The Musical Life

Everyone,
according to W.A. Mathieu, is musical by nature—it goes right along with being
human. And if you don't believe it, this book will convince you. In a series of
interrelated short essays, Mathieu takes the reader on a journey through
ordinary experiences to open our ears to the rich variety of music that
surrounds us but that we are trained to ignore; such as the variety of pitches
produced by different objects, like glassware, furniture, drums—anything you
can tap; or sounds that hover on the border of music, like laughter, the
clinking of glasses in a toast, or the unintentional falsetto produced by
yawning. Along the way the author teaches aspects of music theory that
nonmusicians might ordinarily shy away from. He reveals the way of music to be
a profoundly spiritual path—one that is everyone's birthright.