Hide this

Results from Google Books

Click on a thumbnail to go to Google Books.

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks
Loading...

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

by Oliver Sacks

MembersReviewsPopularityAverage ratingConversations
1,485392,303 (3.65)40
Recently added byronpaula, staceisok, RobL, ceriitt, jimmyp, private library, DaleQ, cec500, mphchicago, bartflanders
Loading...
won't like will probably not like will probably like will like will love

Sign up for LibraryThing to find out whether you'll like this book.

English (37)  Dutch (1)  Italian (1)  All languages (39)
Showing 1-5 of 37 (next | show all)
Fascinating anecdotes written by an eminent neurologist in an accessible and personal style about the amazing and unexpected ways that music works on people.

There's the man who got struck by lightning, and then a few weeks afterwards suddenly found that the creation of new music was flowing through his mind, "like turning a radio on". There are musical hallucinations; interesting stories about music and synesthesia (when one hears the key of D for instance, one sees a colour - plainly, not just in imagination); about how people trapped in parkinsonian spasms suddenly move freely and easily to music; about absolute pitch, the ability to hear a note and know exactly what it is, as plainly as we see green and know that it is green. Stuff like that, told with a human warmth and interest in the people being discussed.

I came away from the book with the sense that music is more than we think it is - far more than a series of sounds. It's something that different people understand on such different levels (regardless of education and training), and something of extraordinary power. It's as if music is already out there, existing on its own without human intervention, and it's only our own varying perception that enables us to access or understand it.
3 vote ChocolateMuse | Oct 11, 2009 |
I have been a fan of Oliver Sacks for many years. His books are extremely well written, although they can be a little esoteric at times. His insights into the neurological aspects of mental deficits via injury, illness, or other circumstances really bring to light the reality of how incredible the human brain is. In Musicophilia, we learn how music really is the universal language and how our brain can use it in spite of debillitations such as Parkinson's. He introduces us to the phenomenom of synthesia, the remarkable story of Clive Wearing, and other instances of the incredible plasticity of the mind. I highly recommend this book to anyone who is interested in the relationship between music and the brain - I promise you'll find it fascinating. ( )
  TheFlamingoReads | Sep 20, 2009 |
Fascinating for anyone interested in the brain and in music, particularly classical music. This book is like having a very smart friend sit down and tell you a wonderful story. Perhaps while having a couple of drinks. A bit uneven - some parts are more interesting than others, but highly memorable and educational. ( )
  datrappert | Aug 24, 2009 |
While it took me a bit to get through this book, I liked it. The descriptions of the different ways in which music plays a part in the lives of the many people discussed in this book was very interesting and enlightening. I also highly recommend the NOVA episode that was a companion piece to this book called "Musical Minds". ( )
  crmass | Aug 16, 2009 |
Sachs is a very accessible writer, which was somewhat surprising to me since all I knew about him was that his book was about the brain. He presents a long chain of case studies grouped into categories, which reads pretty much like a magazine feature. I expected that a neuroscientist would fill the pages with arguments for a particular theory about this or that phenomena, but I was wrong. I suppose the overriding thesis is that the brain is a very complicated organ, and variation in our brains result in variation in our perception of music. The surprising part to me was that, except for the occasional mention of a certain region of the brain known for certain kinds of functions, scientists don't know much of anything with any certainty about how or why the brain works. If it weren't for the very coarse technical measurements he cites and the fancy names for psychiatric conditions, the book could have been written in another century. Nonetheless, it was an interesting read about the varieties of musical experience. ( )
  dylan1 | Aug 13, 2009 |
Showing 1-5 of 37 (next | show all)
no reviews | add a review
You must log in to edit Common Knowledge data.
For more help see the Common Knowledge help page.
Series (with order)
Canonical Title
Original publication date
People/Characters
Important places
Important events
Awards and honors
Epigraph
Dedication
For Orrin Devinsky, Ralph Siegel, and Connie Tomaino
First words
What an odd thing it is to see an entire species—billions of people—playing with, listening to, meaningless tonal patterns, occupied and preoccupied for much of their time by what they call "music." (Preface)
Tony Cicoria was forty-two, very fit and robust, a former college football player who had become a well-regarded orthopedic surgeon in a small city in upstate New York.
Quotations
Last words
(Click to show. Warning: May contain spoilers.)
Disambiguation notice
Publisher's editors
Blurbers

References to this work on external resources.

Wikipedia in English (6)

Absolute pitch

Earworm

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

Tone deafness

Tony Cicoria

William James

Book description

Amazon.com (ISBN 0676979785, Hardcover)

Amazon Best of the Month, December 2007: Legendary R&B icon Ray Charles claimed that he was "born with music inside me," and neurologist Oliver Sacks believes Ray may have been right. Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain examines the extreme effects of music on the human brain and how lives can be utterly transformed by the simplest of harmonies. With clinical studies covering the tragic (individuals afflicted by an inability to connect with any melody) and triumphant (Alzheimer's patients who find order and comfort through music), Sacks provides an erudite look at the notion that humans are truly a "musical species." --Dave Callanan

(retrieved from Amazon Fri, 24 Apr 2009 07:58:12 -0400)

The first test round has been closed. Visit the Open Shelves Classification group for details.

Quick Links

Ebooks Audio Swap
2 pay2 pay0/255+

Popular covers

 

Help/FAQs | About | Privacy/Terms | Blog | Contact | LibraryThing.com | APIs | WikiThing | Common Knowledge | 45,914,487 books!