This is Your Brain on Music: Understanding a Human Obsession - Softcover

Levitin, Daniel

Softcover

ISBN 10: 0241987350 ISBN 13: 9780241987353

Publisher: Penguin, 2019

Synopsis

From the author of The Changing Mind and The Organized Mind comes The New York Times bestseller which unravels the mystery of our perennial love affair with music

*****

'What do the music of Bach, Depeche Mode and John Cage fundamentally have in common?'

Music is an obsession at the heart of human nature, even more fundamental to our species than language.

From Mozart to the Beatles, neuroscientist, psychologist and internationally-bestselling author Daniel Levitin reveals the role of music in human evolution, shows how our musical preferences begin to form even before we are born and explains why music can offer such an emotional experience.

In This Is Your Brain On Music Levitin offers nothing less than a new way to understand music, and what it can teach us about ourselves.

*****

'Music seems to have an almost wilful, evasive quality, defying simple explanation, so that the more we find out, the more there is to know . . . Daniel Levitin's book is an eloquent and poetic exploration of this paradox' Sting

'You'll never hear music in the same way again' Classic FM magazine

'Music, Levitin argues, is not a decadent modern diversion but something of fundamental importance to the history of human development' Literary Review

About this title

About the Author

Daniel J. Levitin, PhD, is a neuroscientist, cognitive psychologist, and bestselling author. He trained at Stanford University Medical School, The University of California at Berkeley, and the University of Oregon. He is founding dean of Arts and Humanities at the Minerva Schools at KGI in San Francisco and Professor Emeritus of psychology and neuroscience at McGill University. He is the author of This Is Your Brain on Music, The World in Six Songs, The Organized Mind, and A Field Guide to Lies and Statistics. He divides his time between Montreal and California.

From the Back Cover

Using musical examples from Bach to the Beatles, Levitin reveals the role of music in human evolution, shows how our musical preferences begin to form even before we are born and explains why music can offer such an emotional experience.

Music is an obsession at the heart of human nature, even more fundamental to our species than language. In This Is Your Brain On Music Levitin offers nothing less than a new way to understand it, and its role in human life.

Edition details

• Publisher: Penguin
• Publication date: 2019
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0241987350
• ISBN 13: 9780241987353
• Binding: Paperback
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 336