Why SOME people can't listen to Wagner

books:

	• This Is Your Brain on Music: The Science of a Human Obsession Daniel J. Levitin Plume/Penguin, 2007 - 322 pages average customer review:based on 109 reviews view larger image
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Very thorough, very approachable

Levitin is a unique individual in that he has both the musical and scientific credentials to back up his theories of musical cognition and musical psychology. I read "The Psychology of Music" some time ago because I was very interested in these subject areas and I was very disappointed to find out that it was a dense taxonomy of musical phenomena in the mind with very little interpretation.

Levitin, however, unfolds a progression of ideas with short stories about how these ideas evolved and the major players in their development. He's not pitching his personal agenda, either; each subject area is developed by presenting competing theories and then looking at the evidence on each side. In most cases -- as in most of life -- the truth lies somewhere between the competing theories.

My favorite part of the book is on the evolutionary origins of music. It is completely fascinating and has kept me up for hours trying to piece everything together. This is a must read for anybody interested in the mind and how it is affected by music.

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Tough read but worth the effort

So far it is *so* dry that I can't get past the first 50 pages. A friend also bought it, he is good with music theory, and he has the same view. Maybe once I get past the first "background" or music theory section it will improve.

I love the topics and seems like it may be a good ready, at some point.

***update*** After the first 80 pages the book was excellent. Now it is one of the best books that I ever read. In hindsight, while it is a difficult read, you will learn so much about the brain that it is well worth the effort.

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Why SOME people can't listen to Wagner

Interesting book, but I think the author needs to be challenged on one important point.
Famous doctor and neurologist Oliver Sacks is quoted, on both sides of the book's jacket cover, as having "liked the discussion of 'safe' and 'dangerous' music".

On the topic of "safety" in music, here is what Daniel Levitin writes:

"Safety plays a role for a lot of us in choosing music. To a certain extent, we surrender to music when we listen to it - we allow ourselves to trust the composer and musicians with a part of our hearts and our spirits; we let the music take us somewhere outside of ourselves.
Many of us feel that great music connects us to something larger than our own existence, to other people, or to God. Even when music doesn't transport us to an emotional place that is transcendent, music can chnage our mood. We might be understandably reluctant, then, to let down our guard, to drop our emotional defenses, for just anyone. We will do so if the musicians and composer make us feel safe. We want to know that our vulnerability is not going to be exploited.
This is part of the reason whay so many people can't listen to Wagner.
Due to his pernicious anti-Semitism, the sheer vulgarity of his mind (as Oliver Sacks describes it), and his music's association with the Nazi regime, some people don't feel safe listening to his music.
Wagner has always disturbed me profoundly, and not just his music, but also the idea of listening to it.
I feel reluctant to give into the seduction of music created by so disturbed a mind and so dangerous (and impenetrably hard) a heart as his, for fear that I might develop some of the same ugly thoughts.
When I listen to the music of a great composer I feel that I am, in some sense, becoming one with him, or letting a part of him inside me.
I also find this disturbing with popular music, because surely some of the purveyors of pop are crude, sexist, racist, or all three."
(pages 236-237)

I wonder what are the scientific foundations for Dr.Sack's comment on Wagner's mind and Daniel Levitin's agreement with such a dubious proposition.

I believe "why SOME people can't listen to Wagner" would be the appropriate way of formulating it. In the book, page 237, he says "why SO MANY people", and I think it overstates the case.
I was not convinced by his argument of linking Wagner's anti-Semitism etc. with the "safety" of listening to his music.
Here in Paris, I do seminars for executives using musical pedagogies. Look at [...]
The Wagner comment reminded me of a listening exercice I did recently with different versions of the overture to Beethoven's Fifth Symphony.
One of the versions was recorded in Berlin during the war, in 1943, conducted by Wilhelm Furtwängler. One participant came to me after the seminar and told me he was very emotive about having liked what he heard. He said it troubled him to like such a piece played, as he put it, in front of Nazis etc. I discussed this with him, showing him pictures of the concert supplied in the CD box and it appeared there were no Nazis to be seen.
I think it shows the importance of mental pre-construction in appreciating art, music.
Maybe it is what SOME people have with Wagner.
But remember... Wagner was long dead by the time Hitler and the Nazis ruled Germany.
Also I am wondering what is the source of Oliver Sack's comment saying that Wagner was a mind of "sheer vulgarity".
I doubt very much such great conductors playing Wagner regularly as Daniel Barenboim or Pierre Boulez, one of the most important contemporary music composer which has conducted Wagner's Ring cycle at Bayreuth, would agree with this comment...
The author should warn Québécois genius Robert Lepage who will soon stage Wagners' complete Ring opera cycle at New York's Metropolitan Opera (maybe the management of this famous opera house needs to be warned too!).

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reviews: 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11, 12, 13, page 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20

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