Based on his critically-acclaimed BBC Radio 3 programme The Listening Service, in which Tom Service takes an idea on an ear-opening and mind-expanding walk through the musical landscape every week, this book is a celebration of music's multi-dimensional power in our lives. With 101 short chapters based on the programmes and grouped thematically the book will open ears and imaginations to find answers to the questions we all have about why and how music - from Toots and the Maytals and J S ...

Explore how music has changed our world through 50 pieces across classical, folk and world traditions with BBC presenter Tom Service, in this official Radio 3 compendium.Music transports us and defines us. As a form of expression, it has been passed down through oral tradition, musical notation and recordings in a chain of connection that spans the globe, across the millennia. A History of the World in 50 Pieces follows that chain, collating 50 pieces of c...

How are conductors' silent gestures magicked into sound by a group of more than a hundred brilliant but belligerent musicians? The mute choreography of great conductors has fascinated and frustrated musicians and music-lovers for centuries. Orchestras can be inspired to the heights of musical and expressive possibility by their maestros, or flabbergasted that someone who doesn't even make a sound should be elevated to demigod-like status by the public.This is the first book to go in...

Thomas Adès is fêted from Los Angeles to London, from New York to Berlin, as the musician who has done more than any other living composer to connect contemporary music with wider audiences. His operas, orchestral pieces and chamber works have already stood the test of repeated performances, productions and continued critical acclaim.But this celebrated composer, conductor and pianist is notoriously secretive about his creative process, about what lies behind his compositional impu...

An unprecedented glimpse into the creative mind and influences of one of the most intriguing and successful contemporary composers and conductors."A brilliant self-analytical plunge into the mind of one of our greatest artists. . . . This book is a probing guide to the creative process, as virtuosic in its way as one of Adès's musical compositions." ―Peter Gelb, general manager, Metropolitan OperaComposer, conductor, and pianist, Thomas Adè...

**Brought to you by Penguin.Explore how music has changed our world through 50 pieces across classical, folk and world traditions with BBC presenter Tom Service, in this official Radio 3 compendium.**Music transports us and defines us. As a form of expression, it has been passed down through oral tradition, musical notation and recordings in a chain of connection that spans the globe, across the millennia. A History of the World in 50 Pieces follows that chain, col...

Discover the spellbinding history of astrology and divination across the world.A History of Astrology, Divination & Prophecy traces the journey of astrology from its roots in the 3rd century BCE, when ancient Mesopotamians studied celestial bodies with the aim of predicting the future, through its development into the distinct branches of Eastern astrology, Hindu (Vedic) astrology, and the Western astrology that we know today.Learn about the numero...

Brought to you by Penguin.We tend to think that everything important comes from the centre: from big cities, from established orthodoxies in the sciences and the arts, from the Establishment in all its forms. We think this because the centre tells us it is so, but it's a lie. It is only at the edges that we think, innovate and thrive.This book travels to the frontiers of human culture and consciousness; to the edges of continents, of evolution, of artistic ...

Brought to you by Penguin.At night the senses become reordered. Hearing becomes privileged over vision, and we edge forward arms outstretched, feeling our way through the inky blackness. It is after dark that the human being becomes more ‘animal’, more sensitive to Nature. But the lights of the modern world have obliterated any meaningful connection to the night. We have lost touch with its wonders as well as its terrors.In this enchanting follow-up to ...

Graham Robb takes readers on a time-traveling adventure around the “spindly, sea-wracked island” he calls home.Interweaving personal and historical narratives and making use of contemporary sources, Graham Robb’s lively exploration of Britain through the ages peels back the layers of this island nation and shows how it came to be. We follow Robb as he travels along the warpaths of long-forgotten kings, under the chalk ramparts and grassy folds of ancient hill-towns...

**Brought to you by Penguin.**THE INSTANT NUMBER 1 SUNDAY TIMES BESTSELLER**What’s stopping you from achieving the success you’ve always wanted?**From growing up in a South London council estate to selling his first business for many millions before he was 30, Timo Armoo didn’t dream of success, he made it happen. Being extraordinary, he proves, really is possible no matter where you start.In What’s Stopping You?, Timo shares the real secrets to overcoming f...

Join acclaimed travel writer and incurably curious hiker Tom Chesshyre in this celebration of the Peak District, Britain’s first National Park, on its 75th anniversary'Funny, fair and honest, and effortlessly readable' Matthew ParrisIn the heart of England lies a fascinating landscape of rugged dark gritstone plateaus and gentle green limestone valleys: the Peak District. But this national treasure hasn’t always been open to all.On ...