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Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

by Oliver Sacks

3.87 · Rating Details · 34,205 Ratings · 1,747 Reviews

What goes on in human beings when they make or listen to music? What is it about music, what gives it such peculiar power over us, power delectable and beneficent for the most part, but also capable of uncontrollable and sometimes destructive force? Music has no concepts, it lacks images; it has no power of representation, it has no relation to the world. And yet it is evi ...more

Hardcover, 400 pages

Published October 16th 2007 by Knopf Canada (first published 2007)

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Lists with This Book

The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks by Rebecca Skloot

The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Other Clinical Tales by Oliver Sacks

One Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest by Ken Kesey

The Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time by Mark Haddon

Medicine and Literature

31st out of 1,138 books — 1,436 voters

Our Band Could Be Your Life by Michael Azerrad

Best Non Fiction About Music

13th out of 892 books — 806 voters

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Community Reviews

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Sep 19, 2013 Mike rated it it was ok

Shelves: 50-books-2008

Dr. Sacks' Musicophilia covers a wide range of tremendously interesting instances of music's odd effects on the mind, however it's anecdotal nature is both its greatest strength and greatest weakness. Because the stories fly by quickly it is easy to tear through a number of them and find your self saying, "Huh. Weird." But because it lacks a thorough exploration of many of the stories, the anecdotes often remain nothing greater than anecdotes. Most tend to involve Dr. Sacks stating the name of a ...more

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Jan 10, 2008 Sarah rated it really liked it

Sacks is, for me, a perfect meeting of a science writer and a writer of creative non-fiction. He has an equal interest in telling an affecting, human story and with exploring how (and why) the brain works. While lots of science writing is dry and objective (as it should be) and while mainstream feature writing often ignores the more complicated science stuff, Sacks is a rare talent who has a penchant for story telling and for explaining the newest research on the brain. He doesn’t condescend, an Sacks is, for me, a perfect meeting of a science writer and a writer of creative non-fiction. He has an equal interest in telling an affecting, human story and with exploring how (and why) the brain works. While lots of science writing is dry and objective (as it should be) and while mainstream feature writing often ignores the more complicated science stuff, Sacks is a rare talent who has a penchant for story telling and for explaining the newest research on the brain. He doesn’t condescend, and he doesn’t mind forming personal relationships with his subjects.

In Musicophilia, Sacks focuses on the mysterious and fascinating connection between music and the brain. Through studying musical oddities in patients, he hopes, we can hope to better understand our greater relationship with music - something that, although it is universal among cultures, doesn’t seem to have a clear function or origin.

For example, the book opens with a middle-aged man who is struck by lightening. He isn’t badly hurt, but since the accident, he’s been obsessed with the urge to play the piano. He’s never really played before or had an interest in music, but suddenly he’s up all night composing and trying to get better. Why has this happened? Why is unaffected except for this urge, which takes over his life? Brain scans show that his left frontal lobe has been damaged and Sacks hypothesizes that the left hemisphere of the brain might actually inhibit the more creative and musical right side of the brain. Left brain damage might lead to more “freedom” in the right brain.

The book moves on from there to cover a huge spectrum of diseases, phenomenones, and rarities - spanning from music therapy for those with dementia and Alzheimer’s, to people who suffer from musical hallucinations, to people with perfect pitch, to people with amusica (to them, music sounds like noise - Nabokov suffered from it), to musical savants. The structures of the chapters are very satisfying to me: they start with a story of an individual and then, by the end of the segment, lead to a more general description of the science behind the patient’s symptoms.

One of the more fascinating chapters covers children with William’s Syndrome, which affects about one out of 10,000 people. These people, who all have strangely elfin features, suffer from severe mental disabilities: they can’t ad 5 + 3, they can’t draw a square, they can’t tie their shoes. They have IQs around 60. However, they also tend to be very verbal, very social, and exceptionally musical. Most have perfect pitch and start composing as toddlers. Unlike some cases of severe autism who show a more mechanical and isolated musical talent, patients with William’s Syndrome love to play music in groups - within a community. Sacks visits a camp for children with William’s Syndrome - which is a constant drum circle, sing-along, and musical wrapped up in one.

As in all of his tales, Sacks is sure to find the hope and humanity in even the most difficult patients. One man, an amnesiac who has a short-term memory of only a few seconds, can only stay present within himself while he plays the piano.

