The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature
The author of the New York Times bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music reveals music's role in the evolution of human culture in this thought-provoking book that ¿will leave you awestruck¿ (The New York Times).

Daniel J. Levitin's astounding debut bestseller, This Is Your Brain on Music, enthralled and delighted readers as it transformed our understanding of how music gets in our heads and stays there. Now in his second New York Times bestseller, his genius for combining science and art reveals how music shaped humanity across cultures and throughout history.

Here he identifies six fundamental song functions or types¿friendship, joy, comfort, religion, knowledge, and love¿then shows how each in its own way has enabled the social bonding necessary for human culture and society to evolve. He shows, in effect, how these ¿six songs¿ work in our brains to preserve the emotional history of our lives and species.

Dr. Levitin combines cutting-edge scientific research from his music cognition lab at McGill University and work in an array of related fields; his own sometimes hilarious experiences in the music business; and illuminating interviews with musicians such as Sting and David Byrne, as well as conductors, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists. The World in Six Songs is, ultimately, a revolution in our understanding of how human nature evolved¿right up to the iPod.
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The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature
The author of the New York Times bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music reveals music's role in the evolution of human culture in this thought-provoking book that ¿will leave you awestruck¿ (The New York Times).

Daniel J. Levitin's astounding debut bestseller, This Is Your Brain on Music, enthralled and delighted readers as it transformed our understanding of how music gets in our heads and stays there. Now in his second New York Times bestseller, his genius for combining science and art reveals how music shaped humanity across cultures and throughout history.

Here he identifies six fundamental song functions or types¿friendship, joy, comfort, religion, knowledge, and love¿then shows how each in its own way has enabled the social bonding necessary for human culture and society to evolve. He shows, in effect, how these ¿six songs¿ work in our brains to preserve the emotional history of our lives and species.

Dr. Levitin combines cutting-edge scientific research from his music cognition lab at McGill University and work in an array of related fields; his own sometimes hilarious experiences in the music business; and illuminating interviews with musicians such as Sting and David Byrne, as well as conductors, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists. The World in Six Songs is, ultimately, a revolution in our understanding of how human nature evolved¿right up to the iPod.
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The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature

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

by Daniel J. Levitin

Narrated by Daniel J. Levitin

Unabridged — 10 hours, 31 minutes

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

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

by Daniel J. Levitin

Narrated by Daniel J. Levitin

Unabridged — 10 hours, 31 minutes

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Overview

The author of the New York Times bestseller This Is Your Brain on Music reveals music's role in the evolution of human culture in this thought-provoking book that ¿will leave you awestruck¿ (The New York Times).

Daniel J. Levitin's astounding debut bestseller, This Is Your Brain on Music, enthralled and delighted readers as it transformed our understanding of how music gets in our heads and stays there. Now in his second New York Times bestseller, his genius for combining science and art reveals how music shaped humanity across cultures and throughout history.

Here he identifies six fundamental song functions or types¿friendship, joy, comfort, religion, knowledge, and love¿then shows how each in its own way has enabled the social bonding necessary for human culture and society to evolve. He shows, in effect, how these ¿six songs¿ work in our brains to preserve the emotional history of our lives and species.

Dr. Levitin combines cutting-edge scientific research from his music cognition lab at McGill University and work in an array of related fields; his own sometimes hilarious experiences in the music business; and illuminating interviews with musicians such as Sting and David Byrne, as well as conductors, anthropologists, and evolutionary biologists. The World in Six Songs is, ultimately, a revolution in our understanding of how human nature evolved¿right up to the iPod.

Editorial Reviews

Oliver Sacks

Endlessly stimulating, a marvelous overview, and one which only a deeply musical neuroscientist could give. (Oliver Sacks, M.D., author of Musicophilia)

Nancy Pearl

The book I've been waiting for all my life. (Nancy Pearl, public radio librarian and auth or of the Book Lust series)

David Byrne

I loved reading that music coordinates more disparate parts of the brain than almost anything else. . . . Deepens the beautiful mystery that is music. (David Byrne, founder of Talking Heads)

New York Times

Dr. Levitin is an unusually deft interpreter full of striking scientific trivia.

From the Publisher

A must-read...A literary, poetic, scientific, and musical treat.”—Seattle Times

“Masterful...Eminently enjoyable.”—Los Angeles Times

“Why can a song make you cry in a matter of seconds? Six Songs is the only book that explains why.”—Bobby McFerrin, ten-time Grammy Award-winning artist (“Don't Worry, Be Happy”)

“A fantastic ride.”—New Scientist

“Leading researchers in music cognition are already singing its praises.”—Evolutionary Psychology

“Exquisitely well-written and easy to read, serving up a great deal of scientific information in a gentle way for those of us who are—or just think we are—a bit science-phobic.”—Huffington Post

“Fascinating. Provides a biological explanation for why we might tap our feet or bob our heads in time with a favorite song, how singing might soothe a baby, and how music emboldens soldiers or athletes preparing for conflict.”—Associated Press

“An exemplary mix of scientist and artist, student and teacher, performer and listener.”—Library Journal (starred review)

Product Details

BN ID: 2940177300238
Publisher: Penguin Random House
Publication date: 02/16/2021
Edition description: Unabridged
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