If this music gives you goosebumps ...

... you might have a special brain

By Classic FM, London

By Maddy Shaw Roberts

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Think of your favourite piece of music, and think about how you might react to it.

If you’re having trouble, have a listen to this spine-tingling vocal version of Elgar’s Nimrod, by Voces8:

Lux Aeterna – Elgar

Voces8 perform a stunning version of Nimrod

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Did you feel chills, a lump in your throat, or perhaps a tingling sensation on the back of your neck? Then you might have a more unique brain than you think.

A study, carried out by PHD student Matthew Sachs at the University of Southern California, has revealed that people who get chills from music might have structural differences in their brain.

The research studied 20 students, who listened to three to five pieces of music. 10 of the students admitted to feeling shivers, while the other 10 didn’t. The researchers then took brain scans of all the participants.

“[The 10 who felt shivers] have a higher volume of fibres that connect their auditory cortex to the areas associated with emotional processing, which means the two areas communicate better,” Matthew told Neuroscience News. These 10 participants also had a higher prefrontal cortex, which is involved in certain areas of understanding, like interpreting a song’s meaning (Quartz).

“People who get the chills have an enhanced ability to experience intense emotions,” Sachs said. “Right now, that’s just applied to music because the study focused on the auditory cortex. But it could be studied in different ways down the line,” he pointed out.

The study also found that people who are open to experience – as well as people who have more musical training – are more likely report strong emotional responses.

If you didn’t feel chills at the first piece, have a listen to this impromptu moment of Nordic vocal music, from Åkervinda. It might just tease out a few goosebumps...

Read more about the study here.

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What is it like being married to a classical pianist?

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Here's a detailed breakdown of when you need to know.

1. They will never be on time

Rehearsal will always overrun. The pub will always be open on the way from a concert to your house. Their flight will always be delayed. Just add a couple of hours onto everything and you’ll be fine.

2. Practise comes first

‘Just coming!’ *continues to nail Paganini caprice*

3. If you’re having an important conversation about the future of your relationship, they’re just playing the third act of Tosca in their head

That misty, far-off look in their eyes: there’s a reason for it.

4. They will sing at you

Just in mid-conversation. You won’t know it’s coming, so just maintain a permanent state of high alert.

5. All the space in your wardrobe will be filled with concert black

What’s your favourite colour? Black? Good.

6. They will be more talented than you

Even if you are genuinely more talented than them in another arena, their talent will always outshine yours. Get used to it. Musicians are always perfect, even when they’re not.

7. You will be the least interesting half of your couple

‘What do you do?’
‘I’m a humanitarian lawyer and part-time curer of sick kittens who is also developing a new green energy source for the world. And she plays the oboe a bit.’
‘A MUSICIAN?’

8. They can sing a harmony with everything

Like, everything. Not just songs on the radio, but the microwave hum, the sound the shower makes when you turn it off… everything.

9. If you’re dating a singer, you will have to cut out dairy from your diet

Don’t kid yourself that you can just eat different things and it won’t be inconvenient. You’ll be sneaking Frijj milkshakes at work within the week.

10. When they’re listening to Bruno Walter’s 1956 recording of Mahler 4 in a darkened room, just leave them to it

Don’t even knock.

11. Beethoven will be an equal part in your relationship

Prepare to be polyamorous with The Master.

12. You don’t have a weekend any more

Make all the plans you want, but don’t expect your partner to join you. Cos y’know, rehearsals.

13. Your new part-time role is box office helper/stage hand/roadie/page-turner

Enjoy your antisocial working hours!

14. The record collection is out of bounds

Do not attempt to re-order it. Do not even look at it. You do not understand it.

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Here’s exactly what French journalist Aliette de Laleu has to say about the matter.

Aliette de Laleu is a journalist on the radio station France Musique, who every week during her show leads a discussion about a female composer, musician or conductor.

This week, it’s all about Yuja Wang. Recently, an unnamed male conductor shared an image of the pianist on his public Facebook page, with the caption, as Aliette quotes: “She’s definitely got great legs. But the question is: is she wearing small knickers?” [translated]. The comments under the video were of a similar nature.

Aliette argues that while opera stars and performers wear brightly coloured clothing to bring drama to their performance, orchestral musicians and instrumentalists are restricted to dark colours and ‘non-distracting’ clothes.

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Credit: Yuja Wang (Facebook)

We are too used to seeing musicians dressed conservatively, Aliette argues. “If Yuja Wang wants to wear a short sequined dress to play Tchaikovsky’s Piano Concerto, she is free to do so. We are free to criticise her dress if we want, but Yuja herself should not be insulted or reduced to a body.”

