Musicophilia

Did you know that there are people who experience musical notes as colors?  Or flavors?  This month’s Vanity Fair reports that everybody’s favorite neurologist, Oliver Sacks, is coming out with a book about music and the brain.  Some further research reveals chapter titles like “Papa blows his nose in G” and “Accidental davening: dyskinesia and cantillation.”  From the book descripton:

“In Musicophilia, [Sacks] examines the powers of music through the individual experiences of patients, musicians, and everyday people from a man who is struck by lightning and suddenly inspired to become a pianist at the age of forty-two, to an entire group of children with Williams syndrome, who are hypermusical from birth; from people with amusia, to whom a symphony sounds like the clattering of pots and pans, to a man whose memory spans only seven seconds for everything but music.”

Sounds like classic Sacks.  Watch this space for a full review once I get my hands on a copy.