Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time

Longlist, National Book Awards 2022 for Nonfiction

book cover for Natalie Hodges, Uncommon Measure: A Journey Through Music, Performance, and the Science of Time
ISBN 9781942658979
Bellevue Literary Press
author photo Natalie Hodges. (Photo credit: Krista Mercer Buchenau)
Natalie Hodges

Natalie Hodges has performed as a classical violinist throughout Colorado and in New York, Boston, Paris, and Italy, as well as at the Aspen Music Festival and the Stowe Tango Music Festival. More about this author >

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From the publisher:

How does time shape consciousness and consciousness, time? Do we live in time, or does time live in us? And how does music, with its patterns of rhythm and harmony, inform our experience of time?

Uncommon Measure explores these questions from the perspective of a young Korean American who dedicated herself to perfecting her art until performance anxiety forced her to give up the dream of becoming a concert solo violinist. Anchoring her story in illuminating research in neuroscience and quantum physics, Hodges traces her own passage through difficult family dynamics, prejudice, and enormous personal expectations to come to terms with the meaning of a life reimagined—one still shaped by classical music but moving toward the freedom of improvisation.

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