Changing Places ─ Society, Culture, and Territory in the Saxon-Bohemian Borderlands, 1870-1946

Out of Silence is a diary of a year in Susan Tomes's life as a performer. Taking as its inspiration Schumann's remark that `I am affected by everything that goes on in the world, and I think it all over in my own way', it aims to show how a working musician mulls over and draws energy from the events of everyday life.

We follow this internationally renowned pianist as she prepares for concerts and performs, both as a soloist and as part of a chamber ensemble; we experience the highs and lows of practising and the challenges of live performance, we see her planning masterclasses and interacting with both musicians and audiences. She casts her mind back to her childhood - practicing before school on cold Edinburgh mornings, playing `Danny Boy' for a relative - and reflects on paintings, dance, books, sport and gardening.

`A delight and a revelation...She writes with Schubertian intimacy, modesty and grace,' said `The Independent of her first book, Beyond the Notes. Here Susan Tomes strives to unlock the secrets of great music and to understand its place in the wider world.

"Changing Places is an interesting meditation on the varying identities and rights claimed by residents of borderlands, the limits placed on the capacities of nation-states to police their borders and enforce national identities, and the persistence of such contact zones in the past and present. It is an extremely well-written and engaging study, and an absolute pleasure to read."---Dennis Sweeney, University of Alberta

"Changing Places offers a brilliantly transnational approach to its subject, the kind that historians perennially demand of themselves but almost never accomplish in practice."---Pieter M. Judson, Swarthmore College

Susan Tomes has been acclaimed for her performances, her recordings and for her writing about music. As the pianist of Domus and of the Florestan Trio, she has been at the forefront of the chamber music scene for thirty years. She is the author of Beyond the Notes and A Musician's Alphabet, her articles appear in The Guardian and The Independent, and she writes a blog on her website, www.susantomes.com.