The Nature of Music: Beauty, Sound, and Healing

Both a primer on how, when and why to listen to music, and a lyrical exploration of how music mirrors the impulses of our minds, psyches, bodies, and souls -- our physical and emotional rhythms. Maureen Draper writes about the ways in which music can help us cope with grief, give dimension to the mysteries of beauty and faith, inspire us to create, help us know ourselves better, or just give us a boost of energy. She walks us easily through the basics, building our confidence in hearing the color, line, and rhythm we are used to seeing in the visual arts, or coaxing us to trust that we can feel the inner movement of our outer lives in a Wagner aria or a Beethoven sonata. And she gives us an amazing musical bibliography of over 170 works at the end of the book if we are needing guidance on what to listen to and when. From it we can compose our own listening list for work, play, sex, or meditation. "The best music carries within it important communication about the nature of our inward lives and common humanity", Maureen Draper writes. "When we listen with our imagination and with an engaged heart, music, literally, brings us more alive".