Music and the Mind. Anthony Storr

      ANTHONY STORR

      

      MUSIC AND THE MIND

      ‘Music’s the Medicine of the Mind’

       John Logan (1744–88)

Copyright

      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

      All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this ebook on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins ebooks

      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

       Title Page

Copyright

INTRODUCTION

CHAPTER I ORIGINS AND COLLECTIVE FUNCTIONS

CHAPTER II MUSIC, BRAIN AND BODY

CHAPTER III BASIC PATTERNS

       CHAPTER IV SONGS WITHOUT WORDS

       CHAPTER V ESCAPE FROM REALITY?

       CHAPTER VI THE SOLITARY LISTENER

       CHAPTER VII THE INNERMOST NATURE OF THE WORLD

       CHAPTER VIII A JUSTIFICATION OF EXISTENCE

       CHAPTER IX THE SIGNIFICANCE OF MUSIC

       Keep Reading

       References

       Bibliography

       Index

       Acknowledgements

       About the Author

       By the Same Author

       About the Publisher

Introduction

      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-STRAUSS¹

      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.

      In spite of its widespread diffusion, music remains an enigma. Music for those who love it is so important that to be deprived of it would constitute a cruel and unusual punishment. Moreover, the perception of music as a central part of life is not confined to professionals or even to gifted amateurs. It is true that those who have studied the techniques of musical composition can more thoroughly appreciate the structure of a musical work than those who have not. It is also true that people who can play an instrument, or who can sing, can actively participate in music in ways which enrich their understanding of it. Playing in a string quartet, or even singing as one anonymous voice in a large choir, are both life-enhancing activities which those who take part in them find irreplaceable. But even listeners who cannot read musical notation and who have never attempted to learn an instrument may be so deeply affected that, for them, any day which passes without being seriously involved with music in one way or another is a day wasted.

      In