Product Description The Mind of a Mnemonist is a rare phenomenon―a scientific study that transcends its data and, in the manner of the best fictional literature, fashions a portrait of an unforgettable human being. Review A distinguished Soviet psychologist's study…[of a] young man who was discovered to have a literally limitless memory and eventually became a professional mnemonist. Experiments and interviews over the years showed that his memory was based on synesthesia (turning sounds into vivid visual imagery), that he could forget anything only by an act of will, that he solved problems in a peculiar crablike fashion that worked, and that he was handicapped intellectually because he could not make discriminations, and because every abstraction and idea immediately dissolved into an image for him. It is all fascinating and delightful. ( New Yorker) Luria's essay is a model of lucid presentation and is an altogether convincing description of a man whose whole personality and fate was conditioned by an intellectual idiosyncrasy. ( Times Literary Supplement) [A] compassionate and vivid portrait. ( Los Angeles Times Book Review) A welcome re-issue of an English translation of Alexander Luria's famous case-history of hypermnestic man. The study remains the classic paradigm of what Luria called 'romantic science,' a genre characterized by individual portraiture based on an assessment of operative psychological processes. The opening section analyses in some detail the subject's extraordinary capacity for recall and demonstrates the association between the persistence of iconic memory and a highly developed synaesthesia. The remainder of the book deals with the subject's construction of the world, his mental strengths and weaknesses, his control of behaviour and his personality. The result is a contribution to literature as well as to science. ( Psychological Medicine) About the Author A. R. Luria was Professor of Psychology at Lomonosov Moscow State University. Jerome Bruner is University Professor at New York University.

"Music research has entered something of a Golden Age. Technological advances and scholarly inquiry have merged in interdisciplinary studies--drawing on psychology, neuroscience, evolutionary biology, anthropology and other fields--that illuminate the musical nature of our species. This volume develops, supports and challenges that body of research"--

Divided into three parts, this book addresses all aspects of Puccinni's life and work. Part I, The Man, gives the facts of the composer's somewhat stormy life, quoting extensively from his own letters. Part II, The Artist, calls on the resources of modern psychology in assessing his personality and its curious limitations, and the unconscious springs of his creative processes. Part III, The Work, is a detailed guide to each opera, both music and libretto, with a synopsis of opera plots.

Raphael Bronstein is among the most legendary violin instructors in recent memory. Arguably one of the strongest influences on our current generation of violin teachers and players, he counted among his students such luminaries as Elmar Oliveira, Martha Strongin Katz, Lya Stern, Jay Zhong, and his own daughter, Ariana Bronne. Though he taught over 1000 students in the course of his career, The Science of Violin Playing is his only publication. A treasure for serious students of the violin, this book contains page after page of instructive and inspiring wisdom. Best read slowly and carefully, Bronstein teaches violin playing as both an art and science, turning his exacting eye and ear to every aspect of the instrument. Lessons include: The principles and importance of visual intonation Left hand technique and practice habits The psychology of violin playing Right arm technique including santille, spiccato, martele, ricochet, and more Interpretation of pieces for performance Technical analyses of complete violin concerti, including works by Mozart, Mendelssohn, and Tchaikowsky For dedicated and ambitious violinists, this is a book to be studied, read, and re-read. Filled with a career's worth of advice and wisdom, The Science of Violin Playing is a remarkable book for all aspiring performers and teachers.

For three or four decades after the Second World War, musical thinking in Britain was dominated by psychology. Among the earliest of the musical Freudians was Hans Keller (1919-85), an émigré from Vienna. For his case studies Keller drew on composers, performers, listeners and critics; and for his general topics he turned to opera, film music, creative character, genius, aesthetics and the issues of everyday musical life. The writing is impressive for its novelty, its insights, and the communicative clarity of its prose. The book includes a large number of aphorisms, two stories and a one-act play on British anti-Semitism. Most of the writings appear here in print for the first time and are drawn from papers held in the Hans Keller Archive at the University Library in Cambridge.

