It is a collection which outlines the connections between music and the brain, the science behind the melodies that we love singing along to in the car. Instead, it is a collection of stories that illustrates the power of music to affect its listeners. Musicophilia is not an explanation of various music-related phenomena – it is not trying to do that. In other words, these are stories of how people can experience the world differently through music. At the same time, there are also descriptions of how a musician’s brain is different from everyone else’s, and conjectures on why we just can’t shake off that catchy tune from a toothpaste ad. There is a story of a man who unlocked his passion for music after being struck by lightning and stories of people who experience intense musical dreams in vivid detail. Musicophilia is essentially a compilation of tales that revolve around how music can affect ordinary people in extraordinary ways. Reading Oliver Sacks’ Musciophilia gave me part of the answer. I’ve been there before, and I’ve asked myself this question many times: why am I choosing to do Music? It can be easy to lose sight of your passion when your desk is overflowing with homework, when every day of your calendar is covered in deadlines scrawled in red Sharpie, when the music you’re trying to analyse seems to be written in a foreign language that you’re struggling to understand.
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |