Sacks Writes Another Great Book -- But ... | Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

An Enjoyable Book | Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain | Oliver Sacks

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	• Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain Oliver Sacks Knopf, 2007 - 400 pages average customer review:based on 85 reviews view larger image
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highly recommended

Musicophilia by Oliver Sacks

This book is fantastic. I have read most of Oliver Sacks'' books and find this one to be equally interesting and informative.

Sacks Writes Another Great Book -- But ...

... I was a little disappointed. 4.5 stars

I enjoy every book by Dr. Sacks. He's always insightful, empathetic, and a brilliant storyteller. All the things you like about Dr. Sacks' writing you will find in full in this book. I really like this book. Once again, Dr. Sacks makes the stories of his patients come alive and demonstrate brilliantly the relationship between our mental states and abilities and the physiological functioning of the brain. Bravo. If you like Sacks, you will like this book (very much I would say.)

But ... my but: With a title like Musicophilia ("the love of music") I was expecting much more about WHY we humans ENJOY music so much. Why are we the musical ape? This is only touched on tangentially in this book. I felt a bit of false advertising in the title. I've read Anthony Storr's book "Music and the Mind" and "Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination" by Robert Jourdain (both are good.) With Dr. Sacks' title (and maybe it was chosen by his publisher, this often happens) I expected something more in that vein: the enjoyment of music. (And so, I still await further explorations ...)

All in all a great book. Enjoy.

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An Enjoyable Book

This book is similar to most of Sack's other books in that it consists mostly of discussions of case histories. But it is very definitely more than just a listing of case histories. In particular, it deals with the relationship between music and the brain. It begins with the story of a man involved in an accident that suddenly develops a desire to play the piano, and shows what he manages to accomplish. It goes on to discuss what the author calls "earworms," in other words, melodies that get stuck in the mind (everyone encounters them). There is also a long discussion of amusia -- an affliction in which a person does not enjoy or appreciate music in any way.

I particularly enjoyed the discussion of perfect pitch. This is the ability of a person to state or pinpoint what note or tone on the piano (or other instrument)is being played. Sacks points out that some musicians have it, but others do not. In particular, Mozart had it, but Wagner and Schumann did not. He mentions that it is relatively rare in that only about 1 in 11,000 have it.

I also enjoyed the chapter on musical savants. They are people with very low IQs that have amazing musical talents or abilities. Some of them manage to memorize thousands of different melodies. Interestingly, he points out that there is no such thing as an "instant" savant; in all cases they have spent years developing their special skills. Along the same line, he discusses and analyzes the special skills of blind musicians, pointing out that in most cases they have a very strong "feeling' for the music.

Two things in the book struck close to home for me. The first was "phantom fingers"-- a situation in which someone has lost his hand but still feels his fingers. My father lost his hand, and used to tell us that his finger occassonally got itchy (but, of course, there was nothing he could do about it). The second was musicians dystonia, which is a pain or cramping of the fingers as a result of overplaying or overpractising the piano. He discusses the case of Leon Fleischer and Gray Graffman. I've known people who have suffered from this and have suffered from it to some degree myself, so it was interesting to see it discussed

Overall the book contains a lot of information, and is well-written, and there's no arguing about the authority of the author. Some may be disappointed, however, in that they didn't learn as much about music as they thought they would.

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A MUSICIAN'S VIEW

As a semi-professional old time musician, I looked forward to getting this book to see what it had to say about that music that all my musical friends and myself have running around in our heads most of the time. I am very happy with this book. I believe it explains much that I have often wondered about that ever present music that fills my days with entertainment andyes, even practice without instruments. You can indeed practice within your mind and it does do you some good. Sometimes it all the practice that is needed. I highly recommend Dr. Sacks book to all.

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The brain and music

Interesting book about the interface between neurology and music. Many phenomena such as musical hallucinations, tone deafness, absolute pitch etc. and the people experiencing them (most of them musicians) are described, unfortunately with little explanations as to what mechanisms are at play. But then, not too much is known about how the brain processes music.

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