#000737
Bridge of Waves: What Music Is and How Listening to It Changes the World
W. A. Mathieu
A poet-musician's meditation on what music actually is and why it matters. W. A. Mathieu — composer, pianist, longtime contemplative and student of Indian classical music — asks how music works on us, and how deep listening might be a practice with ethical and even cosmic stakes rather than a merely technical skill, writing in an intimate, essayistic voice. Read it slowly, as reflection rather than reference: anyone after hard music theory should turn to his Harmonic Experience, while this is the meditative, philosophical companion. It pairs beautifully with his own The Listening Book. For the reader who suspects that listening is a form of attention worth cultivating, it is a warm and quietly profound book.
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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
- ISBN
- None
- Shelf
- Music
- Location
- Colorado