Daniel Bovet
Born	(1907-03-23)23 March 1907 Fleurier, Switzerland
Died	8 April 1992(1992-04-08) (aged 85)
Residence	Italy
Nationality	Swiss-Italian
Fields	Pharmacology
Notable awards	Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine (1957)

Daniel Bovet FRS^[1] (23 March 1907 – 8 April 1992) was a Swiss-born Italian pharmacologist who won the 1957 Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine for his discovery of drugs that block the actions of specific neurotransmitters. He is best known for his discovery in 1937 of antihistamines, which block the neurotransmitter histamine and are used in allergy medication. His other research included work on chemotherapy, sulfa drugs, the sympathetic nervous system, the pharmacology of curare, and other neuropharmacological interests.

In 1965, Bovet led a study team which concluded that smoking of tobacco cigarettes increased users' intelligence.^[2] He told The New York Times that the object was not to "create geniuses, but only [to] put the less-endowed individual in a position to reach a satisfactory mental and intellectual development.^[3]

Bovet was born in Fleurier, Switzerland. He was a native Esperanto speaker.^[4] He graduated from the University of Geneva in 1927 and received his doctorate in 1929. Beginning in 1929 until 1947 he worked at the Pasteur Institute in Paris. He then moved in 1947 to the Istituto Superiore di Sanità (Superior Institute of Health) in Rome. In 1964, he became a professor in at the University of Sassari in Italy. From 1969 to 1971, he was the head of the National Research Council in Rome before stepping down to become a professor at the University of Rome La Sapienza. He retired in 1982.

References[link]

1. ^ Oliverio, A. (1994). "Daniel Bovet. 23 March 1907-8 April 1992". Biographical Memoirs of Fellows of the Royal Society 39: 60–26. DOI:10.1098/rsbm.1994.0004.  edit
2. ^ Taylor Branch, At Canaan's Edge: America in the King Years, 1965-68, at 268 (Simon & Schuster Paperbacks 2007).
3. ^ "Tobacco Called Help in Learning," The New York Times, April 18, 1965, at 31.
4. ^ "Daniel Bovet". Nndb.com. 1903-06-19. http://www.nndb.com/people/736/000129349/. Retrieved 2012-04-29. 

External links[link]

• Nobel Lectures, Physiology or Medicine 1942–1962, Elsevier Publishing Company, Amsterdam, 1964
• Nobel Prize biography

Daniel
Daniel's Answer to the King by Briton Rivière
Prophet
Born	7th Century B.C
Died	6th Century B.C Babylon (?)
Honored in	Roman Catholic Church Eastern Catholic Churches Eastern Orthodox Church Lutheranism adventism Islam[1] Armenian Apostolic Church
Major shrine	Tomb of Daniel, Susa, Iran
Feast	July 21 December 17
Attributes	Often depicted in the den of the lions

Daniel (Hebrew: דָּנִיֵּאל, Modern Daniyyel Tiberian Dāniyyêl ; Arabic: دانيال, meaning in Hebrew "God is my Judge") is the protagonist in the Book of Daniel of the Hebrew Bible. In the narrative, when Daniel was a young man, he was taken into Babylonian captivity where he was educated in Chaldean thought. However, he never converted to Neo-Babylonian ways. By Divine Wisdom from his God, Yahweh, he interpreted dreams and visions of kings, thus becoming a prominent figure in the court of Babylon. Eventually, he had apocalyptic visions of his own that have been interpreted as the Four monarchies. Some of the most famous tales of Daniel are: Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, The writing on the wall and Daniel in the lions' den.

Narrative of Daniel[link]

Induction into Babylon[link]

Daniel refusing to eat at the King's table, early 1900s Bible illustration

In the third year of the reign of Jehoiakim (BC 606), Daniel and his friends Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were among the young Jewish nobility carried off to Babylon. The four were chosen for their intellect and beauty to be trained as advisors to the Babylonian court,(Daniel 1) Daniel was given the name Belteshazzar, i.e., prince of Bel, or Bel protect the king!(not to be confused with the neo-Babylonian king, Belshazzar). Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah were given the Babylonian names, Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego, respectively.^[2]

Daniel and Nebuchadnezzar[link]

