The Concept of Music

by Robin Maconie

What is music for? How does it work? What can it teach us? Intuitively, we feel there must be answers to such questions, but they tend to be scattered throughout a wide range of different areas of study, from acoustics to music history, from psychology to composition. In this brilliant and thought-provoking book, Maconie seeks the answers to these and other fundamental questions about music, integrating music and appropriate scientific research in a new evaluation of his topic. In so doing, he argues passionately for a reappraisal of music, not as mere entertainment, but as something basic to our experience of listening and communicating in sound, and an art which has exerted a profound influence on society.

198 pages, Paperback

First published February 1, 1991

Reviews

[Brent Shelton]

It was very informative, not too dry. I enjoyed it, taught me some interesting things that I did not know about music and orchestras and sounds in general