#000207
Bridge of Waves: What Music Is and How Listening to It Changes the World
W. A. Mathieu
*Bridge of Waves* is the composer W. A. Mathieu's meditation on what music actually is and what it does to us, published by Shambhala in 2010. Mathieu - a pianist and composer whose career runs from the Stan Kenton band and Chicago's Second City to decades of choral and concert work - writes not as a theorist but as a lifelong listener, in an informal, searching, almost conversational voice. His claim is large: that music bridges mind and heart, self and other, and even affirms our place in the cosmos, and that learning to listen more deeply changes how we live. The book wanders by design, moving between anecdote, reflection, and gentle instruction. For readers who feel music matters more than the usual accounts allow - and who like their music writing spiritual as much as technical - it is a warm, generous companion.
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The author
William Allaudin Mathieu is an American composer, pianist, and teacher whose long career spans jazz, theater, choral, and concert music. A student of Indian classical music and a longtime contemplative, he has written several well-loved books on music and listening, including The Listening Book and The Musical Life.
The book
Bridge of Waves asks what music is, how it works on us, and why it matters - to the individual, the community, and the wider world. Written in an intimate, essayistic style, it treats deep listening as a practice with ethical and even cosmic stakes rather than a merely technical skill.
How to read it
Read it slowly, as reflection rather than reference. Those wanting hard music theory should turn to Mathieu's Harmonic Experience; this is the more meditative, philosophical companion.
For more context
Pair it with Mathieu's The Listening Book, or with Victor Zuckerkandl's writings on music and the listener.
Sources
- Type
- Book
- Author / Maker
- W. A. Mathieu
- Publisher
- Shambhala
- Place of publication
- Boston
- Year
- 2010
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Music
- Location
- Colorado