In the narrative of Daniel chapter 2, it is the second year of the reign of Nebuchadnezzar and the king is distressed by his dreams.^[v.1] Thus he summons his interpreters,^[v.2] however, they are unable to relay or interpret the dreams.^[v.10-11] The King acts in fury and demands the execution of all the wise men in Babylon.^[v.12] When Daniel discovers the King's executive order, he requests from the captain of the guard, Arioch, to see the King.^[v.13-16] Daniel prays for God’s mercy to receive a revelation from the King’s dream.^[v.15-18] God then reveals the mystery to Daniel in a vision that night.^[v.19] Daniel praises his God with a doxology.^[v.20-23] After meeting with Arioch again, Daniel is granted access to the king^[v.24-30] and relays the description of the dream,^[v.31-36] followed by its interpretation.^[v.37-45] With Daniel's successful interpretation of the dream, the king expresses homage,^[v.46] followed by his own doxology that affirms that Daniel's God is God of gods for revealing this mystery of his dream.^[v.47] Daniel is then promoted as chief governor over the whole province of Babylon.^[v.48] At Daniel’s request, his companions are also promoted, thus they remain at the king’s court.^[v.49][3]

Nebuchadnezzar's madness[link]

Nebuchadnezzar recounts a dream of a huge tree which is suddenly cut down at the command of a heavenly messenger. Daniel is summoned and interprets the dream. The tree is Nebuchadnezzar himself, who for seven years will lose his mind and become like a wild beast. All of this comes to pass until, at the end of the specified time, Nebuchadnezzar acknowledges that "heaven rules" and his kingdom and sanity are restored and his kingdom is restored to him.

Daniel and Belshazzar[link]

In Daniel's later years, king Belshazzar holds a great feast for all his nobles. In a drunken state, the king calls for the sacred vessels captured from the Jerusalem temple and blasphemously drinks from them. Suddenly, the fingers of a man's hand appear before the king and write on the wall of the palace. When none of his wise men are able to interpret the message, Daniel is called in at the suggestion of the queen-mother. After reprimanding the king for his impiety, Daniel interprets the handwriting on the wall to mean that Belzhazzar is about to lose his kingdom to the Medes and the Persians. For successfully reading the cryptic handwriting, Daniel is rewarded with a purple robe and elevated to the rank of "third ruler" of the kingdom. "That very night", we are told, "Belshazzar, king of the Babylonians, was slain" and his successor was King Darius the Mede, aged 62.

Daniel in the Lion's den protected by an angel by François Verdier

Daniel and Darius the Mede[link]

After the Persian conquest of Babylon, Daniel is depicted as one of three senior administrators of the empire in the reign of Darius the Mede. When the king decides to set Daniel over the whole kingdom, the other officials plot his downfall. Unable to uncover any corruption, they use Daniel's religious devotion to defeat him. The officials trick the king into issuing an irrevocable decree that no god is to be worshiped for a thirty day period. When Daniel continues to pray three times a day towards Jerusalem, he is thrown into a den of lions, much to the distress of Darius. After an angel shuts the lions' mouths, Daniel is delivered and his opponents thrown into the den where they are devoured instantly.

Daniel's visions[link]

Daniel's ministry as a prophet began late in life. Whereas his early exploits were a matter of common knowledge within his community, these same events, with his pious reputation, serve as the basis for his prophetic ministry. The recognition for his prophetic message is that of other prophets like Isaiah, Jeremiah and Ezekiel whose backgrounds are the basis for their revelations.

From Chapter 7 to the end of the book of Daniel, an apocalyptic vision is being described, supposedly from the perspective of Daniel.^[2] This marks a change in the narrative from Daniel interpreting to messengers of God interpreting for Daniel. Daniel dreams of four beasts that come out of the sea: a lion with eagles wings, a bear with three tusks, a leopard with four wings and four heads, and a beast with iron teeth, ten horns and one little horn and human eyes.(Daniel 7:4-8) These beasts are all present at a convening of the divine counsel. Presiding over the counsel is the Ancient of Days, which may, in fact, be the Israelite God.^[2] The Ancient One proceeds to put to death the beast with the one little horn. (Daniel 7:9-11) Daniel also describes the fates of the other beasts saying that while their dominion was taken away, their lives were prolonged. (Daniel 7:12) This introduction leads into a series of dreams and visions where these events are expressed in greater detail.

