The Listening Service: 101 Journeys through the Musical Universe

Tom Service

Hardcover | 13.5 x 2.2 x 21.6 cm | 320 pp

Faber & Faber | 2022 | 9780571342952

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 opens 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 Bach, Gustav Mahler and Miley Cyrus, to Anna Meredith and Mozart – works its magic over us.

With QR code links to the programmes, the chapters draw on powerful and communicative anecdotes and analogies, as well as the latest scientific research, and above all, a spirit of discovery and connection across genres, cultures, and histories. At its heart is the conviction that music changes us.