Category: Book by FD

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Book by FD

Music History Is Fun II

Hi there.

Did you know that the great composer Franz Joseph Haydn was buried in June, 1809 without his head? True fact of music history.

Oh yeah, music history, that boring subject that music majors in college are required to take can be fun, and sometimes in obviously morbid sorts of ways!  

Go to Amazon Kindle. Search my name, F. D. Sutherland, and you’ll be led to my newest book, the second one in fact, A Door to Old Worlds, the second in a series for kids, adolescents and adults, about great composers and three best friends from Murray, Kentucky who are able to go back and actually live music history as it was being made.

 The three students encounter several world famous composers, including Ludwig van Beethoven, Clara Schumann, and her best friend Johannes Brahms. Plus, they get a musical experience of a lifetime.

So far, anecdotal reviews are unanimous–kids and adults love it.  Not because it’s music history, but because it’s LIVE music history! Music history that’s come alive.  

If you have Amazon Prime and Kindle you can even read it free or you can download it.  If you don’t have Kindle you can order a paperback.  Just go to Amazon and search my name, FD Sutherland. The paperback costs $5.95 and it will be delivered to your home in a short time.

By the way, the story about Haydn is true. A Doctor of Phrenology stole Haydn’s head prior to burial to study it for future enlightenment, sort of like Einstein’s brain which is still being studied. Unfortunately, phrenology proved to be a hoax but Haydn’s head wasn’t discovered for years after he died. In fact, the head was not interred with Haydn’s body until 1954, 145 years after he was buried. True story. You can’t make this stuff up.

Music history can be great fun!

Bye for now!

FD.

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Book by FD

A Door to New Worlds

Hey There!

You may have noticed a book I published on Amazon titled A Door to Old Worlds. Well, I also have a book on Amazon Kindle titled A Door to New Worlds. In fact, the New Worlds came before the Old Worlds.

Who knows how this all happened.  It just did, and there’s no explaining it or understanding it.  ELLIE and CHRIS SWENSON were chosen to make a fantastic journey into the American musical past, a journey that changed their lives forever.

Their experience, though, began with their great-great grandfather and his twin sister, chosen to make the same fantastic journey almost a century earlier, which leads one to wonder why these four individuals were chosen.  Eleanor and Christian were gifted and brilliant students of music.  Likewise, their great-great grandchildren, Ellie and Chris both showed early signs of extreme musical talent and interest. Come to find out, all serious musicians make the same journey, a fact no one knows except those who have experienced it.

Go to Amazon Kindle and read my first book, A Door to New Worlds. You will not only be dazzled with an interesting story, you my also learn some important musically historic information about our country’s musical past that happens to be intertwined with its future .

You will be especially delighted if you are a Czech enthusiast since the central character is one of the greatest of Czech composers, Antonin Dvorak. You will find the answer to these questions:

*Why did Dvorak come to America?

*Why was his presence in America significant for the world of music?

*Why did he and his family spend a whole summer in Iowa?

*Why did he want to visit Minnesota?

*Why did Ellie and Chris go with him to New York city?

Read the book and come back and answer the above queries.

Bye for now!

FD Sutherland

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Book by FD

“Life Was Transformed…”

Hey there.

This may be way too philosophical for most of us, but we love to entertain ideas that are profound. Say, LIFE for example. Here goes.

Ever thought about some of the things we take for granted that have been part of human existence for multi-millennia and before?

Cell phones? No.

Computers? No.

Automobiles? Uh, no!

The internal combustion engine? The telephone? The shoe? Still no, no, no!

I’m talking like, rope and knots. Paper and ink. The fulcrum, blocks and tackle. The wheel. How far does the wheel go back?

Who knows? But here’s another set of objects that have been around almost as long as the wheel and continues to change our lives everyday. Thing as common as “a hollow log, pithy reed tubes and dried animal intestines.” (From A Door to New Worlds, by F.D. Sutherland, p. 5.)

Drums were discovered when ancient humans realized that a hollow log made an interesting sound that could be used for long distance communication. And for stimulation and relaxation.

Bamboo, that hollow grass that grows all over the world in abundance, and other plants that, can be hollowed into a tube to be fashioned into whistle-like objects that can make wonderfully soothing sounds.

Animal intestines that have been stretched and dried into strings that, when plucked, the vibrations can make miracles happen in the ears of discerning humans. Yes! We’re talking Music!

Music is as ancient as humans. It is possible, maybe likely, that musical instruments in their most primitive forms were discovered by humans maybe even before they realized the concept of a round rock that could help them be more efficient. (I said ‘Maybe’ for effect.)

Hmm. Makes one wonder doesn’t it? Just how powerful the simplest things are in our world may be. Take the wheel. Was that revolutionary or what? How about the shoe? Paper and ink? Blocks and tackle?

What about a Beethoven symphony? As the great master used to say, “Never give up Music!” It is a powerful expression of what lies deep within the heart and soul of all of us.

“Life was transformed when humans realized their uniqueness. They were more than plant and animal. Their thinking and reasoning surpassed the rest of creation. They saw beauty in the world. Then they discovered aesthetic uses for hollow logs, pithy reed tubes and dried animal intestines.” (A Door to New Worlds, F.D. Sutherland, p. 5)

Bye for now.

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Book by FD

A Door to Old Worlds: Now Available on Amazon!

Hey there!

Yes, you heard correctly.

FD Sutherland’s newest book (Well, actually it’s only his 2nd book, but hey, you gotta start somewhere, eh?) is now live on Amazon Kindle.

A Door to Old Worlds is the second in a series beginning with A Door to New Worlds, released in 2017.

This series for children, starting around age 10, and adults, is designed to engage readers in music history, while set in an appealing, current time story.

Go to Amazon.com and search for FD Sutherland. Both books will pop up available in digital and paperback format with one slight caveat. Book 2, A Door to Old Worlds is so new that, although it is available in digital on Kindle, will not be available in paperback for a couple of days yet. Keep checking and we’ll let you know when it’s a Go for paperback.

Bye for now.

floyds