The Secret Power of Music: The Trasnformation of Self and Society Through Musical Energy: The Transformation of Self and Society Through Musical Energy Paperback – 18 April 1984

I have read this book twice and thought it extraordinary - deep, wise, insightful and above all a real eye-opener as to how one can be affected by music. However, those who are wedded to a rationalist view of things might find this book a bit challenging.

I read this book whilst researching for my dissertation on the spiritual aspect of music. I found it thoroughly interesting. Tame covers a wide array of cultures and uses of music.However, he never moves far from the premise that music has a mystical power that we have forgotten about. Ultimately I found the book frustrating as its conclusions were too vague. It's not as good as 'Music and Altered States' (ed. D. Aldridge and J. Fachner 2006), 'Music and Emotion' (Juslin & Sloboda 2001), 'How Musical is Man?' (Blacking 1974) or 'Why Music Moves Us' (Bicknell 2009).I would recommend Tame's book if you're going to read a lot of books around this subject, but if you're only going to read one, make it 'Music and the Mind' (A. Storr 1992).Ultimately 'The Secret Power of Music' is a book about New Age philosophy rather than a book about music.

Tame agues that music influences individuals. These individuals make up society and therefore, by inference, music influences society as a whole. This logic is fine, but it seems a niave.The relationship between society and music is incredibly complex and rasises questions such as 1) does music influence society? 2)does society influence music? 3) if there is a relationship between music and society what is its function today?Unfortunately Tame neglects these questions and decides instead, to talk about ancient history. He tells stories about emporers and philosphers to explore music and society. However, his stories are bound in oppinion with little or no supporting evidence.On one occasion Tame tells a story of the Philosopher Confusious and how he opposed the introduction of new music in the city of loo. Tame then goes onto explain how he didnt know how the story ended - which made me wonder why he bothered to mention it in the first place. In addition he doesnt site and direct sources of confusious which creates questions in my mind about the validity of this story alltogether.One of the most annoying thing about Tame is the way he uses superlatives like 'mystical', 'wise', and 'power' without describing what they mean; leaving the reader as confused as the Author.Looking at Tame's reference section i found that most references were secondary sources. With only a 138 references and the book being 288 pages long i am left wondering how much of the text is actually substancial and based on evidence and how much is just stupid oppinion.My advise to musicians is to steer clear of this book. It presents itself as a book of science and analysis of the power of music and society, but instead feels like a history lesson with no dates or records.In sum, Tame is man of many big words, lots of oppinion but little understanding of his subject matter.

I would describe myself as a music lover, interested in the history of music, from Classical, through Jazz to Rock and Pop, World Music too, but at the same time not a player of music. I found the book largely incomprehensible, and lacking direction. It also to my mind seemed incorrect in the areas which I do know well. I never really saw Stravinsky's music as "new", just a continuation of complexity from say the music of Brahms, Mahler, Tchaikovsky. What I think would be a more interesting question is why Stravinsky was sidetracked after his wonderful early works into the stale world of serial music which so cramped his style. I would have welcomed a point of view on in what ways Stravinsky's music was new to the author. I'd also disagree that the choreography on Le Sacre was the only way it could have been - I've seen clips of dozens of dance work that use that music, and Nijinsky's outrageous stomping dance is unique; other interpretations treat the music as storyless. I have to confess I had to dip into different chapters, it was all just too incoherent for my tastes.