Love Songs

PD Smith, The Guardian [a] wide-ranging and fascinating study


The Australian, John McBeath Extremely comprehensive, covering a huge swath of global music history in a conversational yet knowledgeable style.


New Yorker, Adam Gopnik Gioia's book covers a tremendous amount of ground and gives you something to remember on almost every page.


London Jazz News, Sebastian Scotney [Gioia] is one of those rare writers who [is] as comfortable with the comprehensive picture as with the telling example: clear-headed and persuasive as the overall argument of this intriguing book is, it is also packed with fascinating detail about everything from the love story of Dido and Aeneas to the twerking of Miley Cyrus... [Overall] this is an absorbing, provocative but consistently thoughtful study of a somewhat neglected area of musical history, a
pioneering and useful complement to Gioias existing studies of Work Songs and Healing Songs.


Telegraph, Ivan Hewett An illuminating and entertaining book... . As with his previous book on work songs, and his well-known history of jazz, Gioia shows a gift for condensing a vast mass of detail into a graceful narrative... . Vast and fascinating.


Times [A] richly researched and heartfelt song book of the ages... Gioia boldly and brilliantly enters the space between the noises of ancient fertility rites and the sexualised music videos of YouTube to discover how melody and love songs, like hearts full of passion, jealousy and hate, are never out of date.


Daily Express, Jenny Selway A fascinating new book... clearly a work of love itself.

Ted Gioia is a music historian and the author of nine books, including The History of Jazz and Delta Blues, both selected as notable books of the year in The New York Times. Love Songs continues his pioneering research into the music of everday life, previously featured in Work Songs and Healing Songs, both winners of the ASCAP Deems Taylor Award.

Chapter 1: The Biology of the Love Song ; Chapter 2: Procreative Music ; Chapter 3: Sappho and Confucius ; Chapter 4: The Rise and Fall of the Roman Love Song ; Chapter 5: The Thousand Year Repression ; Chapter 6: The Middle East - North African Connection ; Chapter 7: The Troubadours ; Chapter 8: The Triumph of the Love Song ; Chapter 9: A Love Supreme ; Chapter 10: Profane Love ; Chapter 11: Love at the Opera ; Chapter 12: Folk Ballads ; Chapter 13: Love and the Rise of the Music Business ; Chapter 14: Love Songs in Modern Times