Welcome back to our weekly Summer Reading list. For our second post, we decided to change things up a bit and offer a suggestion totally unrelated to the industry and how the business works, but about music as a passion, and in some cases, an obsession. The following reading suggestion, “Musicophilia” by Oliver Sacks, was suggested by a former teammate here, Jess, who –as I write this- is in a car, moving her entire life out to San Francisco. We wish you the best of luck Jess, and thank you for this final contribution!
Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia reminds us of the bizarre and often mysterious nature of music and the curious manner in which it inspires us. Sacks is a neuroscientist with an affinity for studying the numerous effects of music on the human brain. Not a musician? Don’t worry! This book is written for anyone from the inspired classical composer, to the average music-lovers like you and me who want to know why we just can’t get Foster the People’s “Pumped Up Kicks” out of our heads. Sacks weaves the science of music with truly amazing tales of musical savants and neurological phenomena.
My favorite of the anecdotes tells the story of a middle-aged orthopedic surgeon who never had much interest in listening to music, much less writing it. However, after getting struck by lightening, he became obsessed with piano music. The forty-two year old eventually taught himself to play, and went on to write and perform his own original compositions!
In today’s day and age of rapid downloads, social media, and changing trends, it’s easy to forget the deep-rooted and even spiritual connection to music that exists within the complexities of our very own neurological makeup. Oliver Sacks’ Musicophilia may focus on the brain, but it really gets to the heart of the matter: the undeniable relationship between the experience of music and how it fuels our lives.