Music, The Brain, And Ecstasy: How Music Captures Our Imagination (Paperback)

by Robert Jourdain (Author) "On a balmy summer's afternoon, beneath a weeping willow beside a pond, a solitary flutist draws a deep breath and begins to play..." (more)
Key Phrases: rhythmic markers, perceptual present, pitch space, Blind Tom, Rosemary Brown, Franz Liszt (more...)

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review
What is music? How and why does it affect us? What is the nature of musical genius? Author/composer Robert Jourdain explores these and other questions, from the essential nature of sound through composition, performance, and, finally, the nature of ecstasy. His prose is eminently readable, offering a very accessible account of a difficult subject to the general reader as well as to the musical sophisticate. This is a fascinating and intriguing book, written by someone who clearly knows his subject. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

From Publishers Weekly
Synthesizing recent research from the burgeoning science of musical psychoacoustics, Jourdain, a California musician, provides a richly informative, exuberant, wonderfully accessible introduction to how we perceive and experience music. Choosing examples eclectically, from Henry Mancini's "The Pink Panther" to Mozart, Stravinsky and Duke Ellington, he explores how, when we compose, perform or listen to music, the brain assembles musical devices, patterns and harmonies into vast, meaningful hierarchies of sound. He also offers tantalizing if inevitably unsatisfying answers to such age-old enigmas as what makes a great melody or how music elicits emotions and gives pleasure. Requiring no prior musical or scientific knowledge, this survey is sprinkled with interesting historical anecdotes (Beethoven was an early victim of metronome mania; Aaron Copland hit upon the title Appalachian Spring only after he had finished composing his tone poem) as well as seldom-appreciated facts. We learn, for instance, that musical dissonance and consonance have a neurological basis, in the inner ear's structure. Jourdain writes with verve, infectious enthusiasm and rare insight into music's emotive power.
Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Paperback: 400 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial (March 1, 1998)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 038078209X
• ISBN-13: 978-0380782093
• Product Dimensions: 7.8 x 5.3 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 10.4 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars See all reviews (44 customer reviews)
• Amazon.com Sales Rank: #47,606 in Books (See Bestsellers in Books)

  Popular in these categories: (What's this?)

  #33 in	Books > Entertainment > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Appreciation
  #66 in	Books > Entertainment > Music > Theory, Composition & Performance > Theory
  #90 in	Books > Entertainment > Music > Reference

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

74 of 76 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars Science In The Arts, June 1, 2002

By	disco75 "disco75" (State College, PA United States) - See all my reviews

It is interesting to read the previous reviews of this book; so many people seem to have ignored the author's explicit caveats that he is mostly discussing Western cultivated music 1) because that is the music he is most familiar with, 2) because that is the music most researched with regard to his topic of brain response, and 3) because Westerners do not have adequate vocabulary or understanding of other musical endeavors, such as the polyrhythms of Western African music. He is very clear that some African music has a long tradition of developing rhythm in its performances, rhythm that Western art music has virtually ignored in favor of certain types of harmonic and structural inventions. Because he sets out his perspective so clearly, I don't find it fair to criticize the author for not providing what a reader might hope for in a book.

The writing is well-constructed; the author uses everyday language to describe complex and scientific information. His use of the Pink Panther theme as an example for the various topics is a helpful one. He does provide a great level of detail about brain function, the science of sound, perceptual processes, and other expert facts that can overwhelm the reader. He also seems to get lost in the forest of science at the expense of the phenomenological experience of enjoying music. There is, in fact, little discussion of the ecstasy in the title. There is far more Brain than Music or Ecstasy in this volume. It is, nevertheless, a well-written book that serves as a condensation of past writings on the topic and an invitation for further explorations of human reactions to music.

41 of 44 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Powerful and profound, January 27, 2006

By	Paul Castonguay (Wilmington, MA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

As a new student of music I was filled with questions. Why exactly did we humans (unlike animals) evolve to appreciate music? What survival benefit could it have provided? And how exactly does music give us pleasure? What is really going on in the body when a great piece of music touches our inner soul to the point of giving us goose bumps? Unfortunately I found teachers and peers not only devoid of answers to such questions, but completely unreceptive to them. Many people are even hostile towards such questions. I felt surrounded by automatons content only with pushing levers and petals on their instruments, completely disinterested in the exact nature of what they were doing. I find such people devoid of one of the most important instincts that supposedly separates us from the animal kingdom, high curiosity.

Robert Jourdain's book, Music, the Brain and Ecstasy, was exactly what I needed to read. He explains how the origin of music appreciation in humans is a consequence of the evolution of speech to improve social interaction, which has survival advantage. He explains how pleasure in music is a consequence of a series of deviations from a tonal center (usually the tonic note or triad of the key in which the music is composed), which introduces conflict in the brain, followed by a return to the tonal center, which provides satisfactory resolution. He explains how such conflict and resolution can be composed into four different aspects of music: rhythm, melody. phrase, and harmony. Ecstasy is achieved when resolution is provided after a conflict has reached the limit in tonal space and time of the listener's comprehension ability. Throughout the book he supports his presentation with real, physical phenomena within the body, mostly within the brain. The presentation seems very valid scientifically. Personally, I think he makes fools out of the teachers, musicians, and friends with whom I have been associating.

Some previous reviewers have been harsh, but I believe them to be out of context. For example, one gave the following quote from the book:

"Almost anything that can be said in Arabic can be faithfully translated into Chinese or Finnish or Navajo."

