Letters to a Musical Friend.

Virginia Gillham is Associate Librarian in the Public Service Library at
the University of Guelph.

Well known in Canadian music circles as a concert and collaborative pianist and music pedagogue, William Aide proves also to be a poet and author of considerable ability. 

Letters to a Musical Friend, his third publication and second volume of collected poems, uses music as a metaphor for life. Poems analyzing musical compositions, and poems addressing the activities and life patterns of certain musicians, share the pages with a gripping series decrying what he views to be the selling-out by Maria Callas of her talent and her art for the crass benefits of life with Aristotle Onassis. All of these are interwoven with reflections on his own mortality and life in general. His personal introspection here is heavily motivated by the diagnoses of prostate cancer—both his own and that of his long-time friend and correspondent, David Helwig.

This is, altogether, an amazing collection, particularly for those who know or know of Mr. Aide only from his musical career. As a final bonus, this slim volume includes a CD of William Aide performing works by Brahms, Beethoven, and Chopin.

Highly recommended.