Gioia breathes new life into the often-stuffy topic of music history. From neanderthal carved bone flutes to philharmonics to improvisational jazz, this is a fascinating look at the history of sound and songs in various cultures. Will appeal to readers who enjoy microhistories, arts and culture, and interesting nonfiction.

I cannot read and review this book as it is no longer on my device. Thank you to Netgalley for the free ebook in exchange for an honest review.

Wonderful book!
Really liked reading this fresh and outstanding book. It was a real pleasure to read it.
Thanks for the publisher for the opportunity to read this in advance

Music can be a tough subject to make interesting, and the author mostly succeeds. This is a long book, but the diversity of the topics covered and their inter-relationships is clear and well-executed. This may be a bit dry for some readers, but the author has deep knowledge and is a good writer.

I really appreciate the copy for review!!

Gioia notes early in this book that he's been writing it for 25 years. That shows: his conception of how music history is taught and written about and discussed is about 25 years out-of-date, and his work in this book suffers badly from it. The book would have been a powerful call to action and change two decades ago, but today, with hundreds of fantastic, progressive, new, and radically different approaches to music historiography in practice, both for "art" and "pop" musics, Gioia's work is out of touch, and the book's claims come far too late for it to be relevant or useful.

A fascinating and well written book that gave me a lot of food for thought and helped me to understand the relationship between the human and the music.
Highly recommended!
Many thanks to the publisher and Netgalley for this ARC, all opinions are mine.

Writing about music can be very difficult indeed--explaining with words what really is best heard with one's own ears. The cultural history of music is equally as complex, with every piece having a wide array of sources and influences, as well as some coincidental resemblances.

Ted Gioia has done well at emphasizing the interconnected nature of music as it relates to our experience as humans. The reader gains a kind of bird's-eye-view of why and how we make music, as well as lots of interesting facts that will impress your friends or trivia night competitors.