Book Description
During the years preceding the composition of Tristan and Isolde, Wagner's aesthetics underwent a momentous turnaround, principally as a result of his discovery of Schopenhauer. Many of Schopenhauer's ideas, especially those regarding music's metaphysical significance, resonated with patterns of thought that had long been central to Wagner's aesthetics, and Wagner described the entry of Schopenhauer into his life as "a gift from heaven." Chafe argues that Wagner's Tristan and Isolde is a musical and dramatic exposition of metaphysical ideas inspired by Schopenhauer. The first part of the book covers the philosophical and literary underpinnings of the story, exploring Schopenhauer's metaphysics and Gottfried van Strassburg's Tristan poem. Chafe then turns to the events in the opera, providing tonal and harmonic analyses that reinforce his interpretation of the drama. Chafe acts as an expert guide, interpreting and illustrating the most important moments for his reader. Ultimately, Chafe creates a critical account of Tristan, in which the drama is shown to develop through the music.
Customer Reviews:
Zen Guitar .......2007-06-20
This book doesn't tell you much except to stick to practice without getting discouraged, and play with personal integrity.
It is not intended to be a technical book on learing to play a guitar, and I didn't expect it to be, so don't expect it to be, because it isn't. I am not panning it on that basis, just a reminder.
It doesn't actually have much to do with zen either, except for a few trite phrases like "the sound of one hand clapping", if you want to accept that as zen.
In spirt a tional...Fun...Positive....A must for guitar.......2006-11-20
I... eat...think...drink...everything Guitar... I have studied most guitar books,programs,theories...always searching for more...any suggestions? ...I love talking guitar...10-12$...buy this book...it dosn't have scales and theory...it is positive...The negative opinions I read urged me to leave this review...Riddle me this...One who learns about Tao and Zen and knows and understands the "cliches" in this Zen book...Leaves a negative review?
Jesus Loves You,
Sincerely,
Jdan
One of the best books I have ever read!.......2006-11-10
I've had this book for years, since the late 90's
I have it in the hard copy!
I have given it as a gift about 23 times.
Its a wonderful book that applies to life in general!
A MUST READ for musicians as well as non-musicians!
-Steve Amaral
Taoist.......2006-08-04
PROS: a sentimental, warm fuzzy, encouraging, inspirational read.
CONS: unlikely to make one a better guitarist or deeper person, and often reverts to Taoist cliches.
RECOMMENDATION: If you have a contemplative personality and play guitar, by all means, read this book. You will enjoy it. If you are more of the pragmatic sort, let it pass. Whether or not you get much out of this book will be determined more by your own personality than the quality of the book.
Condensed wisdom but a bit preachy at times.......2006-04-03
I just finished reading this book and got a lot out of it, but there's a few things that I found unsettling about it. For one thing, the author pretty much tells you straight up that you shouldn't make music about anything negative. So, if you want to be a "Zen Guitarist" you should avoid metal, punk, rap, and even a lot of country. He doesn't name any genres, but he definitely disparages music that "glorifies" guns, violence, suicide, hate, misogyny, ignorance, ect. The author seems to be proselytizing his own tastes in music.
Like I said, there's a lot of condensed wisdom in this book. Metaphors and parables, catch phrases and common sense, but I could probably have done without the Zen stuff. It made me chuckle at times since I'm not sure I buy it.
The book is almost like a self-help book for guitarists, putting you in the right state of mind to actually accomplish something with your playing. Here's what I got out of it:
Don't waste any time doing anything half-hearted.
Try to find what you're meant to do and find your limitations.
You will never stop learning.
The Zen stuff is mostly about stopping your mind from getting in the way. Other artists and authors speak about doing the same thing without the Zen stuff.
Of course, even the Zen parables contain plenty of wisdom and stuff to make you think. Just don't take every single thing the book says as gospel.
Average customer rating:
- Very Interesting
- Too Careless
- A very underrated book, although some of reviewer criticisms are quite valid
- Brilliant melodies, gorgeous prose
- A Great Book on the Psychology of Music
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Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination
Robert Jourdain
Manufacturer: Harper Perennial
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This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
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Emotion and Meaning in Music (Phoenix Books)
ASIN: 038078209X |
Amazon.com
What is music? How and why does it affect us? What is the nature of musical genius? Author/composer Robert Jourdain explores these and other questions, from the essential nature of sound through composition, performance, and, finally, the nature of ecstasy. His prose is eminently readable, offering a very accessible account of a difficult subject to the general reader as well as to the musical sophisticate. This is a fascinating and intriguing book, written by someone who clearly knows his subject.
