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Music, the Brain and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination

Author: Robert Jourdain
Publisher: Avon Books
Category: Book

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Rating: 4.0 out of 5 stars

8 reviews
Sales Rank: 17104

Media: Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 400
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.7
Dimensions (in): 7.8 x 5.3 x 1

ISBN: 038078209X
Dewey Decimal Number: 781.11
EAN: 9780380782093
ASIN: 038078209X

Publication Date: March 1998
Availability: Usually dispatched within 1-2 business days
Shipping: International shipping available
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Also Available In:

•	Hardcover - Music, the Brain, and Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination

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Customer Reviews: Read 3 more reviews...

3 out of 5 stars

The psychology of music as seen by a musical bigot July 5, 1999
14 out of 19 found this review helpful

While an interesting read, I found Jourdain's book frequently annoyed for the same reasons that, in retrospect, I now realize my junior high music snob phase annoyed. For a few years there, I listened to nothing but Western classical music of about 1500 to 1900. I reveled in my superior taste. Thank goodness I got that out of my system at an early age. Mr. Jourdain seems never to have outgrown it. His constricted musical tastes made him to lose credibility with me when he moved from areas with which he clearly resonates (harmony and mainstream Western classical music) to those that do comparatively little for him (rhythm, non-Western music, modern music, jazz, rock, the list goes on and on). The book is most interesting for what it reveals about the author, not for what it tells us about music.

1 out of 5 stars

I'm afraid that I have to disagree. June 7, 1999
18 out of 22 found this review helpful

Robert Jourdain's book does have some worthy insights to offer, but I am truly offended by much of it. His hostility towards 20th. century music is hardly veiled by his psuedo-science (see pages 99-101). He seems to view all modern music as a reaction against earlier music. Does he like Bach because the music is merely "pretty"? And does he dislike (e.g.) Berg simply because the music is atonal and thus "hurts his ears"? Doesn't he recognize the difference between Beethoven or Carter (art) and Andrew Loyd Weber (kitsch)? Surely we can transcend all of this and recognize the universality of all brilliant art music.

On pages 194-5, he proposes his hypotheses for why there are no "genius" composers in today's modern world, as well as showing his complete lack of knowledge of any modern music scene in the world. This is a uniquely American perspective -- in other parts of the world, living composers are respected and held in high esteem.

Indeed, Mr. Jourdain, there are many brilliant (living) composers of art music for those who are willing to open their minds a bit. Not all listeners feel the need to "flee" from a performance of Schoenberg (p. 100), and not all authors feel the need to criticize an art they clearly do not understand.

5 out of 5 stars A superb book that explains more than I knew to question   March 26, 1999
3 out of 3 found this review helpful

I haven't been this excited about a book in years. Jourdain explains how the brain functions to hear sounds, tones, melodies, rhythms, and entire works. He constantly moves back and forth between the experience of music and how the brain is responding to the musical inputs, covering composition and performance as well as listening to music. And as to how music has the ability to work on our emotions, Jourdain comes up with the first truly compelling explanation. This book is well written and easy to read while still being thought-provoking and memorable. It's been several weeks since I read it, and now I find myself experiencing music in a different and richer way. Definitely read this book!

5 out of 5 stars A must to re-read!   March 20, 1999
1 out of 2 found this review helpful

Jourdain's background as a musician and man of science allows him to cover a subject that pleases both right and left-brained readers. He logically unfolds the story of music from its simplest form as soundwave to the complex nature which allows music to "touch" our souls. I have fresh appreciation of music as a gift which no one, least of all musicians, should ever take for granted.

4 out of 5 stars Excellent musicology and neuroscience. Amazing insights.   August 24, 1998
Robert Jourdain writes effortlessly about the latest research in neuroscience and the most scholarly musicology, combining the two into fascinating insights about how we relate to music, and how music is itself shaped by our special abilities and limitations. An "Aha!" on almost every page.