ISBN: HB: 9780300264210

Yale University Press

November 2024

336 pp.

21,6x13,8 cm

40 black&white illus.

HB:
25.00 GBP
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Categories:

Music and Joy

Lessons on the Good Life

From Confucius to Saint Augustine and Beethoven to the blues, a rediscovery of the joy that is music.

In this revelatory book, Daniel K. L. Chua asks a simple question: Is music joy? For Chua, the answer is a resounding yes – music is a lesson in joy that teaches us how to live well. But to hear this ancient knowledge, he says, we have to attend to a music that is so much greater than our greatest hits. Drawing on extensive sources, from the Confucian classics to the writings of Saint Augustine, Chua's book is a globe‑trotting, time‑traveling, mind‑boggling journey to rediscover the joy that is music.

Using examples from Beethoven to the blues and from philosophy and theology to music theory, Chua updates the relation between music and joy and argues for its relevance in the face of our many political and environmental crises. He opens our ears to a music that is the very definition of joy for today's troubled world.

About the author

Daniel K. L. Chua is the Chair Professor of Music at the University of Hong Kong. His books include "Beethoven and Freedom" and "Alien Listening: Voyager's Golden Record and Music from Earth".