The Nature of Music: Beauty, Sound and Healing

A pianist offers a classical music lesson with New Age overtones in this look at the healing power of music. The first half of the book contains a concise explanation of how to listen to music and defines musical terms like pitch and dissonance. But when Draper sounds off on music's power to ""balance the emotions, restore equilibrium and positively affect our well being"" (she recommends an ""emotional shower of music""), some readers may want to tune out. In her attempt to maintain a breezy tone, Draper is a bit too fast and loose with the science behind her assertions. She makes unsupported statements like ""numerous studies have shown that... we learn better when thinking is linked to feeling"" and tells the unsubstantiated story of a teacher who recovered her eyesight through daily doses of Debussy. Still, Draper's love for music is contagious. She provides a useful set of listening exercises, or music breaks, at the end of each chapter, as well as an extensive ""listening bibliography"" for enhancing every aspect of life, from work to sex. Asterisks throughout the text mark pieces that are on the book's companion CDs, available separately from Spring Hill Music. (Feb. 1) Forecast: Don Campbell popularized the idea that music has discernible, positive effects on learning and development in The Mozart Effect (1998), a sleeper that has attracted legions of fans. Though Campbell's blurb on this book has a generic ring, it should help guide his readers to Draper's effort to extend his ideas on the benefits of music into the realm of emotional health.