SOUND TRACKS

A transporting voyage of archaeological discovery Sound Tracks unearths instruments from around the world and across time releasing the past s musical secrets for the first time A thrilling journey into the sonic richness of human experience PHILIP BALL author of The Music Instinct A magical book FRANCIS PRYOR author of Britain BCFrom the present day back to the dawn of time from dark caves and murky swamps to open deserts and ocean depths here is the history of humankind s relationship with music in fifty detective stories We see a child s delight in Peru in AD 700 playing with a water filled pot that chirps like a bird we shiver with a lonely soldier sending trumpet signals to the next watchtower on Hadrian s Wall we sway to the stately rhythms of the 64 bells buried in a tomb in China in the 5th century BC And on this grand tour we learn that music is part of what makes us human a way of commemorating our pasts communicating with others and shaping our lives Brimming with astonishing insights Sound Tracks provides an enthralling alternative history of humanity in which the silences of the past are filled with a glorious treasure hoard of vanished sounds and voices Piles revelation upon revelation to shed a completely new perspective on the too