Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
|
List Price: N/A
Our Price: $22.00
Availability: N/A
|
Manufacturer: Knopf Canada
Written By: Oliver Sacks
|
Click on the Buy From Amazon.com link to know Amazon.com's best price & availability.
|
|
Binding: Hardcover
EAN: 9780676979787
ISBN: 0676979785
Label: Knopf Canada
Manufacturer: Knopf Canada
Number Of Items: 1
Number Of Pages: 400
Publication Date: 2007-10-16
Publisher: Knopf Canada
Release Date: 2007-10-16
Studio: Knopf Canada
|
|
|
Editorial Reviews for Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
|
What goes on in human beings when they make or listen to music? What is it about music, what gives it such peculiar power over us, power delectable and beneficent for the most part, but also capable of uncontrollable and sometimes destructive force? Music has no concepts, it lacks images; it has no power of representation, it has no relation to the world. And yet it is evident in all of us–we tap our feet, we keep time, hum, sing, conduct music, mirror the melodic contours and feelings of what we hear in our movements and expressions.
In this book, Oliver Sacks explores the power music wields over us–a power that sometimes we control and at other times don’t. He explores, in his inimitable fashion, how it can provide access to otherwise unreachable emotional states, how it can revivify neurological avenues that have been frozen, evoke memories of earlier, lost events or states or bring those with neurological disorders back to a time when the world was much richer.
This is a book that explores, like no other, the myriad dimensions of our experience of and with music.
|
|
|
Consumer reviews:
|
Customer Rating:  
Summary: Musicophagia
Comment: I've been a huge fan of Oliver's ever since TMWMHWFAH, I even went back and read all his previous books and I've loved (almost) everything since then. Not only do I enjoy the weird little neurological symptoms he describes but I love his folksy, self-deprecating voice.
"Musicophilia" however I found to be tough sledding -- I read at least 3 other books while trying to finish this one. The reason is not the material -- the relationship of musicality to mentation is fascinating, and he does an admirable job of covering the subject here. The problem lies in his voice -- this book is written from a somewhat scholarly third-person perspective (most of it) and it's made worse by this paperback "revised and expanded edition" which adds about 30% more to it in the form of endless repetition, tedious footnotes, and totally extraneous postscripts. Rather than using a few entertaining case histories to illustrate the subjects under discussion, Sacks lists dozens and dozens of nearly identical case histories with way too much detail and way not enough commentary.
The 425 page book could have made an entertaining 180 page book without losing any of the essential narrative. You really learn the value of a good editor when you don't have one.
Customer Rating:
Summary: A deeply intelligent, loving book.
Comment: Dr. Sacks has written a book that is astounding in its depth and love for humanity, his patients, the mysteries of life and music the great connector of us all. Music, how we each perceive it and it effects us. The stories in this book amaze and awaken us to the marvels of the brain, our wiring, science and possibility.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Tales and more tales of music and the brain
Comment: I should have read the title of the book more carefully, since this book is exactly what it claims to be: a compilation of tales (on average more than 10 per chapter), most of the times lacking the neuroscientific explanations that I was looking for.
I will summarize one anecdote to exemplify what I mean: "Florence Foster Jenkins, a corolatura that attracted a sell-out audience to Carnegie Hall (...) would sing notes that were excruciatingly wrong, flat, even screechy (...) without realizing that she was doing so. (...) Whether her fans were devoted to her in spite of her lack of musicality or because of it is not clear." That's it, no further explanations. This anecdote was in a footnote, where normally I expect to find a deeper explanation left out of the text for the ease of the less scientifically interested. I think I could have come up with such a "tale" myself, without having any knowledge of either music nor neuroscience. Other tales within the text are similarly lacking deeper explanations, as the case of a man who the author met for 5 minutes (that's it, he did not mention any further study by himself or somebody else). The deepest explanations you get throughout the book are following: a) during the appearance of certain conditions, neuroscientists have used MRI techniques ("magnetic resonance imaging") to detect an activation of "x" or "y" area in the brain, which indicates that this area is involved in the specific process or b) after autopsias have been practised, neuroscientists have found out that specific areas seem larger/smaller in persons with certain conditions than in most of the people. I would have liked to know how connetions are formed in the brain like how rythm, melody or other patterns are perceived or interpreted, etc.
Anyhow, if you are a layperson like myself, the reading of so many anecdotes will give you interesting insights to a lot of conditions that you probably have never heard of. The chapter on Williams' syndrome captivated me, and imagining somebody like Clive Wearing, who had a severe amnesia is quite tough. Additionally there seems to be no other book for laypersons that covers music and the brain in a deeper fashion. The reviews for Levitin's books seemed not too promising to me, so for the moment, this is probably the book for you if you want to learn something on this truly interesting subject.
