{"product_id":"polyphonic-minds-isbn-9780262543897","title":"Polyphonic Minds","description":"\u003cb\u003eAn exploration of polyphony and the perspective it offers on our own polyphonic brains.\u003c\/b\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003ePolyphony—the interweaving of simultaneous sounds—is a crucial aspect of music that has deep implications for how we understand the mind. In \u003ci\u003ePolyphonic Minds\u003c\/i\u003e, Peter Pesic examines the history and significance of “polyphonicity”—of “many-voicedness”—in human experience. Pesic presents the emergence of Western polyphony, its flowering, its horizons, and the perspective it offers on our own polyphonic brains. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eWhen we listen to polyphonic music, how is it that we can hear several different things at once? How does a single mind experience those things as a unity (a motet, a fugue) rather than an incoherent jumble? Pesic argues that polyphony raises fundamental issues for philosophy, theology, literature, psychology, and neuroscience—all searching for the apparent unity of consciousness in the midst of multiple simultaneous experiences. \u003cbr\u003e \u003cbr\u003eAfter tracing the development of polyphony in Western music from ninth-century church music through the experimental compositions of Glenn Gould and John Cage, Pesic considers the analogous activity within the brain, the polyphonic “music of the hemispheres” that shapes brain states from sleep to awakening. He discusses how neuroscientists draw on concepts from polyphony to describe the “neural orchestra” of the brain. Pesic’s story begins with ancient conceptions of God’s mind and ends with the polyphonic personhood of the human brain and body. An enhanced e-book edition allows the sound examples to be played by a touch.Prelude 1\u003cbr\u003eI Polyphony Emergent 13\u003cbr\u003e1 Global Contexts and Ancient Origins 15\u003cbr\u003e2 Dispassion and Deification 31\u003cbr\u003e3 The Music of the Blessed 47\u003cbr\u003e4 Oresme and the \"New Song\" 67\u003cbr\u003e5 Polyphonic Controversies 85\u003cbr\u003eII Polyphony Triumphant 99\u003cbr\u003e6 \u003ci\u003eE pluribus unum \u003c\/i\u003e101\u003cbr\u003e7 Polyphony and Power 119\u003cbr\u003e8 Controlling Dissonance 131\u003cbr\u003e9 Contrapuntal Science and Art 149\u003cbr\u003e10 In Bach's Hands 163\u003cbr\u003eIII Polyphonic Horizons 181\u003cbr\u003e11 Polyphony Extended 183\u003cbr\u003e12 Contrapuntal Radio and Polyphonic Fields 209\u003cbr\u003eIV Polyphonic Brains 227\u003cbr\u003e13 Polyphonic Selves 229\u003cbr\u003e14 Tuning the Brain 245\u003cbr\u003e15 Music of the Hemispheres 259\u003cbr\u003ePostlude 273\u003cbr\u003eNotes 277\u003cbr\u003eReferences 299\u003cbr\u003eIllustration Credits 317\u003cbr\u003eAcknowledgments 319\u003cbr\u003eIndex 321\u003cb\u003ePeter Pesic\u003c\/b\u003e, writer, pianist, and scholar, is Director of the Science Institute and Musician-in-Residence at St. John's College, Santa Fe. He is the author of \u003ci\u003eAbel's Proof: An Essay on the Sources and Meaning of Mathematical Unsolvability; Seeing Double: Shared Identities in Physics, Philosophy, and Literature\u003c\/i\u003e; \u003ci\u003eSky in a Bottle\u003c\/i\u003e; and \u003ci\u003eMusic and the Making of Modern Science,\u003c\/i\u003e all published by the MIT Press.","brand":"The MIT Press","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46302193713381,"sku":"NP9780262543897","price":45.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1842\/7735\/files\/9780262543897.jpg?v=1767734948","url":"https:\/\/k12savings.com\/products\/polyphonic-minds-isbn-9780262543897","provider":"K12savings","version":"1.0","type":"link"}