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Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain (Vintage) | 
 enlarge | Author: Oliver Sacks
Publisher: Vintage
Category: Book
List Price: $14.95
Buy New: $10.17
You Save: $4.78 (32%)
Avg. Customer Rating:  74 reviews
Sales Rank: 11223
Media: Paperback
Edition: Reprint
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 448
ISBN: 1400033535
Dewey Decimal Number: 616
EAN: 9781400033539
ASIN: 1400033535
Publication Date: September 23, 2008 (In 34 Days)
Shipping: Eligible for Super Saver Shipping
Availability: Not yet published
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Amazon.com
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
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| Customer Reviews: Read 69 more reviews...
 great reading for anyone interested in the brain, the mind, and music July 30, 2008
This book is very readable even for those outside the scientific and medical communities. Sacks lends insights into the human mind and its physiological underpinnings by walking the reader through a series of cases studies, showcasing both the weird and wild things music does to our brains, as well as the weird and wild music that can be created by some very special brains. Perhaps most importantly, his case studies are not written in clinical, sterile prose, but in the language of a man genuinely infatuated with music and the human mind. His excitement is often contagious.
 Good Stuff, July 29, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
I liked the book but i was expecting it to be more scientific and less theoretical. its got lots of words so as a techy, i skipped around a lot and used it more as a reference, thus... I recommend it as a reference book for anyone doing research in the music therapy realm.
Perfect mixture of science and poetry... July 27, 2008
This is exactly what a book written in the early part of the twenty-first century about the brain should be: a hodgepodge of anecdotal musings couched in good science without being subjugated by that science. There's much work to be done before anybody even reasonably approximates a complete theory of mind, and this is the premise of Sacks's casual, even poetic storytelling that matches his decades of neurological acumen with a refreshing capacity to deconstruct case studies with the simple elegance of, fittingly, music. A man struck by lightning becomes voraciously musically inclined, another man completely enclosed in his dementia can still conduct a full symphony through a mysterious mechanism of motor recall, and yet another struck in the head by a baseball develops the cognitively asymmetric ability to perfectly imprint auditory input. We are left, with Sacks's guidance, to do nothing but conjure flimsy hypotheses while marveling at the stealth relationship between mind, music, and perhaps something deeper.
Minds making music July 9, 2008
5 out of 8 found this review helpful
By now, it's a given that an Oliver Sacks' book is worth your time and close attention. His particular talent lies in making the science interesting without becoming a "pop-science" writer. This is not an easy achievement, but Sacks manages it with facility. He can explain the science in terms of case studies - many of which have claimed his medical attention. He does this while mixing in experiences of his own and some personal reflections which are anything but intrusions. While some of his books are essays on selected individuals ["An Anthropologist on Mars" is an example], this one has a very special focus: the minds that make music unbidden.
Music arising in the mind without prompting may seem a common enough occurence. The advertising industry has demonstated fully music as an uncontrollable meme. The cases Sacks portrays here are of another sort. In some cases the music has taken over - sometimes supplanting other thinking processes and reducing the victim to near helplessness. The chief problem is often a lack of variety. More than the adverts' jingles, particular tunes may emerge from the distant past to occupy the sufferer's waking hours. A well-disciplined mind, such as Doctor P's, may be able to use the uncalled for music in ways that get them through daily tasks. Others don't have that ability and the music proves a terrible distraction. The music renders them "incapable of hearing themselves think".
Therapy for such conditions is in its infancy and may actually be subverted by the deluge of music impinging our ears daily. Sacks notes the proliferation of the iPod devices bringing music to listeners who seem to pass the day in another realm. This, however, is not relieving a condition, but may be generating a new one. Some music therapy has been in use to overcome coordination disorders, but this is limited and selective in effectiveness. Even "classical" music, which is known to "draw the mind" into it is not innocent in causing disorders. One of the more captivating classical pieces, Ravel's "Bolero" may be both the product of "musicophilia" in an aging composer and the source of endless reptition in the mind of the listener. The tendency of the mind to retain music is demonstrated in those with advanced Alzheimer's, who lose other facilities but retain a sense for music. Is music thus something the brain holds on to as something reliable in an otherwise confusing world? Brain scans have demonstrated that professional musicians have certain areas of the brain larger than the rest of us, but as a path to therapy, this situation has offered little up to now.
The author's avoidance of simply presenting a string of clinical studies is a testament to his humanitarian approach to the various conditions he lists here. In a sense, this book is a catalog of distortions the mind may be subject to relating to music. In one case, a lightning strike turns an orthopaedic surgeon into a classical pianist. Another suffers massive brain damage, yet continues a relatively normal life so long as he can arrange things in musical forms. Others may respond positively to prompts of classical themes, while becoming emotionally distraught at modern forms. Listing the cases in such a way leaves the impression that one might as well be perusing a medical journal. In Sacks' hands, nothing could be further from the truth. He is passionate in his relating these conditions, his feelings permeating every page. A book well worth your time, whether you are intersted in music, the mind or how they combine in the minds of people you may know. [stephen a. haines - Ottawa, Canada]
New Understandings July 5, 2008
0 out of 1 found this review helpful
This book opens up your mind to new ideas on the value and processing of music. An amazing, insightful creation!
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