Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our ImaginationMusic, the Brain, and Ecstasy is a far-reaching study of how music captivates us so completely and why we form such powerful connections to it. Leading us to an understanding of the pleasures of sound, Robert Jourdain draws on a variety of fields including science, psychology, and philosophy. He uses music from around the world to show how melodies work, how rhythm differs from beat, and why some sounds are beautiful and others ugly. Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy looks at the evolution of music and introduces surprising new concepts of memory and perception, knowledge and attention, motion and emotion, all at work as music takes hold of us. Along the way, a fascinating cast of characters brings Jourdain's narrative to vivid life: idiots savants who absorb whole pieces on a single hearing, composers who hallucinate entire compositions, a psychic who claimed to take dictation from long-dead composers, and victims of brain damage who can move only when they hear music. In each of these, Jourdain assures us, we will see parts of ourselves. Using such examples, he helps explain the parallels between music and language, and asks how the brain reacts to each. |
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Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination R Jourdain,Robert Jourdain No preview available - 1997 |
Common terms and phrases
activity anticipations appear arises auditory auditory cortex beat become begin better body brain called century Chapter chord comes complex composers composition concert consider contour cortex deep developed dissonance early emotion entire experience feel follow frequency hand harmony hear hierarchy human ideas imagery important individual It's kind language later less levels listening lobes loud means melody memory meter middle mind motions motor move movement Mozart muscles musicians natural neurons notes observations octave once organ overtones particular patterns perceive perception performance phrasing piano piece pitch play pleasure Press produce range reason relations requires rhythm rhythmic scale score sense side simple skills sometimes sort sound structure temporal tend There's tonal tones tune turn understanding voices York