Enhanced descriptions from Syndetics:

What is music for? How does it work? What does it represent? What does it mean? In this brilliant and thought-provoking book which is now available in paperback, Robin Maconie examines these fundamental questions matching musical tradition and scientific knowledge to produce answers which are often unexpected, frequently inspired, and invariably illuminating. Drawing on a wealth of evidence from the history of ideas, literature, and the arts, to classical physics and computer science, he argues with passion and humour for a fundamental reapprasial of music, not as mere entertainment, but as a medium of significant thought whose influence on the development of Western society has been profound.

Table of contents provided by Syndetics

• 1 Communication (p. 1)
• 2 The Pleasure of Hearing (p. 10)
• 3 Looking and Listening (p. 20)
• 4 Sound Vibrations (p. 30)
• 5 Attraction (p. 39)
• 6 Sounds like Reality (p. 47)
• 7 Orchestra (p. 57)
• 8 Time (p. 66)
• 9 Space (p. 75)
• 10 Belief Systems (p. 84)
• 11 Scales (p. 93)
• 12 Melody, Harmony, Tonality (p. 103)
• 13 Notation (p. 113)
• 14 Ornamentation (p. 122)
• 15 Instruments (p. 132)
• 16 Sharps and Flats (p. 140)
• 17 Enclosures (p. 149)
• 18 Palladio (p. 158)
• 19 Dissonance (p. 167)
• 20 Applause (p. 175)
• Select Bibliography (p. 181)
• Index (p. 183)

Reviews provided by Syndetics

CHOICE Review

Despite the dust-jacket encomiums, this book falls far short of ameliorating the "exhaustion" of "old ways" of talking about music. We are told that the writings of scientists on music are "commonly dull" and that various specialists "have difficulty in communicating with one another." Thus are swept into the musicological ashheap Paul Henry Lang, Gustav Reese, John Redfield, Curt Sachs, and a host of other erudite, informative, entertaining, and knowledgeable writers about music. What Maconie offers instead is a series of rather rambling and disjointed essays stressing the author's particular musical biases. These include spatial aspects of sound transmission and the convictions that music is primarily a response to "the urge to communicate. . ." and that views and perceptions of music change and are influenced as a civilization's history unfolds. These are important but hardly original concepts, and Maconie, while expressing some interesting ideas, does not approach some other recent writers on the subject--Robert Walker's Musical Beliefs (CH, Dec'90) and the late Carl Dahlhaus's The Idea of Absolute Music (CH, Apr'90) come to mind. The bibliography consists mostly of British music writers of the past decade or so. The writing is often convoluted and the general impression vague and evanescent. -G. Muns, emeritus, Eastern Kentucky University

Author notes provided by Syndetics

Robin Maconie is a composer and writer on music. A New Zealander, he studied with Messiaen and Stockhausen 1963-5 and has lived in Britain since 1969.