about it.

CD 18 (the chapter title escapes me) covers the period pretty much up to the present day with some hint of the seventies. It mentioned eight of the most well known contemporary composers by name and pointed out six of them are women. Small voice from sofa rose in astonishment. It’s something I’d never thought of, Puffin said. There are no women composers (by which he means Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart because that’s his current conception of composers. So I had to explain that there were women composers but at the time they weren’t acknowledged or may have written under male names and he should research it. But that the matter struck him in reverse when the narrative was explaining the present was worth noting.

I am particularly impressed by his generation: their questioning, their awareness of the political climate, has to come from the increased interactions with technology something that’s often damned and derided. Yet I see a sophisticated understanding of the world emerging, a questioning that previous generations would have been limited by virtue of the limited dissemination of information. I also can see an impressive bunch of citizen journalists and activists emerging!