I’d like to thank the musicians and academics who generously let me interview them for this book: Jonathan Berger, Michael Brook, David Byrne, Ian Cross, Rodney Crowell, Don DeVito, Jim Ferguson, David Huron, Joni Mitchell, Sandy Pearlman, Oliver Sacks, Pete Seeger, and Sting. I am grateful to McGill University for providing me with a stimulating and supportive environment in which to work. My editor, Stephen Morrow at Dutton, was indispensable in bringing this book to reality. It has been a joy and a comfort to work with him, and he has contributed greatly, from the initial concept for The World in Six Songs (which was his) through every stage of the writing and editing. My superb agent, Sarah Chalfant, along with Edward Orloff and everyone else at the Wylie Agency, provided guidance and support throughout. Thanks to Duttoners Erika Imranyi, Christine Escalante, and Susan Schwartz for taking up the slack on details too numerous to mention, and to Lisa Johnson, Beth Parker, Andy Heidel, Sarah Muszynski, Marie Coolman, and Mary Pomponio for helping my work reach a wider audience. To Kathy Schenker, Tracy Bufferd, Dave Whitehead, and Michael Hausman: Thanks for your unflappable way of making difficult things easy.
My students read drafts of this book and provided helpful advice: Vanessa Park-Thompson, Mike Rud, and Anna Tirovolas. Bianca Levy performed tireless and rigorous background research on both the science and the music sides, making many helpful and insightful suggestions. My girlfriend was a tremendous source of emotional support and gave generously of her time to listen to and comment on successive drafts of the manuscript, making it immeasurably better. This book would not be what it is without her. Thanks also to the following for their thoughtful reading of the manuscript and helpful comments: Professors Jamshed Bharucha (Provost and Department of Psychology, Tufts University), Nick Brumell (Department of English, Amherst College), Dennis Drayna (National Institutes of Health), Charles Gale (Department of Physics, McGill University), Frederic Guichard (Department of Biology, McGill University), David Huron (Department of Music, Ohio State University), Jeff Mogil (Department of Psychology, McGill University), Monique Morgan (Department of English, McGill University), Frank Russo (Department of Psychology, Ryerson University), Barbara Sherwin (Department of Psychology, McGill University), Wilfred Stone (Department of English, Stanford University), and my friends Len Blum, Parthenon Huxley, and Jeff Kimball. In all that I’ve done over the past twenty years, I’ve found great inspiration from Lew Goldberg (Oregon Research Institute), a rigorous scientist, challenging mentor, and dear friend. I’ve also benefited enormously from reading and interacting with Oliver Sacks, Daniel Dennett, Roger Shepard, Michael Posner, David Huron, and Ian Cross. It is by standing on the shoulders of these giants that I have been shown things I didn’t know existed.