An Unfinished Symphony

Originally published in Contemporary Psychology: APA Review of Books, 2004, Vol 49(3), 338–340. The subtitle of this book (see record 2002-17657-000), which highlights mind and culture, may lead some to expect a synthesis of available research on music as a prelude to the provision of missing links or new directions for future research. What lies within the book instead, is an unusual journey across terrain related to music, mind, and culture. The text's central theme is that music gains its uniqueness and power from two principal sources. The first is its ability to generate widespread activation in the brain, which the highly absorbed participant experiences as particular feeling states or, at times, as altered states of consciousness. The second and more important source of music's power and uniqueness is its ability to coordinate the timing of various neural activities not only within the brains of individuals, but across the brains of participants in coordinated musical activities. One concern is that there is little to no evidence which supports the author's arguments about neural synchrony within or across individuals. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2006 APA, all rights reserved)