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Title: Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination
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Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
List Price: $14.95
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| Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Harper Perennial Wonderful Surprize | | I purchased this book for my 14 year old son who wants to be a musician. I read it and found so many interesting facts and it truly increased my knowledge base significantly. Besides I enjoyed it so much I could not and did not want to put it down. I am not that interested in music myself, but after reading this book, I feel that I can understand Classical as well as all music so much better. It is like a fundamentals of music 101 in paperback. I think I will read it again because I am sure I will get more the second time. | | Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Harper Perennial Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Robert Jourdain (Paperback - Mar 1, 1998) | The first page and a half of this book combined with the curious use of the word ecstasy in the title nearly made me put his book down for good but I'm incredibly glad that I didn't because the writer quickly drops his attempt to be evocative and the book becomes interesting and very readable. Even the use of the word ecstasy is normal and informative when it is finally described.
In this book Robert Jourdain covers a lot of ground on all aspects of sound, music, the brain and how they all interact and he does it well. The book is ten years old at the time of this review and it remains quite current, detailed but not overburdened, enjoyable to read, and a valuable resource for anyone with an interest in the mind, the brain, music, music theory, musical instruments, sound or noise (acousticians should however note that words are used with their psychology meanings rather than their accoustics meanings).
Robert Jourdain spends rather more time describing the effect of music on the brain than he does effect of music on the mind. This isn't the problem that it might seem and is easily turned to advantage by reading it in conjunction with a book that favours the mind over the brain such as David Levitin's "This Is Your Brain on Music" which also has the advantage of describing the most interesting experiments that have done since the publication of this book.
If you want one book to explain what music is and why we like it then this is that book. If you want an introduction to the subject then this is an excellent place to start and nine pages of bibliography offer plenty of suggestions for further reading. I heartily recommend this book for pleasure, knowledge or study - once you get past the first page and half that is. | | Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Harper Perennial Very Interesting | | I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I especially enjoyed reading about the personality characteristics of the greatest composers. Why did Mendelssohn and Saint-Saens never fully develop the potential they showed early in life while Beethoven's skills in composition improved consistently during his lifetime? For me, this book at least addressed, if not answered, some of the questions I've wondered about for a very long time. A previous reviewer complained the book portrayed snobbery. I guess from a certain viewpoint, someone could feel that way. James Brown said he'd surpassed everyone, Beethoven, Mozart, everyone because he'd written 5,000 songs. With all due respect and acknowledging Mr. Brown's very real talent, there is a bit of a difference there. For hundreds of years, music has been created for purposes of art and has been written also as popular music. Both unquestionably have their place in the world of music. The same could be said of all the arts. Is Australian aboriginal art less important than a Monet? Not if we believe the real purpose of art. I suggest an individual's opinion of this book depends on what they are hoping to take away from it. For me, it was an enjoyable, informative read. | | Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Harper Perennial Too Careless | | I didn't even get to page 100 before deciding that the information in this book couldn't be trusted, and so I'm not going to finish reading it. I do have some expertise in classical music, and the author is just plain wrong in some things he says in that area. After realizing that he not very conscientious in the area which I was knowledgeable, I certainly can't rely on his presentation of facts in the scientific areas that I don't know so well, and that kind of material is the bulk of the book. The writing itself is not very impressive, either. Some of it seems to be trying in a much too calculated way to be "popular". Other of it fails when trying to explain complicated stuff, giving the impression that the author himself was none to clear about the material. And some of the writing is strangely "off", as if he looked up the wrong word in a thesaurus. It's really too bad the book isn't a success, because the subject matter itself is fascinating, and a high quality, well-written book on it would be most welcome. | | Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Harper Perennial A very underrated book, although some of reviewer criticisms are quite valid | I am a former research scientist and lifelong musician. I also have a graduate education in psychology and I don't approach any of the arts in a reductionistic fashion. It is from this space that I am evaluating this book on its merits with the understanding that its scope is indeed limited to Western music, which is only a small slice of the musical pie.
