Music and Story

About the Book

Music tells stories. Musical stories entertain and stimulate in moments of boredom, they offer solace in times of despair, they create solidarity in times of loneliness, they liberate the imagination and open up visions of a better future. Musical stories also become parts of our personal life narratives that sustain feed us. This book is about the stories that music tells and the beauty and emotional power of these stories.

This book is about the stories that music tells and the beauty and emotional power of these stories. When successful, these stories can provide dazzling insights into the lives that we lead, with its joys and sufferings, its reversals, its errors, deceptions and self-deceptions.

This book offers a panorama of musical stories linked to pieces of classical music that have long fascinated the author, including operas, symphonies, song-cycles and chamber music. A close reading of these stories shows how profoundly music can affect and change the listeners: how it celebrates the triumphs of the human spirit, opening windows into our own unconscious minds, helping us to better understand ourselves, our fellow human beings, politics, religion, leadership, sex, difference, love, death and every other major aspect of human life.

Critical acclaim:

Imagine a friend who loved music, and who would keep saying interesting things about the music they loved. Their taste is not the same as yours, but their comments and stories make you want to listen to some of their favourite music, and also give you a different appreciation of the music that you love. Then imagine that this friend’s interesting comments were grounded in hours and years of intense listening, that they had an unusual perspective to bring to the party (music as story), and that they said it all with grace and eloquence, and with the light touch of a gossip column. That is what this book is like. Enjoy it, and have your streaming device ready to explore! - David Sims, Storyteller, Musician, Emeritus Professor of Organizational Behaviour City University,

In a world where commerce dictates the Arts, it is a joy to read this book , written with love and deep understanding as a heartfelt response to real music by my friend Yiannis, a fellow traveller in search of musical truth! - Bruno Schrecker (cellist with the Allegri String Quartet 1968-1999)

‘This is a book for music lovers’ says Yiannis Gabriel. The notion of love is crucial here. Academic musicology, however useful and insightful, rarely if ever, touches on the subjective experience of listening to music. But to believe that music is an objective experience, which can be adequately explained in scientific (or quasi-scientific) terms, or reduced to a socio-political epiphenomenon, is an illusion - comforting to some perhaps, but deadly when it comes to the individual’s experience of discovering and learning to love a musical work. As with all things that matter to us, we try to make sense of music, not through factual analysis, but by weaving stories in our imaginations. This is both an intensely creative and an intensely personal experience. As the philosopher Ernst Bloch put it, ‘When we listen to music, what we really hear is ourselves.’ Yiannis Gabriel’s book is a highly personal account of his experience of music: of the stories it has told to him and of the life-experiences in which those stories have played a very positive part. Far from being solipsistic or self-indulgent, far from telling us what we should hear when we listen to music, it invites us to follow his example and find stories and meanings of our own within the musical works he loves best. These are those for whom, in Nietzsche’s famous phrase, ‘Without music, life would be a mistake’. On reading this book, the conclusion we reach is that, with music’s help, life is not a mistake, but a creative adventure. - Stephen Johnson, composer, author, musicologist

This is a wonderful book about music. Yiannis Gabriel's depth of knowledge and the infectious enthusiasm he has for the music he loves radiates through every chapter. He makes you think about your own responses to music you already know, and he is also a willing guide to music that may be less familiar. He has listened carefully to more music than most of us, both joyfully and seriously. Read the book, listen to the music, go for a walk. You will feel better for it. - Nigel Beaham-Powell, Composer and Subject Leader in Commercial Music, Bath Spa University

From the golden age of western classical listening, Gabriel’s eloquent voice reminds us how moving classical music can be. - Daniel Leech-Wilkinson, Emeritus Professor of Music, King’s College London

About the Author

Yiannis Gabriel is a Greek psychologist who has spent a large part of his working life studying and writing about myths, stories and narratives. After getting a degree in Mechanical Engineering, he studied social psychology in London and Berkeley obtaining a PhD with a dissertation on Sigmund Freud. He subsequently worked for forty years in British Higher Education institutions, including Imperial College, Royal Holloway and the University of Bath. During this period, he published ten books and numerous articles, edited several journals and ran a storytelling seminar.

As a Greek, he has always been fascinated by myths and stories, using his psychoanalytic knowledge to study narratives as opening valuable windows into many political, cultural and organizational phenomena, including leader-follower relations, nostalgia, insults, apologies, job loss, conspiracy theories and institutional failures. Many of his works explore the relevance of ancient Greek myths for today’s world. This book draws together his fascination with stories with his lifelong love of classical music.

He maintains an active blog at yiannisgabriel.com

Cover design:

The book’s design and artwork by Marianna Gabriel.