A Big History of Music (Everything that Everyone Should Know About Music)

This ground-breaking work begins by describing how the elements of music actually exist at every level of the fabric of material existence, drawing on cutting-edge physics to explain how they are connected with the creation of the universe itself. From there, it moves to theories about how proto-musical activity in animals and hominids became actual music production during the evolutionary development that ultimately produced homo sapiens. After reviewing the evidence of prehistoric music-making, the use of music in ancient civilizations, and the deliberate deconstruction of music in the West during the Dark Ages–all of which reveal a powerfully strong connection between music and spiritual endeavors–we travel through the standard period of “textbook” music history, from the Middle Ages up through the 20th Century. However, unlike the typical academic work, this is followed by in-depth coverage of the popular music of America, including ragtime, jazz, the blues, rock, and beyond.

Learn more about the book and the ongoing work to promote knowledge about music on the blog page of The Association for the Holistic Understanding of Music.