With The Echo of Time. War, the Shoah, and the Music of Memory, Jeremy Eichler offers a reflection on what it means to listen. Rather than explaining how to listen to music like many other works, the author chooses to shift the focus to why we listen. His book thus encourages us to rethink the role of art in our contemporary lives by questioning the ability of classical music to connect with the past.
At the heart of this approach is a powerful idea: music can act as a sensitive memory of History. It not only preserves the traces of the tragedies of the 20th century – notably the Shoah – but also conveys the hopes, aspirations, and struggles of past generations. In doing so, it becomes a vehicle for empathy and understanding, a way to connect with historical experiences that are otherwise difficult to grasp.
The book has been widely praised internationally, receiving several major accolades in 2023, including being named the Best Book of the Year by the New York Times.
Born in 1974, Jeremy Eichler is an American music historian specializing in the links between musical creation and historical memory. From 2006 to 2024, he was the chief classical music critic for the Boston Globe, where he wrote the column “Third Ear.” In parallel, he taught music history and humanities at Tufts University.
His work, at the intersection of criticism, history, and essay, has earned him numerous awards and recognitions.
Four winners for the 2026 edition
In addition to the Grand Prize, three other awards were given:
Special Prize: Alain Galliari, for The Illustrated Catalog of Pierre Boulez’s Work (Philharmonie de Paris)
Jury Prize: Claire Paolacci, for Jacques Rouché and the Paris Opera. From the Great War to Liberation (Sorbonne University Press)
Coup de Coeur: Dorothée de Monfreid, for Lyrical Fantasy. Behind the Scenes of the Paris Opera (Dargaud)
The four winners will be publicly announced on Monday, March 30 at 7 pm at the Maison de la Radio et de la Musique in Paris.
For the 2026 edition, the jury – composed of nine personalities from the music world – selected fifteen titles from 102 publications in 2025. The award confirms its role as a reference point in music-related publishing, valuing academic works, popularization books, and more graphic proposals.
The awarded authors will be received on the same day on the program Relax!, hosted by Lionel Esparza on France Musique at 3 pm. The program will discuss the winning works and their significance.
The France Musique Book Prize – Claude Samuel Award distinguishes books on music every year, regardless of the approach. It pays tribute to Claude Samuel, a major figure in French musical life.
The previous edition in 2025 had notably awarded Jean-Christophe Branger for his work Jules Massenet (Fayard).
Find the list of French and Francophone literary awards
Credit photo: France Musique Book Prize – Claude Samuel
