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Frank Kermode (review date 7 November 1991)

SOURCE: "Off the Edge," in London Review of Books, Vol. 13, No. 21, November 7, 1991, pp. 3-4.

[In the following review, Kermode discusses the musical and political themes of Musical Elaborations.]

The Wellek Library Lectures at the University of California, Irvine, are meant to be about Critical Theory, and up to now they have, for good or ill, been faithful (in their fashion) to that intention: but it was an enlivening idea to ask Edward Said to talk about music as well, or instead. Said is a good enough pianist to understand what the professionals are up to. He knows a great deal more about music than most amateurs, and argues persuasively that it should not be left entirely to the rigorous mercies of the musicologists. The result is this very interesting, excited, crammed little book [Musical Elaborations], in which admirable and questionable propositions jostle one another so...

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1. Introduction
2. Criticism
   1. Albert Hourani (review date 8 March 1979)
   2. Leon Wieseltier (review date 7 April 1979)
   3. Edward Said with Salman Rushdie (interview date 1986)
   4. Dinitia Smith (essay date 23 January 1989)
   5. Edward Said with Bonnie Marranca, Marc Robinson, and Una Chaudhuri (interview date March 1989)
   6. Frank Kermode (review date 7 November 1991)
   7. Malcolm Bowie (review date 29 November 1991)
   8. J. B. Kelly (review date 26 April 1993)
   9. Robert Hughes (essay date 21 June 1993)
   10. Michael Wood (review date 3 March 1994)
   11. David K. Shipler (review date 26 June 1994)
   12. Ian Gilmour (review date 10 July 1994)
   13. Tom Narin (review date 8 September 1994)
   14. George M. Wilson (review date October 1994)
   15. Fawzia Afzal-Khan (review date Winter 1994)
   16. Barbara Smith (review date 28 January 1996)
3. Further Reading
4. Copyright