Einstein’s Violin: The Love Affair Between Science, Music, and History’s Most Creative Thinkers

by Douglas Wadle

Music brings great joy to many of us. But its other benefits often go underappreciated. Numerous studies and historical anecdotes highlight how powerfully music alters the human mind. Two characteristics drive most of music’s cognitive It builds a faster highway between the right and left sides of the brain, enabling greater cooperation between the logical and the creative. It also creates a vast mesh of connectivity within the brain, like a microcosm of the World Wide Web.

In a fascinating study, Douglas Wadle celebrates the juxtaposition of art and science while examining music’s influence on humanity’s understanding of our place in the universe. Tracing the millennia-old love affair between music and science, Wadle chronicles the surprising ubiquity of musical training among history’s greatest thinkers. He shines a spotlight on the intertwining stories of pattern and form and how they complement one another in our search for creativity and insight.

Einstein’s Violin relies on extensive research to tell the story of how music impacts the pattern recognition software in our brains, facilitating more creative problem solving. Without digression into technical treatise, it focuses on the historical stories that best display music’s beautiful interaction with mind and universe.

226 pages, Kindle Edition

Published February 21, 2022

Reviews

[Zach · Rating 5 out of 5]

Thoroughly researched (34 page Bibliography) book on Music, how it affects the Brain, how Math and other thinking skills are related to Music, and why it is so important to humans. The book is a mix of history, philosophy, science, art, and general wisdom. The author makes it an interesting and persuasive read by incorporating stories of great figures in history and how science has evolved to understand the brain's need and use of music to develop. He goes into deep scientific explanation of how music playing develops connections in the brain which increase creativity. Some of his Mathematical explanations and theories developed by Einstein were a little beyond me, but helped me understand the gist of why playing a musical instrument helped many great men expand our knowledge. I feel this book is a must read for Educators, especially those determining what our schools offer children. It may also help parents understand why pushing their kids to practice their musical instruments will pay off long term.