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This is Your Brain on Music - The Science of a Human Obsession - by Daniel J Levitin
I am fascinated by the human response to art, both in the general sense, as well as the aspects that make it so subjective. This book did a good job of shedding light on what is known, circa 2006, about this topic in regards to music. For the musicians out there, you may want to skip the first few chapters, as they mostly talk about 'what music is', but it also can be a good refresher. The rest of the book digs deeper into how the brain processes audio information, and how that produces the emotional responses we experience. But, as with most books on these topics, there are no real 'answers', just 'observed phenomenon' and theories about what this means.. All in all it was a good read, and I recommend it.
-cpr
I am fascinated by the human response to art, both in the general sense, as well as the aspects that make it so subjective. This book did a good job of shedding light on what is known, circa 2006, about this topic in regards to music. For the musicians out there, you may want to skip the first few chapters, as they mostly talk about 'what music is', but it also can be a good refresher. The rest of the book digs deeper into how the brain processes audio information, and how that produces the emotional responses we experience. But, as with most books on these topics, there are no real 'answers', just 'observed phenomenon' and theories about what this means.. All in all it was a good read, and I recommend it.
-cpr
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Re: This is Your Brain on Music
Mon, May 5, 2008 - 5:27 PMi read some recent article that says an electrochemical model for the nervous system doesnt account for the amount of complexity. and it theorized that nervous system communicates with vibrations.
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If you like that sort of junk, you might want to read Hazrat Inayat Khan 1882-1927; he rocks a mystical Sufi take on music. looked at the universe as made of vibrations (like string theory). i think its were hippies got the idea of VIBES.
Hazrat Inayat Khan also goes into an ethics of making art - your vibes effect your creation, so only make art when youre in a good mood or you will bad vibe people.
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Re: This is Your Brain on Music
Thu, May 8, 2008 - 1:18 PMI've been wanting to read this book, they did a really good interview with him on NPR when this first came out.
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Unsu...
Re: This is Your Brain on Music
Mon, June 8, 2009 - 8:50 PMI loved the concept, but the book was a bit tedious. -
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Re: This is Your Brain on Music
Tue, June 9, 2009 - 6:51 AMI am just reading a book by Rosina-Fawzia AL-Rawi. I will talk about the book some other time but she mentions in there that the sense of hearing , i.e. the ear, begins to develop just one week after conception. It is also the last sense that fades, at the moment of death. A few quotes from her: "It is through hearing that the brain and thoughts are activated and conditioned. Because sound waves disappear rapidly, they require fast processing." "If visul perception determined the functioning of the brain, we would think a lot more slowly, precisely seven times slower, for we can hear seven times faster than we can see." "Ears don't lie, they perceive things and sounds as they are." "Much more so than seeing, hearing is about taking in." "The hearing prcess transmits the information much more deeply into the listener."
I found this fascinating. That, and the fact that the Arabic has 24 tones in one octave. They have full, half and quarter tones, while the Western scale is limited to 8 full tones and a few half tones, so the Arabic one is much more subtle and refined. And therefore, much more soothing for the ear, and at the same time, stimulating more sensitivity to the sounds.
I would like to know more about the book you read. Can you tell us some details about the theories in there, please?
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