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The co-op bookstore for avid readers
I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine
Reader Score
77%
77% of readers
recommend this book
Critic Reviews
Great
Based on 6 reviews on
Music is one of humanity's oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind.
In his latest work, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel J. Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music) explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He brings together, for the first time, the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson's and Alzheimer's, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain.
Levitin is not your typical scientist--he is also an award-winning musician and composer, and through lively interviews with some of today's most celebrated musicians, from Sting to Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama, he shares their observations as to why music might be an effective therapy, in addition to plumbing scientific case studies, music theory, and music history. The result is a work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and jubilant celebration. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord highlights the critical role music has played in human biology, illuminating the neuroscience of music and its profound benefits for those both young and old.
Book Details
- Publisher: W. W. Norton & Company
- Publish Date: Aug 27th, 2024
- Pages: 416
- Language: English
- Edition: undefined - undefined
- Dimensions: 9.10in - 5.90in - 1.50in - 1.50lb
- EAN: 9781324036180
- Categories: • Neuropsychology• Neuroscience• Instruction & Study - Appreciation
About the Author
Levitin, Daniel J.: - Daniel J. Levitin is a neuroscientist, musician, and the author of four New York Times best-selling books, including This Is Your Brain on Music. He is dean emeritus at Minerva University, professor emeritus at McGill University, and adjunct professor at UCLA David Geffen School of Medicine. He lives in California.
Critics’ reviews
Praise for this book
Daniel J. Levitin is a visionary neuroscientist, an extraordinary musician, a brilliant writer--and this is his best book yet. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord is inspiring and illuminating, as deep as it is delightful. I couldn't put it down. So full of great ideas and delicious stories, it made me want to rewind my entire life and spend more of it making music.--Daniel Gilbert, New York Times best-selling author of Stumbling on Happiness
For many of us, This is Your Brain on Music was an illuminating introduction to the neuroscience of music. Dan Levitin follows up with the comprehensive I Heard There Was a Secret Chord, expertly highlighting the latest trends and discoveries in arts and health, written in his always erudite yet concise and accessible style. We are so fortunate to have his keen mind leading this growing field and unlocking its mysteries for readers.--Renée Fleming, world-renowned soprano and arts and health advocate
In the same way that we musicians study music theory, we also need to study everything in this book. How and why music affects us, and what it does to our minds and bodies, is just as critical to know. And Daniel Levitin pulls this all together beautifully.--Victor L. Wooten, bass player, educator, five-time Grammy Award-winner
Working as a cross-culture detective, Daniel J. Levitin opens the mysteries of how music heals us and fires our emotions, inspirations, and desires. Levitin cracks the case wide open while synthesizing his research and experience in a book that is an important addition to our understanding of the human experience.--Michael Connelly, New York Times best-selling author of the Harry Bosch and Lincoln Lawyer series
For many years I have wondered why a bunch of frequencies organized into a piece of music has the ability, even without words, to make the listener cry and become emotional. Although I know this happens to me and many people, I have often wondered how this can be. Dr. Levitin, in this latest book, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine, has some fascinating insights into this great phenomenon.--Paul McCartney
Lookin' back at my life, it's pretty easy to see how music has profoundly benefited my well-being, all while drawing me further & further into its mysteries--and there appears to be no end to this path. Dan Levitin's take on this mirrors mine--and he can both explain it and tease the possibilities presented...--Bob Weir, The Grateful Dead
Informative and enjoyable, this book is for anyone interested in how the practice of medicine is expanding, and it's a must-read for fans of the author's previous books on music and the brain. Levitin's story is a fascinating piece of work, written with authority, empathy, and occasional humor.--Kirkus Reviews, starred review
Exuberant.... Enriching lucidly explained neuroscience with ebullient musical appreciation (a Billy Pierce saxophone solo is "in turns thrilling, heartbreaking, bustling, radiant, and always, always moving forward"), Levitin makes a persuasive case for music's therapeutic potential that gives due to its medical promise without undercutting its mysteries. The result is a fascinating take on the tuneful raptures of the mind.-- "Publishers Weekly"
Part memoir and part medical primer, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord showcases Daniel J. Levitin's expertise in all genres of music as well as experimental neuroscience. No one else in the universe could have written this book.--Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist
Brilliantly creative yet solidly evidence-based.... This fascinating and valuable title gives readers insight into the many neurological benefits of music. Most readers can easily identify what kind of music calms them, provokes creative sparks, or helps get them through strenuous exercises but until they read this, they may not know why music has that power or that it can be great medicine too.--Marcia Welsh, Library Journal, starred review
An exemplary book... A multi-instrumentalist who has played with everyone from Sting to Rosanne Cash to Blue Öyster Cult and also happens to be a bona fide neuroscientist, [Levitin's] is simply not a combined skill set you find.--Chris Vognar "Boston Globe"
Expand[s] our understanding of the power of music and its capacities to heal... Levitin's melodious writing captures the imagination.--Henry Carrigan "No Depression: The Journal of Roots Music"
[Levitin's] vital new book... [is] worth a hallelujah!--Brad Wheeler "The Globe and Mail"
Enthralling... You won't look at [a piece of] music the same.--Harlan Coben "The TODAY Show"
Essential to our understanding... Hallelujah.--Diane Cole "Wall Street Journal"
This engrossing, compassionate, and thoroughly researched book reveals just how much we've learned about the interplay between the world of sound and the world inside our heads, even as it leaves the magic behind the music intact.--Dan Falk "Undark"
A fascinating read filled with wondrous examples of how music makes us feel and think (and why that is). My favorite quote: 'Memory is the heart of who we are, and the very private sense of what it takes to be us.'--John Brandon "Forbes"
[As] intriguing as a long jazz riff.--Alexandra Jacobs "New York Times"