Here are 100 books that Musicophilia fans have personally recommended if you like
Musicophilia.
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I like trying to solve problems about the mind: Is the mind just the brain? What is consciousness, and where is it in the brain? What happens in the brain during aesthetic experience? Why are we prone to self-deception? In approaching these questions, I donāt limit myself to one discipline or set of techniques. These mental phenomena, and the problems that surround them, do not hew to our disciplinary boundaries. In spite of this, someone needs to collect, analyze, and assess information relevant to the problemsāwhich is in many different formatsāand build theories designed to make sense of it. During that time, more data will become available, so back you go.
Anjan Chatterjee has managed to write a book that a) is very accessible, b) provides thorough coverage of current attempts to understand art and aesthetic experience by using information from the cognitive sciences, and c) outlines an original hypothesis about why humans evolved a love for art. That last part changes the book from a nice review of the topic to a groundbreaking attempt at an explanation of our art practices.
Chatterjee examines our judgments of peoplesā attractiveness, the brainās system of reward chemicals, and our evolutionary history, in an attempt to understand our passion for art scientifically.
In an upcoming book on art, I refer to Chatterjee frequently. I donāt always agree with him, but his sensible, clear, and broad approach made his book very useful to me.
The Aesthetic Brain takes readers on an exciting journey through the world of beauty, pleasure, and art. Using the latest advances in neuroscience and evolutionary psychology, Anjan Chatterjee investigates how an aesthetic sense is etched into our minds, and explains why artistic concerns feature centrally in our lives. Along the way, Chatterjee addresses such fundamental questions as: What is beauty? Is it universal? How is beauty related to pleasure? What is art? Should art be beautiful? Do we have an instinct for art?
Early on, Chatterjee probes the reasons why we find people, places, and even numbers beautiful, highlighting theā¦
I like trying to solve problems about the mind: Is the mind just the brain? What is consciousness, and where is it in the brain? What happens in the brain during aesthetic experience? Why are we prone to self-deception? In approaching these questions, I donāt limit myself to one discipline or set of techniques. These mental phenomena, and the problems that surround them, do not hew to our disciplinary boundaries. In spite of this, someone needs to collect, analyze, and assess information relevant to the problemsāwhich is in many different formatsāand build theories designed to make sense of it. During that time, more data will become available, so back you go.
V. S. Ramachandran is a gifted experimentalist and writer who does not hesitate to pursue deep and important questions about our minds. Rather than employing expensive imaging or large sample sizes, he is more likely to use a cardboard box, an old stereopticon, or a rubber hand in his experiments.
His creativity in finding concrete ways to test seemingly vague but interesting claims about our minds has led to several breakthroughs, in our understanding of phantom limbs and our ability to treat phantom pain, and also in our study of synesthesiaācases in which people see numbers as having colors, for example.
As I can attest, he is able to transmit to his students the idea that pursuing scientific questions can be thrilling, fulfilling, and so much fun that you canāt wait to get to work in the morning.
In this landmark work, V. S. Ramachandran investigates strange, unforgettable cases-from patients who believe they are dead to sufferers of phantom limb syndrome. With a storyteller's eye for compelling case studies and a researcher's flair for new approaches to age-old questions, Ramachandran tackles the most exciting and controversial topics in brain science, including language, creativity, and consciousness.
My mom was an excellent artist, and my father was an accomplished scientist, so I grew up with a passion and mission to combine these in my lifeās work. I have played clarinet since 8, in classical, jazz, world, experimental, and sound healing, and have mastered a variety of visual storytelling arts (painting, sculpture, filmmaking, game development). My fascination with mind/body led me to neuroscience research and developing edtech for autism. These all integrated into writing my book and offering this inspiration to others. This book list has nurtured my deepest interests and propelled me to discover more of our human potential to experience sound, storytelling, and well-being.
Even with my own years of experience as a musician and teaching sound design, I felt like an eager student basking in unexpected melodies of wisdom tales and humor behind the veil. Listening to Victor play his bass and tell his amazing, deep story is a truly spiritual journey that resonates to my core.
I got to meet him in person, and heās the real deal. Heās not only a top professional with multiple Grammy awards but also an extraordinary, intimate storyteller and educator with a profound message about listening and following your intuitive guidance.
From Grammy-winning musical icon and legendary bassist Victor L. Wooten comes an inspiring parable of music, life, and the difference between playing all the right notes...and feeling them.
The Music Lesson is the story of a struggling young musician who wanted music to be his life, and who wanted his life to be great. Then, from nowhere it seemed, a teacher arrived. Part musical genius, part philosopher, part eccentric wise man, the teacher would guide the young musician on a spiritual journey, and teach him that the gifts we get from music mirror those from life, and every movement, phrase,ā¦
Katya Cengel became a patient at the Roth Psychosomatic Unit at Children's Hospital at Stanford in 1986. She was 10 years old. Thirty years later Katya, now a journalist, discovers her young age was not the only thing that made her hospital stay unusual. The idea of psychosomatic units themselves,ā¦
My mom was an excellent artist, and my father was an accomplished scientist, so I grew up with a passion and mission to combine these in my lifeās work. I have played clarinet since 8, in classical, jazz, world, experimental, and sound healing, and have mastered a variety of visual storytelling arts (painting, sculpture, filmmaking, game development). My fascination with mind/body led me to neuroscience research and developing edtech for autism. These all integrated into writing my book and offering this inspiration to others. This book list has nurtured my deepest interests and propelled me to discover more of our human potential to experience sound, storytelling, and well-being.