Book Description
What makes a distant oboe's wail beautiful? Why do some kinds of music lift us to ecstasy, but not others? How can music make sense to an ear and brain evolved for detecting the approaching lion or tracking the unsuspecting gazelle? Lyrically interweaving discoveries from science, psychology, music theory, paleontology, and philosophy, Robert Jourdian brilliantly examines why music speaks to us in ways that words cannot, and why we form such powerful connections to it. In clear, understandable language, Jourdian expertly guides the reader through a continuum of musical experience: sound, tone, melody, harmony, rhythm, composition, performance, listening, understanding--and finally to ecstasy. Along the way, a fascinating cast of characters brings Jourdian's narrative to vivid life: "idiots savants" who absorb whole pieces on a single hearing, composers who hallucinate entire compositions, a psychic who claims to take dictation from long-dead composers, and victims of brain damage who can move only when they hear music. Here is a book that will entertain, inform, and stimulate everyone who loves music--and make them think about their favorite song in startling new ways.What makes a distant oboes wail beautiful? Why do some kinds of music lift us to ecstasy, but not others? How can music make sense to an ear and brain evolved for detecting the approaching lion or tracking the unsuspecting gazelle? Lyrically interweaving discoveries from science, psychology, music theory, paleontology, and philosophy, Robert Jourdian brilliantly examines why music speaks to us in ways that words cannot, and why we form such powerful connections to it.
In clear, understandable language, Jourdian expertly guides the reader through a continuum of musical experience: sound, tone, melody, harmony, rhythm, composition, performance, listening, understanding--and finally to ecstasy. Along the way, a fascinating cast of characters brings Jourdians narrative to vivid life: idiots savants who absorb whole pieces on a single hearing, composers who hallucinate entire compositions, a psychic who claims to take dictation from long-dead composers, and victims of brain damage who can move only when they hear music. Here is a book that will entertain, inform, and stimulate everyone who loves music--and make them think about their favorite song in startling new ways.
Customer Reviews:
Very Interesting.......2007-09-28
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I especially enjoyed reading about the personality characteristics of the greatest composers. Why did Mendelssohn and Saint-Saens never fully develop the potential they showed early in life while Beethoven's skills in composition improved consistently during his lifetime? For me, this book at least addressed, if not answered, some of the questions I've wondered about for a very long time. A previous reviewer complained the book portrayed snobbery. I guess from a certain viewpoint, someone could feel that way. James Brown said he'd surpassed everyone, Beethoven, Mozart, everyone because he'd written 5,000 songs. With all due respect and acknowledging Mr. Brown's very real talent, there is a bit of a difference there. For hundreds of years, music has been created for purposes of art and has been written also as popular music. Both unquestionably have their place in the world of music. The same could be said of all the arts. Is Australian aboriginal art less important than a Monet? Not if we believe the real purpose of art. I suggest an individual's opinion of this book depends on what they are hoping to take away from it. For me, it was an enjoyable, informative read.
Too Careless.......2007-08-05
I didn't even get to page 100 before deciding that the information in this book couldn't be trusted, and so I'm not going to finish reading it. I do have some expertise in classical music, and the author is just plain wrong in some things he says in that area. After realizing that he not very conscientious in the area which I was knowledgeable, I certainly can't rely on his presentation of facts in the scientific areas that I don't know so well, and that kind of material is the bulk of the book. The writing itself is not very impressive, either. Some of it seems to be trying in a much too calculated way to be "popular". Other of it fails when trying to explain complicated stuff, giving the impression that the author himself was none to clear about the material. And some of the writing is strangely "off", as if he looked up the wrong word in a thesaurus. It's really too bad the book isn't a success, because the subject matter itself is fascinating, and a high quality, well-written book on it would be most welcome.
A very underrated book, although some of reviewer criticisms are quite valid.......2007-05-05
I am a former research scientist and lifelong musician. I also have a graduate education in psychology and I don't approach any of the arts in a reductionistic fashion. It is from this space that I am evaluating this book on its merits with the understanding that its scope is indeed limited to Western music, which is only a small slice of the musical pie.
