Have you ever wondered why your favorite pieces of music send shivers up your spine?
Most people are too enraptured to wonder why this sensation occurs, but Professor David Huron of The Ohio State University School of Music has been studying the phenomenon for years.
In his lecture Monday, "The Sublime in Music: Edmund Burke Meets Physiological Psychology," Huron explored the neural link between music and its physiological responses, such as chills, weeping and laughter. The lecture, held in the Metcalf Research building, was the latest installment in the music department's "Music, Culture and Technology" series.
Huron began by examining 18th-century philosopher Edmund Burke's theory of the sublime. Burke claimed there are two major types of visual pleasure. The first is the cute or beautiful - for example, a tulip - and the second is the sublime. He described the sublime as a feeling associated with experiences that mix fear and safety, such as "standing on a cliff edge" or "watching a caged animal."
Huron then discussed what is known as the "fight-or-flight" response. When frightened, the human brain chooses one of several instinctive or subcortical options. It can tell the body to stay and fight, to sprint away as fast as possible, to freeze or to appease its attacker, depending on the perceived level of danger associated with the circumstances.
Each response has its own effect: fighting generates signs of aggression, such as hair standing on edge to create an illusion of size, while fleeing causes anticipatory panting (gasping or laughing). Freezing forces one to withhold breath, and appeasement often results in crying to show weakness.
So how does this relate to the enjoyment of music?
According to Huron, music uses elements of surprise to elicit these fear responses. A simple change in pitch, tone or even the number of instruments playing can cause the human brain to engage in "fight or flight," he said. Thus, when music takes one's breath away or makes the hair on the back of someone's neck stand up, it is engaging primal survival instincts.
In a 2004 study Huron examined the work of music satirist Peter Schickele, who is famous for toying with classical symphonies. After listening to live recordings of Schickele's music, Huron was able to isolate roughly 640 instances of audience laughter, all of which "could be traced directly to a gross violation of expectations," he said.
Huron's study lists "drifting tonality," "excessive repetition" and "implausible delays" as instances when the audience chuckled. In a Schickele recording Huron played during the lecture, a chorus of kazoos buzzed during a particularly sad orchestral segment, causing the audience to explode into giggles. The light-hearted instrumentation caught them completely by surprise, Huron said.
Huron said laughter is an instinctual response associated with flight. Not only does it appear in cultures all over the world, but it is also common among deaf individuals, who often produce the same "ha ha ha" sound, he said.
He further stated that the limbic system, the part of the brain responsible for emotions and memories, might play a role in the pleasure of the sublime. In simpler terms, Huron said, we listen to music to experience contrast between fear and normalcy.
"These fear circuits are constantly being activated, but they're being rubbed out by positive or neutral responses," he said. He likened listening to music to the experience of laughing after preventing a fall. The safety felt when listening to a song in the comfort of one's home keeps the fear produced by the song's surprises in check, thereby creating the sensation of the sublime.