More importantly, Sacks doesn’t see his patients as freaks or abnormalities who are simply interesting to read about, but rather as windows into how we can collectively understand how we function. In Musicophilia, I was truly moved by what I read - both by the humanity of the patients and by the awesomeness of the science.
...more

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Apr 14, 2016 Lynne King rated it it was amazing

Shelves: 20th-century

I was flying forwards. Bewildered. I looked around. I saw my own body on the ground. I said to myself, ‘Oh shit, I’m dead.’ I saw people converging on the body. I saw a woman – she had been standing waiting to use the phone right behind me - position herself over my body, give it CPR … I floated up the stairs – my consciousness came with me. I saw my kids, had the realization that they would be okay. Then I was surrounded by a bluish-white light … an enormous feeling of well-being and peace. Th I was flying forwards. Bewildered. I looked around. I saw my own body on the ground. I said to myself, ‘Oh shit, I’m dead.’ I saw people converging on the body. I saw a woman – she had been standing waiting to use the phone right behind me - position herself over my body, give it CPR … I floated up the stairs – my consciousness came with me. I saw my kids, had the realization that they would be okay. Then I was surrounded by a bluish-white light … an enormous feeling of well-being and peace. The highest and lowest points of my life raced by me. No emotion associated with these … pure thought, pure ecstacy. I had the perception of accelerating, being drawn up … there was speed and direction. Then as I was saying to myself, ‘This is the most glorious feeling I have ever had’ – SLAM! I was back.”

I will never cease to be amazed by books. This above account was given by Tony Cicoria, forty-two, very fit and robust, and a well-regarded orthopedic surgeon in a small city in upstate New York. He survived an experience of being struck by lighning. He continued his work but from this time on he had the most incredible need to connect with music. He was subsequently divorced and continued with his incredible sudden love for music and composition.

I am not religious and I am not a believer, as such, but I know there is another life after death. I cannot describe it. It is certainly not faith but a certainty from what I have experienced during the last two years that tells me, yes, life continues after death. Many will believe that I am an absolute idiot but I really don’t care. We come from nothing (but there is no proof about this) indeed with birth, but we do indeed go to an illustrious future.

Oliver Sacks has made the most incredible research of people with neurological conditions and all of these case studies are riveting. You can literally pick up this book and look at whatever page and find something amazing. It is really a remarkable reference book and I was just so enthralled to see individuals with evidently insurmountable problems and yet who managed to overcome these through music.

Music is a wonderful thing and it indeed takes up a large part in our brain and so we must enjoy it. Well I do anyway.

It was fascinating when Sacks said that there are certain musical pieces that he has to listen to over and over again before he moves on to a new composer. I can so relate to that. I am on “overkill’ at the moment with Grieg and Sibelius but there are indeed other composers waiting in the wings to enthrall me. Music – my… What else can I possibly say!

I absolutely loved this book and continually look at it. It is in my library and there to stay.
...more

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Apr 03, 2015 Glenn Sumi rated it really liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

Have you ever experienced an “ear worm” – i.e., a melody “stuck” in your head? Have you ever found yourself humming or whistling a tune for no reason, then thought back to the lyrics or theme of that song and realized it had something to do with what’s on your mind? Have you ever tried to remember what letter comes after another in the alphabet and found yourself singing that “ABC” song from childhood?

Check, check and check.

All of these are explored in Musicophilia, a fascinating series of essay ...more

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Oct 14, 2008 Jafar rated it it was ok

This book was interesting, I guess. Lots of anecdotes about the effect of music on behavior and personality, but not enough analysis. Sacks usually is more of a story teller than a hardcore neuroscientist in his popular book – at least in the other two that I’ve read by him – but in this book he fails to be a good story teller too. Too many tidbits and little stories. I definitely recommend This Is Your Brain on Music over this book if you’re interested in a real scientific analysis of music and ...more

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Jul 26, 2015 Huda Aweys is currently reading it · review of another edition

في كتابي (الصوت روح) أشرت الى كوني مطمئنة ، و واثقة من أن الله عز و جل قد وفرّ للصم مداخل أخرى لأرواحهم (كوني عبرت عن نظريتي الروحانية حول السمع و عن كونه نافذة للروح و مدخل لها) ، .. و عن كوني لا املك فكرة حاليا عن تلك المداخل او الوسائل ، و ان كنت انوي بحثها مستقبلا
،،
لأعثر الآن على سند (الى حد ما ، ليس سيئا كبداية لبحثي على الأقل ! ) لما قلت ، في كتاب علمي بحت .. هو هذا الكتاب الذي بين يدي الآن :

