I Heard There Was a Secret Chord

Music as Medicine

Narrated by Daniel J. Levitin
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Pub Date Aug 27 2024 | Archive Date Sep 19 2024
RBmedia | Recorded Books

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Description

Neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author of This Is Your Brain on Music Daniel J. Levitin reveals the deep connections between music and healing.

Music is one of humanity’s oldest medicines. From the Far East to the Ottoman Empire, Europe to Africa and the pre-colonial Americas, many cultures have developed their own rich traditions for using sound and rhythm to ease suffering, promote healing, and calm the mind.

In his latest work, neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author Daniel J. Levitin (This Is Your Brain on Music) explores the curative powers of music, showing us how and why it is one of the most potent therapies today. He brings together, for the first time, the results of numerous studies on music and the brain, demonstrating how music can contribute to the treatment of a host of ailments, from neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s and Alzheimer’s, to cognitive injury, depression, and pain.

Levitin is not your typical scientist—he is also an award-winning musician and composer, and through lively interviews with some of today’s most celebrated musicians, from Sting to Kent Nagano and Mari Kodama, he shares their observations as to why music might be an effective therapy, in addition to plumbing scientific case studies, music theory, and music history. The result is a work of dazzling ideas, cutting-edge research, and jubilant celebration. I Heard There Was a Secret Chord highlights the critical role music has played in human biology, illuminating the neuroscience of music and its profound benefits for those both young and old.

Neuroscientist and New York Times best-selling author of This Is Your Brain on Music Daniel J. Levitin reveals the deep connections between music and healing.

Music is one of humanity’s oldest...


Advance Praise

"For many years I have wondered why a bunch of frequencies organized into a piece of music has the ability, even without words, to make the listener cry and become emotional. Although I know this happens to me and many people, I have often wondered how this can be. Dr. Levitin, in this latest book, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord: Music as Medicine, has some fascinating insights into this great phenomenon." --Paul McCartney

"Part memoir and part medical primer, I Heard There Was a Secret Chord showcases Daniel J. Levitin’s expertise in all genres of music as well as experimental neuroscience. No one else in the universe could have written this book." --Neil deGrasse Tyson, astrophysicist

"Informative and enjoyable, this book is for anyone interested in how the practice of medicine is expanding, and it’s a must-read for fans of the author’s previous books on music and the brain. Levitin’s story is a fascinating piece of work, written with authority, empathy, and occasional humor." --Kirkus Reviews, starred review

"Brilliantly creative yet solidly evidence-based.... This fascinating and valuable title gives readers insight into the many neurological benefits of music. Most readers can easily identify what kind of music calms them, provokes creative sparks, or helps get them through strenuous exercises but until they read this, they may not know why music has that power or that it can be great medicine too." --Library Journal, starred review

"Exuberant.... Enriching lucidly explained neuroscience with ebullient musical appreciation (a Billy Pierce saxophone solo is “in turns thrilling, heartbreaking, bustling, radiant, and always, always moving forward”), Levitin makes a persuasive case for music’s therapeutic potential that gives due to its medical promise without undercutting its mysteries. The result is a fascinating take on the tuneful raptures of the mind." --Publishers Weekly

"For many years I have wondered why a bunch of frequencies organized into a piece of music has the ability, even without words, to make the listener cry and become emotional. Although I know this...


Available Editions

EDITION Audiobook, Unabridged
ISBN 9798892747257
PRICE $29.99 (USD)
DURATION 13 Hours, 45 Minutes

Available on NetGalley

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