内容简介

　　母亲死后，肯尼科特决心开始学习巴赫最伟大也最复杂的作品《哥德堡变奏曲》，希望从中探寻音乐的意义，乃至生命的意义。

　　母亲一生郁郁寡欢，对待子女尖锐、刻薄甚至歇斯底里。然而在死亡降临之后，回顾她的一生，她是否曾被家人真正了解？

　　练习《哥德堡变奏曲》的过程充满艰辛，它以超高的难度挑战演奏者的自信，同时在情感上让人不得不直面意识最深处、最私密、最孤独的自我。

　　肯尼科特将他应对悲恸与练习乐曲的经历写成了这本《复调》，不断探索并试图回答两个至关重要的问题：

　　怎样才算认识一首乐曲？怎样才算了解一个人？

　　作者简介

　　菲利普·肯尼科特（Philip Kennicott）

　　艺术评论家，古典音乐评论家，普利策奖得主。

　　肯尼科特1988年毕业于耶鲁大学，获得哲学学位。1999年加入《华盛顿邮报》，现任首席艺术与建筑评论家。2000年和2012年，他曾两次入围普利策奖决选，2013年获普利策奖批评类奖项。肯尼科特还曾任《底特律新闻》和《圣路易斯邮报》的首席古典音乐评论家，并为《留声机》《歌剧新闻》等刊物撰写关于古典乐的文章。

　　精彩书评

　　这本书深入阐述了音乐如何渗透我们的生活，关于父母会给孩子造成什么样的创伤，书中也进行了令人心碎的反思。

　　——《华尔街日报》

　　极其感人……肯尼科特用美妙的散文和细致的观察，描绘了一幅关于爱、失去和人类自身的微妙而深刻的画卷。

　　——《华盛顿邮报》

　　《复调》是一本发人深省、非常成功的回忆录，完全符合肯尼科特所设定的标准：每本好书、每首伟大的乐曲都蕴藏着救赎的希望。

　　——NPR新闻书评

　　肯尼科特将一本简单的回忆录变成了闪闪发光的、非线性的冥思。

　　——波士顿环球报

　　这部回忆录温柔、睿智，带有毫不妥协的现实性，同时也很坦诚……简而言之，这本书美丽且出乎意料地令人振奋，它让你同时了解古尔德的《哥德堡变奏曲》和《恰空》，甚至能以全新的思虑性看待这个世界。

　　——《留声机》杂志

Content introduction

After his mother's death, Kennicott decided to study Bach's greatest and most complex work, "Goldberg Variations," hoping to find the meaning of music, and even the meaning of life.

The mother was unhappy all her life and treated her children shrill, mean and even hysterical. But after death, looking back on her life, did she ever really get to know her family?

The process of practicing the Goldberg Variations is arduous, challenging the confidence of the player with extreme difficulty, while emotionally confronting the deepest, most private, most lonely self of consciousness.

Kennicott wrote Polyphony from his experiences coping with grief and practicing music, exploring and trying to answer two crucial questions:

What is it to know a piece of music? What is it to know a person?

About the author

By Philip Kennicott

Art critic, classical music critic, Pulitzer Prize winner.

Kennicott graduated from Yale University in 1988 with a degree in philosophy. He joined the Washington Post in 1999 and is now its chief art and architecture critic. He was a finalist for the Pulitzer Prize twice, in 2000 and 2012, and won the Pulitzer Prize for Criticism in 2013. Kennicott has also been chief classical music critic for the Detroit News and the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, and has written about classical music for such publications as Gramophone and Opera News.

Wonderful book review

The book is an in-depth look at how music permeates our lives and a heart-wrenching reflection on the trauma parents can inflict on their children.

-- The Wall Street Journal

Extremely moving... With beautiful prose and meticulous observations, Kennicott paints a nuanced and profound picture of love, loss, and humanity itself.

-- The Washington Post

"Polyphony" is a thought-provoking, highly successful memoir that meets the standard Kennicott has set: every good book, every great piece of music contains the hope of redemption.

-- NPR News Book Review

Kennicott turns a simple memoir into a shimmering, non-linear meditation.

-- The Boston Globe

The memoir is gentle, intelligent, uncompromising in its realism, but also honest... In short, it's a beautiful and unexpectedly uplifting book that lets you learn about Gould's Goldberg Variations and Chacon at the same time, and even see the world in a new and thoughtful way.

-- Gramophone magazine