Sound Book: The Science of the Sonic Wonders of the World
Sound Book: The Science of the Sonic Wonders of the World
Sound Book: The Science of the Sonic Wonders of the World
Description
Description
Trevor Cox is on a hunt for the sonic wonders of the world. A renowned expert who engineers classrooms and concert halls, Cox has made a career of eradicating bizarre and unwanted sounds. But after an epiphany in the London sewers, Cox now revels in exotic noises--creaking glaciers, whispering galleries, stalactite organs, musical roads, humming dunes, seals that sound like alien angels, and a Mayan pyramid that chirps like a bird. With forays into archaeology, neuroscience, biology, and design, Cox explains how sound is made and altered by the environment, how our body reacts to peculiar noises, and how these mysterious wonders illuminate sound's surprising dynamics in everyday settings--from your bedroom to the opera house. The Sound Book encourages us to become better listeners in a world dominated by the visual and to open our ears to the glorious cacophony all around us.
Critical Reviews
Critical Reviews
This small encyclopedia of strange sounds reveals how much art there is in the act of listening. Reading it made my ears more mindful.--Adam Gopnik
In this riveting ear-opener, Trevor Cox describes in lyrical detail a range of sonic events and new ways of listening that can only brighten our experience of the acoustic world around us. A must-read for sound-lovers of all stripes.--Bernie Krause, author of The Great Animal Orchestra
Cox's enthusiasm for his specialty is contagious...I'll now be keeping my ears wide open.-- "Washington Post"
Turns up the volume on...sonic oddities.-- "NPR"
From its first page to its last, The Sound Book invites readers to close their eyes and open their ears to the sounds, both normal and peculiar, that surround us all.--Sid Perkins "Science News"
[A] fun but thoroughly detailed scientific tour through some of the world's aural gems. Sounds like music to our ears.-- "New Scientist"
A technological travelogue conducted by an expert tour guide, bursting with aural arcana that adds just the right amount of tech-savvy detail, The Sound Book brings into relief a world often obscured in our image-heavy existence...[A] real rush--Greg Milner, Perfecting Sound Forever
Publishing Information
Publishing Information
Publisher:
W. W. Norton & Company
Pub date:
2015-01-19
Length:
336 pages
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