Scholars argue that each of these beasts represent an emperor or kingdom that ruled over the Israelites. The first being Babylon, then Media, then Persia, and finally the Greeks. The horns of the last beast may be symbolic of the rulers that replaced Alexander the Great upon his death, culminating with the little horn, or Antiochus IV.^[2] There are additional details in the text that allude to Antiochus IV, including some form of desecration to the temple (Daniel 11:31) and persecution (Daniel 11:23).^[2] The final message of the second half of Daniel is that God will deliver the people from oppression, the latest of which is Antiochus IV.^[2]

Daniel's final days[link]

The time and circumstances of Daniel's death have not been recorded. However, tradition maintains that Daniel was still alive in the third year of Cyrus according to the Tanakh (Daniel 10:1). He would have been almost 100 years old at that point, having been brought to Babylon when he was in his teens, more than 80 years previously. Many^[who?] posit that he possibly died at Susa in Iran. Tradition holds that his tomb is located in Susa at a site known as Shush-e Daniyal. Other locations have been claimed as the site of his burial, including Daniel's Tomb in Kirkuk, Iraq, as well as Babylon, Egypt, Tarsus and, notably, Samarkand, which claims a tomb of Daniel (see "The Ruins of Afrasiab" in the Samarkand article), with some traditions suggesting that his remains were removed, perhaps by Tamerlane, from Susa to Samarkand (see, for instance, Itinerary of Benjamin of Tudela, section 153).

References to Daniel[link]

Tomb of Daniel at Susa, Iran.

Book of Ezekiel[link]

The prophet Ezekiel, with whom Daniel was a contemporary, describes a Daniel as a "pattern of righteousness" in the Book of Ezekiel 14:14, 20 and "wisdom" (28:3).^[4] In the Book of Daniel, the name is spelled with a middle letter suggesting the i of that name — but this letter is not included in Ezekiel,^[5] suggesting that the reference there may be to another person, possibly the "Danel" ("Judgement of God") known from Caananite Ugaritic literature (such as the Epic of Aqhat and Anat), whose reputation for wisdom and righteousness had made him legendary. (Vowel-points were not added to the consonantal Hebrew text before well into the Common Era, and the scribes may then have slipped in a vowel-point for "i" as a middle syllable.)

Bel and the Dragon[link]

In the Deuterocanonical portion of Daniel known as Bel and the Dragon, the prophet Habakkuk is miraculously transported by an angel to take a meal to Daniel while he is in the lions' den. In response, Daniel prays, "Thou hast remembered me, O God; neither hast thou forsaken them that seek Thee and love Thee".^[6]

Six tombs of Daniel[link]

There are six different locations claiming to be the site of the tomb of the biblical figure Daniel: Babylon, Kirkuk and Muqdadiyah in Iraq, Susa and Malamir in Iran, and Samarkand in Uzbekistan.

Religious perspectives[link]

Rabbinic literature[link]

According to Rabbinical tradition, Daniel was of royal descent; and his fate, together with that of his three friends, Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, was foretold by the prophet Isaiah to King Hezekiah in these words, "and they shall be eunuchs in the palace of the king of Babylon".^{Isaiah 39:7[7][8]}

According to this view, Daniel and his friends were eunuchs, and were consequently able to prove the groundlessness of charges of immorality brought against them, which had almost caused their death at the hands of the king.^[8]

Daniel on the window in the church of St Daniel in Celje (Slovenia)

Islamic views[link]

Muslims traditionally consider Daniel (Arabic: دانيال, Danyal) as an Islamic prophet, alongside the other major prophets of the Old Testament. Although Daniel is not mentioned in the Qur'an, there are accounts of Daniel's life which feature in later Muslim literature. There are debates, however, that go on about Daniel's time of preaching and some Muslims believe that he was not a prophet but a saintly man. Daniel is listed as a prophet in all major versions of Stories of the Prophets.^[9] When the Muslims conquered Alexandria in 641 C.E, a mosque was immediately built dedicated to Daniel.^[10]

Muslim literature[link]

Muslim exegesis, including Tabari's History of the Prophets and Kings narrates that Daniel was carried off to Babylon after Nebuchadnezzar's attack on Jerusalem. It goes onto state that there he was thrown into the den of the lions, but was later rescued. In one such account, Daniel is aided by Jeremiah, who comes to Babylon to help Daniel in the lions den.^[11] In the apocryphal Bel and the Dragon, however, there is a very similar tale which states that the Hebrew prophet Habbakuk was miraculously transported to the den of the lions, to give a meal to Daniel.

