Musicophilia: Tales Of Music And The Brain Quotes
"Music expresses only the quintessence of life and of its events, never these themselves."
"This propensity to music shows itself in infancy, is manifest and central in every culture, and probably goes back to the very beginnings of our species."
"The inexpressible depth of music, so easy to understand and yet so inexplicable, is due to the fact that it reproduces all the emotions of our innermost being, but entirely without reality and remote from its pain."
"Our auditory systems, our nervous systems, are indeed exquisitely tuned for music."
"Music has great power, whether or not we seek it out or think of ourselves as particularly 'musical.'"
"Music is in some way efficacious to humans, central to human life."
"The imagining of music, even in relatively nonmusical people, tends to be remarkably faithful not only to the tune and feeling of the original but to its pitch and tempo."
"What an odd thing it is to see an entire species—billions of people—playing with, listening to, meaningless tonal patterns, occupied and preoccupied for much of their time by what they call 'music.'"
"Such 'musicophilia' is a given in human nature."
"Listening to music was a complex process of quick analysis of form, harmony, melody, key, historical period, instrumentation."
"I absorb everything equally, to a degree that becomes at times a real torture. How does one listen with no filtering system?"
"It was all at the tip of my fingers, at the tip of my ears."
"I can remember a pitch only because I remember how it feels to sing it."
"Listening was linear and horizontal at the same time."
"I could never tell which piece was being played."
"I hear four separate voices, four thin, sharp laser beams, beaming to four different directions."
"I can change the music at will by simply thinking of the theme of another musical composition."
"I have but to think about one bar of music or one word of a lyric and the total work rushes in and gets going."
"I was dying to make music... It was not an option to let injury dictate my life."
"He needs to receive it, to have it administered at intervals like food."
"The tuning of the instruments was my engagement."
"I wept with gratitude every time the orchestra began to sing."
"A world of sounds for a blind man, what sudden grace!"
"Going into the hall was the first step in a love story."
"Music doesn’t sound as delicious as it used to."
"Every tone, every key seems qualitatively different, each possessing its own 'flavor' or 'feel,' its own character."
"Those who have absolute pitch often compare it to color."
"Music can act as an activator, a de-inhibitor."
"Music has the power to embed sequences and to do this when other forms of organization fail."
"Music is counting, but counting unconsciously."
"The most powerful of these devices are rhyme, meter, and song."
"Music has a unique role in relation to mimesis."
"Rhythm turns listeners into participants, makes listening active and motoric."
"Music, above all else, can kick-start a damaged or inhibited motor system into action again."
"The imagination of music, of rhythm, may be as potent, neurally, as actually listening to it."
"The brain has to impose a pattern of its own, even if there is no objective pattern present."
"Music therapy...brings people together, producing a sense of collectivity and community."
"Every disease is a musical problem; every cure is a musical solution."
"Music, indeed, resists all attempts at hurrying or slowing, and imposes its own tempo."
"The power of music in parkinsonism is not, however, dependent on familiarity, or even enjoyment, though in general music works best if it is both familiar and liked."
"Another patient, Edith T., a former music teacher, spoke of her need for music."
"The movements and perceptions of people with parkinsonism are often too fast or too slow, though they may not be aware of this."
"Music liberated her from her parkinsonism for a time— and not only playing music, but imagining it."
"Music calls to both parts of our nature— it is essentially emotional, as it is essentially intellectual."
"Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation."
"Music has no power to represent anything particular or external, but it has a unique power to express inner states or feelings."
"But for a brief time, for some, there can at least be music or art, with some of the fulfillment, the pleasure and joy it can so uniquely provide."
"Despite their individuality, they seemed like members of a single tribe marked by an extraordinary loquacity, effervescence, fondness for telling stories, reaching out to others, fearlessness of strangers, and, above all, a love of music."
"Music is no luxury to them, but a necessity, and can have a power beyond anything else to restore them to themselves, and to others, at least for a while."
"Music can serve to orient and anchor a patient when almost nothing else can."
"The emotional response to music, it would seem, is widespread and probably not only cortical but subcortical."
"Music is part of being human, and there is no human culture in which it is not highly developed and esteemed."
"But to those who are lost in dementia, the situation is different. Music is no luxury to them, but a necessity."
"Familiar music acts as a sort of Proustian mnemonic, eliciting emotions and associations that had been long forgotten."
"Once one has seen such responses, one knows that there is still a self to be called upon, even if music, and only music, can do the calling."
"In children with Williams syndrome, by contrast, there is always a strong desire to play music with and for others."
"The musical talents of people with Williams syndrome differ from those of musical savants, however, for savant talents often seem to emerge full-blown."
"Despite the manifest ravages of Alzheimer’s— the loss of event memory and of general knowledge, his disorientation, his cognitive defects— the behaviors of civility, it seemed, were ingrained."
"The mood engendered by singing can last awhile, sometimes even outlasting the memory that he has sung, which may be lost within a couple of minutes."