English playwright William Congreve wrote a tragedy in 1697 called The Mourning Bride. it is remembered not for the plot, which was forgettable, but for one of its first lines: “music has charms to soothe a wild breast, soften rocks, or bend a gnarled oak.” planet, our ancestors have struggled to understand what it is about a combination of vocal and instrumental sounds that compels us to smile, cry, or “bang our heads” at concerts. our contemporaries have also wrestled with this question. here are six who came close to some answers.
alex ross: the rest is noise
You are reading: Books on how music affects the brain
Classical music has a bad reputation for being boring and difficult, so everyone should have a copy of this book from the New Yorker’s music critic. the first thing that strikes you is to understand why some notes on a page move us the way they do, and why they will do so long after their composers are gone. the second thing it shows is how closely the evolution of music is linked to the movements of history. and it does it all without using a single musical notation.
olive sacks: musicophilia
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When this British neurologist died in 2015, the world lost one of its most curious minds. It wasn’t just science, disease, or the natural world that moved him, but how they influenced our perception of art. In this book, Sacks looked at people suffering from “musical disorders” such as phonographic memories, synesthesia, or hallucinations, as well as historical figures like Freud and Che Guevara, who approached music in radically different ways. he also explains how and why those charms. soothe wild breasts.
david byrne: how music works
This founding member of the legendary talking band continues to change the way we think about music and the way it’s performed. as evidence, borrow or steal a copy of the 1984 concert film cease to make sense. The book talks about Byrne’s personal approach to creating music, with anecdotes, biographical details, music history, and even tips on how to create a cool nightclub. gives us a glimpse into an extraordinary mind that has spent a long time obsessed with music.
ian macdonald: revolution in the head
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It’s safe to point out that even people who claim to have no interest in music can’t help but nod when a Beatles classic plays. Ian Macdonald explains why, going through every song in this iconic band’s discography and discussing its genesis. what happens, in the end, is that one understands why the beatles arrived when they arrived, and why they continue to make babies smile today.
daniel levitin: this is your brain on music
Not another neuroscientist, you say? this guy deserves to be in every music lover’s library simply because he explains why melodies get stuck in our collective heads. he does it because, surprisingly, he was also a record producer once. he uses excellent examples to help us understand the mechanisms in our brains that are involved in the cognitive processes that underlie all aspects of music. It’s not hard to see why this is now a textbook at universities teaching music around the world.
sandeep bagchee: nad
Understanding Indian classical music is a lot like approaching the sea and demanding it tell you its secrets. Many argue that a lifetime is not enough, but one has to start somewhere, and this is as good a place as any. the author holds the reader by the hand from page 1 and slowly introduces him. it begins with the history and evolution of form and moves on to the structuring of time and melody, genres and vocal forms. Some may accuse Bagchee of spending more time in one gharana than another, but that’s all the more reason to read and decide for yourself.
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