All sources, classical and modern, describe Daniel as a saintly and spiritual man. Abdullah Yusuf Ali, in his Qur'anic commentary says:

Daniel was a righteous man of princely lineage and lived about 506-538 B.C. He was carried off to Babylon by Nebuchadnezzar, the Assyrian, but was still living when Assyria was overthrown by the Medes and Persians. In spite of the "captivity" of the Jews, Daniel enjoyed the highest offices of state at Babylon, but he was ever true to Jerusalem. His enemies (under the Persian monarch) got a penal law passed against any one who "asked a petition of any god or man for 30 days" except the Persian King. But Daniel continued true to Jerusalem. "His windows being open in his chambers towards Jerusalem, he kneeled upon his knees three times a day, and prayed, and gave thanks before his God, as he did aforetime."

—Abdullah Yusuf Ali, The Holy Qur'an: Text, Translation and Commentary^[12]

Commemorations[link]

Eastern Orthodox commemorations[link]

On the Eastern Orthodox liturgical calendar, the feast days celebrating St. Daniel the Prophet together with the Three Young Men, falls on December 17 (during the Nativity Fast), on the Sunday of the Holy Forefathers^[13] (the Sunday which falls between 11 and 17 December), and on the Sunday before Nativity.^[14] Daniel's prophesy regarding the stone which smashed the idol (Daniel 2:34-35) is often used in Orthodox hymns as a metaphor for the Incarnation: the "stone cut out" being symbolic of the Logos (Christ), and the fact that it was cut "without hands" being symbolic of the virgin birth. Thus the hymns will refer to the Theotokos (Virgin Mary) as the "uncut mountain"

Roman Catholic Commemorations[link]

The Roman Catholic Church commemorates St. Daniel in the Roman Martyrology on July 21.^[15] However, his commemoration at Mass occurs only on local calendars of particular dioceses, sometimes on July 21 and sometimes on another day. For example, the archdiocese of Gorizia celebrates the feast of St. Daniel, prophet and confessor, on September 11. The reading of the Mass is taken from the Book of Daniel, chapter 14; the Gradual from Psalm 91; the Alleluia verse from the Epistle of James 1; and the Gospel from Matthew 24.^[16]

Coptic Church Commemoration[link]

The prophet is commemorated in the Coptic Church on the 23rd day of the Coptic month of Baramhat.^[17]

Protestant Commemorations[link]

He is commemorated as a prophet in the Calendar of Saints of the Lutheran Church - Missouri Synod together with the Three Young Men (Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego), on December 17.^[18]

Chapters of the Book of Daniel
1: Induction into Babylon 2: Nebuchadnezzar's dream of an image 3: The fiery furnace 4: The madness of Nebuchadnezzar 5: Belshazzar's feast 6: Daniel in the lions' den 7: Daniel's first vision 8: Vision of the ram and goat 9: Prophecy of Seventy Weeks 10: Vision of a man 11: Kings of the North and South 12: Epilogue
v t e

See also[link]

Saints portal

• Book of Daniel
• List of names referring to El
• Nebuchadnezzar II, King of Neo-Babylon
• Arioch, Captain of the guard
• Hananiah, Mishael, and Azariah, Daniel's narrative companions
• Belshazzar, possible last King of Neo-Babylon
• Darius the Mede
• Cyrus the Persian, King of Achaemenid Empire
• Ezekiel, Daniel's narrative contemporary
• Persian Jews
• Apocalypse of Daniel

References[link]

• James B. Jordan (1995). "Daniel: Historical & Chronological Comments (II)" (– ^{Scholar search}). Biblical Chronology 7 (1). http://www.biblicalhorizons.com/ch/ch7_01.htm. ^{[dead link]}
• Francis E. Gigot (1889). "Daniel". Catholic Encyclopedia on CD-ROM. New Advent. http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/04620a.htm. 
• T. E. Gaston (2009). Historical Issues in the Book of Daniel. Taanathshiloh. 

External links[link]

• Book of Daniel (Biblical Passage)
• Daniel by Rob Bradshaw Detailed dictionary-style article.
• Daniel in the TaNaKh Detailed authorized Jewish translation of the original

Wikisource has original 1897 Easton's Bible Dictionary text related to:

Daniel

• Who is Ezekiel's Daniel? : The Ugaritic Danel
• Daniel 11 in Context Overview of the allusions to the Syrian Wars in Daniel 11

