How music makes us feel

Last night's imagine on BBC1 explored 'How Music Makes Us Feel.' The BBC's publicity for this documentary said:

"Many people turn to music when words are not enough, at funerals and weddings, at times of heartbreak and euphoria. It seems to hold more emotion and go deeper than words.

Musicians as varied as Emeli Sande, who enthralled the world when she sang at the Olympics, opera diva Jessye Norman, dubstep artist Mala and modern classical composer George Benjamin explain how music makes them feel. Alan Yentob also talks to a vicar, a psychologist, a Hollywood composer, an adman and even the people who choose the music played in shopping malls. He sees babies dance to a rhythm, and old people brought forth out of silence by the power of music."

The vicar interviewed for the programme is the Revd. Lucy Winkett, Rector of St James Piccadilly, who has published an interesting book called Our sound is our wound in which she explores how we listen for the voice of God within the soundscapes of our lives and how we find our own voice? Our lives are lived, she suggests,  against the backdrop of an internal and external soundscape. The sounds, noises and music with which we are surrounded in modern life have spiritual implications. There is also a soundtrack within us that plays constantly through memory, dreams, anxiety or thought.

The sense of music providing a soundscape throughout our lives also featured in the programme framed as it was by film of babies responding to music at its beginning and dementia sufferers helped through music therapy at its close.

Many of the issues raised by the programme are also explored by Peter Banks and I in The Secret Chord. For example, in Chapter 3 'Play vs Plan' we think about music in relation to play theory in child development, while in Chapter 6 'Head vs Heart' we discuss the expressive impact of music including assessing a quote from Stravinsky, also used in the programme, that "music is, by its very nature, essentially powerless to express anything at all."

Clips from the documentary can be viewed here and the whole programme can be seen on i-player by clicking here.

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Emili Sande - Abide With Me.

Difficulty of belief

Here are two different but current acoustic-soul takes on the difficulty of belief.
Mobo recommended Michael Kiwanuka, who has been compared to Bill Withers and Al Green, has an "honest, unpretentious and raw style" that "is straight to the matter, unspoilt soul music at it’s best." Kiwanuka is getting ready to believe:
"Oh my, I didn't know what it means to believe
Oh my, I didn't know what it means to believe
but if I hold on tight is it true
you take care of all that I do
Oh Lord, I'm a-getting ready to believe
Oh my, I didn't know how hard it would be
Oh my, I didn't know how hard it would be
but if I hold on tight is it true
you take care of all that I do
Oh Lord, I'm a-getting ready to believe"

Scottish singer Emeli Sandé has: had two Top 10 hits, thanks to collaborations with Chipmunk and Wiley; written for Cheryl Cole, Susan Boyle, Cher Lloyd and Leona Lewis; and is influenced by Joni Mitchell, Lauryn Hill, Aretha Franklin and Nina Simone. Sandé, by contrast to Kiwanuka, focuses on the loss of the good intentions that she links with heaven:

"Will you recognize me, when I’m stealing from the poor
You're not gonna like me, I’m nothing like before
Will you recognize me, when I lose another friend?
Will you learn to leave me, or give me one more try again

Oh heaven, oh heaven, I wake with good intentions,
But the day it always lasts too long
Then I’m gone!
Oh heaven, oh heaven, I wake with good intentions,
But the day it always lasts too long
Then I’m gone, then I’m gone, then I’m gone , then I'm gone
Then I’m gone, then I'm gone, then I’m gone , then I'm gone"

As a supplement to the above we could also include 'Believer' by Susanna and the Magical Orchestra to give a trio of songs exploring the nature of belief:

"Didn't think you would trust me.
Thought you would see what I see.
These days have been good for me too,
But I can't stay.
You know why.
Didn't want this to end like this.
Thought I might, could convert.
These nights have been sad for me too,
But I don't pray.
You know why.

You are a believer,
I am not."

We would then have songs about observation of another's belief, preparation to believe, and the difficulty of the practice of belief. It is a fascinating sociological phenomenon to find such songs being written and connecting within popular culture at a time when secularisation was supposed to have eradicated such notions.