Music Instinct: How Music Works and Why We Can't Do Without It

From Bach fugues to Indonesian gamelan, from nursery rhymes to rock, music has cast its light into every corner of human culture. But why music excites such deep passions, and how we make sense of musical sound at all, are questions that have until recently remained unanswered. Now in The
Music Instinct, award-winning writer Philip Ball provides the first comprehensive, accessible survey of what is known--and still unknown--about how music works its magic, and why, as much as eating and sleeping, it seems indispensable to humanity. Deftly weaving together the latest findings in brain
science with history, mathematics, and philosophy, The Music Instinct not only deepens our appreciation of the music we love, but shows that we would not be ourselves without it. The Sunday Times hailed it as a wonderful account of why music matters, with Ball's passion for music evident on every
page.


Author: Philip Ball
Publisher: Oxford University Press, USA
Published: 09/01/2010
Pages: 464
Binding Type: Hardcover
Weight: 1.77lbs
Size: 9.54h x 6.60w x 1.42d
ISBN: 9780199754274

Review Citation(s):
Library Journal 08/01/2010 pg. 84
Booklist 09/01/2010 pg. 27
Choice 01/01/2011

About the Author

Philip Ball is a freelance writer and the author of numerous books, including Universe of Stone: A Biography of Chartres Cathedral and Critical Mass: How One Thing Leads To Another, which won the 2005 Aventis Prize for Science Books.

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