What I most like about this book is the way it weaves a story of the emergence of hearing and how sound affects us physically and psychology. For this purpose, the author draws on diverse sources such as science, anthropology, sociology, etc. However, he does this by weaving a tapestry of interesting threads, which is not at all like the construction of an academic treatise.
This book is also accessible to anyone and everyone! It is not just for musicians, scientists of psychologists. The target audience is the average person, however, if you have a background in one or more of these areas, you will appreciate the contents even more.
An underlying premise of the book is that music is satisfying because it sets up "anticipations" and then goes about satisfying them in unexpected ways. The more complex the music, the more types of anticipatory events are created and satisfied in more imaginative ways. I didn't really think about this until I read the book, but it's true. I can validate this in my own experience over a lifetime.
While some people may feel the application of biology or any other field is reductionistic, I didn't find this to be the case. Rather, I found that the author used various lenses and legitimate domains of knowledge to explore the many and varied facets of musical experience. Rather than taking away the mystery of what moves us, it makes the whole musical adventure even more fascinating and mysterious.
My guess is that most of you reading this are not familiar with Ken Wilber who is a rather famous contemporary philosopher. Ken espouses a worldview that embraces four irreducible domains of human experience that inform each other. He feels the split between arts, science and morals was the result of one domain (science), dominating the others. I believe there is much truth to this argument, but you will find none of this spirit here. I don't want or need to go into Ken Wilber in detail here, but he provides a very credible and integral worldview and I think this book is very much in the spirit of honoring each domain of human experience without a need to reduce any one of them to another. (For more on Wilber's books, see my listmania lists or for a nice introduction check out A Brief History of Everything.
Brilliant melodies, gorgeous prose.......2007-02-23
This book should be required reading for anyone who wants to understand how the human mind perceives, understands and translates music. Absolutely wonderful!
A Great Book on the Psychology of Music.......2007-01-10
I really enjoyed this book - in fact I took dozens of pages on a borrowed copy, then had to get my own. It may be a dense read for the layman, but anyone with a bit of science education will understand it, and really appreciate the fascinating perceptual and physical-psychological properties of the sound assortments we call music. A must read......
Here's a web site that recommends more books of this type:
[...]
Average customer rating:
- very integrative and all-encompassing
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Music and Emotion: Theory and Research (Series in Affective Science)
Manufacturer: Oxford University Press, USA
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ASIN: 0192631888 |
Book Description
The position of emotion in music has been a subject of considerable interest and debate. However emotional aspects of music have received surprising little attention in the 45 years since the publication of Leonard Meyer's classic work 'Emotion and meaning in music.' During that time, both 'music psychology' and 'emotion' have developed as lively areas of research, and the time is fitting therefore to try and bring together this multidisciplinary interest and take stock of what we now know about this important relationship. A new volume in the Series in Affective Science, Music and Emotion; Theory and Research brings together leading researchers interested in both these topics to present the first integrative review of this subject. The first section reflects the various interdisciplinary perspectives, taking on board views from philosophy, psychology, musicology, biology, anthropology, and sociology. The second section addresses the role of our emotions in the composition of music, the ways that emotions can be communicated via musical structures, the use of music to express emotions within the cinema. The third section looks at the emotions of the performer - how do they communicate emotion, how does their emotional state affect their own performance. The final section looks at the ways in which our emotions are guided and influenced while listening to music, whether actively or passively. Music and Emotion is a timely book, one that will interest psychologists, musicologists, music educators, and philosophers.
Customer Reviews:
very integrative and all-encompassing.......2007-04-02
Pulling together famous researchers, etc Juslin and Sloboda do an amzing job of pulling together resources from various social sciences to help understand the interconnection between emotion and music. I haven't plowed through it fully yet but every day there's a new insight I learn or even a twist on how we understand the mind's analysis of music-even with all the background i have.
I surely suggest reading this if you want a real skin and bones understanding and not just fluffy narrative.
Happy Reading!
Book Description
Philosophy of music has flourished in the last thirty years, with great advances made in the understanding of the nature of music and its aesthetics. Peter Kivy has been at the centre of this flourishing, and now offers his personal introduction to philosophy of music, a clear and lively explanation of how he sees the most important and interesting philosophical issues relating to music. Anyone interested in music will find this a stimulating introduction to some fascinating questions and ideas.
