THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC: Understanding a Human Obsession

The Professor Emeritus of Psychology, Neuroscience and Music in Montreal before his academic life worked as a session musician, sound engineer and record producer, contributing to records by Stevie Wonder, Joni Mitchell and others and has been published extensively in scientific journals and music magazines. Here his endlessly stimulating and marvellous overview introduces an understanding of a human obsession with music. Levitin explores the relationship between music and the human brain, how humans experience music and why it is essential to our lives. He draws on the latest scientific research and musical examples ranging from Bach to The Beatles, from pitch to timbre, discerning rhythm, loudness and harmony as we tap along with our feet, anticipation, how we categorise music, emotion, expertise dissected in a chapter entitled What Makes a Musician? and why music has an almost wilful, evasive quality which is why we want to find out more. 322 page Penguin paperback.