The Story of Music: From Babylon to the Beatles: How Music Has Shaped Civilization

About this book

A dynamic and expansive tour through 40 000 years of music from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop songs. Music is an intrinsic part of everyday life and yet the history of its development from single notes to multi-layered orchestration can seem bewilderingly complex. In his dynamic tour through 40 000 years of music from prehistoric instruments to modern-day pop Howard Goodall leads us through the story of music as it happened idea by idea so that each musical innovationharmony notation sung theatre the orchestra dance music recordingstrikes us with its original force. Along the way he also gives refreshingly clear descriptions of what music is and how it works: what scales are all about why some chords sound discordant and what all post-war pop songs have in common. The story of music is the story of our urge to invent connect rebeland entertain. Howard Goodalls beautifully clear and compelling account is both a hymn to human endeavor and a groundbreaking map of our musical journey. 16 pages of color and B&W photographs