{"product_id":"resonance-why-music-moves-us-9798995656234","title":"Resonance: Why Music Moves Us","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"This moving, incisive book is a great reminder of music's power as a universal connector.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e-Kirkus Reviews\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eAn Alzheimer's patient who can't find the bathroom can still sing a hymn she learned in 1963. Infants two days old already prefer consonant intervals to dissonant ones, before culture has had a chance to teach them anything. Every culture we have ever found makes music, independently, without being taught.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWe call it entertainment.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eComposer and synesthete \u003cstrong\u003eRon K. Miller \u003c\/strong\u003ethinks that is the wrong category.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMusic is a stimulus, like heat, pain, and the aroma of food. It arrives as physical input before interpretation catches up. It changes heart rate, cortisol, oxytocin, and autonomic state. And it competes with pain for some of the same limited internal resources: attention, reward, memory, prediction. They are not identical and they do not share a single pathway. But they make claims on the same body, and sometimes the music wins.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRESONANCE\u003c\/em\u003e is Miller's first book, built in three movements.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eRecognition\u003c\/em\u003e follows music through the body and the life it shapes: infant regulation, memory, compulsion, the songs that arrive uninvited and refuse to leave.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eReverence\u003c\/em\u003e turns outward, to awe, sacred architecture, harmonic order, silence, and the musical forms we inherit without ever agreeing to them.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003eResolution\u003c\/em\u003e tests the argument against the evidence. Neuroscience, animal cognition, synesthesia, altered states, pain modulation, focused ultrasound, Alzheimer's disease, Parkinson's rehabilitation, and the stubborn fact that people keep turning to music when ordinary language runs out.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMiller sees music. Literally, not poetically. Color, shape, and spatial dimension arrive with the sound whether he wants them to or not. He is careful about what that does and does not buy him. A fuller sensory picture is not a fuller understanding.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eHis son has Down syndrome and is mostly nonverbal. Watching music reach him in places ordinary language could not reach is what pushed this book from private obsession into obligation.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eThis is a work of inquiry rather than dogma. Where the evidence supports a mechanism, Miller names it. Where it does not, he says so.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eMusic has been filed under entertainment for a very long time. It belongs on a better shelf.\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"An emotional and informative ode to the sonic connections we form throughout our lives.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e-Kirkus Reviews\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cem\u003e\"The result is a fascinating mix of scientific theory, musical analysis, and personal history that never feels dry or didactic.\"\u003c\/em\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003e-Kirkus Reviews\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBinding Type:\u003c\/b\u003e Hardcover\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublisher:\u003c\/b\u003e Open Channel Press\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePublished:\u003c\/b\u003e 07\/28\/2026\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eISBN:\u003c\/b\u003e 9798995656234\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003ePages:\u003c\/b\u003e 300\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eWeight:\u003c\/b\u003e 1.25lbs\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eSize:\u003c\/b\u003e 9.00h x 6.00w x 0.69d","brand":"Ron K. Miller","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":52934155763893,"sku":"9798995656234","price":33.99,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"url":"https:\/\/pastforward.org\/products\/resonance-why-music-moves-us-9798995656234","provider":"Past Forward","version":"1.0","type":"link"}