مع انقطاع المدخلات السمعية الطبيعية ، قد تصبح القشرة السمعية مفرطة الحساسية بقدرات مضاعفة للتخيلات

مع انقطاع المدخلات السمعية الطبيعية ، قد تصبح القشرة السمعية مفرطة الحساسية بقدرات مضاعفة للتخيلات الموسيقية (وحتى للهلوسات السمعية أحيانا) ، هناك ظاهرة مشابهة في أولئك الذين يفقدون بصرهم فبعض الناس الذين يصابون بالعمى ، قد يملكون على نحو متناقض ، تخيلات بصرية مضاعفة

****************************************

أريد أن أقول إنها تأتي من السماء ، كما قال موزارت ...

و عودة الى الكتاب .. ، في حالة سيكوريا ، هو رجل اقترب جدا من الموت ، و ذاك الاقتراب هو ما كان العامل المشترك فيما بينه و بين هؤلاء ممن لم يصعقهم البرق ! او يعانوا من امراض فيزيائية او سيكولوجية ، و الذي اشار الكاتب الى كونهم شعروا بالتحول الى الموسيقى في عقدهم الخامس و السادس و السابع .. وحتى التاسع ، ففي تلك السن يهدأ الانسان عن ذي قبل .. و يركز على جوهر الحياة اكثر من ذي قبل كذلك .. فهي سن منبهه للموت كالأمراض و الصواعق و التجارب الروحانية تماما
! ...more

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Dec 28, 2010 Jason rated it really liked it · review of another edition

It’s not a common characteristic, but I recommend this book for all environments where you read. Coffee shop, living room, park bench, subway, or to ignore your spouse--it receives my seal of 4+ stars. Musicophilia is a lurid, but respectable, look into the brains and lives of people that appear normal on the outside, but have strong, strange and intractable relationships to music. The relationship is sometimes harmful, often incomprehensible, sometimes therapeutic, even charming, but always unf ...more

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Apr 03, 2010 Joshua Nomen-Mutatio rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: neuroscience, cognitive-science-and-or-psychology, music

The neurologist Oliver Sacks has a great book called Musicophilia (and a series of talks available on YouTube) which goes into some really interesting descriptions of the brain's relationship to music. One story involves a man getting hit by lightning and afterward having a newly acquired and deeply profound love of music (almost any music, too), profound to the point that he would feel a euphoria akin to religio-mystical rapture or an extremely pleasurable drug experience in all situations if m ...more

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Mar 02, 2008 Matt rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Oliver Sacks has been one of my favorite authors ever since I first read The Man Who Mistook his Wife for a Hat. I still completely amazed, and a little bit disturbed, when I think back to his account of the woman who lost her sense of proprioception - the internal body sense that lets you know your body is there, even when you have your eyes closed. No other author (since Proust) has explored the nuances of consciousness so carefully, nor pointed out how tenuous the our grip on reality can be.

I ...more

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Mar 02, 2009 Keith Putnam rated it it was ok · review of another edition

I am a huge sucker for pop science about human consciousness. Sacks, unfortunately, has the habit of boring me with far too many anecdotes which he fails to link in any progression of Greater Understanding.

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Sep 20, 2012 Ghada rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

Shelves: 2-re-read

!....وحدها الموسيقى تبقى

في الكتاب حالات لبشر ما يقدروش يفتكروا أساميهم ما يقدروش يفتكروا إزاي يمسكوا المعلقه (بسبب زهايمر, سكته , ورم, مشكله اتولدوا بيها, حتى مع إستئصال أجزاء من الدماغ...إلخ) الإنسان ينسى كل حاجه و الموسيقى وحدها موجوده و هي الشيء الوحيد اللي أصعب الحالات بتتجاوب معاه

المقصود بالموسيقى كل شيئ ليه نغمه..لحن, تراتيل..إلخ

كتاب أكتر من رائع, سمعته أوديو...لفت نظري جداً لأهمية العلاج بالموسيقى و الفن عموماً (خصوصاً في موضوع التَوَحُد) , وحابه أعرف عنه أكتر

