APRIL 2022 - AudioFile
With its mix of science, philosophy and memoir, Natalie Hodges’s audiobook debut is difficult to characterize. But whatever the genre, narrator Cindy Kay embraces this “Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time” in all its quirkiness. Hodges dreamed of being a solo violinist but struggled with performance anxiety. Here she explores her experiences from several perspectives, touching on neuroscience and physics. But the most engaging sections are those in which she shares the stories of her abusive father and her mother—who emigrated from Korea, put herself through Harvard, and imparted her love of music. In these reflections Kay’s voice feels the warmest—the most in tune with the author’s personal struggles and the insights that helped her overcome them. D.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Publishers Weekly
★ 11/29/2021
Korean American violinist Hodges debuts with a literary mosaic of invention, inquiry, and wonder that interrogates classical music, quantum entanglement, the Tiger Mother stereotype, and the fluidity of time. The through line is her lifelong study of the violin and how her chronic performance anxiety (“nothing more or less than my fear of relinquishing control over the moment”) ended her dreams of becoming a concert solo violinist in her early 20s. To understand how she arrived at that point, she delves into the psychology of musicality, arguing “the desire to make music is as much a desire to assert the individual self as to connect with others.” She profiles Gabriela Montero, a classical music outlier whose improvisational talents have fascinated neuroscientists; pays tribute to her mother, a Korean immigrant who gave up music to become a lawyer after graduating from Harvard; condemns her father, a white New England blue blood who thought his children’s violin playing “smacked of ‘middle-class’ immigrant striving”; and looks to quantum physics to reshape her past ambitions into a “more expansive” love for music. In restrained yet lyrical prose, Hodges moves toward a kind of liberation through and from the “closed system of the canon” to offer a luminous meditation on the ways in which art, freedom, and identity intertwine. This impresses at every turn. (Mar.)
Shelf Awareness (starred review)
Bridge[s] the time-space continuum in musical terms…A book to savor.”
From the Publisher
National Book Award Longlist
Saroyan Prize Shortlist
NPR “Best Books of the Year” selection
Smithsonian Magazine “Best Books of the Year” selection
Marginalian “Favorite Books of the Year” selection
New York Times “Editors’ Choice” selection
Poets & Writers “Page One” selection
Reading Group Choices “Top Picks” selection
“Uncommon and genre-defying.” —Alexandra Jacobs, New York Times
“Incandescent.” —Kat Chow, New York Times Book Review
“Hodges undertakes a captivating study of the science of time—physics and music—in this very special memoir that defies categorization.” —NPR
“[Uncommon Measure] will resonate with both music and science lovers alike, who will appreciate the bridges Hodges draws between scientific disciplines, music theory and her life.” —Shi En Kim, Smithsoniam Magazine
“Hodges considers the elemental truth pulsating beneath our experience of music and of our very lives.” —Maria Popova, Marginalian
“This is one those rare books that inspires one to go back time and again to re-read a sentence simply because of the elegance and penetrating insight with which it is written. . . . Unputdownable.” —Julian Haylock, The Strad
“Uncommon Measure is a memoir in essays, but twists the genre by infusing it with neuroscience, physics and intoxicating descriptions of music. . . . Relatable and elegant. . . . An enchanting look into the world of classical music and beyond.” —Hana Zittel, Birdy magazine
“With carefully wrought lyricism, Hodges provides music history and mature insight.” —Martha Anne Toll, Electric Literature
“Uncommon Measure is an uncommon book, both in topic and technique. . . . I couldn’t help falling in love with Natalie Hodges’ bittersweet nostalgia, dry wit, and seductive, ‘backstage pass’ point of view.” —Grace Utomo, International Examiner
“Korean American violinist Hodges debuts with a literary mosaic of invention, inquiry, and wonder that interrogates classical music, quantum entanglement, the Tiger Mother stereotype, and the fluidity of time. . . . In restrained yet lyrical prose, Hodges . . . offer[s] a luminous meditation on the ways in which art, freedom, and identity intertwine. This impresses at every turn.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“Masterful. . . . [Hodges’s] writing is deeply intelligent and exquisitely personal, expertly balancing emotional vulnerability with trenchant analysis, and her lyrical prose and clarity of thought render each page a pleasure to read.” —Kirkus Reviews (starred review)
“Bridge[s] the time-space continuum in musical terms. . . . A book to savor.” —Shelf Awareness (starred review)
“A dazzling look at memory and the universe. . . . Hodges ponders these puzzles with intellectual depth, unique perspectives, and an artistic, eloquent, and inspiring voice.” —Booklist
“Poignant. . . . [Uncommon Measure] makes a valuable contribution to the ever-expanding universe of works addressing science and music.” —Library Journal
“Natalie Hodges is a musician with a poet’s soul and a writer with a musician’s heart. Her prose partita, Uncommon Measure, is an extraordinary translation of music, devotion, and sorrow into the literary, recounting her relinquishment of a performance career and her continued love of music. In these pages, if no longer on the stage, she is brilliantly making us hear.” —Susan Faludi, author of Backlash and In the Darkroom