Daniel Levitin
Background information
Birth name	Daniel Joseph Levitin
Born	(1957-12-27) December 27, 1957 (age 54)
Origin	San Francisco, California, U.S.
Genres	Rock New Wave Punk Jazz Folk rock Country
Occupations	Producer, Cognitive Neuroscientist, Writer
Instruments	Tenor Saxophone, Guitar, Bass, Vocals
Years active	1980 to present
Labels	415 Records Columbia Records Sony Music Warner Bros. Records Infrasonic Records TwinTone Records
Associated acts	Blue Öyster Cult The Afflicted Santana The Grateful Dead Chris Isaak Steely Dan Joe Satriani The Mortals The Alsea River Band Jonathan Richman and The Modern Lovers
Website	http://www.daniellevitin.com/, http://www.levitinlab.com

Professor Daniel J. Levitin, Ph.D. (born December 27, 1957, San Francisco) is a prominent American cognitive psychologist, neuroscientist, and writer.^[1] He is currently James McGill Professor of psychology and behavioral neuroscience at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada with additional appointments in music theory, computer science, and education. He is Director of the Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise. He is also an accomplished record producer and musician.

He has published scientific articles on absolute pitch, music cognition and neuroscience^[2][3] and is more widely known as the author of two best-selling books, This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, (Dutton/Penguin, 2006; Atlantic [UK] 2007)^[4][5][6] and The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature (Dutton/Penguin U.S. and Viking/Penguin Canada, 2008). Prior to his academic career, he worked as a producer and sound designer on albums by Blue Öyster Cult, Chris Isaak, as a consultant to Steely Dan, Stevie Wonder and Michael Brook;^[7][8] and as a recording engineer for Santana and The Grateful Dead.^[9] Records and CDs to which he has contributed have sold in excess of 30 million copies.^[8][10] From September, 2006 to April 2007 he served as a weekly commentator on the CBC Radio One show Freestyle, and he has appeared frequently on NPR.

Biography and education[link]

Born in San Francisco, California the son of Lloyd Levitin, a businessman and professor, and Sonia Levitin, a novelist, Levitin was raised in Daly City, Moraga and Palos Verdes, California.^[11] He studied electrical engineering at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and music at the Berklee College of Music before dropping out of college to join a succession of bands. He returned to school in his thirties, studying cognitive psychology/cognitive science first at Stanford University (he received his B.A. in 1992 with honors and highest university distinction) and then the University of Oregon where he received his M.Sc. (1993) and Ph.D. (1996). He completed post-doctoral fellowships at Paul Allen's Silicon Valley think-tank Interval Research, at the Stanford University Medical School, and at the University of California, Berkeley.^[11] His scientific mentors included Roger Shepard, Michael Posner, Douglas Hintzman, John R. Pierce and Stephen Palmer. He has been a visiting professor at the University of California, Berkeley, Stanford University, Dartmouth College and Oregon Health Sciences University.

As a cognitive neuroscientist specializing in music perception and cognition, he is credited for fundamentally changing the way that scientists think about auditory memory, showing through the Levitin Effect, that long-term memory preserves many of the details of musical experience that previous theorists regarded as lost during the encoding process.^{[12][13][14][15]} He is also known for drawing attention to the role of cerebellum in music listening, including tracking the beat and distinguishing familiar from unfamiliar music.^[13]

Outside of his academic pursuits, Levitin has worked on and off as a stand-up comedian and joke writer, performing at the Democratic National Convention in San Francisco with Robin Williams in 1984, and at comedy clubs in California; he placed second in the National Lampoon stand-up comedy competition regionals in San Francisco in 1989, and has contributed jokes to Jay Leno, Arsenio Hall, as well as the nationally syndicated comic strip Bizarro, some of which were included in the 2006 compilation "Bizarro and Other Strange Manifestations of the Art of Dan Piraro" (Andrews McMeel).

Music producing, consulting, and e-music career[link]

In the late 1970s, Levitin consulted for M&K Sound as an expert listener assisting in the design of the first commercial satellite and subwoofer loudspeaker systems, an early version of which were used by Steely Dan for mixing their album Pretzel Logic. Following that, he worked at A Broun Sound in San Rafael, California, building speaker cabinets for The Grateful Dead, for whom he later worked as a consulting record producer. Levitin was one of the golden ears used in the first Dolby AC audio compression tests, a precursor to mp3 audio compression.^[11] From 1984–1988 he worked as Director and then Vice President of A&R for 415 Records in San Francisco, becoming President of the label in 1989 before the label was sold to Sony Music.^{[16][citation needed]} Notable achievements during that time included producing the punk classic "Here Come The Cops" by The Afflicted (named among the Top 10 records of 1985 by GQ magazine); engineering records by Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, Santana and the Grateful Dead; and producing tracks for Blue Öyster Cult, the soundtrack to Repo Man, and others.^[17] Two highlights of his tenure in A&R were discovering the band The Big Race (which later became the well-known soundtrack band Pray for Rain); and for having had the chance to, but not signing M.C. Hammer.

