About the Book
Poetry. Latinx Studies. Translated by G. J. Racz. A BRIEF HISTORY OF MUSIC is the first complete English-language translation of the late Peruvian writer Eduardo Chirinos's Breve historia de la música, which was awarded the inaugural Premio Case de América de Poesía Americana prize in 2011. The poems in this singular, often poignant collection reflect Chirinos's fascination with music, one of the recurrent topics of his extensive poetic oeuvre alongside childhood, animals, film, the vagaries of memory, painting, and even the poetic tradition itself. Each of the twenty-three carefully crafted pieces here provides an imaginative scenario accompanying a chosen musical piece, from an anonymous Berbérie song to twentieth-century atonal works, featuring favorite compositions by such classical greats as Bach, Vivaldi, Mozart, Beethoven, Chopin, Liszt, Sibelius, Debussy, Gershwin, and Stravinsky, among others. This ninth volume of Chirinos's verse available in English, all translated by G. J. Racz, also includes the delightfully playful, meditative FOURTEEN FORMS OF MELANCHOLY, whose wistful, though ludic tone covers many of the themes found throughout Chirinos's unique, affecting work.
