Sound Tracks

In exploring the historical traces humankind has left of our music-making, Graeme Lawson captures the full scope of the ingenuity and passion that we have brought to this mysterious yet universal and vital impulse. You’ll encounter instruments you never knew existed, find yourself humming the songs of the Bronze Age, and ponder the connections between our own musicality and that we see in other animals. It’s a thrilling journey into the sonic richness of human experience * Philip Ball, author of The Music Instinct *A very rare object – a book where you learn something new about music on every single page. Graeme Lawson piles revelation upon revelation to shed a completely new perspective on the tools we use for making music * Norman Lebrecht, author of Why Beethoven *This is surely one of the most unusual and original histories of music that has been written, recovering a sense of the sounds of the distant past through rare survivals of musical instruments and even a tune recorded on a Bronze Age tablet. Out of the silence of the earth Graeme Lawson has brilliantly conjured up the sounds of 30,000 years of human history * David Abulafia, Professor Emeritus of Mediterranean History, University of Cambridge *Reveals the sounds that ancient musicians could have created and gives credit to the craftsmen and women who routinely pushed-back the boundaries of past technologies to fashion musical instruments. It’s a magical book * Francis Pryor, author of A Fenland Garden *A delightfully quirky tour through the history and prehistory of music in the company of a master * Adam Zamoyski, author of Napoleon *Lawson is an engagingly vivid narrator with a sharp eye and ear, and the breadth of his experience and expertise make for a diverting perspective… His tone is playful and persuasive, pitched to ensure that his meticulously detail is accessible – and crucially, relatable – to all curious readers * New Scientist *The reader is taken in hand by Mr Lawson’s expert prose, which shows a winning attachment to the objects and cultures he finds … [they] will savour rare opportunities to look the over the shoulder of prehistory’s answer to Poirot * Country Life *Here’s a book that turns the history of music on its head… [a] brilliant new book he reveals to us a dazzling showcase of instruments, both everyday and extraordinary… Turn to any page and there’s bound to be something new to discover * BBC History Magazine *

Graeme Lawson is an archaeologist, musician and historian with a lifelong fascination for music’s fossil record. He has held senior research fellowships at Cambridge and the Freie Universität Berlin, pioneering the application of science to music’s prehistory and tracing musical continuities through time and across continents.

An acknowledged authority in his field, his ability to communicate with the wider public has made him much sought after, both as performer and speaker, and has done much to raise the profile of music archaeology. His writing brings into sharp focus humankind’s profound and enduring relationship with sound and music.