After leaving 415, he formed his own production and business consulting company, with a list of clients including AT&T, several venture capital firms, and every major record label. As a consultant for Warner Bros. Records he planned the marketing campaigns for such albums as Eric Clapton's Unplugged and k.d. lang's Ingénue. He was a music consultant on feature films such as Good Will Hunting and The Crow: City of Angels, and served as a compilation consultant to Stevie Wonder's "Song Review ~ A Greatest Hits Collection," and to "As Time Goes By" and "Interpretations" by The Carpenters. Levitin returned to the studio in 2002, producing three albums for Quebec blues musician Dale Boyle: String Slinger Blues (2002), A Dog Day for the Purists, 2004, and In My Rearview Mirror: A Story From A Small Gaspé Town (2005), the latter two of which won the annual Lys Blues Award for best Canadian Blues album. In 2006 mixed and co-produced tracks for Diane Nalini's "Songs of Sweet Fire" CD. He has performed on saxophone with Mel Tormé, Sting, and Bobby McFerrin, and on guitar with Rosanne Cash, Blue Öyster Cult, Rodney Crowell, Michael Brook, Gary Lucas, Victor Wooten, members of the Steve Miller Band, Norton Buffalo, Whitney Houston's band, and David Byrne .

In 1998 he helped to found MoodLogic.com (and its sister companies, Emotioneering.com and jaboom.com), the first internet music recommendation company, sold in 2006 to Allmusic group. He currently serves on the Science team for Signal Patterns, leading the development of its online music preferences survey. He has also consulted for the United States Navy on underwater sound source separation, for Philips Electronics and AT&T.

Writing career[link]

Levitin worked as a reporter for the Palos Verdes View Newspaper (circ. 100,000) while still in high school, and served as its temporary editor during the summers of 1975 and 1976. After leaving 415 Records in 1989, he began writing commercial articles for music industry magazines Billboard, Grammy, EQ, Mix, Music Connection, and Electronic Musician, and became a contributing writer to Billboard's Reviews section from 1992–1997. He has published more than 350 commercial articles.

He is the author of This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, (Dutton/Penguin 2006; Plume/Penguin 2007) which spent more than 12 months on the New York Times Bestseller List^[18] and the Globe and Mail Bestseller list. It was nominated for two awards (The Los Angeles Times Book Prize for Outstanding Science & Technology Writing and the Quill Award for the Best Debut Author of 2006), named one of the top books of the year by Canada's Globe and Mail and by The Independent and The Guardian,^[19] and has been translated into 16 languages. Two documentary films were based on that book, "The Music Instinct" (2009, PBS), which Levitin co-hosted with Bobby McFerrin, and "The Musical Brain" (2009, CTV/National Geographic Television) which he co-hosted with Sting.

"The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature" (Dutton/Penguin 2008) debuted on the Canadian and the New York Times bestseller lists,^[20] and was named by the Boston Herald and by Seed Magazine as one of the best books of 2008; it was also nominated for the World Technology Awards. His book sales have made Levitin the #1 bestselling scientist of the last ten years,^[21] and his television and film appearances have reached more than 50 million viewers worldwide ^[22]

In popular culture[link]

In The Listener (TV series), actor Colm Feore says his performance of the character Ray is based on Daniel Levitin^[23]

Awards[link]

• Finalist, Los Angeles Times Book Prize (2006), "This Is Your Brain on Music," Best Book on Science and Technology.
• Nominee, Quill Award, Best Debut Author (2006), "This Is Your Brain on Music."
• Awarded fourteen RIAA gold and platinum records.^[24]
• Best Film Soundtrack award, Sundance Film Festival, 1985, for Architects of Victory
• Gold Medal, Venice Film Festival, 1985, Film Soundtrack Production, for Architects of Victory
• Lys Award, Best Blues Album, 2005, Dale Boyle: In My Rearview Mirror: A Story From A Small Gaspé Town
• Lys Award, Best Blues Album 2004, Dale Boyle and the Barburners: A Dog Day for Purists
• "Top 100 Papers in Cognitive Science" by the Millennium Project for "Absolute Memory for Musical Pitch," Perception and Psychophysics, 1994.

