Looking for the Harp Quartet

This book is a philosophical tour through the experience of beauty: what it is and how the composer performer and listener all contribute. It explores -- with insight patience and humor -- profound issues at the essence of our experience. A student performance of Beethoven's String Quartet No. 10 in E-Flat Major known as the Harp serves as a point of departure and a recurring theme. For the layperson the core of the book is five dialogues betweenIcarus an inquiring student intensely concerned with fulfilling his highest potential as a musician and Daedalus a curmudgeonly iconoclastic teacher who guides Icarus's search. Three technical articles geared to the music professional and academic treat the issues in greater depth. <br> Supplementary online audio files and musical examples. <p/> Markand Thakar music director of the Baltimore Chamber Orchestra is an internationally renownedpedagogue of conducting. A protégé of the legendary Sergiu Celibidache and former assistant conductor of the New York Philharmonic Thakar is author of On the Principles and Practice of Conducting (University of RochesterPress 2016) and Counterpoint: Fundamentals of Music Making (Yale University Press 1990).