I am deeply engaged in the lifelong work of neuroscientist Nina Kraus in the area of sound and music. My background as a sound designer and neuroscientist resonates with Dr. Krausā curiosity to unravel the mysteries of how we hear and make sense of the sonic world.
I really was blown away when she demonstrated how a famous rock melody created an electric signal in the brain of the listener, which was then transformed back into an audio signal that sounded exactly like the original melody. This book is full of hardcore explanations about the wondrous experience of the human brainās interpretation of our world of sound, which I use for self-exploration and professional application in sound design.
How sound leaves a fundamental imprint on who we are.
Making sense of sound is one of the hardest jobs we ask our brains to do. In Of Sound Mind, Nina Kraus examines the partnership of sound and brain, showing for the first time that the processing of sound drives many of the brain's core functions. Our hearing is always on--we can't close our ears the way we close our eyes--and yet we can ignore sounds that are unimportant. We don't just hear; we engage with sounds. Kraus explores what goes on in our brains when we hear a word--orā¦
I like trying to solve problems about the mind: Is the mind just the brain? What is consciousness, and where is it in the brain? What happens in the brain during aesthetic experience? Why are we prone to self-deception? In approaching these questions, I donāt limit myself to one discipline or set of techniques. These mental phenomena, and the problems that surround them, do not hew to our disciplinary boundaries. In spite of this, someone needs to collect, analyze, and assess information relevant to the problemsāwhich is in many different formatsāand build theories designed to make sense of it. During that time, more data will become available, so back you go.
In the mid-1980s, Patricia Churchland started to pursue the idea that philosophers interested in the mind might want to have a look at what is going on in neuroscience, in her book Neurophilosophy.
This book was formative for me, in that it showed a way I could combine my interest in the brain with my love for philosophy. Since then, new generations of graduate students have seen the naturalness of the link and begun to bring the wealth of neuroscientific discoveries into the philosophical debates.
In Conscience, she looks at the evolutionary roots of our tendencies to form bonds and create social norms to approach the issue of whether our sociality is hardwired. She also discusses the troubling case of sociopaths, who appear to be naturally unethical.
Patricia Churchland, the distinguished founder of neurophilosophy, reaches beyond the familiar argument of nature versus nurture to bring together insights from philosophy and revolutionary research in neuroscience. Scientific research may not be able to say with certainty what is ethical, and the definition of morality varies from person to person. But, from birth, our brains are configured to form bonds, to co-operate and to care.
Delving into research studies, including work on twins and psychopaths, Churchland deepens our understanding of the brain's role in creating an ethical system. She then turns to philosophy to explore why morality is central toā¦
I like trying to solve problems about the mind: Is the mind just the brain? What is consciousness, and where is it in the brain? What happens in the brain during aesthetic experience? Why are we prone to self-deception? In approaching these questions, I donāt limit myself to one discipline or set of techniques. These mental phenomena, and the problems that surround them, do not hew to our disciplinary boundaries. In spite of this, someone needs to collect, analyze, and assess information relevant to the problemsāwhich is in many different formatsāand build theories designed to make sense of it. During that time, more data will become available, so back you go.
Are philosophers like detectives, in that they chase their culprit over any terrain, and follow any clue? What can count as a clue?
Given the right context, pretty much anything, a pencil placed here rather than there, a picture of a car, something someone said, a fingerprint, can count as a clue. Or are we more like technicians, like the fingerprint expert who is only allowed to look at a certain type of clue? The problem with being the fingerprint expert is that it can completely remove philosophers from their originating problems and turn them into mere technicians.
Ned Block is a detective, who has followed clues about the nature of consciousness deep into psychology and neuroscience. Here Block argues that there is a genuine distinction between seeing and thinking, and draws out the consequences of that for our theories of consciousness.
Philosopher Ned Block argues in this book that there is a "joint in nature" between perception and cognition and that by exploring the nature of that joint, one can solve mysteries of the mind. The first half of the book introduces a methodology for discovering what the fundamental differences are between cognition and perception and then applies that methodology to isolate how perception and cognition differ in format and content. The second half draws consequences for theories of consciousness, using results of the first half to argue against cognitive theories of consciousness that focus on prefrontal cortex. Along the way,ā¦
A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman
by
Lindy Elkins-Tanton,
A Portrait of the Scientist as a Young Woman explores how a philosophy of life can be built from the lessons of the natural world. Amid a childhood of trauma, Lindy Elkins-Tanton fell in love with science as a means of healing and consolation. She takes us from the wildsā¦
My mom was an excellent artist, and my father was an accomplished scientist, so I grew up with a passion and mission to combine these in my lifeās work. I have played clarinet since 8, in classical, jazz, world, experimental, and sound healing, and have mastered a variety of visual storytelling arts (painting, sculpture, filmmaking, game development). My fascination with mind/body led me to neuroscience research and developing edtech for autism. These all integrated into writing my book and offering this inspiration to others. This book list has nurtured my deepest interests and propelled me to discover more of our human potential to experience sound, storytelling, and well-being.