The author, Charles Bernstein, is a Hollywood composer who has written music for countless movies and television films. In this book, he goes beyond the world of film music to explore how the creative process works in our culture. The writing is accessible, easy to read, often witty, and should appeal to anyone interested in creativity, films, music, or just a good read. Some questions considered in this book: What is inspiration? Where does music come from? Can music heal? What is originality? Can limitations free us? What can silence teach us? Why do melodies haunt us? The topics of the chapters are wide ranging, covering such diverse subjects as architecture, food, fashion, love, magic, psychology, religion and medicine. But the underlying themes are common to all of us—music, life, spirit and the struggles faced by all creative people. This book is, as the title says, about Film Music And Everything Else.

Dr. Oskar Adler (1875-1955), of Vienna, Austria, was a physician, esoteric scholar, 1st violin of the Adler Quartet, and Arnold Schoenberg's first music teacher and lifelong friend. The Critique of Pure Music - and his original German Kritik, written in 1918, remained unpublished until now. This bilingual English-German edition was translated by Michaela Meiser of Austria. Publisher and Editor, Amy Shapiro previously published Dr. Oskar Adler: A Complete Man, plus his The Testament of Astrology. Adler's timeless reflections serve as a healing balm in our stormy times. As he writes (Ch. 2, "Essence and Origin of Music," p. 116): "Life means to understand the eternal "Now" within oneself. Any living being that is not "living in the now," does not live but is being lived. To live in the now is only possible through the inner rhythm of time - through synthesizing the perfect contradiction of unreal and real, the gnostic expression of which is becoming. Our living self is thus captured in its innermost core through the art of music, as the art of pure becoming, thus the art of being utterly alive." Reviewer's Quotes: Composer Reese Scott describes it as "a phenomenon of a unique time - the interface of the old European world with the 20th century --especially keenly felt in Vienna. It interfaces music, spirituality, anthropology, astrology, number and psychology, and transcends time in a way unique to Adler. It's a curious combination of pure sincerity mixed with relentless pedantry --he dishes out intuitions and ideas with no apology and talks about music's spiritual basis, as if it were a touching prayer. The primary force behind Adler's unique ideas is cosmic and esoteric. His work is deeply steeped in many traditions, and yet full of odd eccentricities, as shown by his unusual nomenclature for modal scales, his ideas on music and triangles, and his cosmic symbolism reminiscent of much older authors, such as Kepler." Prof. Dr. Alfred Pfabigan of Philosophical Practice Märzstraße, Vienna writes, "Austrian Intellectual History research owes great thanks to the editor and translator of Oskar Adler's book. Not only that much of this lost work is still valid today, it also offers an inside look into the way of thinking as articulated in the legendary "Fin de siècle - Vienna" and which surely - unnoticed by research - also emanated to Adler's pupils, as for example Schönberg." For more information, visit NewAgeSages.com. "Dieses Buch ist von archivalischem Interesse als Phänomen einer einzigartigen Zeit - der Schnittstelle der alten europäischen Welt mit dem 20. Jahrhundert -, die in Wien besonders stark über diese Periode zu spüren war. Obwohl andere Bücher dieser Zeitperiode ebenso weitreichende Perspektiven inkludieren, kenne ich keines, das so viele Disziplinen miteinander in Verbindung bringt - musikalische, spirituell-geistige, anthropologische, astrologische, numerische und psychologische. Aber dieses Buch hebt die Grenzen der Zeit in einer einzigartigen Art und Weise auf, die für Adler typisch war. Adler denkt ganz anders als seine Zeitgenossen, und schreibt auf vielschichtigen Ebenen. Es ist eine kuriose Mischung aus reiner Aufrichtigkeit und unnachgiebiger Pedanterie. Ich liebe es, wie er seine Eingebungen und Ideen ohne Entschuldigung auftischt. Er spricht über die geistige Grundlage der Musik, als ob es sich um ein berührendes Gebet handelt. Die primäre Kraft hinter Adlers einzigartigen Ideen ist kosmischer und esoterischer Natur. Seine Arbeit ist tief in vielen Traditionen verwurzelt und trotzdem voll von schräger Exzentrizität, wie seine ungewöhnliche Nomenklatur für modale Skalen, seine Ideen zur Musik und Dreiecken, sowie seine kosmische Symbolik, die an sehr viel ältere Autoren wie Kepler erinnert." Komponist Reese Scott (USA)Oskar Adler war Arzt, Astrologe und vor allem Musiker, bekannt als Gründer und erste Geige des Adler Quartetts. Er verfasste sein Werk "Die Kritik der reinen Musik"