Music as Biology

“In this engaging and lucidly written book, Dale Purves makes the important case that we can never fully understand music and the way it affects us without understanding its ecological context and origins. These, he argues, lie in human vocal communication, with the characteristics of music and our reactions to them having been shaped by natural selection. This perspective, supported by a concisely marshaled battery of evidence, is a timely complement to evolutionary approaches to the origins of music and should stimulate valuable debate and research.”—Iain Morley, University of Oxford

“The book Music as Biology: The Tones We Like and Why comes from Duke University professor Dale Purves, a world-renowned scholar of the neuroscience of sensory systems. A scientist known for thinking ‘out of the box,’ Purves covers the range from an overview of the human auditory system to the emotional and aesthetic qualities of music. Its readership definitely will not be limited to scientists and, in fact, the book could be enjoyed by any educated person.”—Donald Pfaff, author of Brain Arousal and Information Theory