The World in Six Songs How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature

by Levitin, Daniel J.

• ISBN13: 9780452295483
• ISBN10: 0452295483
• Edition: Reprint
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2009-07-28
• Publisher: E P Dutton

Summary

The author of the New York Times bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music reveals music's role in the evolution of human culture-and "will leave you awestruck" (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. Dr. Levitin identifies six fundamental song functions or types-friendship, joy, comfort, religion, knowledge, and love-then shows how each in its own way has enabled the social bonding necessary for human culture and society to evolve. He shows, in effect, how these "six songs" work in our brains to preserve the emotional history of our lives and species. Dr. Levitin combines cutting-edge scientific research from his music cognition lab at McGill University and work in an array of related fields; his own sometimes hilarious experiences in the music business; and illuminating interviews with musicians such as Sting and David Byrne, as well as conductors, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists. The World in Six Songsis, ultimately, a revolution in our understanding of how human nature evolved-right up to the iPod.

Author Biography

Daniel J. Levitin, the author of the New York Times bestseller and Los Angeles Times Book Award finalist This Is Your Brain on Music, is the James McGill Professor of Psychology and Neuroscience and runs the Laboratory for Musical Perception, Cognition, and Expertise at McGill University. Before becoming a research scientist and author, he was a record producer and a professional musician.

Table of Contents

Taking It from the Top or "The Hills Are Alive ..."	p. 1
Friendship or "War (What Is It Good For)?"	p. 41
Joy or "Sometimes You Feel Like a Nut"	p. 83
Comfort or "Before There Was Prozac, There Was You"	p. 111
Knowledge or "I Need to Know"	p. 137
Religion or "People Get Ready"	p. 189
Love or "Bring 'Em All In"	p. 229
Appendix	p. 291
Notes	p. 295
Acknowledgments	p. 335
Index	p. 337
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