This highly informative and fascinating book brings together perspectives on sound by leading experts from a wide variety of disciplines. These include anthropology, physiology, zoology, physics, music, phonetics and film. Through crossing disciplinary boundaries, the volume hopes to inspire a richer and more creative approach to the acoustic world. Whilst aiming for a general audience and presented in an accessible style, several chapters also represent important contributions within their own disciplines or will serve as core texts for students. The sequence of nine chapters passes from cultural perspectives on silence, via the physics of sound, physiology of the ear, songs of birds, and sounds of human speech, to music. From the reconstruction of medieval music, via twentieth-century composition and the music of the Kaluli of Papua New Guinea, the volume concludes with the role of sound in film. Life will never sound the same again.