For more interesting anecdotal neuroscience themes read Phantoms in the Brain: Probing the Mysteries of the Human Mind (2-3 clinical cases per chapter but thoroughly explained, including interesting therapy that improved the patients' condition and its neurological basis) and for a more comprehensive introduction to the workings of our brain I recommend A User's Guide to the Brain: Perception, Attention, and the Four Theaters of the Brain.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Musicophilia: Reviewed
Comment: This book further detailed the fascination with music's neurological connection. Why do some people have a natural talent and others don't? Absolute pitch, musical savants, 'seeing' music, memory training, and gained/lost musical abilities from accidents/health issues/etc are a few of the many topics Sacks addresses. The majority of the book are case reviews from the author's various patients & studies. There are definitely some cases that feel repetitive (Okay great...another story about another guy struck by lighting with the same reaction as the previous 2 described). For someone who is interested in music's effect on the mind (and someone who is a bit nerdy), this book is perfect for casually picking up in the evenings and reading at leisure.
Customer Rating:
Summary: Man, the musical animal
Comment: Sacks does it again, merging clinical precision with insight and real affection for his patients. This time, he explores the biological foundations of music as a human experience. It turns out that music runs deep in the human brain and mind, as it does in possibly no other species. In his medical practice, Sacks has seen how music can heal, as in some Parkison's and psychiatric patients, or even harm, in rare cases where its rhythms can trigger seizures. It can reach in to patients blocked from normal communication, and it can help people reach out through stuttering or stroke-damaged failures of language. In some Tourette's patients, it can both drive creativity, and be used to channel the illness's effects away from harmful kinds of expression. It casts new light on Plato's draconian control over music in his idealized Republic - it really does have deep effect on the citizens' minds.
Since musical expression seems so deeply ingrained in the human nervous system, it seems surprising that people differ so much in how the experience it. Oddly, enjoyment and basic neurological faculties for music don't always go together. I'm one who "lack[s] some of the perceptual or cognitive abilities to appreciate music but nonetheless enjoy it hugely." I'm about as unmusical as anyone around, but usually have something playing - at least in my imagination. Others, even with fine senses of pitch or the formal nuances of music, might be quite indifferent. I found it helpful to see all the different parts of the musical sense, and to see how they fit together.
This book gives real insight into one of the most basic of human faculties. It's a study that has only recently claimed a place of its own in the scientific literature, possibly because it is so abstract and subjective. As a result, nearly everything that Sacks presents comes across as fresh knowledge. And, since it discusses parts of human nature that have rarely been discussed, it helped me to see my place in the range of human experience. My lack of musical ability has been an embarrassment, sometimes a painful one. I can, and do, enjoy it anyway, and my enjoyment is as real as anyone's.
-- wiredweird
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
More Information on Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain
Oliver Sacks . Welcome to the Official Website
MUSICOPHILIA: Tales of Music and the Brain is now available. It contains the original hardcover text, plus approximately forty pages of additional material. See Dr.
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks review ...
There’s something special about music. ... There’s something special about music. It invades and involves us. It infects and affects us like no other art.
Powell's Books - Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver ...
Musicophilia is a fascinating look at music and its effects on our brains. Who but Oliver Sacks could make such a compulsively readable book? Recommended by Beth, Powells.co...
Mind Reviews: Scientific American
MUSICOPHILIA - TALES OF MUSIC AND THE BRAIN by Oliver Sacks. Knopf, 2007. Music provides a fascinating window into the mind. In my research at the University of California, San Diego ...
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain - Book Reviews - Books ...
Our innate musical abilities are far more than a frivolous evolutionary quirk - they help us remember who we are. - Sydney Morning Herald Online
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain - Wikipedia, the free ...
Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain is a 2007 book by neurologist Oliver Sacks about music and the human brain. The book was released on October 16, 2007 and published by ...
Columbia Magazine
Excerpted from Oliver Sack's book, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain : I’m a clinician, I’m a physician, I wear a white coat a lot of the time and I listen to people ...
Horizon Information Portal
Musicophilia : tales of music and the brain / Oliver Sacks. by Sacks, Oliver W. ... Haunted by music. A bolt from the blue : sudden musicophilia ; A ...
Barnes & Noble.com - Books, Used & Out of Print, Textbooks, Children's ...
Sorry. We did not find any results with the search terms you provided.
Library.Solution PAC
|