Einstein's Violin Hardback - 2005

by Joseph Eger

Joseph Eger's life is a testimony to the power of music. Among the most venerated classical conductors of his generation, Eger has discovered within music a universal language that not only unites people across cultures but also suggests something about the physical rules of life itself.

In Einstein's Violin, Eger distills more than half a century of personal experience and what it has taught him about how music is uncannily similar in its design to the concepts of "string theory" that have become overwhelming popular in today's theoretical physics. Eger deals with how music relates not only to the physical world but to the social one as well. He was among the first classical performers to see music as a force for change, leading him to cross enemy lines in the Middle East, to perform fusion concerts with rock stars including John Lennon, and to become a voice for social advocacy from the hearing rooms of the House Un-American Activities Committee to the stage of Harlem's Apollo Theater.

Eger's life is a tour through the music and science of the twentieth century. In Einstein's Violin, readers encounter intimate portraits of prominent figures such as Leonard Bernstein, David Bohm, and Albert Einstein. Eger also probes the origins of ancient music in the hands of the Hebrews, Egyptians, Hindus, ancient Chinese, and the schools of Pythagoras to plumb the sources of this unifying language of the universe.