The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth

A very fascinating work combining research in musicology, music history, anthropology, and philosophy to provide an overview of the interactions between humans and music. The book is divided into three sections that respectively cover the development of music within one lifetime, the development of music within recorded human history, and the development of music within evolutionary history. Spitzer convincingly argues that musical development follows fractal-esque repetitions within repetitions. The human history section in particular is excellent and offers more insight into the global history of music than some complete books written on the subject.

Spitzer is unquestionably knowledgeable and well-intentioned, but some of the book's claims are a bit off. There's an eyebrow-raising claim towards the beginning of the book that, while everyone reads new novels, concerts are struggling to find audiences. I don't think either statement is true, and the latter assertion belies a narrow, Eurocentric view of music that seems to contradict the rest of the book. I understand what Spitzer is getting at, but it's disconcerting when he asserts that, in a great historical irony, Western music is now “colonized” by African and Asian influences. (A simple change of phrasing would have made all the difference.)

As to be expected in a music book written by a musician, the science isn't 100% accurate, either. The genus Paranthropus is erroneously referred to as Homo paranthropus, for instance. To be clear, I'm also a musician by training, so there may be other errors that slipped past my radar.

An excellent work for the reader who is interested in how music has developed on a global scale, or how the philosophy and functions of music have changed over time. Despite some idiosyncrasies in the text, Spitzer absolutely accomplishes what he set out to do.