While the Music PlayedWhile the Music Played
A Remarkable Story of Courage and Friendship in WWII
Title rated 0 out of 5 stars, based on 0 ratings(0 ratings)
eBook, 2021
Current format, eBook, 2021, , Available."We were the dreamers of dreams, the singers of songs. We were the music makers. We would not hear nor play nor love without each other. This is a prelude to our experience, an overture to who we were and how we arrived on the shores of friendship."
Beginning in 1939 prewar Prague, While the Music Played focuses on the story of young Max Mueller, a curious bright romantic-a budding musician, piano tuner, and nascent journalist. Max is on the cusp of adolescence when the Nazi influence invades Prague's tolerant spirit with alarming speed as he struggles to understand the changing world around him. When his father, noted German conductor Viktor Mueller, is conscripted into the German army and finds himself increasingly promoting the Nazi message, Viktor's best friend, noted Czech composer Hans Krása, protests the occupation in every way he can.
As everyone Max loves is compromised by intolerable conditions, he becomes increasingly isolated, and is forced to find his own way. With each step, Max's journey grows more conflicted. Music is the one constant connecting him to both the lost childhood he cherishes and the man he still hopes to become. But will it be enough to sustain him against the relentless Nazi threat?
With a seamless blend of historical and fictional characters, told from multiple points of view, and sweeping across the capitals of Prague, London, and Berlin as World War II ravages Europe, this meticulously researched book is unique with its diverse and interweaving narratives, threaded with news accounts, and encompassing some of the most triumphant and devastating moments of the war-from the opera houses of Berlin to the music halls of London and the making of the famous children's opera Brundibár.
While the Music Played is a lyrical, absorbing, and heartbreaking story of love and courage from the widely revered and bestselling author Nathaniel Lande.
"Lande's gripping debut entwines a complex set of relationships brought together by music and disrupted by the Nazis...Lande describes the Nazis' appreciation for music in stark irony, as Max's initial respect for a camp commandant's perfect pitch turns to horror when he learns of the gas chambers. This is a fine addition to the shelf of WWII fiction."
"Nathaniel Lande has written an epic, compelling and cinematic, richly imagined, often chilling but ultimately life-affirming tribute to the power of music and art, honoring the human spirit."
"The horrors of the Nazi domination of Europe are seen through the eyes of a son of a famous Czech conductor, whose fictional life is symbolized by a piano tuners red ribbons, interweaves with some of the most important figures of his time. At the heart of the story is the shining light that was Hans Krasa, the creator of the children's opera, Brundibar, that was used by the oppressors to deceive the world to the true nature of the 'model' concentration camp, Tererinstadt. The vast panorama of the war is covered in intimate, yet in epic proportion, (newspaper dispatches with historical accuracy are a remarkable device threading the novel) as the truth slowly dawns on what will befall a civilized and gentle people trapped by hatred and a twisted ideology. The reader is not spared: amazing characters lose their lives, many suffer intolerable circumstance, others live to inspire. Motives and behaviours are-just as in life-kept obscure until the final chapters, when the touchtones from Mark Twain, inspire a flight to freedom. Throughout, the powers of music and Nathaniel Lande's beautifully written words provide evidence that, even in the darkest times, man's creativity shines through. While the Music Played is a compelling novel, with brilliant characters never to be forgotten and long remembered."
"Through an epic WW2 landscape following the footsteps and footfalls of young Max Mueller and David Grunewald, master storyteller Nathaniel Lande has unleashed
Title availability
About
Details
Publication
- Blackstone Publishing, 2021
Opinion
More from the community
Community lists featuring this title
There are no community lists featuring this title
Community contributions
Community quotations are the opinions of contributing users. These quotations do not represent the opinions of Daniel Boone Regional Library.
There are no quotations from this title
Community quotations are the opinions of contributing users. These quotations do not represent the opinions of Daniel Boone Regional Library.
There are no quotations from this title
From the community