The Science of Song: How and Why We Make Music

The text of The Science of Song covers the mechanics of human hearing and music notation before launching into the history of recording music from the discovery of sound waves through cylinders, vinyl, taped music, videos, digital, streaming, and then looks towards the future of recorded sound. Each two-page chapter is illustrated and has a recommended playlist. Brief, age-appropriate descriptions of how the technology works (e.g. the phonograph p. 12, mono and stereo p. 17, digitizing sound, p. 28) are featured. The text touches on topics of the psychology of why we like what we like, earworms, and how music influences our shopping habits. The book concludes with useful text features (a timeline, glossary, index and a bibliography) – things all librarians love.

The excerpt used in this review is taken from the chapter that asks the question, “What is music, anyway?” (p. 8) Below this text there are examples, in music notation, of the three identified elements of music: melody, harmony and rhythm. These samples are inaccurate representations of the three elements discussed. Melody is the least problematic of them all as the notation does represent melody, but the example is one note off the classic children’s folk melody “Mary Had a Little Lamb” (if the opening note, in the example, had been written an E instead of an F). The harmony example is awkward at best. All voices are moving in the same direction at all times, and a harmonic analysis reveals this segment does not follow the standard I IV V I (harmonic foundation of the majority of the listening examples suggested in the text). In addition, notes that are one tone apart are notated incorrectly (e.g. in the first bar third beat, the middle C and middle D should not be stacked one on top of the other; they should rest beside one another with the ovals touching). Any young student who is studying theory or any keyboard instrument (piano or mallets) will immediately notice this as incorrect music notation. Rhythm might have been better written in percussion notation.

Another error exists in the chapter “Ideas that Bombed” (p. 24). The 8-track tape is discussed and is erroneously said to be smaller than the cassette. Building on a previous discussion of the cassette tape (p. 21) “…by the 1960’s the Dutch company Philips had introduced the cassette. It was a teeny tiny tape system inside a plastic case about the size of a deck of cards.” Then, the text announces (p. 24), “In 1966 the car company Ford introduced an even smaller version of the cassette, called an 8-track tape.” In actuality, the 8-track is larger than the cassette. (Measurements of the cassette tape are 4” x 2½” x ½“. Measurements of the 8-track are 5 ½” x 4” x ¾”.)

In addition, the information about the Ford Car Company introducing the 8-track is somewhat misleading. Certainly, Ford was proactive in putting 8-tracks in their vehicles, but they were not the only company involved in introducing the 8-track to the world. Although the 8-track technology was not long-lived, I am not sure I would say it was a “bomb”. Like many music technologies, it was superseded by a better, more convenient technology (78’s to 33 1/3, LP’s to cassettes, cassettes to CD’s, CD’s to streaming services). The 8-track was a welcome technology on my childhood road trips.

Some of the songs included in the Playlist sections may not be appropriate for the intended age of the book’s audience, notably, Donna Summer’s I Love to Love You Bab, and OutKast’s Hey Ya.

The book’s title could better serve the text if the word “make” in the subtitle was replaced with “record”. The word “make” suggests a treatise on creating music (writing, scoring, arranging) as opposed to the overriding theme of music recording, engineering, technology and the devices that play the music for our consumption. Some important production/recording technologies are missing from the text, notably reel-to-reel audio tape and 78 rpm vinyl records.

The nod to deaf musicians and composers is inspiring (p. 7). Understandingly, not all deaf musicians and composers could be included in this brief 48 page offering; nonetheless, the much decorated and celebrated percussionist Evelyn Glennie would have been a nice addition.

As a survey of how music recording has provided us with opportunities to listen to great music and indeed how recorded music has been used as a building block to create more music, The Science of Song could be a useful springboard for student projects.