The Power of Music

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Emotion is an integral aspect of musical experience. Evidence from neuroscience indicates that music acts on a number of different brain sites, and that the brain is likely to be hard-wired for musical perception and appreciation. This offers some kind of neurological substrate for musical experiences, or a parallel mode of explanation for music's multiple effects on individuals and groups. No one discipline can do justice to music's complexity if one is to have a sense of the whole musical experience. After various excursions into early mother/baby experiences, evolutionary speculations, and neuroscientific findings, Roger Kennedy asserts that it is the intensity of the artistic vision which is responsible for music's power. That intense vision invites the viewer or the listener into the orbit of the work, engaging us to respond. Music can be described as having soul when it hits the emotional core of the listener. And, of course, there is 'soul music', whose basic rhythms reach deep into the body to create a powerful feeling of aliveness. One can truly say that music, of all the arts, is most able to give shape to the elusive human soul.