A world-leading musicologist tells the extraordinary story of humankind’s relationship with music across evolutionary time
Michael Spitzer is Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool. Previously he taught for twenty years at Durham University. An accomplished pianist, Spitzer is a world-leading authority on Beethoven, but he also writes widely on the philosophy and psychology of music. He lives just off Penny Lane with his wife and two daughters.
In this impressive new work Michael Spitzer argues that music is
fundamental to humanity ... It is entertaining, informative and
philosophical ... An essential read
*All About History Magazine*
Extraordinary range ... All the world and more is here
*Evening Standard*
An ambitious and total history of music
*Daily Telegraph*
The Musical Human is full of delightful nuggets and sends the
reader back to a world of musical examples time and time again
*Guardian Online*
[An] extraordinary new book ... Ranging from the Geissenklösterle
caves to K-Pop, from the lost music of the Aztecs to the role of
song in hunter-gatherer societies, and drawing on a vast array of
specialisations, from archaeoacoustics to ornithology, Spitzer
utilises a breath-taking variety of sources ... Spitzer’s [book]
will make you think differently about music, about its place in
your life and about its importance to human life tout court
*Literary Review*
Musicologist Michael Spitzer sets out to explore our relationship
with music in The Musical Human, providing an enormous, but not
overwhelming, history of music. Blurring the lines between musical
theory, anthropology, biology and history, Spitzer posits that
music is one of our most defining achievements, fundamental to the
human experience
*Radio Times*
Bold, compelling and ear-opening
*New Statesman*
A thrilling exploration of what music has meant and means to
humankind
*Ian Bostridge*
Music changed my life. It changes my mood, my thoughts, my feelings
and changes the way I move. Now I know why. This book has connected
me to not only the language of love but the language of life. If
you can just hum, whistle out of tune or shake a leg at a wedding
then open the pages of this book and know why! A revelation
*Michael Cashman*
A hugely ambitions work, but never daunting, and there's something
thought-provoking on every page ... With scholarship, wit and
passion, this book demonstrates that there is truly a soundtrack to
human lives
*Catherine Bott, Classic FM*
An amazing book, tying together research in archaeology,
anthropology, music history, and human origins to form a compelling
and exciting account of the many ways music has developed across
the world and across time. Michael Spitzer has pulled off the
impossible: a Guns, Germs and Steel for music
*Daniel Levitin*
How does music fit into human development? Michael Spitzer
ambitiously aims to offer an all-inclusive answer, from bone flutes
to Beethoven, whale songs to K-pop. His embrace of science and
philosophy makes for a vigorous intellectual workout, sometimes
tendentious, always thought-provoking.
*Financial Times Summer books of 2021*
This book is not just a specialist’s swansong. Aiming to examine
the global nature of music and its role in human evolution is an
ambitious project, and this is a rigorous, comprehensive study ...
Spitzer ranges widely across archaeology, histories and cultures to
present rich chords of contrasting notes on the musical human
*Human Givens Journal*
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