Music In Human Experience

Music in the Human Experience: An Introduction to Music Psychology, Second Edition, is geared toward music students yet incorporates other disciplines to provide an explanation for why and how we make sense of music and respond to it—cognitively, physically, and emotionally. All human societies in every corner of the globe engage in music. Taken collectively, these musical experiences are widely varied and hugely complex affairs. How did human beings come to be musical creatures? How and why do our bodies respond to music? Why do people have emotional responses to music? Music in the Human Experience seeks to understand and explain these phenomena at the core of what it means to be a human being. New to this edition: Expanded references and examples of non-Western musical styles Updated literature on philosophical and spiritual issues Brief sections on tuning systems and the acoustics of musical instruments A section on creativity and improvisation in the discussion of musical performance New studies in musical genetics Greatly increased usage of explanatory figures

CD-ROM contains interactive tutorials to accompany book.

Music plays an integral role in many facets of human life, from the biological and social to the spiritual and political. This book brings together interdisciplinary and cross-cultural studies on the functions, purposes, and meanings of music in human experience.

A RADIO 4 BOOK OF THE WEEK 'Full of delightful nuggets' Guardian online 'Entertaining, informative and philosphical ... An essential read' All About History 'Extraordinary range ... All the world and more is here' Evening Standard 165 million years ago saw the birth of rhythm. 66 million years ago came the first melody. 40 thousand years ago Homo sapiens created the first musical instrument. Today music fills our lives. How we have created, performed and listened to music throughout history has defined what our species is and how we understand who we are. Yet it is an overlooked part of our origin story. The Musical Human takes us on an exhilarating journey across the ages – from Bach to BTS and back – to explore the vibrant relationship between music and the human species. With insights from a wealth of disciplines, world-leading musicologist Michael Spitzer renders a global history of music on the widest possible canvas, from global history to our everyday lives, from insects to apes, humans to artificial intelligence. 'Michael Spitzer has pulled off the impossible: a Guns, Germs and Steel for music' Daniel Levitin 'A thrilling exploration of what music has meant and means to humankind' Ian Bostridge

Music: A Social Experience offers a topical approach for a music appreciation course. Through a series of subjects–from Music and Worship to Music and War and Music and Gender–the authors present active listening experiences for students to experience music's social and cultural impact. The book offers an introduction to the standard concert repertoire, but also gives equal treatment to world music, rock and popular music, and jazz, to give students a thorough introduction to today's rich musical world. Through lively narratives and innovative activities, the student is given the tools to form a personal appreciation and understanding of the power of music. The book is paired with an audio compilation featuring listening guides with streaming audio, short texts on special topics, and sample recordings and notation to illustrate basic concepts in music. There is not a CD-set, but the companion website with streaming audio is provided at no additional charge.

The power of music to influence mood, create scenes, routines and occasions is widely recognised and this is reflected in a strand of social theory from Plato to Adorno that portrays music as an influence on character, social structure and action. There have, however, been few attempts to specify this power empirically and to provide theoretically grounded accounts of music's structuring properties in everyday experience. Music in Everyday Life uses a series of ethnographic studies - an aerobics class, karaoke evenings, music therapy sessions and the use of background music in the retail sector - as well as in-depth interviews to show how music is a constitutive feature of human agency. Drawing together concepts from psychology, sociology and socio-linguistics it develops a theory of music's active role in the construction of personal and social life and highlights the aesthetic dimension of social order and organisation in late modern societies.

Katherine A. Dettwyler, author of the Margaret Mead Awardwinning Dancing Skeletons, has written a compelling and original introductory text. Cultural Anthropology & Human Experience is suitable for use in Cultural and Social Anthropology courses, and its twelve chapters easily fit into quarter or semester terms, while leaving room for additional readings, discussions, or other projects. All the standard topics are covered, but with less emphasis on method and theory and more coverage of a variety of industrial and postindustrial societies. Auxiliary materialsbells and whistleshave been kept to a minimum to reduce distractions and maintain a reasonable price to students. The author has chosen all the photographs with great care to illustrate or amplify important points. The Instructors Manual includes summaries of each chapter, student exercises, and a test bank. Dettwylers upbeat tone inspires students to: develop the ability to think logically, objectively, and critically about different cultural beliefs, practices, and social structures; understand that humans are primates with culture, with a complex overlay of environmental and cultural influences; appreciate how powerful cultural beliefs and practices can be in shaping human perceptions of the world; realize that culture is not the same thing as social constructions of race, ethnic identity, or place of geographic origin; understand why/how cultural practices make sense within the cultures that practice them; articulate how an anthropological perspective helps discern everyday situations and interactions at the local, national, and international levels; understand that anthropology is not just an academic disciplineit is a way of looking at and understanding the world; appreciate the ways cultural beliefs and practices, social structures, and human lifestyles contribute to a meaningful life.

"This innovative book explores religion through music - the source of spiritual elation, social cohesion, and empowerment in cultures around the world."--BOOK JACKET.