كنت أتمنى أكون مثقفه موسيقياً ...more

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Jan 24, 2008 liz rated it liked it

Shelves: non-fiction

I wasn't hugely impressed with this. Sacks's writing sometimes gets extremely dry as he goes into the technicalities of how the brain functions. I found his other books, with chapters each covering a variety of conditions ("Anthropologist on Mars," "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat"), to be much stronger, even though they were less consistent thematically. It seemed that at times Sacks had to stretch to find patients with some of the musical conditions he described -- not a good sign, sinc ...more

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Mar 05, 2008 brian tanabe rated it really liked it

This is my first oliver sacks -- I always meant to read the Man Who Mistook His Wife For a Hat but alas never got around to it.

I love mr. sacks' delightful anecdotal storytelling and his intellect that makes fresh and accessible the study of the brain. It *almost* makes the issues dealt with in the book pleasant.

In a nutshell, this book is about the power of music, backed by many accounts from the medical perspective of the interaction between music and the brain. It's hard to tell without a lot ...more

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Nov 23, 2007 Bobby rated it it was ok · review of another edition

Shelves: did-not-finish

I really tried to perservere with this book, but after 100 pages I had to put it down. First, although marketed to a popular audience (even making it to the best sellers list), there are massive amounts of musical jargon and a background of musical knowledge would be extrememly helpful. Second, the books seemed to lack cohesive threads or narritive. I found it extremely disjointed with every few paragraphs changing to a different patient with very few being fully developed or resolved. Third, I ...more

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Jan 31, 2016 Benjamin rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: nonfiction

I get the feeling Oliver Sacks likes to reuse material. He retells the stories of his clients throughout his books, always with references to his other work. This isn't entirely bad, but I had to speed through some parts that were a tad bit repetitive. The subject matter is fascinating, and perfectly delivered for the layman(Which I happen to be). I have a newfound respect for the power of music therapy and music itself.

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Sep 14, 2015 Bob rated it really liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: psychology, music

Summary: Renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks chronicles the neuroscience of music–the various ways music affects the brain, and the unusual effects of various neurological conditions on our perception, performance, and experience of music.

Oliver Sacks died on August 30 of this year. A few months earlier, my son gave me this book, and it seemed especially appropriate to pull it off the “to be read” pile and acquaint myself with the work of this neuroscientist and physician. Before opening the book, Summary: Renowned neurologist Oliver Sacks chronicles the neuroscience of music–the various ways music affects the brain, and the unusual effects of various neurological conditions on our perception, performance, and experience of music.

Oliver Sacks died on August 30 of this year. A few months earlier, my son gave me this book, and it seemed especially appropriate to pull it off the “to be read” pile and acquaint myself with the work of this neuroscientist and physician. Before opening the book, I had one of those heart-stopping moments as I found myself staring at the cover picture of Sacks and thought I was looking at a doppelganger! I guess balding men with graying beards, glasses and a certain shape of head can look a bit like each other.

What Sacks does is chronicle the fascinating ways music and the brain interact and some of the unusual conditions that involve unusual responses to music. In the course of this book he explores a range of phenomena beginning with a sudden onset of musical interest following a lightening strike, the ways music might evoke seizures or suppress the tics of Tourettes or the shaking of Parkinson’s. He wonders whether the advent of iPods will result in more brainworms–those tunes we can’t get out of our heads.He describes musical hallucinations, where one hears music in one’s head even when none is playing.

He explores musicality from tone deafness to perfect pitch (which occurs more in musical families and where musical training begins early) and synesthesia, where music is associated with color. He explores the connections between music, memory and movement. He describes Clive, who because of brain infection that affected his temporal lobes lives in a perpetual present with no memory of past moments. Yet somehow he remembers music he knew in the past.

Perhaps a highlight of the book was his description of a camp for people with Williams syndrome, a genetic disorder that affects the development of the brain resulting in low IQs and yet incredible verbal and musical skills. He describes the delight these people had in talking and making music with one another.

In one of the concluding chapters he describes the work done with Alzheimer’s patients and how, for them as well, music is a connection to memories of the past, and an anchor to their no-longer remembered lives that is profound. He talks about “the loss of self” and how music helps Alzheimer’s patients connect to some sense of “self” when the other memories are gone.