“Uncommon Measure is astonishingly assured and inventive. Mixing personal reflection, reportage, literary criticism, music theory, neurology, even evolutionary studies, Hodges has pulled off something singular and wonderful. From the first page to the last, the book rides on the high wire of Hodges’s virtuosic voice. It is shot through with a sinuous, luminous energy.” —Darcy Frey, author of The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams
“There is not a sentence in Hodges’s Uncommon Measure that does not illumine, not a single insight that doesn’t lead on to a still greater one, not a moment that does not open us to wonder. In searching and visionary prose, Hodges comes close to creating a new language, one of continual questioning and delight. This is an exquisite book to be read and reread, a treasure.” —Richard Hoffman, author of Half the House and Love & Fury
“Hodges is a new, valuable voice in the world of music making and music writing. She moves with elegance from her own experience as a violinist to the scientific underpinnings of her subject: from math, physics, and neurology to quantum mechanics, biology, and entanglement theory. Uncommon Measure is a welcome debut from a wonderfully talented writer.” —Annik LaFarge, author of Chasing Chopin
Library Journal
12/01/2021
Violinist Hodges delves into the intersection of music and time, alternating personal narratives about her journey to become a serious classical musician with explorations of the minutiae of quantum physics, notions of entrainment and temporality, and brain wave experiments performed on pianist-improviser Gabriela Montero. Hodges's frustrations while learning violin pieces and trying to please her parents and teachers will resonate with both amateur and professional musicians. For her technical discourses, she cites luminaries such as Stephen Hawking and Richard Feynman and sustains her arguments with recent and historical references, as evidenced in the thorough chapter bibliographies. Hodges is at her best when she opens up about her mother's experiences as a Korean immigrant in Denver and her own struggles with performance anxiety and the challenges of mastering violin warhorses by Johann Sebastian Bach and Niccolo Paganini; these poignant chapters will leave readers emotionally drained but richly rewarded. However, the fascinating science lessons will engage the more scientifically motivated but may prove heavy going for those without the requisite background. VERDICT In all, this title makes a valuable contribution to the ever-expanding universe of works addressing science and music, two seemingly disparate fields that have surprisingly much in common.—Barry Zaslow, Miami Univ. Libs., Oxford, OH
APRIL 2022 - AudioFile
With its mix of science, philosophy and memoir, Natalie Hodges’s audiobook debut is difficult to characterize. But whatever the genre, narrator Cindy Kay embraces this “Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time” in all its quirkiness. Hodges dreamed of being a solo violinist but struggled with performance anxiety. Here she explores her experiences from several perspectives, touching on neuroscience and physics. But the most engaging sections are those in which she shares the stories of her abusive father and her mother—who emigrated from Korea, put herself through Harvard, and imparted her love of music. In these reflections Kay’s voice feels the warmest—the most in tune with the author’s personal struggles and the insights that helped her overcome them. D.B. © AudioFile 2022, Portland, Maine
Kirkus Reviews
★ 2021-11-04
A masterful debut memoir from a classical violinist that covers far more than just music.
“If you want to change the past,” writes Hodges, “all you have to do is try to record what happened in it.” So begins this memoir in essays in which the author excavates her personal history in order to come to terms with her complex relationship with the violin. From an early age, she dreamed of becoming a violin soloist, practicing for hours each day as a child. Hodges traces her love of music to her Korean American mother, who played violin in high school until her punishing schedule made it impossible to continue. In contrast, the author’s White father disparaged her passion, a tactic that backfired: Hodges now believes that the possibility of defying his hatred of music is part of what spurred her on for so many years. Throughout the collection, Hodges chronicles how her father’s abuse, her mother’s experiences of racism, and her own intense stage fright ended her professional aspirations but could not sway her love of music. That love led her to attempt everything from campus tango lessons to teaching herself an incredibly challenging piece of music four months after putting away her violin. Hodges interweaves these memories with concepts of quantum physics, focusing on theories about time and space that elegantly illustrate the inability she often felt to be present in her own life. “Music itself embodies time,” she writes, “shaping our sense of its passage through patterns of rhythm and harmony, melody and form. We feel that embodiment whenever we witness an orchestra’s collective sway and sigh to the movement of a baton, or measure a long car ride by the playlist of songs we’ve run through.” The author’s writing is deeply intelligent and exquisitely personal, expertly balancing emotional vulnerability with trenchant analysis, and her lyrical prose and clarity of thought render each page a pleasure to read.
A gorgeously written, profoundly felt essay collection about time, memory, and music.
