Wednesday, May 19, 2004
Deep Listeners
Deep Listeners: Music, Emotion, and Trancing, by Judith Becker, (TPB + CD) from Indiana University Press, ISBN 0253216729. A professor of Ethnomusicology brings together scientific and cultural approaches to conclude that people who experience deep emotions when listening to music are akin to those who go into trance during religious rituals. Using new discoveries in the fields of neuroscience and biology, she outlines an emotion-based theory of trance using examples from Southeast Asian and American music. The book includes a companion CD and a 16-page color photo insert vividly documenting the global experience of "deep listening."
