Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks

Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain by Oliver Sacks pdf

For all of us, music has great power, whether or not we seek it out or think of ourselves as particularly “musical.” This propensity to music shows itself in infancy, is manifest and central in every culture, and probably goes back to the very beginnings of our species.

Such “musicophilia” is a given in human nature. It may be developed or shaped by the cultures we live in, by the circumstances of life, or by the particular gifts or weaknesses we have as individuals—but it lies so deep in human nature that one must think of it as innate, much as E. O.

Wilson regards “biophilia,” our feeling for living things. (Perhaps musicophilia is a form of biophilia, since music itself feels almost like a living thing.)

CONTENTS:

Part I: Haunted by Music

  •  A Bolt from the Blue: Sudden Musicophilia
  • A Strangely Familiar Feeling: Musical Seizures
  • Fear of Music: Musicogenic Epilepsy
  • Music on the Brain: Imagery and Imagination
  • Brainworms, Sticky Music, and Catchy Tunes
  • Musical Hallucinations

Part II: A Range of Musicality

  • Sense and Sensibility: A Range of Musicality
  • Things Fall Apart: Amusia and Dysharmonia
  • Papa Blows His Nose in G: Absolute Pitch
  • Pitch Imperfect: Cochlear Amusia
  • In Living Stereo: Why We Have Two Ears
  • Two Thousand Operas: Musical Savants
  • An Auditory World: Music and Blindness
  • The Key of Clear Green: Synesthesia and Music

Part III: Memory, Movement, and Music

  • In the Moment: Music and Amnesia
  •  Speech and Song: Aphasia and Music Therapy
  • Accidental Davening: Dyskinesia and Cantillation
  • Come Together: Music and Tourette’s Syndrome
  •  Keeping Time: Rhythm and Movement
  • Kinetic Melody: Parkinson’s Disease and Music Therap>
  • Phantom Fingers: The Case of the One-Armed Pianist
  • Athletes of the Small Muscles: Musician’s Dystonia

Part IV: Emotion, Identity, and Music

  • Awake and Asleep: Musical Dreams
  •  Seduction and Indifference
  • Lamentations: Music and Depression
  • The Case of Harry S.: Music and Emotion
  •  Irrepressible: Music and the Temporal Lobes
  • A Hypermusical Species: Williams Syndrome
  • Music and Identity: Dementia and Music Therapy

Oliver Sacks: Musicophilia

Language: English
Format: PDF online
Pages: 399
Size: 1.15 Mb

Related Posts: