McAuliffe Book Discussion (Evening): This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin
The McAuliffe Branch hosts two book discussion groups to discuss various fiction and nonfiction, as well as contemporary and classic literature. You can join us anytime to discuss one particular book or become a regular. Register here: https://bit.ly/mca-bookdiscussions
This month we discuss This Is Your Brain on Music by Daniel Levitin.
- Taking on prominent thinkers who argue that music is nothing more than an evolutionary accident, Levitin poses that music is fundamental to our species, perhaps even more so than language. Drawing on the latest research and on musical examples ranging from Mozart to Duke Ellington to Van Halen, he reveals:
• How composers produce some of the most pleasurable effects of listening to music by exploiting the way our brains make sense of the world
• Why we are so emotionally attached to the music we listened to as teenagers, whether it was Fleetwood Mac, U2, or Dr. Dre
• That practice, rather than talent, is the driving force behind musical expertise
• How those insidious little jingles (called earworms) get stuck in our head
Next discussion on April 8: Lies My Teacher Told Me: Everything Your American History Textbook Got Wrong by James Loewen