What do you think?
Rate this book
Sound Tracks: Uncovering Our Musical Past
A transporting voyage of archaeological Sound Tracks unearths instruments from around the world and across time, releasing the past's musical secrets for the first time.
‘A thrilling journey into the sonic richness of human experience’ PHILIP BALL, author of The Music Instinct
‘A magical book’ FRANCIS PRYOR, author of Britain BC
From the present day back to the dawn of time, from dark caves and murky swamps to open deserts and ocean depths, here is the history of humankind's relationship with music in fifty detective stories.
We see a child’s delight in Peru in AD 700, playing with a water-filled pot that chirps like a bird; we shiver with a lonely soldier sending trumpet signals to the next watchtower on Hadrian's Wall; we sway to the stately rhythms of the 64 bells buried in a tomb in China in the 5th century BC. And on this grand tour, we learn that music is part of what makes us human – a way of commemorating our pasts, communicating with others and shaping our lives.
Brimming with astonishing insights, Sound Tracks provides an enthralling alternative history of humanity in which the silences of the past are filled with a glorious treasure hoard of vanished sounds and voices.
‘Piles revelation upon revelation to shed a completely new perspective on the tools we use for making music’ NORMAN LEBRECHT, author of Why Beethoven
‘Lawson has brilliantly conjured up the sounds of 30,000 years of human history’ DAVID ABULAFIA, Professor Emeritus of Mediterranean History
‘A thrilling journey into the sonic richness of human experience’ PHILIP BALL, author of The Music Instinct
‘A magical book’ FRANCIS PRYOR, author of Britain BC
From the present day back to the dawn of time, from dark caves and murky swamps to open deserts and ocean depths, here is the history of humankind's relationship with music in fifty detective stories.
We see a child’s delight in Peru in AD 700, playing with a water-filled pot that chirps like a bird; we shiver with a lonely soldier sending trumpet signals to the next watchtower on Hadrian's Wall; we sway to the stately rhythms of the 64 bells buried in a tomb in China in the 5th century BC. And on this grand tour, we learn that music is part of what makes us human – a way of commemorating our pasts, communicating with others and shaping our lives.
Brimming with astonishing insights, Sound Tracks provides an enthralling alternative history of humanity in which the silences of the past are filled with a glorious treasure hoard of vanished sounds and voices.
‘Piles revelation upon revelation to shed a completely new perspective on the tools we use for making music’ NORMAN LEBRECHT, author of Why Beethoven
‘Lawson has brilliantly conjured up the sounds of 30,000 years of human history’ DAVID ABULAFIA, Professor Emeritus of Mediterranean History
395 pages, Kindle Edition
Published April 4, 2024
14 people are currently reading
195 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews
October 1, 2025
Graeme Lawson zeichnet in "Soundtracks" ein "Klangbild der Vergangenheit". 40.000 Jahre Musikgeschichte werden in 51 kurzen Kapiteln lebhaft vermittelt. Archäologie, Geschichte und Musik sind die Teile dieses großen Puzzles. Es ist als wäre man zum Nachmittagstee beim Autor eingeladen, um seinen Geschichten zu lauschen. Es ist aber keine Plauderei. Die Informationsdichte ist sehr hoch. Das erfordert Konzentration bei der Lektüre. Man darf vor Begriffen wie Dendrochronologie oder Kalzitkrusten nicht zurückschrecken. "Soundtracks" von Graeme Lawson ist ein faszinierendes Geschichtsbuch. Lawson interessiert sich für historische Musikinstrumente wie Leiern, Maultrommeln, Trompeten oder (Knochen)flöten. Durch seine Art des Erzählens schafft er es die wissenschaftliche Seite der Musikgeschichte zu vermitteln. Mein einziger Kritikpunkt ist, dass die eigentliche Musik zu kurz kommt. Vermutlich liegt das in der Natur der Sache. Es hätte wohl viel Interpretation oder gar Spekulation erfordert. Somit konzentriert sich der Autor vorrangig auf die Objekte, die die Musik erzeugen.
August 18, 2024
Graeme Lawson wears his learning lightly,and at times he talks a little too conversational for me, as his survey of "deep time" applied to music archaeology (- working his way backwards historically )- felt at the beginning almost in a magazine format.
I began to yearn for footnotes and properly referenced bibliography - but as the book progressed, I fell under its charm, as it asks questions like
"What kind of tuning might we be looking at in these twelve-hundred-year-old reed pipes?" or
"What if we’ve been reading the relationship between ancient music and technology the wrong way round?"
From bone flutes to lyres buried in peat bogs, to Celtic trumpets, he starts by uncovering intention : what if these arrangement of sound holes suggested this scale, what if the archaeacoustics of this particular cave suggested this sound?
His reconstruction of instruments to discover what he calls the "fossil record" of music, becomes increasingly fascinating as the book goes back in time, the last artefact he described being a swan bone pipe from Hohle Fels, Germany, c.38,000 years ago.
Just wow 😲.
I began to yearn for footnotes and properly referenced bibliography - but as the book progressed, I fell under its charm, as it asks questions like
"What kind of tuning might we be looking at in these twelve-hundred-year-old reed pipes?" or
"What if we’ve been reading the relationship between ancient music and technology the wrong way round?"
