Harmonic Experience: Tonal Harmony from Its Natural Origins to Its Modern Expression

Fascinating, best done as meditations rather than trying to amass the information; this will take me a lifetime to get through but gives new perspectives on music. It helps that I have little western musical training and it hurts that I don't read music well or play any instrument that is useful for practicing examples.

Excellent for people interested in composing music. Extremely thorough and includes lots of exercises to do so you put this theory into practise.

This book is about human interaction with sound beyond 12 notes. A sonic awakening awaits the reader.

I did not expect such a heavy book! 8.5 x 11 in. and 2lbs.! A lifetime study; but thus far I have gotten a couple of very good ideas I am working on: rhythmic rather than harmonic, strangely. I'm trying to wrap my head around the numerical and verbal concepts of stuff I know and practice to some extent in my music. Whether I can stick with it is another matter. But as little as I've gotten into this book, I do feel that it will be helpful, and once I've worked through it a bit, it will be a reference for as long as I'm involved in music.

I purchased this book from Amazon, upon the suggestion of the author, after lamenting that I had not seen it available in local bookstores.This book offers food for the soul - as it blends the technical with the experiential in its lucid exposition of the universal art of music.Here, analogy and humor balance with science to evoke a deeper cognizance of the varied facets of this multi-cultural form of human experience.Here too, the universal power of the 'Divine Art' of Music is well-expressed, so that it may be passed on - in the tradition of the 'bards' of every age.Any musical novice, journeyman, or master would benefit from the experience that this book offers. Many thanks to Maestro Mathieu.

Having just discovered this book, i wish i would have known of it when it was first published in 1997. While i've since done my own searching, exploring and mapping of the landscape of music and coming to 'discover on my own' and use many of the same outlooks, devices, techniques and views this work so beautifully and comprehensively presents, it would have saved me a tremendous amount of time.This is the single best book i know towards enlightening anyone aspiring to understand, orient, unify with and create within the world of sounds we experience as music.Highly recommended.

...I don't know what the other reviewers read but seriously doubt it was this book...after wrestling with it off and on now for almost seven years, I finally realized it must be some sort of pathetic joke...before I could make any headway I first had to go through and white out all the meaningless transcendental, hypermystical shambala dakshana gumballpollyanna references...then I had to go through and practically rewrite every sentence into a more conventional subject-verb-object format...and I also had to translate a great deal of his explanations into conventional music notation since, of course, only oddball frequency ratios and Indian swaras meet his elevated criteria for understanding harmony...so don't you know I was SERIOUSLY disappointed when I realized, after doing all that, even if I did finally understand what on earth he was trying to achieve that I STILL wouldn't be able to find a single practical use for anything I MIGHT learn...so if you're looking for practical information about harmony then consult any of the many available theory and harmony texts; if you want a deeper understanding of harmony and its inner workings then look at books by Charles Taylor, Leon Harkleroad, and Ian Johnston...but unless you're a swami looking to boogie down on some heavy hamds and naats then I recommend leaving Mr. Mathieu's new age gibberish on the shelf.

Brilliant in all regards. Do yourself a favour and buy it.

Amazing book! Where other books give you harmonic rules and information ( not valued information) this one gives you knowledge and insight from a very experienced master. works fine on the kindleAbsolutely worth the Price.

Well written...a different but captivating approach to analysing and explaining the fundamentals of harmony.

Bought this for my aspiring composing 16 year

Simply a life companion

il libro presenta una teoria di armonia musicale fondata sulle frequenze armoniche. l’esposizione è estremamente accurata e graduale, nonché ricca di esercizi pratici molto semplici e spesso illuminanti.Il libro è di grande formato e peso: pregiato ma scomodo da portarsi dietro. Peccato per il prezzo troppo alto della versione elettronica.Meriterebbe senza dubbio una traduzione italiana, sia per la qualità del tema trattato sia per l’eloquenza dell’autore, che è difficile cogliere se non si è di madrelingua inglese