The book left me in wonder at the intricacies of the human brain and how the neural circuitry related to our perception, memory of, and making of music interact with speech, thought, emotion, and other memories. And it reminded me of the power of music–a power to evoke emotions, memories, and even to address troubling neurological conditions. It reminds me of how when I am learning, singing and performing a piece of music, I find myself tapping into a different aspect of who I am from when I am simply speaking or writing or reading. And I found myself thankful for the life of Oliver Sacks, who cared for people with troubling conditions and brought together his love for his patients, his skills in research, and his own musicality and life history into this fascinating narrative of music and the human brain. ...more

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Jan 17, 2008 Alex rated it really liked it

Musicophelia is an enchanting read, though one is struck more by the phenomena depicted—amusias, musical hallucinations, comatose patients suddenly "awakened" by nothing more than a familiar melody—than the manner of their depiction. Sacks has always been lauded for his fluid, personable style, and for good reason, but in the wake of classics such as The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat and Uncle Tungsten, his writing seems excessively florid and repetitive—neither tight enough nor substantial ...more

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Feb 28, 2009 Aaron rated it liked it · review of another edition

Shelves: science, non-fiction

Starts off with a fairly unsatisfying collection of anecdotes around loss or gain of musical ability. The real heft arrives halfway as Sacks starts pulling together the real research and making implications.

The message here is that music is not some frivolous side effect of our neurology. Rather, music is processed by dedicated machinery in our brains and can affect us in profound and surprising ways.

There are tantalising implications that humans have the capacity for much greater musical abilit ...more

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Nov 10, 2009 rachel rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

In his characteristic compassion and curiosity Oliver Sacks looks at what seems to be the infinite ways that music interacts with our brains- from the worms that play maddeningly in our heads to the power of music as an aid in communication with people who either from birth or from stroke or other life altering situation have lost the ability to vocalize. And okay, this blows my mind, that people who otherwise cannot remember the sequence of basic routines in life, like getting up, shaving, mak ...more

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Dec 21, 2014 Faye rated it it was ok

Shelves: reviewed, 2014-reads, just-plain-boring, 2-stars, non-fiction

2.5 stars

I am a music geek.

I play piano and I'm also taking a Music Theory Class right now. So I was really pumped to read a book about how music affects you.

But the thing is, all these concept aren't explored. I feel like too many topics were squeezed into one book. Even more, some of them are very repetitive. In this book, I've read in so many chapters about how people with certain disorders and illnesses have a special reaction to music. Yes, there are many diseases, but it just got really r ...more

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Jan 06, 2008 Richard rated it really liked it

I'm reading this slowly and between other books. I have it on my electronic reader and so usually focus on it when I'm traveling. I always feel I learn something from Sacks, and this book is no different in that respect.

Now finished. I love Sacks. I always learn something. His 'stories' or examples are terrific. And there is an underlying humanity to him that always seems to understand what is good about someone, no matter how serious the neurologic, etc. defect. In this book, he explores the p ...more

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Apr 21, 2014 Bookish Dervish rated it it was amazing · review of another edition

هذا ثاني كتاب ّأقرأه لأوليفر ساكس و الحق أنه غني خاصة لأن موضوع الموسيقى مجهول تماما بالنسبة لي.
من كان يضن أن اللغة و الموسيقى تشتركان بالمنشأ .
هلوسات موسيقيةهو شق ممتع من الكتاب. مرعبة هي هذه الحالة إن فقدت السيطرة. إننا جميعا نستشعر موسيقى قسرية خاصة تلك المستعملة في الإشهار أو قطع موسيقية من ذاكرتنا و الحمد لله أنها جميعا نسيطر عليها إلا في حالات مرضية كما يصفها الدكتور ساكس.
درجة النغم المطلقة. أود الحصول عليها و إن تعسر ذلك فلا أقل من أن أحاول الحفاظ عليها لدى ولدي.
الحس المتزامن. أستطيع فقط ...more

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Aug 24, 2015 Kara rated it liked it

Shelves: nonfiction

Musical instincts are universal, but we do not understand why. Nor do we understand how the brain processes music. Mr. Sacks is a neurologist with decades' worth of patients and in this book he has collected the stories of some of his patients and other people he has met whose brains give some insight into how we process music. Some of the stories focus on savants with fantastic musical abilities, but who are incapable of taking care of themselves. Some of the stories focus on regular people who ...more

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Aug 13, 2013 Nawar rated it it was amazing