Selected publications[link]

Books[link]

• "The Billboard Encyclopedia of Record Producers" (1999). New York: Watson-Guptill Publications, E. Olsen, C. Wolff, P. Verna, Editors; D. J. Levitin, Associate Editor.
• "Foundations of Cognitive Psychology: Core Readings" (2002), Cambridge, MA: M.I.T. Press
• 'This Is Your Brain On Music: The Science of a Human Obsession, (2006), New York: Dutton/Penguin. (Released in the U.K. and Commonwealth territories by Atlantic, 2007). (Appeared on the New York Times Bestseller List both in hardcover and paperback)
• "The World in Six Songs: How the Musical Brain Created Human Nature" (2008), New York: Dutton/Penguin and Toronto: Viking/Penguin. (New York Times Bestseller)

Scientific articles (selected)[link]

• Langford, D. J., Crager, S. E., Shehzad, Z., Smith, S. B., Sotocinal, S. G., Levenstadt, J. S., Chanda, M. L., Levitin, D. J. and Mogil, J. S. (2006). Social Modulation of Pain as Evidence for Empathy in Mice. Science, 312, (June 30, 2006), 1967–1970.
• Vines, B.W., Krumhansl, C. L., Wanderley, M, & Levitin, D. J. (2006). Cross-Modal Interactions in the Perception of Musical Performance. Cognition, 101, 80–113.
• Levitin, D. J. (2005). Musical behavior in a neurogenetic developmental disorder: Evidence from Williams syndrome. Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences, 1060(27), 325–334.
• Levitin, D. J. (2000). In search of the musical mind. Cerebrum, 2(4), 1–24.
• Levitin, D. J., & Cook, P. R. (1996). Absolute memory for musical tempo: Additional evidence that auditory memory is absolute. Perception & Psychophysics, 58, 927–935.

Discography[link]

• Diane Nalini, Songs of Sweeet Fire. 2006. (Mixing Engineer, Production Consultant).
• Dale Boyle, In My Rearview Mirror: A Story From A Small Gaspé Town. 2005. (Production Consultant)
• Dale Boyle and the Barburners, A Dog Day for the Purists. 2004. (Producer).
• Dale Boyle and the Barburners, String Slinger Blues. 2002. (Producer).
• The Carpenters. As Time Goes By. A&M Records/Universal, 2000. (Consultant on song selection, liner notes writer.)
• Various Artists. Original motion picture soundtrack, Good Will Hunting. Hollywood/Miramax Records, 1998. (A&R Consultant. )
• Stevie Wonder. Stevie Wonder Song Review: A Greatest Hits Collection. Motown, 1996. (Consultant on song selection. Liner notes writer.)
• Steely Dan, Gold, Decade, Gaucho, Aja, The Royal Scam, Katy Lied, Pretzel Logic, Countdown to Ecstasy, Can't Buy A Thrill, MCA, 1992. (Consultant on CD Remastering.)
• kd lang, Ingénue, Reprise, 1992. (Consultant.)
• Eric Clapton, Unplugged, Reprise, 1992. (Consultant.)

• Chris Isaak, Heart Shaped World, Warner Brothers, 1989. (Engineering (Asst), Sound Design (Contributed Guitar Sounds)).
• Blue Öyster Cult, Imaginos, Columbia/C.B.S. Records, 1988. (Co-Producer).
• Santana, Freedom, Columbia, 1987. (Engineering).
• Jonathan Richman and the Modern Lovers, Rockin' and Romance, Twin/Tone (U.S), Sire (U.K.), 1986. (Engineer).
• True West, Drifters, Passport/JEM Records, 1985. (Co-Producer).
• The Big Race, "Happy Animals," from the Soundtrack of the Paramount Film Repo Man, 1985. (Producer, Engineer)
• The Afflicted, Good News About Mental Health, Infrasonic, 1984. (Producer)
• Blue Öyster Cult, The Revölution by Night, Columbia Records, 1983, (Co-producer).

References[link]

External links[link]

• Daniel J. Levitin's homepage
• Levitin Laboratory for Music Perception, Cognition and Expertise
• Daniel Levitin discusses This is Your Brain on Music - Interview on the 7th Avenue Project radio show
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Daniel Rogers Pinkham, Jr. (June 5, 1923 - December 18, 2006) was an American composer, organist, and harpsichordist. Pinkham was one of America's most active composers during his lifetime. In 1981, Boston Globe music critic Richard Dyer wrote that Pinkham’s music "doesn’t turn up very often on the programs of societies for new music because it doesn’t have to live in that ghetto — he is among the most-performed American composers, and people like his music."

