The first British book on neurology in music was published over 30 years
ago. Edited by Drs Macdonald Critchley and R A Henson, it was entitled
Music and the Brain (published by Wm Heinemann Medical Books), but all
of its contributors are now either retired or deceased. Since then,
there has been an increasing amount of research, and the present volume
includes the most significant of these advances.
The book begins with
the evolutionary basis of meaning in music and continues with the
historical perspectives, after which the human nervous system is
compared to a clavichord, highlighting the use of metaphor in the
history of modern neurology. It discusses the neurologist in the concert
hall as well as the musician at the bedside by showing how neurology
enriches musical perception, the main theme being the cerebral
localisation of music production and perception.
The book also
emphasises the value of teaching singing to treat speech disorders and
the importance of nerve compression in musicians, the final chapter
being on recent techniques of imaging the musical brain.
0 comments :
Post a Comment