The Music Instinct

Oct 6, 2024 10:22 AM

Author:Philip Ball

The Music Instinct

Why have all human cultures - today and throughout history - made music? Why does music excite such rich emotion? How do we make sense of musical sound?

These are questions that have, until recently, remained mysterious. Now The Music Instinct explores how the latest research in music psychology and brain science is piecing together the puzzle of how our minds understand and respond to music. Ranging from Bach fugues to nursery rhymes to heavy rock, Philip Ball interweaves philosophy, mathematics, history and neurology to reveal why music moves us in so many ways.

Without requiring any specialist knowledge, The Music Instinct will both deepen your appreciation of the music you love, and open doors to music that once seemed alien, dull or daunting, offering a passionate plea for the importance of music in education and in everyday life.

'You'll never listen to music the same way again' - Independent

Reviews

Wonderful account of why music matters... one of the finest and most versatile of current non-fiction writers

—— Sunday Times

Exemplary... In contemplating the mysteries of music we are also contemplating the mystery of ourselves... Ball, thankfully, doesn't try to provide any easy answers, but rather sends the reader back to the music a better listener

—— Observer

This is a truly fascinating and eye-opening account of a phenomenon so commonplace we barely think about it, yet one which is also mind-bogglingly complicated. Once you've read The Music Instinct, you'll never listed to music the same way again

—— Independent

A musical experience in itself...his love of the subject is abundantly evident.. His mastery of many scientific disciplines is a delight

—— Daily Telegraph

Impressively engaging...it will be the rare music lover that does not come away without having learned many interesting things

—— Guardian

Ball....proves as comfortable discussing the science of music as its cultural and artistic dimensions... This thought-provoking book answers many questions, and leaves a few hanging tantalisingly behind as well

—— Financial Times

Remarkable capacity to use words to open our ears

—— Sunday Telegraph

This book surveys current thinking and tells you why music rocks

—— Iain Finlayson , The Times

Bestriding with equal ease the very different disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, history and neurology, the author answers com amore the questions posed in the subtitle of this important book. A remarkable achievement.

—— Classic FM Magazine

The author breaks new (to me) ground

—— Sunday Telegraph

As prolific as he is profound, Philip Ball weaves science into culture with a dexterity and virtuosity that avoid any sense of overstretch... Ball can truly make scholarship sing.

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

The year's most unusual travel book

—— Tom Chesshyre , The Times

[An] eye-opening and hugely enjoyable book

—— Daily Telegraph

Written in a delectable prose that scatters flashes of poetry over a sardonic undertow of social comment, Edgelands is a lyrical triumph. On Britain’s grotty margins, the duo trace “desire paths” to find beauty and mystery in the rough darkness on the edge of town

—— Boyd Tonkin , Independent

Throw out your old atlas. The new version is here

—— Walter Kirn (author of UP IN THE AIR)

Kasarda ... and Lindsay convincingly put the airport at the centre of modern urban life

—— Economist

Highly recommended

—— Library Journal

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