This creatively structured, memorable memoir includes a mix of humorous anecdotes and classical music trivia.

An accomplished cellist, Ian Hampton has played with the London Symphony Orchestra and numerous prominent string quartets. He is known for his versatility when it comes to playing pieces spanning centuries. As Jan in 35 Pieces: A Memoir in Music proves, he’s also quite a storyteller. The book mixes humorous anecdotes and classical music trivia with the chronology of Hampton’s life. It is a creatively structured and memorable work.

Hampton writes his memoir in the third person, referring to himself by his nickname, Jan, which allows him to take a more novelistic approach. That choice makes the book more enjoyable, as does its unusual structure. As the title suggests, Hampton has divided his life into thirty-five chapters, each centered around a different piece of music. Each of these chapters tells an anecdote related to the piece before transitioning to a chronological portion of Hampton’s biography.

For example, for Igor Stravinsky’s Rite of Spring, the chapter begins with an adult Jan discussing the piece with one of his students, flashes back to 1946, when he first heard it, and then considers his later experience recording it with the London Symphony Orchestra; it recalls both instances while mixing in the story of the piece’s controversial 1913 premiere and an explanation of why it’s challenging to play. Works like Mozart’s The Magic Flute, Bach’s Brandenburg Concertos, and even the Beatles’ `Ticket to Ride’ receive similar treatment, with Hampton’s story melding to the music that played such a big part in it.

This approach lets Hampton augment what could have been a straightforward biography with plenty of funny stories about his career, bits of dialogue between fellow string players that capture the camaraderie of musicians who have played together for years, and little snapshots of his colleagues’ biographies. Jan in 35 Pieces is a consistently interesting memoir that also serves as a well-written love letter to classical music and the experience of playing it.

`Hampton says he never kept journals and so wrote his book from memory, yet his long­ago observations remain sharp. In wartime England, the young Jan’s landlady is “a diminutive octogenarian with a face like a well­stored crab­apple,” who cuts her tiny lawn with a pair of scissors. His ears are observant, too. The trains that pass present­day Jan’s house each morning across the Burrard Inlet are distinguishable to his musician’s ears as “`The Sorcerer’s Apprentice’ one, then the `Britten’ one, and then the `Glenn Miller’ one.” Later, a clock “chimes the quarter hour in minor sixths.”

…

`As an evocation of a lifestyle it is a delightful education for all readers, and as an educational manual, it is essential reading for anyone with aspirations of a career in music.’

`This is one of the most interesting memoirs I’ve read in quite some time…. Frequently we are treated to Hampton’s piquant, insightful comments about various composers. For example, writing about Beethoven, he says, “Beethoven pricks out vanity, pokes at complacency, takes the scruffs of our necks and drags us to places we don’t recognize.” At times, there is a poignancy to his storytelling that moved me to tears. Writing about his experiences as a very young cellist during the years following WWII, he offers the following vignette, “…he packs up his cello and takes the Undergound to Piccadilly and Lyons Corner House where he is subbing for musicians taking summer holidays. With Schelomo’s sorrowful melody still in his ears, he sits down next to the leader of the band and his gaze falls on the numbers tattooed on her forearm. Lily Mathé is a Hungarian woman who played violin in the camp orchestra, serenading the prisoners filing to the gas chambers at Auschwitz. Playing, she had watched her parents file past. `They never looked up’, she said.” ‘

`The book is a gem crammed with humour, history, humanity, and unexpected insights, not the least of which is a validation of the status of the West Coast in world music….’

`Cellist Ian Hampton has created a lyrical reflection on the world of music and classical composers and musicians in the seven decades since World War II. Beautifully written, the book is structured around thirty-five pieces of memorable music. In vivid strokes, Hampton introduces us to the great conductors, performers and composers he encountered as a musician in England, California and finally, the west coast of Canada. Along the way, he introduces us to some of the finest music the world has produced. By turns reflective and humorous, this beautifully paced book chronicles the trials and triumphs of a life devoted to music and defined by the people he worked with and loved.’

`Jan in 35 Pieces is a delightful, light-hearted and fond romp through a life that transcends continents, war, hardship, fun, friendship, love, and above all, music.’