如今，音乐就像流水一样触手可及。但如果你出生在贝多芬的时代，一生能听到两首交响曲就已是幸运。几千年来的音乐演变与人类文明息息相关。今天，让利物浦大学的音乐教授为我们解读四万年以来的音乐演变和发展吧！
If you were born in Beethoven's time, you'd be lucky if you heard a symphony twice in your lifetime, whereas today, it's as accessible as running water.
We're drowning in music.
We in the West have tended to have a misconception that history of music is a history of works or composers.
This tends to reduce music into an object, into an exhibit in an imaginary museum.
It also overvalues the role of the composer compared to most people who are innately musical.
And I wanted to get away from the usual thing of 'Which composer wrote what piece at what time,' to see the bigger picture.
We're in the kind of moment of the global, of the universal—and music is absolutely universal.
I'm Michael Spitzer.
I'm Professor of Music at the University of Liverpool in the United Kingdom.
I've written a book called "The Musical Human: A History of Life on Earth."
