ENGLISH

This is Your Brain on Music. Science of a Human Obsession

By Daniel J. Levitin

Book information

Publisher
Penguin Audio
Year
2007
ISBN
0143142321
Language
english
Format
PDF
Filesize
2 MB (1612782 bytes)
Edition
Abridged
Pages
316\316
Library
Great Science Textbooks
Time added
2009-07-20 03:45:11

Description

In this groundbreaking union of art and science, rocker-turned-neuroscientist Daniel J. Levitin explores the connection between music—its performance, its composition, how we listen to it, why we enjoy it—and the human brain. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, Levitin reveals: • How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world • Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre • That practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical expertise • How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our heads And, taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin argues that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. This Is Your Brain on Music is an unprecedented, eye-opening investigation into an obsession at the heart of human nature.

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