Customer Reviews:
what are the alternatives?.......2007-08-20
If you want an introduction to the philosophy of music, this is the best book available. To some degree, that's because there are no real alternatives. The writing is clear and it really does give an overview of the issues that philosophers discuss, but that means it concentrates on "pure" music (instrumental music of the European classical tradition). The ONLY discussion of music with words is the chapter on opera. If you don't already know a lot about opera, you'll be lost following that chapter. Compared to most philosohers, Kivy has a very informal writing style.
Kivy.......2006-05-03
This book was used as a text in my philosophy of music class. The professor chose the text because she knew that we would be opposed to his views. He barely deals with vocal music at all, claiming that it is not "pure music" because it has text. When dealing with opera, he feels the "problem with opera" is the fact that it is not cyclical. He mentions that when opera was first introduced that emotions were thought to be cyclical, and opera to the best of it's ability tried to accomidate that. However, it the mid 18th century that was discovered not to be the case and it was realized that emotions are linear. Just because the history of music has cyclical background does not mean that with this discovery it should remain as such. Linear and cyclical writing are tools used by a composer to convey certain emotions or to help define an event. Overall I felt Kivy was too verbose. If I were not a music major, I would have found it hard to truly understand what he was talking about
Kivy's Introduction to a Philosophy of Music.......2005-01-31
Coming from the prospective of one with undergraduate degrees in both music and philosophy I was very eager to flip through this book. It certainly is an introduction: (1) Kivy assumes the reader to have little or no background in either music or philosophy, (2) Kivy aims for breadth rather then depth (not to say there isn't depth), and (3) the overall level of difficulty, in terms of comprehension, is fairly minimal. This is certainly a kind of book I would recommend to someone as a first reading...even one who has had much experience in each of the areas (philosophy and music) seperately. The book has suggestions for further reading for those so motivated. Not that I am sufficiently knowledgable for one to place much credence in the following, but I agreed with a majority of the arguments Kivy professed to be in-line with (where I felt the most disagreement was with extended formulist's argument that music contains no representation of emotions. Kivy considers some opposing arguments but it seems to me there is more to chew on. I have a feeling though that the distance between the two ideas could be brought closer together with a more detailed account of what emotions are).
Four stars instead of five for two reasons: (1) I would hesitate to give an introductory work in any field five stars and (2) there were certain stylistic aspects of the writing that put me off slightly (a small matter of taste and not by any means a substancial criticism).
Book Description
"The scholarship of Michael Spitzer's new book is impressive and thorough. The writing is impeccable and the coverage extensive. The book treats the history of the use of metaphor in the field of classical music. It also covers a substantial part of the philosophical literature. The book treats the topic of metaphor in a new and extremely convincing manner."-Lydia Goehr, Columbia University
The experience of music is an abstract and elusive one, enough so that we're often forced to describe it using analogies to other forms and sensations: we say that music moves or rises like a physical form; that it contains the imagery of paintings or the grammar of language. In these and countless other ways, our discussions of music take the form of metaphor, attempting to describe music's abstractions by referencing more concrete and familiar experiences.
Michael Spitzer's Metaphor and Musical Thought uses this process to create a unique and insightful history of our relationship with music—the first ever book-length study of musical metaphor in any language. Treating issues of language, aesthetics, semiotics, and cognition, Spitzer offers an evaluation, a comprehensive history, and an original theory of the ways our cultural values have informed the metaphors we use to address music. And as he brings these discussions to bear on specific works of music and follows them through current debates on how music's meaning might be considered, what emerges is a clear and engaging guide to both the philosophy of musical thought and the history of musical analysis, from the seventeenth century to the present day. Spitzer writes engagingly for students of philosophy and aesthetics, as well as for music theorists and historians.
Book Description
Music, according to Sufi teaching, is really a small expression of the overwhelming and perfect harmony of the whole universe—and that is the secret of its amazing power to move us. The Indian Sufi master Hazrat Inayat Khan (1882-1927), the first teacher to bring the Islamic mystical tradition to the West, was an accomplished musician himself. His lucid exposition of music's divine nature has become a modern classic, beloved only by those interested in Sufism but by musicians of all kinds.
Customer Reviews:
the mysticism of sound and music.......2007-05-31
great book, inspiring and enlightening, I enjoyed every page of it. I would recomend this any musician and any body who's interested in the eastern philosophy of how laws in music are so supernatural and connected to life.