The reviewer claimed that this would be considered erroneous by any anyone who has ever worked on language translation. I myself am bilingual (English and French), and I believe that although there is some truth to this reviewer's opinion when it comes to the fine nuances of different languages, his comment is entirely out of context and blown out of proportion. In the book Robert Jourdain is referring to the accuracy of all languages to construct simple statements accurately. A sentence like, "On your way home, please go down to the corner store and pick up a loaf of bread." (I made up that sentence myself to make my point) Such a simple statement can be said in almost any human language where bread, home, and corner store have meaning. In contrast, music cannot be composed to deliver such exact meaning. Music produces emotional responses, but it is not possible to accurately define an exact message. Jourdain even suggests that Debussy's La Mere (The Sea) conjures up thoughts of the actual sea most probably as a consequence of its title. Had Debussy called the piece something else, like "The Storm", or "The Wind", or "The Final Salvation of Mankind", people would willingly accommodate by claiming that the music conjured up such images as well. My feeling is that this reviewer, like many people, is too caught up trying to prove what he thinks he knows about a subject rather than listen openly to what the author is really saying. Yes, there are differences in the accuracy of different languages. I myself do prefer to read certain novels in French rather than their English translations. It's not that the translations are inaccurate on the whole, but mostly because the text flows better in the original language. And yes, there are often fine nuances, mostly cultural, that do get lost in translation, but it is not often enough to cause a complete breakdown in meaning . But give me a break, that is not what Robert Jourdain was talking about. The key to the author's intent is the first word of the above quote: "Almost". Almost means almost.

Another reviewer complained that the book was too much about the brain rather than music. Well, where in the body does that person figure music appreciation occurs, if not the brain? Surely a complete explanation of music appreciation must be more about the brain than anything else?

Another reviewer complained that the book read too much like a textbook and is therefore uninteresting. Excuse me? Where exactly do we all learn the most interesting concepts in life if not from textbooks? Yes, it is a difficult read. I had to read it twice, and believe me, on the second reading I learned a tremendous amount. But that is not a disadvantage. That is exactly what makes the book great.

Throughout the book Robert Jourdain reminds the reader of how music challenges the brain and that without a certain mental capacity on the part of the listener much music cannot be appreciated. I myself learned this lesson in the world of chess. Without a certain mental capacity, certain people are simply not capable to playing great chess, no matter how hard they try. I was forced to give up chess competition because I did not possess the mental skills to achieve the rating (level of play) that I aspired to. Perhaps the same thing could be said about Robert Jourdain's book. Unless you possess a certain minimum mental capacity, and unless you take the time to read him carefully and apply your mental capacity to what you read, you will probably be unable to appreciate much of what he has to say.

I myself cannot say that this is one of the greatest books ever written on the subject. I am just a beginning music student and I have not yet read very widely. And I'm sure I will learn further in my education that Robert Jourdain is not the final word on music. Also, I suspect that he himself did not originate much what he has presented. That's perfectly valid. The book has a bibliography. The important thing for me is that at my point in life, this book was like a bolt of lightning awakening me to a whole new world that was unknown to me, a world that remains unknown to others around me who I would expect would know better but who lack the curiosity or perhaps the mental skills. After reading this book I find I am more willing to accept music theory as it is presented to me (as a set of unquestionable strict rules) without being plagued by nagging doubts about their meaning or validity. And I find that now I cannot study or listen to music, or work on my piano practice without thinking about this book in some way. It has affected me profoundly.

I highly recommend this book to anyone who is genuinely curious about the nature of music and is frustrated by a world filled with phony intellectuals who try to suppress true curiosity with blind faith in rules that they are unable to properly validate. This book attacks the subject of music appreciation head on from a scientific point of view and carries a real and enlightening message.

43 of 52 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Fun, authoritative, but narrow, November 19, 1999

By	E. N. Anderson (Riverside, CA USA) - See all my reviews (REAL NAME)

I agree with other reviewers that this is a wonderful book--lots of fun and very valuable--but I must also agree that it's pretty narrow. Jourdain constantly uses "we" ("the music we hear," tunes "we" like, etc.) and it's interesting to decode who "we" are. My wife asked if he had a mouse in his pocket. But, no, his "we" is people whose idea of music is Western classical music from Bach (or even Mozart) on, plus the more genteel sorts of pop (Duke Ellington and Eric Clapton but not Robert Johnson or Louis Armstrong). "We" find New Guinea music pretty weird stuff. So this is a great intro to the more familiar music of the west, and does have some material on musics of India and Java, but the folk traditions of the west are neglected--let alone such obscure places as China and Japan. Medieval music is among those that sound strange to "us." Usually, this is sort of irrelevant, even when he concludes that the modern western scale is somehow better. But sometimes it traps him in real errors, as when he traces the early evolution of European music as if it happened without input from the Near East. You won't learn here that "lute" is from Arabic "al 'ud"--and that this significant derivation of the word reflects a similar and much more important derivation of the music. One is also amused by "There's a good deal of polyrhythm in jazz, but not much elsewhere in the West (p. 129)." Actually, African influences have guaranteed an abundance of polyrhythm in blues, Latin American music in general, and plenty of other good solid Western musics. And so it goes. However, I don't want to overemphasize this. The book is fascinating and even a bit of a revelation. Just read it with appropriate sense of the author and his mouse.