“Without music, life would be a mistake.”
Friedrich Nietzsche
The book’s first section, A Musical Brain, opens by presenting basic concepts about music and about the brain, emphasizing that music results from the interaction of sound waves with the brain. Music has had a profound impact upon human beings, shaping our brains to be music-ready at birth and continuing to respond to music throughout our lives. Chapter 1 begins by outlining the basics of music, focusing on the bedrock elements of rhythm and melody. The chapter continues by introducing fundamentals of brain science – using common terms to minimize the use of technical jargon – that shed light on how the brain processes music. The reader learns that the brain has no distinct center for music; rather, music activates many brain regions. Working together, these multiple regions generate the marvel of music. The emphasis then shifts to how music stimulates the brain to evoke emotions and feelings, collectively known as sentiments. Finally, special qualities of musical memory, especially the ability to recall music even when memory has otherwise faded, are introduced.