Getting a Sense of How We React to Music

Getting a Sense of How We React to Music McGill University neuroscientist Dr. Daniel Levitin will attach sensors to Boston Pops conductor Keith Lockhart, five musicians and 50 audience members. SIMON: So Dr. Levitin, isn't it possible for a piece of music to greatly move an audience, but it's not that the conductor and the musicians, for that matter, don't appreciate the emotional overtones of the music but they've been to those emotional places before and they're a little more businesslike about it? But actually, you know, from my, on a somewhat serious note from my point of view, what we have left to sell in the arts is the live performance experience, the visceral thrill of being in a hall with musicians actually making the product, and also the thrill of experiencing that with other people, with friends, with strangers, partly because there's the thrill of knowing it'll never exactly be the same, it's a moment in time that's not really capturable. SIMON: Neuroscientist, Daniel Levitin of McGill University, and the conductor of the Boston Pops, Keith Lockhart speaking with us from Symphony Hall in Boston.