Edited by Graham F. Welch, David M. Howard, and John Nix

• Provides a lifespan perspective. Whatever your age or experience, there will be something about singing that relates to you, your family and your experience.
• The authors represent scientists, doctors, teachers and performers. This is a comprehensive, multi-faceted perspective on singing which offers content for a wide audience.
• The text has been designed to be accessible, informative and useful. Whether you are a teacher, scientist or clinician, the content will enable you to understand more clearly what singing is and why it is important in our human lives.
• • Overview
  • Description
  • Table of Contents
  • Author Information

  Singing has been a characteristic behaviour of humanity across several millennia. Chorus America (2009) estimated that 42.6 million adults and children regularly sing in one of 270,000 choruses in the US, representing more than 1:5 households. Similarly, recent European-based data suggest that more than 37 million adults take part in group singing.

  The Oxford Handbook of Singing is a landmark text on this topic. It is a comprehensive resource for anyone who wishes to know more about the pluralistic nature of singing. In part, the narrative adopts a lifespan approach, pre-cradle to senescence, to illustrate that singing is a commonplace behaviour which is an essential characteristic of our humanity.

  In the overall design of the Handbook, the chapter contents have been clustered into eight main sections, embracing fifty-three chapters by seventy-two authors, drawn from across the world, with each chapter illustrating and illuminating a particular aspect of singing. Offering a multi-disciplinary perspective embracing the arts and humanities, physical, social and clinical sciences, the book will be valuable for a broad audience within those fields.