The Music Instinct

A musical experience in itself...his love of the subject is abundantly evident.. His mastery of many scientific disciplines is a delight

Daily Telegraph

As prolific as he is profound, Philip Ball weaves science into culture with a dexterity and virtuosity that avoid any sense of overstretch... Ball can truly make scholarship sing.

Boyd Tonkin, Independent

Ball....proves as comfortable discussing the science of music as its cultural and artistic dimensions... This thought-provoking book answers many questions, and leaves a few hanging tantalisingly behind as well

Financial Times

Bestriding with equal ease the very different disciplines of philosophy, mathematics, history and neurology, the author answers com amore the questions posed in the subtitle of this important book. A remarkable achievement.

Classic FM Magazine

Exemplary... In contemplating the mysteries of music we are also contemplating the mystery of ourselves... Ball, thankfully, doesn't try to provide any easy answers, but rather sends the reader back to the music a better listener

Observer

Impressively engaging...it will be the rare music lover that does not come away without having learned many interesting things

Guardian

Remarkable capacity to use words to open our ears

Sunday Telegraph

The author breaks new (to me) ground

Sunday Telegraph

This book surveys current thinking and tells you why music rocks

Iain Finlayson, The Times

This is a truly fascinating and eye-opening account of a phenomenon so commonplace we barely think about it, yet one which is also mind-bogglingly complicated. Once you've read The Music Instinct, you'll never listed to music the same way again

Independent

Wonderful account of why music matters... one of the finest and most versatile of current non-fiction writers

Sunday Times