Choice Outstanding Academic Title Informed by a broad expertise comprehending all of the disciplines for which human hearing is pertinent. Beament('s) model for the hearing of music...is not only the most speculative section of the book but also the most brilliant. Recommended warmly... itshould find a niche in virtually every college, university and professional music library. CHOICE Hearing selected music. By surveying what it selected as western music, this book covers much of the acoustics a student needs, without mathematics or scientific background. It raises many questionsabout intervals, scales, tone, pitch, loudness and time, and throws doubt on the role conventionally ascribed to harmonics; an account of how musicalsounds are coded by the ear and the brain's processing units, provides answers to most of the questions. It concludes that music started with simpleinstruments which voices imitated, and that the need to know sound direction determined the characteristics of hearing. JAMES BEAMENT is a distinguished scientist who plays and composes music. He has taught and examined music students at Cambridge University. His book should also interest practising musicians and music psychologists.