The World in Six Songs
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  • Published: 4 July 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241987827
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 368

The World in Six Songs

How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature

Formats & editions
Paperback
16 Jul 2019
EBook
4 Jul 2019
Audiobook
16 Feb 2021
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In an astonishing blend of art and science, Daniel Levitin describes how music played a pivotal role in the creation of human culture and society

Dividing the sum total of human musical achievement, from Beethoven to The Beatles, Busta Rhymes to Bach, into just six fundamental forms, Levitin illuminates, through songs of friendship, joy, comfort, knowledge, religion and love, how music has been instrumental in the evolution of language, thought and culture. And how, far from being a bit of a song and dance, music is at the core of what it means to be human.

A one-time record producer, now a leading neuroscientist, Levitin has composed a catchy and startlingly ambitious narrative that weaves together Darwin and Dionne Warwick, memoir and biology, anthropology and a jukebox of anecdote to create nothing less than the ' soundtrack of civilisation' .
  • Published: 4 July 2019
  • ISBN: 9780241987827
  • Imprint: Penguin eBooks
  • Format: EBook
  • Pages: 368
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Also by Daniel Levitin

The Changing Mind
Weaponized Lies
Music as Medicine
This is Your Brain on Music
A Field Guide to Lies and Statistics
The Organized Mind
See all

Praise for The World in Six Songs

A fantastic ride

New Scientist

Masterful ... Eminently enjoyable

Los Angeles Times

Exquisitely well-written and easy to read, serving up a great deal of scientific information in a gentle way for those of us who are - or just think we are - a bit science-phobic

Huffington Post

Fascinating. Provides a biological explanation for why we might tap our feet or bob our heads in time with a favorite song, how singing might soothe a baby, and how music emboldens soldiers or athletes preparing for conflict

Associated Press

Why can a song make you cry in a matter of seconds? Six Songs is the only book that explains why

Bobby McFerrin, ten-time Grammy Award-winning artist ("Don't Worry, Be Happy")