The Best Christmas Song I've Ever Heard. It Will Give You Chills.

52,587,427 views Dec 18, 2014

Over A Thousand People Came Together To Break a Record And Bring This Moving Christmas Hymn To Life. The Piano Guys, Peter Hollens, David Archuleta, and the Mormon Tabernacle Choir get together to sing "Angels We Have Heard On High."

Moved to Tears

by Frances Wilson , Interlude

Music has the power to tug at the heartstrings, and evoking emotion is the main purpose of music – whether it’s joy or sadness, excitement or meditation. A certain melody or line of a song, a falling phrase, the delayed gratification of a resolved harmony – all these factors make music interesting, exciting, calming, pleasurable and moving.

Tears and chills – or “tingles” – on hearing music are a physiological response which activates the parasympathetic nervous system, as well as the reward-related brain regions of the brain. Studies have shown that around 25% of the population experience this reaction to music. But it’s much more than a pure physiological response. Classical music in particular steers a mysterious path through our senses, triggering unexpected and powerful emotional responses, which sometimes result in tears – and not just tears of sadness.

Tears flow spontaneously in response to a release of tension, perhaps at the end of a particularly engrossing performance. Certain pieces of music can remind us of past events, experiences and people, triggering memories and associated emotions. At other times, we may feel tearfully awestruck in the face of the greatness or sheer beauty of the music.

This last response has a name – Stendhal Syndrome – and while the syndrome is more commonly associated with art, it can be applied equally to the powerful emotional reaction which music provokes.

A psychosomatic disorder, Stendhal Syndrome, or hyperkulturemia, causes rapid heartbeat, dizziness, sweating, disorientation, fainting, tears and confusion when someone is looking at artwork (or hearing a piece of music) with which he or she connects emotionally on a profound level. The phenomenon, also called ‘Florence Syndrome’, is named after the French author Marie-Henri Beyle , who wrote under the pen-name of ‘Stendhal’. While visiting the Basilica of Santa Croce in Florence, he became overcome with emotion and noted his reactions:

“I was in a sort of ecstasy, from the idea of being in Florence, close to the great men whose tombs I had seen. Absorbed in the contemplation of sublime beauty … I reached the point where one encounters celestial sensations … Everything spoke so vividly to my soul.”

While there is some debate as to whether the syndrome actually exists, there is no doubt that music (and art and literature) can have a very profound effect on our emotional responses.

Scientists find the amazing reason your favorite music gives you ‘chills’

Why does music give you 'chills'? Picture: Getty

By Maddy Shaw Roberts, ClassicFM London

Now we know why our favorite music sends shivers down our spine.

Scientists say they have discovered why the melodies we love give us goosebumps.

A team of French researchers found that when we listen to our favourite music, the areas of the brain which handle emotion, movement, and processing music and sound work together to create a surge in dopamine levels – our ‘feel good’ chemical.

According to the study, our brains also try to anticipate what happens next in the song. And when we guess correctly, we get a reward.

Thibault Chabin, a PhD student at the University Burgundy Franche-Comté who led the study, said: “What is most intriguing is that music seems to have no biological benefit to us. However, the implication of dopamine and of the reward system in processing of musical pleasure suggests an ancestral function for music.

“This ancestral function may lie in the period of time we spend in anticipation of the ‘chill-inducing’ part of the music. As we wait, our brains are busy predicting the future and release dopamine.

“Evolutionarily speaking, being able to predict what will happen next is essential for survival.”

Read more: Music takes 13 minutes to ‘release sadness’ and 9 to make you happy >

The team of researchers, whose study was published in the journal Frontiers in Neuroscience, carried out the experiment on 18 music-lovers with a range of musical abilities, who had all experienced chills when listening to music.

“Participants of our study were able to precisely indicate ‘chill-producing’ moments in the songs, but most musical chills occurred in many parts of the extracts and not only in the predicted moments,” says Chabin.

Side note, interestingly – or tragically, depending on your take! – only about half of people get chills when listening to music. Those who do, are considered to have an “enhanced ability to experience intense emotions”.

For Chabin’s study, the participants were hooked up to machines that record electrical activity in the brain, and they were played 90-second clips of their favourite songs.

While they were listening, the scientists watched what happened in their brains whenever the music gave them ‘chills’.

These regions work together to process music and release the ‘feel-good’ hormone, dopamine. Combined with the anticipation that triggers those pleasurable ‘reward systems’, this produces the tingly chill participants felt while listening.

“This represents a good perspective for musical emotion research,” Chabin said.

“Musical pleasure is a very interesting phenomenon that deserves to be investigated further, in order to understand why music is rewarding and unlock why music is essential in human lives.”

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