One of the most known books tackling music science is Daniel Levitin’s 2009 book The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature. It was also one of the first books I read when I started to get interested in the topic. Continue reading…
book review
Music is magic
And we can’t live without it
I feel lucky, sometimes, because I’ve chosen to focus my academic efforts on a field that arouses interest in both the general audience and amongst scientists. Consequently, there are books which are perfect for a relative beginner such as myself: books that talk about the scientific aspects of music in an understandable way. One such book is Philip Ball’s The Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can’t Do Without It (2010). Below are a couple of curiosities I learned while reading it.*
The Singing … What Now?
Talking about the origins of music and language
The curiously named book The Singing Neanderthals by Stephen Mithen is the book I wish I’d written and still hold hopes that one day I might. Its basic premise is that music and language developed at around the same time and that music is a fundamental part of us, not merely a byproduct. It’s a thought that surely resonates with all music enthusiasts. Continue reading…
