The Music Between Us

by Higgins, Kathleen Marie

• ISBN13: 9780226333281
• ISBN10: 0226333280
• Format: Hardcover
• Copyright: 2012-06-01
• Publisher: Univ of Chicago Pr

Summary

From our first social bonding as infants to the funeral rites that mark our passing, music plays an important role in our lives, bringing us closer to one another. In The Music between Us, philosopher Kathleen Marie Higgins investigates this role, examining the features of human perception that enable music's uncanny ability to provoke, despite its myriad forms across continents and throughout centuries, the sense of a shared human experience. Drawing on disciplines such as philosophy, psychology, musicology, linguistics, and anthropology, Higgins's richly researched study showcases the ways music is used in rituals, education, work, healing, and as a source of security and-perhaps most importantly-joy. By participating so integrally in such meaningful facets of society, Higgins argues, music situates itself as one of the most fundamental bridges between people, a truly cross-cultural form of communication that can create solidarity across political divides. Moving beyond the well-worn takes on music's universality, The Music between Us provides a new understanding of what it means to be musical and, in turn, human.

Table of Contents

Acknowledgments	p. ix
Other People's Music	p. l
Musical Animals	p. 17
What's Involved in Sounding Human?	p. 36
Cross-Cultural Understanding	p. 55
The Music of Language	p. 78
Musical Synesthesia	p. 106
A Song in Your Heart	p. 119
Comfort and Joy	p. 145
Beyond Ethnocentrism	p. 169
Motes	p. 183
Bibliography	p. 229
Index	p. 265
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