MUSIC AND THE MIND

Anthony Storr

• Publisher: Free Press
• Year: 2015
• Print ISBN: 9780029316214
• eBook ISBN: 9781501122095
• Topic: Media & Performing Arts
• Subtopic: Music

Why does music have such a powerful effect on our minds and bodies? It is the most mysterious and most tangible 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 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 that it justifies existence.

Index

A note about the index: The pages referenced in this index refer to the page numbers in the print edition. Clicking on a page number will take you to the ebook location that corresponds to the beginning of that page in the print edition. For a comprehensive list of locations of any word or phrase, use your reading system’s search function.

‘Abide With Me’, 22

‘absolute’ music, 78–9, 149, 177

abstraction and empathy, 39–40, 112–15, 136–7

Achilles, 143

acoustic universals, 62

addiction to music, 93

Addison, Joseph, 89

‘aesthetic’ mode of knowing, 39, 136–8, 182

African music, 12, 18, 21, 62

Agamemnon, 143

Amazon, River, 12

America, see USA

Amsterdam, University of, 5

analysis of music, 77–8

Andrea-Salomé, Lou, 156

aphasia, 36–7

Apollonian culture, 156–7, 165–6

Archaic Age, 43

Aristotle, 41–3, 45, 48

Aronson, Alex, 83

arousal, music as source of, 24–31, 67–76, 92–107, 138, see also emotional effects of music

auditory system, function of the, 40–41, 169

Australian aboriginals, 19–20

autism, 33, 37, 94

Bach, C. P. E., 116

Bach, Johann Sebastian, 80, 110, 126; Art of Fugue, 180; Brandenburg Concerto, 81–2; Mass in B Minor, 45, 50; Musical Offering, 180; Passion music, 50; St Matthew Passion, 50

Bachofen, Johann Jakob, 156 and n

Bakst, Leon Nikolaievitch, 80

Bartók, Béla, 5, 18, 45, 126

Barzun, Jacques, 79, 80–81

Basel, University of, 159

Bate Collection of Historical Instruments, Oxford, 61

Baudelaire, Charles Pierre: ‘L’invitation au Voyage’, 98

Beecham, Sir Thomas, 68

Beethoven, Ludwig van, 72, 115, 116, 126, 146, 172, 186; ‘Eroica’ Symphony, 21, 158; Fifth Symphony, 29; Leonora...

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Acknowledgements
• Introduction
• I. Origins and Collective Functions
• II. Music, Brain and Body
• III. Basic Patterns
• IV. Songs Without Words
• V. Escapec from Reality?
• VI. The Solitary Listener
• VII. The Innermost Nature of the World
• VIII. A Justification of Existence
• IX. The Significance of Music
• About the Author
• References
• Bibliography
• Index
• Copyright