What I most like about this book is the way it weaves a story of the emergence of hearing and how sound affects us physically and psychology. For this purpose, the author draws on diverse sources such as science, anthropology, sociology, etc. However, he does this by weaving a tapestry of interesting threads, which is not at all like the construction of an academic treatise.
This book is also accessible to anyone and everyone! It is not just for musicians, scientists of psychologists. The target audience is the average person, however, if you have a background in one or more of these areas, you will appreciate the contents even more.
An underlying premise of the book is that music is satisfying because it sets up "anticipations" and then goes about satisfying them in unexpected ways. The more complex the music, the more types of anticipatory events are created and satisfied in more imaginative ways. I didn't really think about this until I read the book, but it's true. I can validate this in my own experience over a lifetime.
While some people may feel the application of biology or any other field is reductionistic, I didn't find this to be the case. Rather, I found that the author used various lenses and legitimate domains of knowledge to explore the many and varied facets of musical experience. Rather than taking away the mystery of what moves us, it makes the whole musical adventure even more fascinating and mysterious.
My guess is that most of you reading this are not familiar with Ken Wilber who is a rather famous contemporary philosopher. Ken espouses a worldview that embraces four irreducible domains of human experience that inform each other. He feels the split between arts, science and morals was the result of one domain (science), dominating the others. I believe there is much truth to this argument, but you will find none of this spirit here. I don't want or need to go into Ken Wilber in detail here, but he provides a very credible and integral worldview and I think this book is very much in the spirit of honoring each domain of human experience without a need to reduce any one of them to another. (For more on Wilber's books, see my listmania lists or for a nice introduction check out A Brief History of Everything.
| | Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Harper Perennial Product Description | | What makes a distant oboe's wail beautiful? Why do some kinds of music lift us to ecstasy, but not others? How can music make sense to an ear and brain evolved for detecting the approaching lion or tracking the unsuspecting gazelle? Lyrically interweaving discoveries from science, psychology, music theory, paleontology, and philosophy, Robert Jourdian brilliantly examines why music speaks to us in ways that words cannot, and why we form such powerful connections to it. In clear, understandable language, Jourdian expertly guides the reader through a continuum of musical experience: sound, tone, melody, harmony, rhythm, composition, performance, listening, understanding--and finally to ecstasy. Along the way, a fascinating cast of characters brings Jourdian's narrative to vivid life: "idiots savants" who absorb whole pieces on a single hearing, composers who hallucinate entire compositions, a psychic who claims to take dictation from long-dead composers, and victims of brain damage who can move only when they hear music. Here is a book that will entertain, inform, and stimulate everyone who loves music--and make them think about their favorite song in startling new ways.What makes a distant oboes wail beautiful? Why do some kinds of music lift us to ecstasy, but not others? How can music make sense to an ear and brain evolved for detecting the approaching lion or tracking the unsuspecting gazelle? Lyrically interweaving discoveries from science, psychology, music theory, paleontology, and philosophy, Robert Jourdian brilliantly examines why music speaks to us in ways that words cannot, and why we form such powerful connections to it. In clear, understandable language, Jourdian expertly guides the reader through a continuum of musical experience: sound, tone, melody, harmony, rhythm, composition, performance, listening, understanding--and finally to ecstasy. Along the way, a fascinating cast of characters brings Jourdians narrative to vivid life: idiots savants who absorb whole pieces on a single hearing, composers who hallucinate entire compositions, a psychic who claims to take dictation from long-dead composers, and victims of brain damage who can move only when they hear music. Here is a book that will entertain, inform, and stimulate everyone who loves music--and make them think about their favorite song in startling new ways. | | Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Harper Perennial Amazon.com | | What is music? How and why does it affect us? What is the nature of musical genius? Author/composer Robert Jourdain explores these and other questions, from the essential nature of sound through composition, performance, and, finally, the nature of ecstasy. His prose is eminently readable, offering a very accessible account of a difficult subject to the general reader as well as to the musical sophisticate. This is a fascinating and intriguing book, written by someone who clearly knows his subject. |
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