Hymns to the Silence - by Peter Mills (Paperback)

About the Book

A groundbreaking study of every aspect of Van Morrison's artistic career - his influences, lyrical themes, vocal performances, his relationship with America, and more.

Book Synopsis

Hymns to the Silence is a thoroughly informed and enlightened study of the art of a pop music maverick that will delight fans the world over. In 1991, Van Morrison said, Music is spiritual, the music business isn't. Peter Mills' groundbreaking book investigates the oppositions and harmonies within the work of Van Morrison, proceeding from this identified starting point. Hymns to the Silence is a detailed investigative study of Morrison as singer, performer, lyricist, musician and writer with particular attention paid throughout to the contradictions and tensions that are central to any understanding of his work as a whole. The book takes several intriguing angles. It looks at Morrison as a writer, specifically as an Irish writer who has recorded musical settings of Yeats poems, collaborated with Seamus Heaney, Paul Durcan and Gerald Dawe, and who regularly drops quotes from James Joyce and Samuel Beckett into his live performances. It looks at him as a singer, at how he uses his voice as an interpretive instrument. And there are chapters on his use of mythology, on his stage performances, and on his continuing fascination with America and its musical forms.

Review Quotes

Record Collector - Terry Staunton--Sanford Lakoff

Reviewed in Leeds Guide, Wednesday 29th September 'An in-depth, passionate and eloquent study of Van Morrison as a performer both live and in the recording studio'

Record Collector - Terry Staunton--,

"Littered with sparkling quotes from such artists as Kevin Rowland, Maria McKee, Kate Rusby and Fiachra Trench (themselves armed with an acute knowledge and understanding of Van Morrison's work), I cannot praise this book highly enough. Its investigative validity is agglutination to that of the musical importance of its subject." www.davidmarx.co.uk May 2010

"Mills, who clearly holds Morrison in the highest esteem and shows an exhaustive knowledge of the singer's body of work, has written an analysis of interest to academics in the field as well as any devoted fan. The complexities of Morrison's oeuvre are made visible in discussion that encompasses his vocal style; his use of jazz, gospel, folk, and blues; and the meaning and possible symbolism of repeated poetic themes and places in his music. In addition to lines from the songs, many quotations from interviews with Morrison are included." -Eithne O'Leyne, BOOK NEWS, Inc.

"Mills ... is clearly a huge fan [of Van Morrison] who has drawn a lot of emotional succour from Morrison's work over the years."The Word Magazine

Interview with author in Yorkshire Post, 18th June 2010

Record Collector - Terry Staunton--Terry Staunton

Review on http: //www.leedsmet.ac.uk/as/index_news_hymns_to_the_silence.htm

Review on http: //www.vanmorrisonnews.blogspot.com

Reviewed in Leeds Guide, Wednesday 29th September'An in-depth, passionate and eloquent study of Van Morrison as a performer both live and in the recording studio'

About the Author

Peter Mills is Senior Lecturer in Media &Popular Culture at Leeds Metropolitan University, UK. He was singer and lyricist for the band Innocents Abroad who made two albums, Quaker" City" and Eleven." He has taught music, literature and philosophy at universities in the UK, Hungary, Romania and Croatia, and has published work on, amongst others, Samuel Beckett, Olaf Stapledon, Hungarian folk music, Pink Floyd, national anthems and The KLF.