Blog entry by Titus Pop
I recently attended the book launch and blues concert of a great musician born in Oradea, AG Weinberger. After the event I read the book and wrote short review as I consider it a good reference book for the Music and Literature theme I dealt with during our Fostin project.
“Music Between Freedom and Manipulation’-AG Weinberger’s Book Review
Attila G. Weinberger is a famous blues and jazz guitar player, vocalist born on August 30, 1965 in Oradea, Romania. His over thirty year-long singing career, his virtuosity in playing blues and jazz as well as his scholarly work recommend him as an outstanding figure on the world map of musicologists.
Beside his singing career, AG Weinberger is a prominent cultural theorist focusing on music, psychology, sociology and philosophy who recently defended his PhD thesis entitled ‘Muzica intre libertate si manipulare” (Music between Freedom and Manipulation-my translation) at the University of Bucharest. His thesis was now published by the Integral Publishing house from Romania and it was launched in Oradea before his concert entitled ‘Blues at Museum” held at Muzeul Tarii Crisurilor, Oradea on July 11, 2025.
The book is actually an investigation of the role of music as a tool of psychological, social and cultural influence in the modern world. The author claims that music becomes both a means of expression and a tool of control in today’s world. At the same time the author discusses the music’s educational and therapeutic functions, but also the risks of superficiality and simplicity. He defines modern culture as a phenomenon which manifests itself through many forms of artistic expression:
“Culture is rather an anthropological phenomenon, with clear functionality and predictable entropic evolution, which dwells under the dome of civilization. It is manifested through behaviour, through education, through historical and sociological developments, through science and through various forms of artistic expression.”(My translation) (Weinberger, 52, 2025)
The book has been described in the Afterword by Dan Dediu as ''a book that has arisen, assumed and lived by a practicing musician and an always agile thinker, attentive to context and change, a book of questions and openings.”(My translation) (Dediu in Weinberger, 198, 2025).
The book has an up-to-date structure both in form and content. Actually is a Smartbook, a hybrid book that instantly creates the link between print volume and the online environment. In parallel with reading a wonderful book, one can use their smartphone and a free QR code scanning app to immerse into audio or video files which turns it into a multimedia book. In its four chapters, AG Weinberger investigates the real role of music in individual life and society, By associating stage experience with a solid theoretical investigation, he brings an authentic and courageous perspective on the contemporary musical phenomenon, pleading for the recovery of the deep dimensions of the artistic act. An important part of the book is dedicated to his symphonic poem composed in three parts which, he claims, “ is intended to be an homage and to present King Solomon in his three most famous manifestations: King, Wise and Builder.”(My translation)(Weinberger, 130, 2025) and which outlines its main features-a combination of klezmer and jazz which reminds of the great Broadway productions. All in all, Weinberger’s book is a must-read/ listens to/watch authentic study of musicology with touches of psychology, sociology and philosophy.
Bibliography
Weinberger.A,G.. Muzica intre libertate si manipulare.. Bucuresti:Integral., 2025.