This book is one of the biggest influences in my life as a sound designer, musician, neuroscientist, and super curious researcher/creator. Danās personal life trajectory mirrors my own love of music and science, and his writing style is so accessible and engaging.
He and I have met personally, signed each otherās books, and are literally and figuratively on the same page. I also love his book, The World in Six Songs, a deep dive into how and why music affects us emotionally, culturally, and socially, which is very pertinent to sound design storytelling and portraying human nature from prehistoric to current pop culture.
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.
Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin poses that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, he reveals:
* How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the wayā¦
My mom was an excellent artist, and my father was an accomplished scientist, so I grew up with a passion and mission to combine these in my lifeās work. I have played clarinet since 8, in classical, jazz, world, experimental, and sound healing, and have mastered a variety of visual storytelling arts (painting, sculpture, filmmaking, game development). My fascination with mind/body led me to neuroscience research and developing edtech for autism. These all integrated into writing my book and offering this inspiration to others. This book list has nurtured my deepest interests and propelled me to discover more of our human potential to experience sound, storytelling, and well-being.
Written in 1997, this was the first of many books (including the others on my list here) that united my experience in sound design, music, and neuroscience.
In an elegant and entertaining style, Jourdain embraces the theme from Pink Panther by Henry Mancini and illustrates the continuum of musical experience in tone, melody, harmony, rhythm, composition, listening, and understanding while revealing the hows and whys our brains perceive, integrate and elicit emotion.
I keep referring to this seminal work, which helped me write my own book, and I feel grateful for Jourdainās groundbreaking entry into this field.
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 finallyā¦
Iām a professor of cognitive psychology at UCLA, and also a poet. Growing up on a dairy farm in British Columbia, I immersed myself in the world of books. My mother showed me her well-worn copy of a poetry book written by her Scottish great-great-aunt, and I longed to create my own arrangements of words. Later, as a student at the University of British Columbia and then Stanford, my interest in creativity was channeled into research on how people think. Iāve studied how people use analogies and metaphors to create new ideas. In addition to books on the psychology of thinking and reasoning, Iāve written several volumes of poetry.
Itās not really six songs, but six human needs that songs fulfill: friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion, loveāneeds that largely define āhuman nature.ā This book combines the perspective of a neuroscientist and musician (Dan Levitin is both), describing why songs may have arisen, and how they impact emotion, memory, and the place of an individual in a society. A song combines music with lyricsāthe near relative of a poem. For me (a non-musician), the book was especially useful in clarifying the ways in which song lyrics and poems are both similar and different. Songs derive their power by combining the creative potential of language and music.
The author of the New York Times bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music reveals musicās role in the evolution of human culture in this thought-provoking book that āwill leave you awestruckā (The New York Times).
Daniel J. Levitin's astounding debut bestseller, This Is Your Brain on Music, enthralled and delighted readers as it transformed our understanding of how music gets in our heads and stays there. Now in his second New York Times bestseller, his genius for combining science and art reveals how music shaped humanity across cultures and throughout history.
Here he identifies six fundamental song functions orā¦
Music has been a passion ever since I joined my motherās hippie jam sessions as a toddler. During my 17 years as a professional cellist-in-training, I tried Yo-Yo Maās Stradivarius and played Pachelbelās Canon at a gazillion weddings. I even made it to Carnegie Hall, performing in a university orchestra on the gilded stage. But injuries, both physical and psychological, put an end to my classical music career. Trying to forget my cello years, I entered journalism, eventually becoming a staff health reporter at Canadaās national newspaper, The Globe and Mail. Later, when a percussion workshop triggered a dramatic shift in my perspective, I answered the call to explore music in a more expansive way.
Like most readers, I like my science sandwiched between stories.
Tim Falconer delivers a winsome tale of a writer diagnosed with āamusia"āthe clinical term for ātone deafnessāāwho nevertheless longs to sing. Bashful yet determined, he delves into the science of auditory deficits and musicality on a quest to uncover why he canāt sing in tune, and whether anything can be done about it.
I couldnāt help but cheer him on as he endures remedial singing lessons and a nail-biting buildup to a public performance. Will he pull it off? And is there hope for other bad singers out there? I loved how Falconer used himself as Exhibit A to prove that even extreme tone deficits neednāt keep us from the joys of making music.
In the tradition of Daniel Levitin's This Is Your Brain on Music and Oliver Sacks' Musicophilia, Bad Singer follows the delightful journey of Tim Falconer as he tries to overcome tone deafness - and along the way discovers what we're really hearing when we listen to music.
Tim Falconer, a self-confessed "bad singer," always wanted to make music, but soon after he starts singing lessons, he discovers that he's part of only 2.5 percent of the population afflicted with amusia - in other words, he is scientifically tone-deaf.
Bad Singer chronicles his quest to understand human evolution and music, theā¦