The Ambient Century: From Mahler to Trance: The Evolution of Sound in the Electronic Age

Just as anything evolves when its setting changes, 20th-century music mutated as it moved beyond the confines of concert halls and into listeners' everyday environs. Thanks to car stereos, headphones, even computers, people now move within their own soundtracks. In this chronology of compositional innovations, Prendergast, an internationally published music writer, details the widening of sonic possibilities with advancements in recording, amplification and electronic instruments, and with the creative talents of hundreds of bold, brilliant composers. He credits Mahler with first evoking the hypnotic ""ambient experience of landscape and emotion,"" kicking off the century of ""repetitive conceptual music."" Prendergast describes how, after a four-day fast, the sound of a single piano tone proved revelatory for Karlheinz Stockhausen; how sitarist Ravi Shankar influenced everyone from minimalist Philip Glass to the Beatles; how Donna Summer ""merged Germanicity with black music's long history""; and how scores of house and techno artists have ""moved the focus of the music away from its creators towards the listener."" Organized by artist, the book provides suggested ""Listenings"" for each one, as well as a list of the ""Essential 100 Recordings,"" which recommends ambient guru John Cage's ""In a Landscape,"" megastar Bowie's absorbing ""Low"" and Goldie's ""Timeless,"" a debut that brought ambient jungle/drum and bass into the mainstream. Talking Heads' producer Brian Eno, a maverick whose own music heavily influenced New Age and ambient house music, gives the book his stamp of approval in his foreword. B&w photos. Agent, Simon Trewin of Drury House, London. (Jan. 24)