From bone flutes to lyres buried in peat bogs, to Celtic trumpets, he starts by uncovering intention : what if these arrangement of sound holes suggested this scale, what if the archaeacoustics of this particular cave suggested this sound?
His reconstruction of instruments to discover what he calls the "fossil record" of music, becomes increasingly fascinating as the book goes back in time, the last artefact he described being a swan bone pipe from Hohle Fels, Germany, c.38,000 years ago.
Just wow 😲.
May 2, 2025
DNF - I didn’t have enough interest in archaeology or the history of ancient musical instruments to keep reading to the end. I got half-way through, sustained by the author’s evident energy and enthusiasm for the subject, and engaging writing style. Definitely do read this if you are interested in the subject.
June 27, 2024
The best book I’ve read this year. Riveting from beginning to end.
August 30, 2024
An interesting read. Lots of surprising facts about different archaeological finds combined with a narrative placing everything into the bigger picture, questioning how our ancestors engaged with music.
So why 3 stars? I felt like this material would benefit from a more episodic method of storytelling, like a series of videos, or even podcasts. Something about the structure of the book made it hard to zip through in one go.
Still, I'm glad to have learned about acoustic pots, naval whistles, the distribution of ancient lyres, and all the other fascinating vignettes presented here.
So why 3 stars? I felt like this material would benefit from a more episodic method of storytelling, like a series of videos, or even podcasts. Something about the structure of the book made it hard to zip through in one go.
Still, I'm glad to have learned about acoustic pots, naval whistles, the distribution of ancient lyres, and all the other fascinating vignettes presented here.
June 28, 2025
This was absolutely fascinating. Looking at the archaeology of musical instruments, depictions of musical images and different musical notations starting from fairly recently and going right back to the stone age. There were examples from all over the world covering flutes, pipes, lyres, lutes, brass instruments and keyboards.
I was engrossed. This would be of interest to anyone keen on music or archaeology and especially for those interested in both.
I was engrossed. This would be of interest to anyone keen on music or archaeology and especially for those interested in both.
August 26, 2024
A fascinating journey through ancient musical instruments.
October 8, 2025
Interessante
February 13, 2025
𝓛𝓪 𝓶𝓾𝓼𝓲𝓬𝓪 𝓱𝓪 𝓲𝓵 𝓹𝓸𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓮 𝓭𝓲 𝓼𝓸𝓿𝓿𝓮𝓻𝓽𝓲𝓻𝓮 𝓵𝓪 𝓷𝓸𝓼𝓽𝓻𝓪 𝓲𝓷𝓽𝓮𝓻𝓹𝓻𝓮𝓽𝓪𝔃𝓲𝓸𝓷𝓮 𝓭𝓮𝓵 𝓶𝓸𝓷𝓭𝓸.
Questo testo è fuori dal comune. La sua particolarità sta nel fatto di essere un testo storico, senza una storia ma che riesce a catturarti e a lasciarti incollato alle pagine.
Il testo propone la storia della musica, partendo dal presente andando a ritroso fino addirittura alla preistoria! Descritto così può sembrare un noioso e banale manuale di storia della musica, invece assolutamente non lo è.
Graeme Lawson trasmette la sua passione per la storia e la musica in ogni parola e ogni riga di questo libro. Ogni strumento musicale viene raccontato con amore e cura e ogni capitolo è come vivere una piccola avventura nel ritrovamento e nella storia degli strumenti musicali contemporanei e antichi.
Mi è piaciuta davvero tanto questa lettura e l'ho trovata molto leggera, fresca e appassionante. 51 capitoli per 51 bellissime storie e avventure in giro per il mondo e a spasso nel tempo con unico fattore comune: la musica.
La cosa che mi ha colpita è stato come lo scrittore ha saputo dare vita e rendere emozionanti le storie di questi oggetti inanimati. Ogni ritrovamento diventa una vera appassionante avventura carica di emozioni.
Questo testo è fuori dal comune. La sua particolarità sta nel fatto di essere un testo storico, senza una storia ma che riesce a catturarti e a lasciarti incollato alle pagine.
Il testo propone la storia della musica, partendo dal presente andando a ritroso fino addirittura alla preistoria! Descritto così può sembrare un noioso e banale manuale di storia della musica, invece assolutamente non lo è.
Graeme Lawson trasmette la sua passione per la storia e la musica in ogni parola e ogni riga di questo libro. Ogni strumento musicale viene raccontato con amore e cura e ogni capitolo è come vivere una piccola avventura nel ritrovamento e nella storia degli strumenti musicali contemporanei e antichi.
Mi è piaciuta davvero tanto questa lettura e l'ho trovata molto leggera, fresca e appassionante. 51 capitoli per 51 bellissime storie e avventure in giro per il mondo e a spasso nel tempo con unico fattore comune: la musica.
La cosa che mi ha colpita è stato come lo scrittore ha saputo dare vita e rendere emozionanti le storie di questi oggetti inanimati. Ogni ritrovamento diventa una vera appassionante avventura carica di emozioni.
Displaying 1 - 9 of 9 reviews