"How Music Works" Дэвида Бирна - первая серьезная...

David Byrne's “How Music Works” is the first serious English-language book I have managed to overcome (although, while I was reading, the second edition with an additional chapter just came out). I have dearly loved Birn’s musical work for many years, and his Notes by the Cyclist is one of my favorite non-fiction books, which I have already read three times, and this is probably not the limit. Well, “How Music Works” I can put in my personal list of the best books about music in second place (which I can’t even imagine Alex Ross from the first “Next is the noise”). This is a mixture of creative autobiography (the story of Talking Heads and David's solo work, focused on how their music was created) and speculations about how the music actually works. Here and about the impact of technology, and about commercial aspects, and about the scientific side of the issue (for what physical / biological / evolutionary reasons we like this or that music), and much more. It is written, as usual, in a fascinating and simple language. Byrne generally gives the impression of an extremely pleasant and disposing person: he writes with sincere modesty, without any narcissism (and this is the founder of one of the most influential groups of his era, the winner of the Oscars, the inhabitant of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and etc.), without categorical judgments and attempts to elevate their opinions to the rank of undeniable truth - in general, with qualities that are lacking in every guru of musical journalism. The book helps to look at music (and art in general) from new perspectives, learn a lot of new things, and just have a good time. I hope that someday it will be published here too, we need such books.
Below is Byrne's short lecture on the connection between music and architecture, essentially duplicating the first chapter of How Music Works. Look this is interesting