Broadcaster Clemency Burton-Hill’s Year of Wonder series is inspiring a whole range of devoted listeners through a new book club run by the Boise Philharmonic; Rebecca Franks joins one of their sessions
Sometimes a book changes your life. That was the case when Amy Granger came across Year of Wonder, written by the broadcaster and journalist Clemency Burton-Hill. Featuring a single, short piece of classical music for every day of the year, this treasury offers a personal guide through the art form across the centuries. ‘My aunt found it in the library, grabbed it – and she became enamoured. She bought copies and sent them to everybody. My mum got one, and it sort of grew, and we now have this huge network of people in my family who have this book,’ says Granger. ‘When I read the introduction, honestly, it was like stars, rainbows and lightning bolts were shooting out of the book into my brain.’
That’s lovely, you might be thinking, but what’s the wider significance? Well, Granger works for one of the oldest cultural institutions in Idaho, the Boise Philharmonic – or Boise Phil, as it’s known – and oversees the audience’s experience with the orchestra. ‘Clemency’s introduction is everything I want to do in terms of engaging with the public,’ she says. After getting the book for the Boise Phil’s staff and board directors, the next steps seemed logical to her: ‘Maybe we should have a book club? And then, why wouldn’t we invite the public?’
And so began ‘The Big Listen’, an in-person and online book club whose members are working their way through Year of Wonder, and meeting every few months to share their thoughts, discoveries and feelings about the music. It is, says Granger, ‘a grand experiment’, but with nearly 100 people signed up to the email list and a good turn-out for the meetings, it’s already shaping up to be a success.
The project kicked off in January – with the Sanctus from Bach’s B minor Mass. ‘On this first day of a new adventure, let us begin with a great big drumbeat and a choir singing their hearts out,’ writes Burton-Hill. ‘Irrespective of your religious leanings, whoever you are, wherever you come from, this is five or so minutes of music to gladden the heart and lift the soul and say: “Come on then, new year, let’s be having you.”’
A couple of months later, at the start of March, I drop into the group’s secon
