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How Music Works

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How Music Works

By: David Byrne
Narrated by: Andrew Garman, David Byrne
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About this listen

How Music Works is David Byrne's bestselling, buoyant celebration of a subject he has spent a lifetime thinking about.

Drawing on his own work over the years with Talking Heads, Brian Eno, and his myriad collaborators - along with journeys to Wagnerian opera houses, African villages, and anywhere music exists - Byrne shows how music emerges from cultural circumstance as much as individual creativity.

It is his magnum opus, and an impassioned argument about music's liberating, life-affirming power.

©2022 David Byrne (P)2022 Canongate Books Ltd Entertainment & Celebrities Celebrity

Critic Reviews

"It was wildly ambitious to try and turn this galaxy of theory into a readable work of scholarship but Byrne has done it, and done it with style. Brian Eno might as well cancel that book deal now." (Mark Ellen)

"As well as being an investigation into the context in which music is made, How Music Works is an accomplished celebration of an ever-evolving art form that can alter how we look at ourselves and the world." (Fiona Sturges)

"A very involving read - Byrne is good company - he has a gift for a telling analogy that makes complex points easily grasped." (Keith Bruce)

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Profile Image for Aaron Compton

fascinating

I particularly like his theory about context influencing creativity, architecture imposing restrictions on what type of music can be played within

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Profile Image for I.W.King

A great insight into the variances of music and performance.

I am not a musician as such, but this gave me a greater appreciation of verity and interaction of music with everyday and special occasion. I will give a copy to my son who is a musician and also a teacher. He often says as a teacher he can inspire a love of music forever. I just wish I understood some more of the technical stuff talked about.

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