Biography[link]

Born in Lynn, Massachusetts into a prominent family engaged in the manufacture of patent medicines (his great-grandmother was Lydia E. Pinkham), he studied organ performance and music theory at Phillips Academy, Andover, with Carl F. Pfatteicher. "The single event that changed my life was a concert [at Andover] by the Trapp Family Singers in 1939, right after they had escaped from Germany," Pinkham once recalled. "Here, suddenly, I was hearing clarity, simplicity. It shaped my whole outlook," he said in a 1981 interview with The Boston Globe.

At Harvard, he studied with Walter Piston; Aaron Copland, Archibald T. Davison, and A. Tillman Merritt also among his teachers. There he completed a bachelor's degree in 1943 and a master's in 1944. He also studied harpsichord with Putnam Aldrich and Wanda Landowska, and organ with E. Power Biggs. At Tanglewood, he studied composition with Samuel Barber and Arthur Honegger, and subsequently with Nadia Boulanger.

Pinkham taught at the Boston Conservatory beginning in 1946, and at the New England Conservatory of Music from 1959 until his death in 2006; while there, he created and chaired the program on early music performance. In 1951, Pinkham conducted ten works by Boulanger Award winners in their Boston performance première in a special Peabody Mason Concert series commemorating the Paris Bi-Millennial year.^[1] He also taught at various times at Simmons College (1953–1954), Boston University (1953–1954), and Harvard University (1957–1958). Among Pinkham's notable students was the jazz musician and composer Gigi Gryce (1925–1983) and the composer Mark DeVoto.

For decades, Pinkham was the organist of King's Chapel in Boston, a position which gave him much exposure to and opportunity to write church-related music; the Sunday evening concert series he created there celebrated its 50th anniversary in 2007. He was also a frequent guest on the E. Power Biggs program on the CBS Radio Network. He performed regularly with the Boston Symphony Orchestra as an organist and as a harpsichordist, and he performed extensively with noted violinist Robert Brink, with whom he commissioned a duo for violin and harpsichord from Alan Hovhaness.

Pinkham died of chronic lymphocytic leukemia in Natick, Massachusetts on December 18, 2006. He is survived by his longtime partner, the organist Andrew Paul Holman.^[2]

Compositional career[link]

Pinkham's enormous output represents a broad cross-section of 20th-century musical trends. He produced work in virtually every genre, from symphonies to art songs, though the preponderance of his music is religious in nature, frequently choral and/or involving organ. Much of his music was written for use in church services or other ceremonial occasions, and reflected his longstanding relationship with King’s Chapel. At various points in his career, he embraced plainchant and medievally-influenced modal writing, lyrical romanticism, dodecaphony and serialism, and electronic music. He embraced his role as a creator of (relatively) popular music, once remarking that "One of the most important influences on my music has been my contact with performers, and I am most happy when writing for a specific performance. This, I suppose, explains why I have no unperformed music. I have always been interested in making music technically accessible."^{[citation needed]}

Some of Pinkham's best-known works are designed for services: the Christmas, Advent, and Wedding cantatas, the latter of which is performed particularly often. In 2003, he gained further notice with his commissioned piece, written for the Boston Landmarks Orchestra, of Make Way for Ducklings. In keeping with the name of the ensemble, the work was designed to be performed for families at the Boston Public Garden near the famous sculptures based on Robert McCloskey's endearing picture book. Pinkham’s extensive catalog can be found at www.danielpinkham.net.

Pinkham's scholarship and work were recognized with a Fulbright Fellowship in 1950 and a Ford Foundation Fellowship in 1962. He received honorary degrees from the New England Conservatory of Music as well as from Nebraska Wesleyan University, Adrian College, Westminster Choir College, Ithaca College, and the Boston Conservatory.

In 1990, Pinkham was named Composer of the Year by the American Guild of Organists. In 2006 Pinkham was named Musician of the Year by the Boston Musicians' Association, AFM Local 9-535.

References[link]

1. ^ Christian Science Monitor, 16-May-1951, Harold Rogers, "Contemporary music in Boston première"
2. ^ Wakin, Daniel J. (December 21, 2006), "Daniel Pinkham, 83, Composer and Organist, Dies", The New York Times, http://www.nytimes.com/2006/12/21/obituaries/21pinkham.html?_r=1&oref=slogin, retrieved 2007-11-16