Book Details

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Inspire your students to be curious listeners

The Curious Listener is a new music appreciation text built around three questions: What is music made of? How does music express meaning? How does music shape time? Drawing on a wide range of musical genres and styles from around the world, The Curious Listener leads students to a richer appreciation of musical meaning through a deeper understanding of musical sound.

Available for Fall 2025 classes

Exam copies available in late 2024

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Features of the First Edition

Innovative, question-based organization

The Curious Listener is organized around three central questions students often ask in a music appreciation course: Why does music sound the way it does? How does music create meaning? What makes music socially and emotionally significant?

How Does Music Express Meaning? Chapters in iPad

A carefully chosen, inclusive repertory

The Curious Listener includes a wide range of musical styles and genres: classical, popular, folk, jazz, and world music. Selections are chosen to develop specific skills and organized to build sequentially, from basic musical perception to understanding complex music in historical and social context.

How Does Music Shape Time? Chapters in iPad

A focus on building listening skills

The Curious Listener seeks to help students develop deep, attentive listening skills in the same way that other skills might be developed: by beginning with the basics and building, in careful sequence, from simplicity to complexity.

About the Author

Larry Hamberlin is Professor Emeritus of Music at Middlebury College, where he taught courses in music appreciation, Western classical music, American music, jazz, and popular music. His books include Tin Pan Opera and, with Richard Crawford, An Introduction to America’s Music.

What Reviewers Are Saying

“[The Curious Listener] provides an excellent overview of key issues, giving the novice and the more advanced student alike room to grow while also introducing them to a wide variety of musical practices. I also appreciate that there is no hierarchy here. Western art music is comfortably placed alongside traditions from other cultures, whether popular, vernacular, or art. The book explicitly collapses hierarchies.”

—Travis D. Stimeling

West Virginia University

“What I like best about [The Curious Listener] are its focus on listening as a skill, the flexibility of the materials, and the organization around how people use music in various ways and the ways that allow the author to draw on a variety of musical styles and traditions that go well beyond the Western classical canon.”

—Rose Pruiksma

University of New Hampshire

“[The Curious Listener] succeeds in meeting changing needs, particularly the need for a textbook that truly introduces students to music in a broad and varied way rather than focusing exclusively or predominantly on classical music or the traditional survey approach. It also addresses the need for building a solid listening foundation in a sequential way.”

—Instructor at Metropolitan State University of Denver

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Image Credit: (Hamberlin) Francine Hamberlin