Why Music Moves Us

How is music able to convey and trigger such range and depth of emotion? Why does it elicit joy, sorrow, consolation and the chills? 

Employing research and theoretical models from neuroscience, psychology and musicology, we examine the extraordinary ways that primal and conditioned listening combine to such complex emotive effect. 

Examples from pop, jazz, rock, film, global, traditional and classical forms are presented under the light of nostalgia, visual imagery, emotional contagion, rhythmic entrainment, aesthetics, expectation and the extra-musical.

A lecture by Professor Milton Mermikides recorded on 14 September 2023 at LSO St Luke's Church, London

The transcript and downloadable versions of the lecture are available from the Gresham College website: https://www.gresham.ac.uk/watch-now/music-moves

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