Divine words..........2007-05-20
This is indeed one of my most treasured books and very close to my heart. Khan's words flow easily as balm from Heaven to the ear and to the mind and heart. Understand how our thoughts and words affect the world... their intent, sound and vibration have far reaching results. "The music of life shows its melody and harmony in our daily experiences. Every spoken word is either a true or a false note, according to the scale of our ideal." The prose of Khan's words flows as beautifully as a concerto and straight to the heart.
Enlightenment through Music.......2005-09-16
The challenging part about reading a book by an enlightened being is that the author is writing from an experience of consciousness (non-duality) that is impossible for the ego (duality) to comprehend. However, Hazrat Inayat Khan's writing is easily understood and could be valuable to both spiritual aspirants on the path to enlightenment and/or musicians looking for deeper levels in their artistry. This is a book to be studied, not just read. In it are keys to understanding the mysticism of sound, music, color, words, and silence.
The wave-like aspect of Life, not just about music.......2004-12-13
Other reviewers already dealt with the music side of the book, so i won't elaborate on that. There is in addition the purely sound-related aspect of reality. All words, thoughts, and emotions, carry on some power due to their vibratory nature. Everything, whatever it is can be seen as a wave. So don't think it is just about what you hear. All there is can be described in that way.
This book is of interest not for its esoteric nature, but rather to give the reader an intuition of what mystics perceive of reality, which is everything but magic. Science is currently concerned with a part of reality, namely those frequencies that can be detected and thus measured through physical (material) instruments. But the vibratory nature of the world goes beyond that. You as humans have access to more than the physical realm (mental, emotional, and let's say "spiritual" to give a rough picture). This books hints at those aspects captured by the concept of "sound", that are of utmost importance for all humans to uncover the possibilities life has given them. Everything you think, say or feel has an impact on you and your surroundings, so reading this book can help you to realize how important every single event of our life has, through its wave-like aspect. This book is about your very life.
Good Vibrations.......2004-08-31
This book is a compilation of the teachings of Hazrat Inayat Khan, a Sufi mystic from the early part of the Twentieth century. Born in India, Khan was thoroughly familiar with both Hindu beliefs and Islam and he also knew Christian scriptures well. In this book, Khan explains the central tenets of his Sufi sect. He begins with the belief that vibration is the ultimate connection to God, and states that this belief is found in Christian, Muslim, and Hindu scriptures by reading "word" as sound, and sound as vibration. All else flows from this. Khan finds spiritual direction through seeking harmony with all and finding and matching the appropriate rhythm of things. Music, (of the serious type, not jazz, for instance) provides a means of worship and union with the Almighty. But the highest form of sound is abstract, a topic whose details are reserved for Sufi initiates because others might misuse such knowledge.
The book contains chapters on topics such as: the music of the spheres, color and sound, music in Indian culture, music of the dervishes, dance and music, music and psychology, the healing powers of music, memory, will, reason, intuition and dreams, the Ego, inspiration, and the value of repetition. It also contains short collections of aphorisms and phrases to be repeated. The editing of the volume is exceptionally well-done. Khan did not write these selections as a book; instead, they were collected and organized from various lectures and articles that he prepared dating from about 1913 to 1926. The editors have managed to create a cohesive text from very disparate sources. Some ideas are presented repeatedly, but unlike so many similar compilations of articles by other authors, the presentation of Khan's ideas in this book are consistent each time they are mentioned. The original sources and dates for each chapter are listed at the end of the book. The book contains an index, but no glossary.
I picked up this book because of the picture on the cover of Khan playing the vina. As a struggling student of Indian music, I hoped that Khan might say a word or two about the vina. Indeed, he does, explaining how the quiet sounds of the vina make it ideal as an instrument for mediation, but not for playing large public concerts. Much of my previous reading about Indian music has been by authors who seek to present strictly objective information about the music and culture of India, but in taking such a secular approach, they miss the whole feeling of the topic. Reading this book has given me a much greater understanding of and appreciation for how music is central to Indian religious practices and beliefs, whether among the Hindus or the Sufis, or even among members of the Indian Muslim community, such as musicians. Nevertheless, one point remains unclear- -harmony. In Indian music, harmony seems to play a much smaller or very different role than in Western music. Throughout this book, Khan speaks of harmony and its importance, but what kind of harmony is he speaking of? The kind of harmony that results when two differing notes are played simultaneously with an agreeable affect? Or is he talking about vibrations joining to create a repeatable, predictable pattern? Or lining up rhythmic cycles so that the beats fall together in a pattern? He wasn't specific on this point, and I'm not sure that the concept of harmony carries over with the same meaning across musical cultures. Harmony is clearly important in the East as well as the West, but the word may refer to very different phenomena and so his message could potentially be interpreted differently according to the culture of the reader.
