Product Description

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 finally to ecstasy. Along the way, a fascinating cast of characters brings Jourdian's narrative to vivid life: "idiots savants" who absorb whole pieces on a single hearing, composers who hallucinate entire compositions, a psychic who claims to take dictation from long-dead composers, and victims of brain damage who can move only when they hear music. Here is a book that will entertain, inform, and stimulate everyone who loves music--and make them think about their favorite song in startling new ways.What makes a distant oboes 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 finally to ecstasy. Along the way, a fascinating cast of characters brings Jourdians narrative to vivid life: idiots savants who absorb whole pieces on a single hearing, composers who hallucinate entire compositions, a psychic who claims to take dictation from long-dead composers, and victims of brain damage who can move only when they hear music. Here is a book that will entertain, inform, and stimulate everyone who loves music--and make them think about their favorite song in startling new ways.

Product Details

• Amazon Sales Rank: #13234 in Books
• Published on: 1998-03-01
• Number of items: 1
• Binding: Paperback
• 400 pages

Amazon.com
What is music? How and why does it affect us? What is the nature of musical genius? Author/composer Robert Jourdain explores these and other questions, from the essential nature of sound through composition, performance, and, finally, the nature of ecstasy. His prose is eminently readable, offering a very accessible account of a difficult subject to the general reader as well as to the musical sophisticate. This is a fascinating and intriguing book, written by someone who clearly knows his subject.

From Publishers Weekly
Synthesizing recent research from the burgeoning science of musical psychoacoustics, Jourdain, a California musician, provides a richly informative, exuberant, wonderfully accessible introduction to how we perceive and experience music. Choosing examples eclectically, from Henry Mancini's "The Pink Panther" to Mozart, Stravinsky and Duke Ellington, he explores how, when we compose, perform or listen to music, the brain assembles musical devices, patterns and harmonies into vast, meaningful hierarchies of sound. He also offers tantalizing if inevitably unsatisfying answers to such age-old enigmas as what makes a great melody or how music elicits emotions and gives pleasure. Requiring no prior musical or scientific knowledge, this survey is sprinkled with interesting historical anecdotes (Beethoven was an early victim of metronome mania; Aaron Copland hit upon the title Appalachian Spring only after he had finished composing his tone poem) as well as seldom-appreciated facts. We learn, for instance, that musical dissonance and consonance have a neurological basis, in the inner ear's structure. Jourdain writes with verve, infectious enthusiasm and rare insight into music's emotive power.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Library Journal
Jourdain, a pianist, composer, and researcher on artificial intelligence, investigates music from its most fundamental biological basis to the psychology of composing and performing, ending with speculation on music's future possibilities. While trained musicians will be especially fascinated with the chapters on musical education, the virtuoso, and the amateur, Jourdain succeeds in making this work understandable for those without specialized knowledge. Though written music surfaces in the form of Henry Mancini's sprightly theme from The Pink Panther as an illustration of various concepts, readers who don't read music will probably still follow the examples without difficulty. The author's presentation combines the thoughts of many previous writers in a wide variety of fields with the results of recent research, enriched with his own insights on popular, classical, and non-Western music. A thought-provoking work for music teachers, serious music students, and others with an interest in what music is and where it might be going.?James E. Ross, WLN, Seattle
Copyright 1997 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Customer Reviews

Wonderful Surprize
I purchased this book for my 14 year old son who wants to be a musician. I read it and found so many interesting facts and it truly increased my knowledge base significantly. Besides I enjoyed it so much I could not and did not want to put it down. I am not that interested in music myself, but after reading this book, I feel that I can understand Classical as well as all music so much better. It is like a fundamentals of music 101 in paperback. I think I will read it again because I am sure I will get more the second time.

Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination by Robert Jourdain (Paperback - Mar 1, 1998)
The first page and a half of this book combined with the curious use of the word ecstasy in the title nearly made me put his book down for good but I'm incredibly glad that I didn't because the writer quickly drops his attempt to be evocative and the book becomes interesting and very readable. Even the use of the word ecstasy is normal and informative when it is finally described.

In this book Robert Jourdain covers a lot of ground on all aspects of sound, music, the brain and how they all interact and he does it well. The book is ten years old at the time of this review and it remains quite current, detailed but not overburdened, enjoyable to read, and a valuable resource for anyone with an interest in the mind, the brain, music, music theory, musical instruments, sound or noise (acousticians should however note that words are used with their psychology meanings rather than their accoustics meanings).

Robert Jourdain spends rather more time describing the effect of music on the brain than he does effect of music on the mind. This isn't the problem that it might seem and is easily turned to advantage by reading it in conjunction with a book that favours the mind over the brain such as David Levitin's "This Is Your Brain on Music" which also has the advantage of describing the most interesting experiments that have done since the publication of this book.

If you want one book to explain what music is and why we like it then this is that book. If you want an introduction to the subject then this is an excellent place to start and nine pages of bibliography offer plenty of suggestions for further reading. I heartily recommend this book for pleasure, knowledge or study - once you get past the first page and half that is.

Very Interesting
I thoroughly enjoyed this book. I especially enjoyed reading about the personality characteristics of the greatest composers. Why did Mendelssohn and Saint-Saens never fully develop the potential they showed early in life while Beethoven's skills in composition improved consistently during his lifetime? For me, this book at least addressed, if not answered, some of the questions I've wondered about for a very long time. A previous reviewer complained the book portrayed snobbery. I guess from a certain viewpoint, someone could feel that way. James Brown said he'd surpassed everyone, Beethoven, Mozart, everyone because he'd written 5,000 songs. With all due respect and acknowledging Mr. Brown's very real talent, there is a bit of a difference there. For hundreds of years, music has been created for purposes of art and has been written also as popular music. Both unquestionably have their place in the world of music. The same could be said of all the arts. Is Australian aboriginal art less important than a Monet? Not if we believe the real purpose of art. I suggest an individual's opinion of this book depends on what they are hoping to take away from it. For me, it was an enjoyable, informative read.