Music
Music
idea
Why did bloody knights write love songs about spring blossoms?
The masculinity of medieval knighthood was expansive enough for both graphic violence and the joys of a flower meadow
by Jennifer Saltzstein
Music
idea
Courtly love songs are a window into medieval sex lives
Song lyrics acted as a sexual script for aristocrats, revealing some edgy practices that ignited their imaginations
by Elizabeth Eva Leach
Music
idea
I learned to hear the music of Earth’s underwater musicians
If we consider the sounds of whales and other organisms with an open mind, we find a strange beauty – and can even join in
by David Rothenberg
Music
idea
Ancient Greek ideas of attunement can breathe new life into music
In Athenian philosophy, attunement is important not only in music, but also for moods, attitudes and states of mind
by John Bagby
Music
idea
What is it about musical hooks that makes them so catchy?
From hummable riffs to striking lyrics, the catchiest hooks tell us something about the limits of human attention and memory
by Tim Byron & Jadey O’Regan
Artists and art history
idea
Is the attunement of abstract art and music more than a metaphor?
How does the abstract art of Kandinsky and Klee imitate the meaning and emotion in the music of Shostakovich and Bach?
by Michelle Liu
Music
idea
They’re playing our song! The philosophical puzzle of cover songs
Can a song be both the original and a copy? Patsy Cline, Willie Nelson, and the ‘crazy’ philosophical puzzle of song covers
by P D Magnus
Music
idea
Can you ‘feel’ the music? You’re probably an empathetic person
People who are more empathic toward others are also more likely to have more feeling for the emotions communicated in music
by Benjamin Tabak & Zachary Wallmark
Music
idea
A musician with sensory overload shows there are ways to adapt
When a musician’s senses are overwhelmed by music that’s too loud or stimulating, there can be another way to play
by Neesa Sunar
Communication and language
idea
The allure of cosmopolitan languages to courtiers and pop fans
The song Despacito tells a truth about cosmopolitan language, or the ‘mistress tongue’ – we desire it before we know it
by Karla Mallette
The body and physical health
idea
How the noises of a hospital can become a healing soundscape
Noises pervade and create the hospital environment. How could they be transformed into a soundscape for care and healing?
by Victoria Bates
Music
idea
Bach’s piano music is intimate precision and Homeric epic in one
A hero on a journey; a circular movement; a melancholy of homecoming: why Bach is an epic poet in the Homeric tradition
by Dan Moller