Music between Us
Is Music a Universal Language?
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.
Reviews
"'The Music between Us' approaches the question of music through a vast amount of recent and fascinating work that implicates, if not demonstrates, music's central place in human nature: thought, feeling, synthesthesia, language, and community. It eschews claims of metaphysical essence or universals, instead speaking to deep and normative aspects of the musical in human life and behavior. Assembling an extraordinary amount of data and result from cognitive psychology, anthropology, linguistics, neuroscience, ethnomusicology, and sociology, Kathleen Higgins's book is worth reading purely for its compendium effect" – Daniel Herwitz, autthor of "Aesthetics"
"A significant contribution to the burgeoning field of philosophy of music. With uncommon scholarly breadth and sensitivity, 'The Music between Us' explores the age-old comparison between music and language – two of the most powerful and enduringly mysterious manifestations of human intelligence – turning the comparison inside out like a reversible raincoat, and showing how music can support both cultural diversity and cross-cultural appreciation of our essential humanity" – Joel Rudinow, author of "Soul Music"
"'The Music between Us' is attractive and important not only because its philosophical arguments encompass music from all around the world and are informed by recent data from the sciences but above all for its warm, humanist perspective on the centrality and universality of music in human life. Kathleen Higgins' fascinating account considers music in relation to language, cross-cultural communication, and the emotional responses it calls forth, including how it anchors individuals to their world and serves as a balm to social discord. Here is a refreshing alternative to the narrow formalism that is so common in music aesthetics. A must read for anyone who has been intrigued by the way music beguiles us" – Stephen Davies, author of "Musical Understandings"
