This book is an introduction to the physics of sound. Minute changes of air pressure initiated (by the human vocal cords, a violin bow, the reed of a clarinet, to take three instances), and magnified and modulated (by the tubes and sound boxes of musical instruments, the human mouth, the room where the sound is heard, and so on), are finally registered, via the infinitely delicate mechanism of the ear, by the brain. The faintest whisper and the full glory of a symphony orchestra both come to us in the end as changes of pressure in the air in contact with the eardrum. How all this happens is Professor Taylor's subject. By giving a marvelously clear analysis (aided by diagrams and photographs of oscilloscope traces) of the generation and modulation of sound waves, he takes his readers beyond generalities into a real understanding of the physical concepts. Yet he does this without demanding any background in physics. It is one of those rare but useful books that build a real bridge between the world of art and that of science. - Dust jacket.