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The Nerve, Pt 6: How music provokes emotions

Music has been described as the language of our emotions, and in many ways it is. It can express joy or sorrow, and music can also arouse those feelings inside us. Even when we no longer have language, we still have music. The last episode of The Nerve focuses on the emotional nature of music.

"I think music touches a part of our brain that words can't," says music therapist

CBC Radio ·
Newborn babies listen to music with headphones at a hospital in Šaca, Slovakia — an experimental program based on using musical therapy to help stimulate adaptation and ease of stress after the birth. For 20 minutes, the babies listen to a variety of musical genres from classical to easy listening. (Joe Klamar/AFP/Getty Images)

Actors listen to ballads to prepare for teary scenes. The energy of heavy metal or hip hop can get stir the blood and hormones. Classical music has been used to soothe babies, and drive teenagers out of public spaces. 

Sometimes, there's nothing better than sliding your headphones on and putting on an uplifting number — or that song that always makes you cry — just to lift your spirits, distract you from your worries, or make you feel a little better.

Music has been described as the language of our emotions, and in many ways it is. Music can express joy or sorrow, and it can also arouse those emotions inside us. 

Even when we no longer have language, we still have music.

According to The Nerve producer Paolo Pietropaolo, two teenage fans once approached Canadian folk singer and songwriter Joni Mitchell, and said, 'Before there was Prozac, there was your music.' (Central Press)

"I think music touches a part of our brain that words can't," says music therapist Sheila Williams, who works with Alzheimer's patients.

"Music is able to reach the part of us that's non-verbal. It's a phenomenon. You know it seems extraordinary to me that these people who are not able to reach on words can reach on music, or be touched by music."

Where does music's power over emotion and memory come from? Is it hard-wired into the human brain — a factor of our biological evolution? Or is it something we each learn as creatures of culture — with the same music connoting different emotions across cultural boundaries? Is sad music equally sad for everyone?

The final episode of The Nerve — a documentary series about why music exists and how it affects us  — explores the answers to those questions. The series first aired on CBC Music in 2008.

Other segments in this series:

The Nerve is produced by Paolo Pietropaolo, Chris Brookes, and host Jowi Taylor.  Feel free to contact the team with feedback or questions you may have at thenerve@cbc.ca.

**Note: this series is not available for download and is available for listening in Canada only due to music copyright restrictions. 

Guests in this episode:

Also appearing in this episode:

  • Ustad Zakir Hussain
  • Laura-Lee Balkwill
  • Steven Brown
  • Simon O'Dwyer
  • Larry Kirkegaard
  • Marshall Chasin
  • Dan Kuehl    
  • Sandra Trehub
  • CJ Grisham
  • Deborah Kapchan
  • Daniel Levitin
  • Stephanie Martin
     

Episode 6 features music from these artists and composers:

  • Simon & Garfunkel
  • Vera Lynn
  • Ella Fitzgerald
  • George Gershwin
  • Leopold Stokowski and the Philadelphia Orchestra
  • Modest Mussorgsky
  • The Beatles
  • Billy Bragg & Wilco
  • Vilayat Khan
  • BB King
  • John Gielgud, Academy of London, Richard Stamp
  • Sergei Prokofiev
  • Elis Regina & Antonio Carlos Jobim
  • Antonio Carlos Jobim
  • Hariprasad Chaurasia
  • Underworld
  • Howard Shore & London Philharmonic Orchestra
  • Howard Shore  & Sir James Galway
  • Sigur Ros

 

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