استحوذ هذا الكتاب على كل تفكيري لمدة 4 أيام على التوالي :)
على الرغم من كونه كتاباً موجهاً للأطباء إلا أن الأفكار و الحوادث التي عرضها بطريقة سهلة و مبسطة تجعلها مفهومة و محببة لكل من يقرؤها
يتحدث عن حالات خاصة و غريبة متعلقة بالموسيقا عند كل من المرضى و الأصحاء
مما يجعلك في بعض الأحيان تشك في أن الدكتور ساكس يتحدث عنك في كتابه
من أروع ما قرأت ^_^

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Jan 14, 2011 Malbadeen rated it it was ok

Shelves: couldnt-finish-it

Woooooooa!!! Heeeeeeey!!!! Look at me I'm Oliver Sacks and I'm tellin you some more wacky stuff about brains.

oh-la-la. I'm so fancy.

(interesting topic but I prefer the podcast interview to the book - which I was able to stick with through apx. chapter 6 before throwing in the towell. http://www.npr.org/templates/story/st...)

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Mar 05, 2016 Anatoly Shneyer rated it liked it

Shelves: science

Dr. Sacks was an amazing storyteller and the book is filled with interesting anecdotes and facts and is very well written. But, at times I felt a bit lost. I don't think you need a background in neuroscience in order to appreciate or understand the book, but a knowledge in music will definitely make the read a lot more flowing. Again. you don't have to have the knowledge (it`s not a book about Musicology) but at least for me at times I felt lost when reading about octaves and rhythm (just a smal ...more

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Nov 13, 2014 Sagar Vibhute rated it really liked it · review of another edition

I'm a musical person. Doesn't mean I'm working on concert piano pieces or mastering the jazz trumpet, but music is a part of everyday life. I usually plug into music during work - this depending on what work I'm doing can be either a distraction or the complete opposite and totally shut out everything except my work - or when reading, or working out, or traveling on the bus (a game of mine is to match the beat of the song with hitting a pothole or speed bump, yes so much fun, OK back to the revi I'm a musical person. Doesn't mean I'm working on concert piano pieces or mastering the jazz trumpet, but music is a part of everyday life. I usually plug into music during work - this depending on what work I'm doing can be either a distraction or the complete opposite and totally shut out everything except my work - or when reading, or working out, or traveling on the bus (a game of mine is to match the beat of the song with hitting a pothole or speed bump, yes so much fun, OK back to the review now) and this is of course not unique to me. Feet tapping, finger snapping, humming, pretend dancing ... the works ... most of us do these when listening to music. Put on a favorite song of yours and you'll know everything about it as if the song were walking out of your brain: The exact moment when the drums roll in, the crazy guitar solo note-for-note, of course the lyrics ... we can do this for hundreds of songs, but we don't really memorize them bit by bit. The song just gets in and stays there.

For many of us it is harder to do this 'recreation' if the song is not playing along side, unless the song has burrowed into your brain and you can 'hear' it every waking second, exactly the way it sounds coming out of the music player. Now, I also fiddle around on my guitar a bit - it is near impossible for me to translate the notes I'm hearing quite clearly in my head onto the correct sound on the guitar. If instead I'm hearing the song, from a music player and my ears are involved, the same task is quite simple.

There are hundreds of such oddities I can think about my own musical experience, some big while some almost too small to be noticed. After having read Musicophilia I can also safely say that as puzzled as I am by the outcome of my small experiments, the manner in which music profoundly affects lives is at the very least humbling in so many ways that are so difficult to comprehend. The savants who can't tell you the time of the day but can recreate note-for-note any complex classical song, retrograde amnesiacs whose lives have been transformed in a small but important way by remembrance through music, discovering the lost ability of meaningful speech through song lyrics ... there are hundreds of such heart-warming stories throughout the book. People whose lives have been enriched by music, or in some cases completely torn apart by it.

The book of course isn't about the stories alone. Oliver Sachs does equal justice to his neurologist self along side his musical one, delving into the medical research on nearly all of these cases, their causes, effects, symptoms and more. Sachs draws from his personal experience, experiences of his colleagues, patients that he has seen and even case histories from around the world in his field.

Fantastic book. Loved it all through.

