Instrumental: A Memoir of Madness, Medication, and Music
Rhodes, James
Primary Category:
Literature /
Literature
Genre: Memoir
-
Annotated by:
- Glass, Guy
- Date of entry: May-11-2017
Summary
James Rhodes is a British classical concert pianist who is known
for his iconoclastic, pop-inspired performing style. He is also an outspoken survivor of childhood
sexual abuse who is equally frank about his struggles with severe mental
illness. Rhodes’s memoir Instrumental
is a tribute to the healing power of music.
Indeed, music quite literally saves the author’s life; it is only when a
friend smuggles an iPod loaded with Bach into his psych ward that Rhodes
regains the will to live.
Rhodes does not mince words. We learn that he was violently raped by a gym teacher on a regular basis for five years from the age of five. Left with severe internal injuries that produce wracking pain, he requires multiple surgeries. He soon also develops dissociative symptoms, drug and alcohol addiction, self-injurious behaviors, and chronic suicidal ideation. Barely able to function, he endures many tumultuous years during which he abandons the piano. The author’s subsequent journey from physical and emotional fragmentation to wholeness through music provides the substance of his book.
The preface to Instrumental is designated “Prelude,” and the ensuing twenty chapters, labeled “tracks,” all correspond to musical works. (All twenty tracks may be listened to, for free, on Spotify.) In addition, as if to assure the reader he is in good company, Rhodes offers psychological profiles of famous composers. We learn, for example, that Bruckner suffered from a morbid obsession with numbers, and that Schumann, after throwing himself in the Rhine, died in an asylum.
Rhodes does not mince words. We learn that he was violently raped by a gym teacher on a regular basis for five years from the age of five. Left with severe internal injuries that produce wracking pain, he requires multiple surgeries. He soon also develops dissociative symptoms, drug and alcohol addiction, self-injurious behaviors, and chronic suicidal ideation. Barely able to function, he endures many tumultuous years during which he abandons the piano. The author’s subsequent journey from physical and emotional fragmentation to wholeness through music provides the substance of his book.
The preface to Instrumental is designated “Prelude,” and the ensuing twenty chapters, labeled “tracks,” all correspond to musical works. (All twenty tracks may be listened to, for free, on Spotify.) In addition, as if to assure the reader he is in good company, Rhodes offers psychological profiles of famous composers. We learn, for example, that Bruckner suffered from a morbid obsession with numbers, and that Schumann, after throwing himself in the Rhine, died in an asylum.
Miscellaneous
The link to the Spotify excerpts is https://play.spotify.com/user/canongate/playlist/5mmEdd2fEpEiejq4lg2jZE
The author’s website http://www.jamesrhodes.tv includes his concert schedule and links for purchasing his albums.
The author’s website http://www.jamesrhodes.tv includes his concert schedule and links for purchasing his albums.
Publisher
Bloomsbury
Place Published
New York
Edition
2017
Page Count
281
Commentary
Whatever its flaws, Instrumental is a raw, nakedly honest book that took guts to write. James Rhodes’s experience reinforces the lessons learned from Britain’s Jimmy Savile sexual abuse scandal. The author is a passionate advocate for survivors of abuse and the mentally ill. Instrumental is also a thought-provoking, personal consideration of the interface between psychiatry and music.