By Faye Herold, Co-Chair, Library Committee, originally published in the March 2023 issue of the 1666 Coffman Newsletter

If you have experienced “automatic” music—that is, your mind has been taken over by a tune or a phrase of music, you might get some answers from this book [by Oliver Sacks, MD], which is full of fascinating case studies showing the influence of music on the brain and of the brain on music. Music can dominate a life in various ways—in my case an earworm that manifests in the discovery, over and over, that I am humming the old song “Sentimental Journey,” occasionally exchanged for another tune, but always defaulting to that one. (See the chapter “Brainworms, Sticky Music, and Catchy Tunes.”) Sacks quotes from Theodor Reik’s book The Haunting Melody: “Melodies which run through your mind…may give…a clue to the secret life of emotions that every one of us lives.”

Sacks moves on to the varieties of musical tunefulness—from lack of an “ear” for music to cases of perfect pitch (see “Papa Blows His Nose in G: Absolute Pitch”). Music may bring occasional relief to patients with Parkinson’s, Tourette’s, or dementia, as they forget themselves in musical moments (e.g., “Music and Identity: Dementia and Music Therapy”). Whatever your relationship with music, the many ways in which tunes have affected the individuals Sacks studies will grab your interest.

Musicophilia can be found in the Music section of the library on the lower level.