The World in Six Songs : How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature
3.72 (2,806 ratings by Goodreads)
Paperback English
By (author) Daniel Levitin


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 .


Product details

Format Paperback | 368 pages
Dimensions 129 x 198 x 22mm | 255g
Publication date 04 Jul 2019
Publisher Penguin Books Ltd
Publication City/Country London, United Kingdom
Language English
ISBN10 0241987814
ISBN13 9780241987810
Bestsellers rank 73,312