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This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsessionby Daniel J. Levitin
Synopses & ReviewsPublisher Comments:Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life — even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last becoming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including:
This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession. Review:"Think of a song that resonates deep down in your being. Now imagine sitting down with someone who was there when the song was recorded and can tell you how that series of sounds was committed to tape, and who can also explain why that particular combination of rhythms, timbres and pitches has lodged in your memory, making your pulse race and your heart swell every time you hear it. Remarkably, Levitin does all this and more, interrogating the basic nature of hearing and of music making (this is likely the only book whose jacket sports blurbs from both Oliver Sacks and Stevie Wonder), without losing an affectionate appreciation for the songs he's reducing to neural impulses. Levitin is the ideal guide to this material: he enjoyed a successful career as a rock musician and studio producer before turning to cognitive neuroscience, earning a Ph.D. and becoming a top researcher into how our brains interpret music. Though the book starts off a little dryly (the first chapter is a crash course in music theory), Levitin's snappy prose and relaxed style quickly win one over and will leave readers thinking about the contents of their iPods in an entirely new way." Publishers Weekly (Starred Review) (Copyright Reed Business Information, Inc.)
Review:"Levitin makes the science of music readily understandable to the non-scientist and non-musician alike." Kirkus Reviews
Review:"[Levitin] argues...that music plays a role in evolution....[T]his book extends the appreciation of music as neural training." Library Journal
Review:"[Levitin's] book introduces the inner workings of the brain insofar as scientists understand it and affords a good first look at the subject for armchair psychologists and neuroscientists." Booklist
Review:"Endlessly stimulating, a marvelous overview, and one which only a deeply musical neuroscientist could give. Daniel Levitin has a huge knowledge of music developed since the 1950s (and of blues, jazz, and etc. before this), and not merely a formal but a deep personal knowledge as an expert performer no less than as a listener. I liked the discussion of 'safe' and 'dangerous' music, and I very much liked the final chapter on the evolutionary origins of music. An important book." Oliver Sacks, M.D.
Review:"Although Levitin's narrative grasp may be shaky, the arc of his transformation from musician to scientist grounds his thinking and guides his treatise to a satisfying conclusion." Los Angeles Times
Review:"Setting jargon aside in favor of everyday terminology, [Levitin] gives readers enough background to understand what to listen for in music and to connect what they hear to his science." Seattle Times
Review:"Levitin makes a strong case....He also has a warm, modest and compassionate voice, and his little asides of music trivia and nerdy jokes are more like sprinkles of sugar than spoonfuls, but they help just the same." San Diego Union-Tribune
Book News Annotation:Levitin (psychology of electronic communication, McGill U., Canada) is a former record producer, sound engineer, and session musician. Here he describes music from the perspective of cognitive neuroscience and examines recent studies that tie it to meaning and pleasure. He first explains the elements of music in a way that is both detailed and accessible to general readers, then outlines how the brain understands it. The mind develops expectations of music, he says, and creates categories. Other chapters look into the concept of emotion, musical preferences, and whether talent is inherent or can be learned. Finally, he considers music and evolutionary theory. Annotation ©2006 Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)
Synopsis:Whether you load your iPod with Bach or Bono, music has a significant role in your life—even if you never realized it. Why does music evoke such powerful moods? The answers are at last be- coming clear, thanks to revolutionary neuroscience and the emerging field of evolutionary psychology. Both a cutting-edge study and a tribute to the beauty of music itself, This Is Your Brain on Music unravels a host of mysteries that affect everything from pop culture to our understanding of human nature, including: • Are our musical preferences shaped in utero? • Is there a cutoff point for acquiring new tastes in music? • What do PET scans and MRIs reveal about the brain’s response to music? • Is musical pleasure different from other kinds of pleasure?
This Is Your Brain on Music explores cultures in which singing is considered an essential human function, patients who have a rare disorder that prevents them from making sense of music, and scientists studying why two people may not have the same definition of pitch. At every turn, this provocative work unlocks deep secrets about how nature and nurture forge a uniquely human obsession. Synopsis:Music, Science, and the Brain are more closely related than you think. Daniel J. Levitin, James McGill Professor of Psychology and Music at McGill University, shows you why this is. In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin (The World in Six Songs) explores the connection between music, its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it, and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, Levitin reveals:
About the AuthorDaniel J. Levitin runs the Levitin Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill University, where he holds the Bell Chair in the Psychology of Electronic Communications. Before becoming a neuroscientist, he was a record producer with gold records to his credit and professional musician. He has published extensively in scientific journals and music trade magazines such as Grammy and Billboard.
Table of ContentsThis Is Your Brain On Music Introduction I Love Music and I Love Science—Why Would I Want to Mix the Two? 1. What Is Music? From Pitch to Timbre 2. Foot Tapping Discerning Rhythm, Loudness, and Harmony 3. Behind the Curtain Music and the Mind Machine 4. Anticipation What We Expect From Liszt (and Ludacris) 5. You Know My Name, Look Up the Number How We Categorize Music 6. After Dessert, Crick Was Still Four Seats Away from Me Music, Emotion, and the Reptilian Brain 7. What Makes a Musician? Expertise Dissected 8. My Favorite Things Why Do We Like the Music We Like? 9. The Music Instinct Evolution's #1 Hit Appendices Bibliographic Notes Acknowledgments Index
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