How Can We Keep from Singing

the long version

"In an irresistible writing voice, Joan Oliver Goldsmith celebrates the world of song. She brings the reader inside the music she loves, to share the physical joys and agonies of making harmonious sound and the sensual pleasures of hearing it. She shares her inspirations and wisdom - about making mistakes, about courage and difficulty, about teaching, friendship, self-knowledge, and the essential elements of creativity. When Goldsmith observes conductors, she gives insight into leadership, and when she participates in the chorus she intuits the essence of great "followership." Finding the range in which it's most comfortable to sing, she discovers, is linked to finding one's home in other areas of life and work. Above all, Goldsmith teaches us to listen to ourselves, and not to hold back in playing the "invisible instrument" of the creative spirit - whether in writing poetry, restoring old cars, planting a garden, or singing a good old song."--BOOK JACKET.