...more

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Feb 15, 2009 Patrick Gibson rated it liked it

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I hear music on color. Doesn’t everyone? Mozart is blue; Bach canary yellow; Mahler is purple and maroon; Berlioz lime and Elgar is beige. Stravinsky is a Jackson Pollok and Janacek is a Rothko. I know you know what I mean.

Since my life has one of the longest continually running soundtracks on record “Musicophobmyass” seemed like it should be something in a major key for me. It has a few wrong notes but by and large it is a pleasant minor opus. More like Barber’s “Essay for Orchestra” than Verdi I hear music on color. Doesn’t everyone? Mozart is blue; Bach canary yellow; Mahler is purple and maroon; Berlioz lime and Elgar is beige. Stravinsky is a Jackson Pollok and Janacek is a Rothko. I know you know what I mean.

Since my life has one of the longest continually running soundtracks on record “Musicophobmyass” seemed like it should be something in a major key for me. It has a few wrong notes but by and large it is a pleasant minor opus. More like Barber’s “Essay for Orchestra” than Verdi’s “La Forza.”

Like all of his books, Sacks records some interesting cases and expounds equally interesting theories and hypothesis. I did find out why “Turkey in the Straw” gets stuck in my head after the ice cream truck goes by.

You can pick and choose your interest as you read—there is no sequential flow to the book. This means you can open it up and start singing—I mean reading—anywhere the conductor gives you a downbeat.
For me, the Overtures opening measures (first case) were the most interesting: the doctor who was struck by lightning and began composing classical music is quite amazing. I am definitely going out in more thunderstorms because theory was my worst subject. Sacks take on savants, however, was only slightly more interesting than something on the Discovery Channel. He’s covering some pretty broad strokes here (an art metaphor, damn) so I’m not complaining.

Dyskinesia, cantillaion and aphasia anyone? I bought this book because I noticed a chapter on music therapy and Parkinson Disease and I found it enlightening (i.e. quite a few ‘ah-hah’ moments). Once you read the book through, you will probably find yourself going back to specific sections for a re-read (this would be :// in musical terms).

I was hoping the chapter on ‘Musical Madness” would explain why opera singers are so dyspeptic. Did you know there are people who have seizures upon hearing even a few notes of music? Wow, and I thought it was just from Neil Diamond.

Tchaikovsky flows in various shades of crimson; Haydn puce (not a big fan) and Bruckner is Presbyterian (if that were a color). “Musicofeelmehearmeseeme” is a masque in many scenes. High notes, low notes, loud and soft. Pick your own tempo.
Did you know I once mistook my hat for a wife?
...more

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Jan 29, 2011 Oleg Kagan rated it liked it

The intersection between music and neuroscience is a ripe subject for a book, yet I felt Oliver Sachs' effort at it was uneven. Part of the reason was the sheer variety of aspects with which he examined the topic; there were chapters on autistic savants, folks with Williams Syndrome, Parkinson's and Alzhiemers, brain damage, and the list goes on. My interest-level in each of these is not consistant and therefore my attention as I listened to this book bobbed.

It didn't bother me that Sachs referr The intersection between music and neuroscience is a ripe subject for a book, yet I felt Oliver Sachs' effort at it was uneven. Part of the reason was the sheer variety of aspects with which he examined the topic; there were chapters on autistic savants, folks with Williams Syndrome, Parkinson's and Alzhiemers, brain damage, and the list goes on. My interest-level in each of these is not consistant and therefore my attention as I listened to this book bobbed.

It didn't bother me that Sachs referred constantly to his other books (which I thankfully haven't read, though I did read his New Yorker article about Clive James) because he went over the stories in detail and culled from them what he needed when it came to music. The method, generally, however of anecdote after anecdote occasionally became tedious.

Beside the complexity of neuroscience, the takeaway I got from this book was (what I read as) Sachs' position that possibly through evolutionary mechanisms, our higher brain functions inhibit certain other functions (particularly associated with music in this case) and that situations in which higher brain functions are curtailed - whether that is through brain damage, medicine, or temporary whatever - the inhibitions are thrown off and people who had some propensity towards music are able to make use of that leaning sometimes to great effect.

For a time, I've had the suspicion that drugs like marijuana have an effect on the brain that is similar. Drugs can temporarily pull back certain brain functions that quite accidentally reveal others. This may explain why people "trip" when on acid or even weed, having experiences that are described as altered states of consciousness or moments of insight. Two examples of these sorts of experiences are described in Alan Watts' essay on LSD and a number of Carlos Castenada's books (of which I've only read the very first Don Juan one). Caffiene, alcohal and other legal substances, naturally also have these effects. Perhaps some further reading into this corridor is in order. Preferably something a bit more empirical than Watts or Casteneda (maybe something more like Sachs).

