Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain

The memory of music and even the production of new music seem to be immune to the degenerative processes of conditions like amnesia and Parkinson’s, and these things also seem impervious to the confusion of dreams. Dreaming of music is common for musicians and non-musicians alike, and Sacks details some of his own experiences in which he dreamed of music and, when he awoke, could still hear it. On one such occasion, the music was bothersome and sad to him, so he called his friend in an effort to interpret it. Sacks’s friend noted that the music was from Gustav Mahler’s “Kindertotenlieder” (Songs on the Death of Children). The day before, Sacks had quit his job at a children’s hospital, and it was startling to him that his dream was not only so responsive to the complex emotions around this decision, but used a song with which he had little familiarity. Many composers—including Wilhelm Richard Wagner, Louis-Hector Berlioz, and even Paul McCartney—have reported dreaming the missing portions of their compositions. Sacks urges readers to question the nature of music in dreams, noting that unlike the other senses, music seems to remain true to its real-life counterpart.