David Byrne's New Book On Music, Creativity and Technology

I had the ebook version of downloaded the second it became available on Wednesday.  David Byrne has written a fascinating book about...well, how music works.  And the insights are incredible.  For example:

It’s usually assumed that much Western medieval music was harmonically ‘simple’ (having few kew changes) because composers hadn’t yet evolved the use of complex harmonies. In this context there would be no need or desire to include complex harmonies, as they would have sounded horrible in such spaces.

Creatively they did exactly the right thing. Presuming that there is such a thing as ‘progress’ when it comes to music, and that music is ‘better’ now than it used to be, is typical of the high self-regard of those who live in the present. It is a myth. Creativity doesn’t ‘improve.’

If you're at all interested in what goes in to making music in contextual, environmental, historical and technological ways, you gotta get this book.