Musicophilia

Tales of Music and the Brain

By: Oliver Sacks

Narrated by: John Lee

Length: 11 hrs and 6 mins

Publisher's summary

Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does - humans are a musical species.

Oliver Sacks’s compassionate, compelling tales of people struggling to adapt to different neurological conditions have fundamentally changed the way we think of our own brains, and of the human experience. In Musicophilia, he examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people. He explores how catchy tunes can subject us to hours of mental replay, and how a surprising number of people acquire nonstop musical hallucinations that assault them night and day.

Yet far more frequently, music goes right: Sacks describes how music can animate people with Parkinson’s disease who cannot otherwise move, give words to stroke patients who cannot otherwise speak, and calm and organize people whose memories are ravaged by Alzheimer’s or amnesia.Music is irresistible, haunting, and unforgettable, and in Musicophilia, Oliver Sacks tells us why.

©2007 Oliver Sacks (P)2007 Books on Tape

Critic reviews

"[Sacks'] customary erudition and fellow-feeling ensure that, no matter how clinical the discussion becomes, it remains, like the music of Mozart, accessible and congenial." (Booklist)

“Dr. Sacks writes not just as a doctor and a scientist but also as a humanist with a philosophical and literary bent...[his] book not only contributes to our understanding of the elusive magic of music but also illuminates the strange workings, and misfirings, of the human mind.” (Michiko Kakutani, The New York Times)

"Sacks is an unparalleled chronicler of modern medicine, and fans of his work will find much to enjoy when he turns his prodigious talent for observation to music and its relationship to the brain." (Publishers Weekly)

Music is much more than what I thought

Music is no longer just music in this book. It's the language that can reach unreachable. Dr. Sacks, once again, showed his deep caring for his patients as human beings, not people with disease. A truly touching and magical book worth every minute of listening. I feel John Lee puts too much stress on certain syllabi which took some time to get used to. But it is all right.

appreciating the effect of music

the mysteries of music are explored by Oliver Sacks, the neurologist, musician, and humanitarian. numerous examples of the power of music as seen with his patients with a variety of pathologies. excellent read for any musician and healthcare professional.

Great Entertainment

Well, entertainment is only one of many reasons to get this book. I have been sharing the inspirational and just flat-out amazing stories with friends, colleagues, students and family. Sacks is a good writer who does not overwhelm or, at the other end, trivialize his material. Also, the reader of this book has a fantastic voice, rich and well-modulated. You will be well-rewarded with this book.

One of my favorites by Sacks

Even my fiction only friends found this book fascinating. I've actually listened to this book several times I found it so captivating. I had no trouble with the reader and Sacks deals with far more than tinnitus, all sorts of fascinating disorders and just what music means to we humans. I can't think of one flaw to this book except that it ends. Highly recommended!

Quite a variety of musical perception

Sacks thoughtfully reveals how strange music appreciation is, by presenting many examples of unusual musical perception. In addition to dysfunctions related to accidents and illness, he describes the quirks of "earwigs", perfect pitch and color-sensed tones. Neurology still does not explain how acoustics are connected to emotions, or how simple rhythm is physically compelling. Nevertheless, it makes you think about what your brain is doing when you listen to music.

How is the musicians mind different?

Sacks relives the pathologies of musical response in his patients while working at Beth Abraham Hospital. He describes music as a panacea and says, “they were liberated by music.” This applies to patients with dementia and those suffering from Williams Syndrome. Despite low IQ, he honors them in kind descriptive terms: having wide mouths, upturned noses and a true adoration of music.

“We humans are a musical species no less than a linguistic one...we perceive tones, timbre, pitch intervals, melodic contours, harmony (perhaps most elementally) rhythm. We integrate all of these and “construct” music in our minds...”
---Oliver Sacks, MD

Sacks' deeply warm and sympathetic study is about pathologies of musical response and erudition gained from a "normal" faculty of music. In addition, within are new findings from anatomy. We also learn “how is the musicians mind different than others?” There is the curious case of Harry S. having a perfect tenor voice yet he showed no emotion, except when he sang---as if music brought him to life.

Exceptional study and storytelling by Dr. Oliver Sacks. The connections that music impart and patient studies (L-Dopa) are in “The Awakenings.” I found interesting the case study of a 42-year-old man struck by lightning, then he developed an exigent thirst for music, learned to play piano and compose. Found personal “drug use” confessions by Sacks surprising. Read and explore your reaction to music.

It's what I should've expected

I LOVED The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat, years ago, and have been planning to listen to another of Oliver Sack's books since. This book was commonly recommended so I thought I'd try this one next. That was a mistake in hindsight; I should've listened to An Anthropologist on Mars instead. My complaints with this book aren't too much with the material itself, but more so with my expectations, and that's largely on me.

This isn't neuroscience book that discusses music, it's a music & neuroscience book. I study neuroscience and that's what I'm interested in; I don't have a particular interest in music, and that was my mistake. This book consistently made references to music theory and classical artists, that I felt completely left out on. If you have a particular interest in music, AND a moderate understanding of music theory, AND a knowledge of classical music artists, I'm certain you'll love this book. If you have 2 of those, I'm sure you'll like it, and if you have only 1 AND an interest in neuroscience, you'll still probably like it.

I simply made the mistake of presuming this book made no assumptions about its readers' music knowledge, and that it would be more about general neuroscience.

Why do we love music?

Musicophilia asks why we enjoy music, something that has no obvious purpose in our lives but remains ubiquitous among human cultures. It answers this question by exploring the wide variety of human responses to music, its basic physiology, and how it is integral to communication and thought.

Like other works by Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia uses case studies to illustrate responses and conditions, from people obsessed with music to those who hear nothing but a horrid cacophony of noise. It asks why some people can be technologically perfect in their execution of composition but still lack in spirit, while others have the spirit but cannot master the principles of performance. It explores the use of music as a memory aid and the incredible people with Williams Syndrome, in whose world music dominates.

Musicophilia - a tractate on musical brain

Olivier Sacks, professor of neurology and psychiatry, the author of famous book "The Man who mistook His Wife for a Hat" wrote another incredible tractate. Musicophilia is the book that should shake our views about musical perception and the role of music for the understanding of human mind.

The book is written in the form of reports and accounts and conclusions about cases of severe mental illnesses and their relation to music or musical perception.

He analyses many forms of strange mental behaviour, from certain types of seizures that can be called "musical seizures", musical hallucinations through haunting musical "brainworms" to deep analysis of relation between music and blindness, musical savantisms or Williams syndrome.

Olivier Sacks does not attempt to paint the big picture of relation between music and brain. He is modest and shows a lot of moderation and scientific discipline when it comes to interpretation of these facts.

However, we, his readers could indulge in comments, conclusions and judgments. One conclusions is almost certain - the musicality - the perception of music can not be reduced to the quality of hearing or simple audition. There are indirect proofs that music is much more deeply rooted in our brains - in the biological and physical foundations of our minds. As he writes: "There are undoubtedly particular areas of the cortex subserving musical intelligence and sensibility (...) The emotional response to the music it would seem is widespread and probably not only cortical but subcortical..."

After reading this book there is no doubt the music is much more important and more fundamental to our life than we ever expected.

Some of us had already knew that, other had some vague gut feeling of this truth - but Sacks shows how deeply true are all these hunches...

Can't Beat Sacks

I've been an Oliver Sacks fan for a long time, and this latest work is as good as the rest. I've been inspired to train myself to develop absolute pitch. There are parts of the book that are very technical, and develop as text for medical journals. But, as usual, his science is balanced with great humanity.