This book is one of the clearest on Sufi beliefs that I have found. I appreciate Khan's scholarship and his open-mindedness regarding all religious beliefs. He never preaches that one must abandon one's own religion, but instead tries to show that the core beliefs of all religions reach ultimately to the same source. In this light, the book is full of little surprises, like when Khan points out the etymological relationship between our Christian word Alleluia, and Muslim Allah. Points to ponder leap from every page, such as "It is never too late to go onto the spiritual path, but it is never too early." Khan is exceptionally clever at using metaphors for explanation. I'm not ready to take everything he says at face value, but he's given me a lot to think about.
Customer Reviews:
Inspiring.......2007-05-12
Some of Bennett Reimer's writings are very inspiring. I am so thankful that my college professor used this particular book for our required reading.
Words, words, and more words..........2003-02-08
The man has interesting viewpoints, but these are all overshadowed by the overwhelming verbage. He can explain these principles in fewer paragraphs without missing out on anything. Instead, he opts to confuse readers by using too many words and by beating around the bush. I'd rather read something else if this weren't a required text.
3rd Edition, Same old stuff.......2002-11-10
Reimer wants his readers to think he's done something important by putting his tired, old ideas into new words (here and there) and using a new cover. Only his rabid followers will agree. This is the same old stuff that Reimer has always tried to sell and it fails for the same basic reasons: Reimer does not have -- Reimer never had -- a plausible explanation of the nature and value of music. Reimer is obvioulsy desperate -- he's running very hard -- to save his legacy in this "third" book (the same book x 3!). But he cannot. He fails, again, because a new generation of music education philosophers -- Bowman, Jorgensen, Elliott, Regelski -- has already exposed Reimer's poor thinking, weak scholarship, and faulty logic in the past. This "third" edition is full of the same old problems.
A poor book.......2001-07-24
This book is poor. It 's not "philosophical" in any sense because it's not logical and it's not supported by the majority of music scholars today. Reimer contradicts himself at every turn; he doesn't understand what Langer is really saying; and. his absolutist notion of music is completely out of synch with what most scholars argue about music today. Reimer just mouths a lot of fluffy, feel-good nonsense.
Not convincing!.......1999-12-10
This book is selling old, modernist ideas about music which are totally unconvincing compared to the postmodern views of music (e.g., Lawrence Kramer, John Shepherd, George Lipsitz, Robert Walser, Richard Taruskin) I've been studying in musicology and ethnomusicology courses (where the profs just chuckle at Reimer's book). Why do my music education profs still believe this stuff?
Book Description
Schafer contends that we suffer from an overabundance of acoustic information and explores ways to restore our ability to hear the nuances of sounds around us. This book is a pioneering exploration of our acoustic environment, past and present, and an attempt to imagine what it might become.
Customer Reviews:
The most important book on sound in 150 years........2005-03-12
When R. Murray Schafer first published TUNING OF THE WORLD (the subtitle of this edition) in 1977, it had a stunning and lasting affect on musicians and recordists throughout the world. Every facet of this work is important to know about and the narrative still reads like a contemporary novel - impossible to put down and never dated. He informs us how to re-train our ears to listen better and more wisely. He defines, for the first time, the soundscape and the myriad ways it fits into and affects our lives.
This book is seminal to my work as a naturalist and sound designer and I have read it many times in the past three decades. It is that important.
Bernie Krause, PhD
Book Description
"Writing with grace and clarity...he touches on everything from the evolution of the Western tonal system, to the Freudian theory of music as infantile escapism, to the differing roles o the right and left brain in perceiving music."
WALL STREET JOURNAL
Drawing on his own life long passion for music and synthesizing the theories of Plato, Schopenhauer, Stravinsky, Nietzsche, Bartok, and others, distinguished author and psychologist Anthony Storr illuminates music's deep beauty and timeless truth and why and how music is one of the fundamental activities of mankind.