To anyone who feels offended by exposed flesh on stage, Aliette advises to “close your eyes. [...] If you like the music, all you need is two things: your ears and a little bit of heart.” 

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A music theory analysis of the new Taylor Swift single

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What musical tricks has Taylor Swift deployed for her comeback? It’s time to get technical…

After the pure pop of her last album, Taylor Swift is keen to make an impact - and not just with her playground-insult lyrics. Let’s cast aside the absolute cavalcade of shade-throwing in her words and focus on the musical techniques Swift is using here to get her point across. Please enjoy ‘Look What You Made Me Do’:

Before a single word is sung, there’s a brilliantly creaky Bernard Herrmann-esque string refrain, adorned with delicate pizzicato. It’s the kind of atmosphere building you’d get at the beginning of a creepy kids film, maybe a hint of Danny Elfman, in equal parts nostalgic and genuinely menacing, and possibly aligned with Swift recasting herself as… gasp… a villain? 

But because we’re in the business of popular song, you really have to move on quickly once you’ve established your tone. So we’re ushered into the new Taylor Swift aural aesthetic, which seems to be intense, intricate minimalism. Drum machines programmed with the bare minimum of fuss, a four-note melody and a throbbing, glissando bass drop are all we get until the bridge, which is even simpler - a two-note vocal melody, octave-spaced and alternating between the first and fifth degrees of the scale. This is all calculated, measured and meticulously performed: no slides into the blue notes, not a hint of showboating. Behind, a piano begins to gently thunder. It is, for a few moments, magnificent. 

And then… chorus. Well, what you WISH was a chorus.

via GIPHY

Now, don’t get us wrong. It’s important to try things out, to experiment. But to deprive the listener of the gratification that a melodic monster chorus would surely provide is cruel. What should (logically) be an absolute banger is rendered cold by a chorus that sticks to nothing more than those drum machines and a spoken refrain. 

There’s an argument for either side here. On the one hand, Swift could be deliberately withholding that chorus we know she can deliver because that is what ‘old’ Taylor Swift would’ve done. On the other hand, it might be that she thought this was a good enough pay-off. 

And that’s before you consider the context here. We agreed not to look at the lyrics too closely, but the opening not-tricky-to-decipher barbs directed at Kanye West become altogether more interesting when you think about Swift’s instrumentation. Would it be overthinking it to suggest that, after Kanye’s 808s & Heartbreak album, to use drum machines in this sparse a fashion on a major pop song is a bit dicey? Whether or not Taylor Swift is leading us up the garden path with all this extra baggage and side-eye, the musical result is confusing. Interesting, but confusing. 

via GIPHY

The second verse and bridge are still more satisfying, delightfully augmented since their first iteration, which makes the second hollow chorus all the more frustrating (and those lyrics really don't scan correctly). Swift could’ve gone full Bond-song here, eked every ounce of devilish romance from that string arrangement, but she didn’t. It’s either impressive restraint or just a bad decision. 

As the song concludes, the frustration is complete - the final chorus hints at the splendour that could’ve been, providing a skeletal version of all that potential bombast but refusing to deliver it fully. So is Taylor Swift now a musical prankster, a compositionally capricious innovator with an ear for the absurd? We’ll have to sample the rest of the new album when it arrives in November…

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Even though they get to stand at the front and look important, it's a tough life being a conductor. Here are the downsides to the top job.

1. Unflattering photographs

So whenever you think you're doing a really emotive face in that delicate section of Brahms 2, it's actually more like this:

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2. People who say 'don't you just stand at the front and wave your arms?'

No. No we do not.

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3. Surly brass sections

Look how Leonard Bernstein handles these back-row wise guys.

4. Big moments make you look weird

Riccardo Chailly is a magnificent man, please don't get us wrong. But conducting makes you do some strange things with your body.

5. Polo necks

You may start out as one of those young, cool conductors who wears whatever they like to rehearsals. But the polo neck will claim you. It will hunt you down and consume you. Fear it.

6. Unanswerable questions

"Maestro, should we begin this phrase with up-bows or down-bows?"

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7. When the orchestra can't keep up

JUST GO AT THE SAME SPEED AS MY HANDS HOW HARD IS IT

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8. Soloists in concertos

"If you could have the cadenza finished in the next couple of hours, that'd be great. I'll just stand here."

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9. Studying scores in your spare time

Musicians have practising, which at least makes a nice sound. Reading scores is way boring.

10. Musicians

Yeah, yeah, they're 'essential' to an orchestra. But come on guys. If you just left the playing to conductors then they wouldn't even need to be told how to play the pieces correctly, right?

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