Music and the Mind

Music and the Mind
Anthony Storr

Why does music have such a powerful effect on our minds and bodies? It is the most mysterious and most intangible of all forms of art.Yet, Anthony Storr believes, music today is a deeply significant experience for a greater number of people than ever before. In this challenging book, he explores why this should be so. Drawing on a wide variety of opinions, Storr argues that the patterns of music make sense of our inner experience, giving both structure and coherence to our feelings and emotions. It is because music possesses this capacity to restore our sense of personal wholeness in a culture which requires us to separate rational thought from feelings, that many people find it so life-enhancing.

ANTHONY STORR

MUSIC AND THE MIND

‘Music’s the Medicine of the Mind’

John Logan (1744–88)

Copyright (#ulink_47c8a67d-e484-5d07-8b36-0db98764fd57)

HarperCollins PublishersLtd. 1 London Bridge Street London SE1 9GF

First published in Great Britain by Collins 1992

Copyright © Anthony Storr 1992

The author and publisher gratefully acknowledge permission to reproduce extracts from:

Hitler: The Fuhrer and the People, J.P. Stern (Fontana Press, 1975); Schoenberg, Charles Rosen (Fontana, 1976); The Origins of Consciousness in the Breakdown of the Bicameral Mind, Julian Jaynes, © 1976 Julian Jaynes, reprinted by permission of Houghton Mifflin Co. and Penguin Books Limited.

Anthony Storr asserts the moral right to be identified as the author of this work

A catalogue record for this book is available from the British Library

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HarperCollinsPublishers has made every reasonable effort to ensure that any picture content and written content in this ebook has been included or removed in accordance with the contractual and technological constraints in operation at the time of publication

Source ISBN: 9780006861867

Ebook Edition © JANUARY 2017 ISBN: 9780007383993

Version: 2017-02-08

FOR

SOPHIA, POLLY, AND EMMA

WHO SHARE MY LOVE

OF MUSIC

Contents

Cover (#ud358d6f2-9073-5cdd-9bc1-248a6a385473)

Title Page (#u092c2e11-e095-59fa-82bc-66b862661a1b)

Copyright (#ulink_e30c14db-b9e9-5c3c-9711-0c6c9e14cfa8)

INTRODUCTION (#ulink_710e97be-542a-5c04-aa6d-d2b68be1e88a)

CHAPTER I ORIGINS AND COLLECTIVE FUNCTIONS (#ulink_5d98f600-2d58-52ae-b414-023df4b446ce)

CHAPTER II MUSIC, BRAIN AND BODY (#ulink_7770dbb1-f675-5396-a933-ec9ffe3eb810)

CHAPTER III BASIC PATTERNS (#ulink_689b828f-cf90-59cf-a75a-22ec0ae66259)

CHAPTER IV SONGS WITHOUT WORDS (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER V ESCAPE FROM REALITY? (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER VI THE SOLITARY LISTENER (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER VII THE INNERMOST NATURE OF THE WORLD (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER VIII A JUSTIFICATION OF EXISTENCE (#litres_trial_promo)

CHAPTER IX THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MUSIC (#litres_trial_promo)

Keep Reading (#litres_trial_promo)

References (#litres_trial_promo)

Bibliography (#litres_trial_promo)

Index (#litres_trial_promo)

Acknowledgements (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Author (#litres_trial_promo)

By the Same Author (#litres_trial_promo)

About the Publisher (#litres_trial_promo)

Introduction (#ulink_5d51c012-06fe-5982-856d-e67fb1681bb2)

Since music is the only language with the contradictory attributes of being at once intelligible and untranslatable, the musical creator is a being comparable to the gods, and music itself the supreme mystery of the science of man.

CLAUDE LÉVI-STRAUSS

Today, more people listen to music than ever before in the history of the world. The audience has increased enormously since the Second World War. Recordings, radio, and even television, have made music available to a wider range of the population than anyone could have predicted fifty years ago. In spite of dire warnings that recordings might empty opera houses and concert halls, the audience for live performances has also multiplied.

This book reflects my personal preference in that it is primarily concerned with classical or Western ‘art’ music, rather than with ‘popular’ music. That these two varieties of music should have become so divergent is regrettable. The demand for accessible musical entertainment grew during the latter half of the nineteenth century in response to the increased wealth of the middle class. It was met by Offenbach, both Johann Strausses, Chabrier, Sullivan, and other gifted composers of light music which still enchants us today. The tradition was carried on into the twentieth century by composers of the stature of Gershwin, Jerome Kern, and Irving Berlin. It is only since the 1950s that the gap between classical and popular music has widened into a canyon which is nearly unbridgeable.