Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does—humans are a musical species.
Oliver Sacks’s compassionate, compelling tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have f... (show more)
Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does—humans are a musical species.
Oliver Sacks’s compassionate, compelling tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we think of our own brains, and of the human experience. In Musicophilia, he examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people—from a man who is struck by lightning and suddenly inspired to become a pianist at the age of forty-two, to an entire group of children with Williams syndrome, who are hypermusical from birth; from people with “amusia,” to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans, to a man whose memory spans only seven seconds—for everything but music.
Our exquisite sensitivity to music can sometimes go wrong: Sacks explores how catchy tunes can subject us to hours of mental replay, and how a surprising number of people acquire nonstop musical hallucinations that assault them night and day. Yet far more frequently, music goes right: Sacks describes how music can animate people with Parkinson’s disease who cannot otherwise move, give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise speak, and calm and organize people whose memories are ravaged by Alzheimer’s or amnesia.
Music is irresistible, haunting, and unforgettable, and in Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks tells us why.
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Sackes collected a large volumes of studies relatiing to music, people who have excessive response to it, people who lack such responses, and peopl... (show more)
Sackes collected a large volumes of studies relatiing to music, people who have excessive response to it, people who lack such responses, and people who experience illness and trauma and their changed response to music.
There is no universal experience to music; all of us bring our whole self to such audible experience. I am entirely unmoved by many, but there are several classic pieces do have the ability to piece through. Largely unexposed to music during my childhood, I discovered, albeit late, the potentiating power of learning about music.
One of my friend use certain pop music (mostly trance-type) music when he worked on his computer, companied by pen-twirling. He creates an environment where his motor function and auditory function propels his brain actiivity. But he does not listen to such music outside his work, calling them "dismally horrible", yet he needs it to active his brain. There are many joggers and runners with ipod attached to them, such is the "energy" source of a particular type of music. (show less)
I wanted to like this book more than I did. I found it difficult to finish, and as soon as a story drew me in, it veered off into very detailed dis... (show more)
I wanted to like this book more than I did. I found it difficult to finish, and as soon as a story drew me in, it veered off into very detailed discussions of brain physiology and my attention wandered. Parts of this book are horrifying - especially the case of the man who had no memory from one second to the next. The last section of the book was what I was really looking forward to - it deals with music and depression, and music as therapy in cases with dementia, etc. Fascinating subjects, but told in something of a detached, methodical way. This book just wasn't written for me - I don't have a scientific brain. And on a superficial level, I really dislike the cover. There are so many beautiful depictions of music in art - they could have picked something more creative. (show less)
I loved this book. It transcends neurology, audiology and even music and does what a good book should: Take the reader to a higher understanding of himself as a human being.
Oliver Sacks presents a case for understanding better that our perception of reality are just that: perceptions, created by the mind for our enjoyment or displeasure. If you ever doubted the Buddhist notion of the no-being of your own perceived truth, this should punch a few more holes into your consciousness for you.
... (show more)
I loved this book. It transcends neurology, audiology and even music and does what a good book should: Take the reader to a higher understanding of himself as a human being.
Oliver Sacks presents a case for understanding better that our perception of reality are just that: perceptions, created by the mind for our enjoyment or displeasure. If you ever doubted the Buddhist notion of the no-being of your own perceived truth, this should punch a few more holes into your consciousness for you.
The most wonderful thing about Sacks is how his curious, interested and compassionate personality pervades every story he tells of patients who are tortured or pleasured by the particular way in which their brains and ears are wired up. I could not help but extrapolate further to wonder how my eyes, fingers, mouth and - ahem - well, other parts are wired up to my brain and how different my experience of each passing reality is from that of the people around me.
A complex topic is brought to the reader with humoe and intelligence. Great read. (show less)
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I picked up this book in Germany for a flight back to the US. I was travelling light and had already read through all the books I had on me. And this seemed like the most interesting pick in the train station bookstore.
I like Oliver Sacks and his style. I read this just a week after finishing This is Your Brain on Music. This book is less about the science than about the stories of people living with the consequences of science. The human touch, when it is positive, is interesting, but... (show more)
I picked up this book in Germany for a flight back to the US. I was travelling light and had already read through all the books I had on me. And this seemed like the most interesting pick in the train station bookstore.
I like Oliver Sacks and his style. I read this just a week after finishing This is Your Brain on Music. This book is less about the science than about the stories of people living with the consequences of science. The human touch, when it is positive, is interesting, but the overall effect of the book, for me, was depressing. However interesting it is that a person can have a bike accident and be left with no long-term or short-term memory and still retain his musical sense and talent - it is profoundly sad that a person can live like that. And so many of the stories that Sacks has are negative in that sense. I suppose it is important to remember how lucky we are to be healthy when we are -
I thought it interesting how in some cases for the brain to recover, one has to inhibit the function of other parts of the brain. Like any complex network, the way you bring it online matters to its function. That kind of activity suggests that it mights be possible in the future to engineer inside the brain. So fascinating, and given how sad these different stories of strokes are, hopefully this engineering will help with healing those kind of problems.
I thought it interesting how people with perfect pitch have a different flavor for each key - and that a lot of babies have perfect pitch. Conjectures today suggest that relative pitch is probably a higher level function useful for language and that for most people it inhibits absolute pitch.
I was astonished also by the neural failures for musicians. For exqample, a violinst will lose control of his little finger and that this can be shown to be a brain problem. Amazing.
So interesting, even if often depressing. (show less)
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