Customer Reviews:
Music and the Mind .......2007-02-23
The book was in great condition and I received it on time.
patchy.not written by a professional musician and it shows.......2006-02-09
Bitterly disappointed in this book.A little bit of knowledge on music can be a dangerous thing and this rambling patchwork quilt of fragments is a pretty dismal affair.There are a handful of people who write well on music (a difficult thing to do)and i'd direct people to the likes of Charles Rosen (serious)and Norman Lebrecht(populist)
Staggering.......2005-01-30
I did not know quite what to expect when i ordered this book. The only reason that i did so was because I needed to write my senior thesis and every applicable book at our library was gone. So, i opted just to buy this.
After about 6 or 7 pages into the book, i knew that i had found something golden. Mr. Storr writes in a way that makes the text incredibly informative, yet still engaging and understandable. While not every aspect of the novel is covered thoroughly, it still will give enough information on almost any topic that you could possibly require.
I highly recommend this book. It has opened my eyes to a world of philosophy that i hadn't even looked at until this time.
I'm sure that you will find this as indispensable as i do.
A good place to start.......2004-03-10
Anthony Storr does a very good job describing the various facets of the complex interplay between music and mind. He points to the biological bases of it, explores the philosophical debates around it and gives acounts of basic music theory. He is a good writer and manages to engage the reader's interest through most of the book. That is very admirable considering the nature of the subject matter and the poor job often done by other writes venturing into similar subjects.
There are however some minor flaws. The connection between the biological foundations of music and western philosophy is a difficult and dubious one and Storr does not really manage to fuse them in a smooth and comprehensive way. They stand aloof and strange to each other. Another flaw is the fact that the book heavily, though not exclusively, draws on classical western music: an admitedly very peculiar and eurocentric kind of music. This leaves out much of the richness of other kinds of music e.x. jazz, folk music, religious music. It also makes his principal endeauvour, to connect music to the mind/body, more difficult. Classical music after all epitomizes the cerebral, distanced and controlled sort of musical apprehension in contrast to folk and popular music which is more expressive and ecstatic. Had he made the opposite methodological choice, folk before classical, he might have had more succes in making the connection between music to the mind/body.
Still the book is an excellent introduction to the topic.
The Muse of Music.......2002-10-07
The author is an acclaimed psychiatrist whose personal life was very sad and lonely; he attributed his passion for music as the element which preserved his sanity and emotional equilibrium. Out of the many books he wrote, this was his favorite. He attempts to discover what it is about music that so profoundly affects us, and why it is such an important part of our culture. In doing so, he quotes a vast array of opinions; actually he draws more from what other peole have had to say about music than his own personal opinion.
Storr sees music as subjective, emotional need for communication with other human beings; it structures time and brings order out of chaos, and it has a positive effect upon patients with neurological diseases. Physiologically, the emotional response is centered in the right hemisphere whilst the ability to appreciate structure and make critical judgments is located on the left side of the brain. He is of the opinion that music originates from the human brain rather than from the natural world and its universality depends on the urge to impose order upon our experience. He criticizes the dispute between formalists and expressionists since for him it is obvious that appreciation of both form and emotional significance enter into the experience of every listener and cannot be separated. Contrary to Freud's opinion, Storr holds that music is not an escape from reality but a means to structure our auditory perceptions and can also serve as a precursor to creative discovery.
The last few chapters are dedicated to a philosophical analysis of the views held mainly by Schopenhauer, Jung, Nietszche with respect to music. Storr does not fully accept Schopenhauer's "unus mundus" or Jung's "pleroma," and is more inclined to accept Nietszche's concepts: music reconciles an individual to life and enhances it, it is physically and emotionally based, and it links the two principles of Apollo and Dionysus.
Storr gives a historical, psychological, philosophical, and above all a passionate account of importance of music in the life of an individual. Quoting his own words, music is "something for the sake of which it is worthwhile to live on earth... it is an irreplaceable, transcendental blessing."
Books:
- This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession
- Toscanini's Fumble and Other Tales of Clinical Neurology
- U2 by U2
- Wee Sing Bible Songs (Wee Sing) CD and Book Edition (Wee Sing)
- What to Listen for in Music
- What to Listen for in Music
- Why Are So Many Black Men in Prison?
- WICKED: THE GRIMMERIE, A BEHIND-THE-SCENES LOOK AT THE HIT BROADWAY MUSICAL
- Yellow Eyes (Posleen War Series #8)
- A Modern Method for Guitar - Volume 1: Book/DVD-ROM Pack (Method (Berklee Press))
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