Another aspect of this book is that it can be read as a homage to music therapists.

Speaking of Sachs, I have his Uncle Tungsten at home (thanks Ginna!) and since I have no problem with his writing voice, and Tungsten is more of a memoir than a neuroscience-compilation, I'll probably be reading it. ...more

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Jan 01, 2009 Racquel rated it really liked it

It's interesting to read through the reviews from other readers on these pages: such a wide range of responses to this book. Some felt it was too technical, others not technical enough; some see the author as a scientist, others as a popular writer pandering to the audience. Many had an expectation that there should have been more substantive analyses of the issues raised, while a few felt it was too analytical. Having read "The Man Who Mistook His Wife for a Hat" many years ago, Musicophilia st ...more

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About Oliver Sacks

Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, was a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he wa Oliver Wolf Sacks, CBE, was a British neurologist residing in the United States, who has written popular books about his patients, the most famous of which is Awakenings, which was adapted into a film of the same name starring Robin Williams and Robert De Niro.

Sacks was the youngest of four children born to a prosperous North London Jewish couple: Sam, a physician, and Elsie, a surgeon. When he was six years old, he and his brother were evacuated from London to escape The Blitz, retreating to a boarding school in the Midlands, where he remained until 1943. During his youth, he was a keen amateur chemist, as recalled in his memoir Uncle Tungsten. He also learned to share his parents' enthusiasm for medicine and entered The Queen's College, Oxford University in 1951, from which he received a Bachelor of Arts (BA) in physiology and biology in 1954. At the same institution, he went on to earn in 1958, a Master of Arts (MA) and an MB ChB in chemistry, thereby qualifying to practice medicine.

After converting his British qualifications to American recognition (i.e., an MD as opposed to MB ChB), Sacks moved to New York, where he has lived since 1965, and taken twice weekly therapy sessions since 1966.

Sacks began consulting at chronic care facility Beth Abraham Hospital (now Beth Abraham Health Service) in 1966. At Beth Abraham, Sacks worked with a group of survivors of the 1920s sleeping sickness, encephalitis lethargica, who had been unable to move on their own for decades. These patients and his treatment of them were the basis of Sacks' book Awakenings.

His work at Beth Abraham helped provide the foundation on which the Institute for Music and Neurologic Function (IMNF), where Sacks is currently an honorary medical advisor, is built. In 2000, IMNF honored Sacks, its founder, with its first Music Has Power Award. The IMNF again bestowed a Music Has Power Award on Sacks in 2006 to commemorate "his 40 years at Beth Abraham and honor his outstanding contributions in support of music therapy and the effect of music on the human brain and mind".

Sacks was formerly employed as a clinical professor of neurology at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine and at the New York University School of Medicine, serving the latter school for 42 years. On 1 July 2007, Columbia University College of Physicians and Surgeons appointed Sacks to a position as professor of clinical neurology and clinical psychiatry, at the same time opening to him a new position as "artist", which the university hoped will help interconnect disciplines such as medicine, law, and economics. Sacks was a consultant neurologist to the Little Sisters of the Poor, and maintained a practice in New York City.

Since 1996, Sacks was a member of The American Academy of Arts and Letters (Literature). In 1999, Sacks became a Fellow of the New York Academy of Sciences. Also in 1999, he became an Honorary Fellow at The Queen's College, Oxford. In 2002, he became Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences (Class IV—Humanities and Arts, Section 4—Literature).[38] and he was awarded the 2001 Lewis Thomas Prize by Rockefeller University. Sacks was awarded honorary doctorates from the College of Staten Island (1991), Tufts University (1991), New York Medical College (1991), Georgetown University (1992), Medical College of Pennsylvania (1992), Bard College (1992), Queen's University (Ontario) (2001), Gallaudet University (2005), University of Oxford (2005), Pontificia Universidad Católica del Perú (2006). He was appointed Commander of the Order of the British Empire (CBE) in the 2008 Birthday Honours. Asteroid 84928 Oliversacks, discovered in 2003 and 2 miles (3.2 km) in diameter, has been named in his honor. ...more

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