The Hum of the World: A Philosophy of Listening

The Hum of the World is an invitation to contemplate what would happen if we heard the world as attentively as we see it. Balancing big ideas, playful wit and lyrical prose, this imaginative volume identifies the role of sound in Western experience as the primary medium in which the presence and persistence of life acquires tangible form. The positive experience of aliveness is not merely in accord with sound, but inaccessible, even inconceivable, without it. Lawrence Kramer's poetic book roves freely over music, media, language, philosophy, and science from the ancient world to the present, along the way revealing how life is apprehended through sounds ranging from pandemonium to the faint background hum of the world. This warm meditation on auditory culture uncovers the knowledge and pleasure waiting when we learn that the world is alive with sound.

Author: Lawrence Kramer
Publisher: University of California Press
Published: 06/21/2021
Pages: 256
Binding Type: Paperback
Weight: 0.75lbs
Size: 8.90h x 6.00w x 0.70d
ISBN13: 9780520382992
ISBN10: 0520382994
BISAC Categories:
- Music | Philosophy & Social Aspects
- Philosophy | Language
- Philosophy | Social

About the Author
Lawrence Kramer, Distinguished Professor of English and Music at Fordham University, is an award-winning composer and the author of fifteen previous books including The Thought of Music, winner of the 2017 ASACP Virgil Thomson Award for Outstanding Music Criticism.