Playing by Ear: Reflections on Music and Sound

"Listen!"

In this collection of new essays, the world-renowned director Peter Brook offers unique and personal insights into sound and music―from the surprising impact of Broadway musicals on his famous Midsummer Night's Dream, to the allure of applause, and on to the ultimate empty space: silence.

It is studded throughout with episodes from the author's own life and career in opera, theatre and film―including working on many of his most notable productions, and intimate first-hand accounts of collaborating with leading figures including Truman Capote, Laurence Olivier and Vivien Leigh―and ranges across musical styles and cultures from around the world.

Playing by Ear is full of Brook's shafts of insight and perception, and written with his customary wit and wisdom. It is a rich companion to his earlier reflections on Shakespeare in The Quality of Mercy and on language and meaning in Tip of the Tongue.

Peter Brook is one of the world's best-known theatre directors. Outstanding in a career full of remarkable achievements are his productions of Titus Andronicus (1955) with Laurence Olivier, King Lear (1962) with Paul Scofield, and The Marat/Sade (1964) and A Midsummer Night's Dream (1970), both for the Royal Shakespeare Company.

Since moving to Paris and establishing the International Centre for Theatre Research in 1970 and the International Centre for Theatre Creation when he opened the Bouffes du Nord in 1974, he has produced a series of events which push at the boundaries of theatre, such as Conference of the Birds (1976), The Ik (1975), The Mahabharata (1985) and The Tragedy of Carmen (1981) to name but a few.

His films include Lord of the Flies (1963), King Lear (1970), The Mahabharata (1989), Tell Me Lies (restored 2013) and Meetings with Remarkable Men (restored 2017).

His hugely influential books, from The Empty Space (1968) to The Quality of Mercy (2013), Tip of the Tongue (2017) and Playing by Ear (2019), have been published in many languages throughout the world.