Go Read Chandler Burr

I love reading Chandler Burr.  He is the perfume critic for the New York Times. Seriously, if you didn’t know, the New York Times has a Perfume Critic. With all the news stories about how newspapers are failing and what a terrible spot they are in, I don’t see how having a perfume critic makes any sense.  That is until you read his reviews.  One of my favorite articles that he wrote was for the New Yorker.  Read it here. And actually go read it.  In it, he describes the behind-the-scenes work that a perfume company goes through to create a new product.  If you want to more or to read the actual reviews go here.

Why do I bring this up?  Well, obviously, it is about music and writing about music.  It’s difficult.  You are discussing an abstract, emotional event of limited duration. It is a moment that requires description of technical details, how the technical details affect the emotional response that is created by the performance, and then we readers want descriptions of the business, background, and personalities that brought that performance to life.   That’s a lot to accomplish in about 500 words.

I think Mr. Burr accomplishes all of this with writing that achieves sense memories that the perfumers want to create. He technically describe what perfume is made of, how it works, the scents that make it up, who makes it, and convince the reader that they are actually experiencing it at that moment.  Every high school english class should make it required to read his reviews.  The students will see new ways to describe experiences.

I don’t  wear cologne.  It is not a topic that I was generally interested in reading about before I was introduced to his writing.  The bulk of my cologne wearing career is entirely those various moments in my youth of SERIOUSLY over-dousing myself with Polo, or Drakkar Noir, or Cool Water, or whatever the kid in the bunk next to me had,  just before the dance on the last night of summer camp.

Do we have writers in the classical music business who are able to capture those fleeting beautiful moments of a concert?  Maybe we do, and I am just too close to music and making concerts happen.

Do you have a favorite music writer? Alex Ross, the rest of the NYT and New Yorker lot, they are all great.  I always read them. But I would love to hear about others.

Happy Thanksgiving!