The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature

Dutton Adult, 2008, Hardcover

Product Description

The author of the New York Times bestseller and Los Angeles Times Book Award Finalist This Is Your Brain on Music tunes us in to six evolutionary musical forms that brought about the evolution of human culture.
An unprecedented blend of science and art, Daniel Levitin's debut, This Is Your Brain on Music, delighted readers with an exuberant guide to the neural impulses behind those songs that make our heart swell. Now he showcases his daring theory of "six songs," illuminating how the brain evolved to play and listen to music in six fundamental forms—for knowledge, friendship, religion, joy, comfort, and love. Preserving the emotional history of our lives and of our species, from its very beginning music was also allied to dance, as the structure of the brain confirms; developing this neurological observation, Levitin shows how music and dance enabled the social bonding and friendship necessary for human culture and society to evolve.
Blending cutting-edge scientific findings with his own sometimes hilarious experiences as a musician and music-industry professional, Levitin's sweeping study also incorporates wisdom gleaned from interviews with icons ranging from Sting and Paul Simon to Joni Mitchell, and David Byrne, along with classical musicians and conductors, historians, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists. The result is a brilliant revelation of the prehistoric yet elegant systems at play when we sing and dance at a wedding or cheer at a concert—or tune out quietly with an iPod.

Product Details

Title: The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature
Sales Rank: 2632 in Books
Author: Daniel J. Levitin
Publisher: Dutton Adult, 2008-08-19, Hardcover, 368 pages, ISBN: 0525950737
Package Dimensions: 9.1 x 6.2 x 1.3 inches, 1.15 pounds

Customer Reviews

A different kind of book from his first: Daniel Levitin's first book, "This is Your Brain on Music," was a fairly
dense "science for non-scientists" book (as one of the previous
reviewers put it) that only occasionally let its insights take wing, as
he felt the need to establish the legitimacy of the scientific findings
he was presenting. As a rock guitarist who… More reviews

Very disappointing: I looked forward to reading this after I finished Your Brain on Music, but The World in Six Songs is more about chatty name dropping than it is about music or neurology. A pleasant light read for the non musician perhaps, but not much meat. More reviews

nice try: I thoroughly enjoyed "This is Your Brain on Music" and anticipated a similar combination of witty, widely observed (pop, jazz, classical), and helpfully presented (science-for-non-specialists) material. All those qualities are present but distractingly encumbered by puffery (yes, yes, you lunch with rock stars and academic luminaries) and organization-by-digression. The dangers of first success? A timid editor? I'd wait… More reviews

An entertaining and informative examination of the human brain and culture as revealed by music: Daniel Levitin is both a rock musician and a cognitive scientist. That is, he looks at how the brain behaves as you perceive things. Music is one of those interesting puzzles that allows people like Levitin to see the brain behave in ways different than our other everyday behaviors, even speech. He wrote an interesting book "This Is Your Brain On Music" that I liked… More reviews

The science of music as fun!: I liked this book a lot - I think Howie Klein said it best in his review in the Huffington Post (which is why I bought the book in the first place) so I'm pasting his review here.
I am not a scientist, and I didn't like science in school. Something about the Krebs cycle and the free electrons in isotopes (whatever they were) left… More reviews