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Second in a three-part series in which scientists and musicians explore the relationship between music and the movements of the planets.

Heavenly harmonies. Pt. 2, The Renaissance and the Baroque.

Radio documentary presented by Professor Robert Winston looking at the evolutionary and developmental roots of music. Archaeologist, Professor Steven Mithen, University of Reading, sees the human body as an instrument, and theorises that music making began with Neanderthals who spoke no language but communicated with vocalised, musical noises. Professor Ian Cross, from the Centre for Music and Science at Cambridge University, agrees that something like music may have had a role in Neanderthal communication and is possibly evolutionary in the human genome. Steven Mithen speaks talks about his theory of a Neanderthal proto language called 'Hmmmm', and looks at musicality in modern apes, particularly gibbons. Developmentally, Professor Daniel Levitin, neuroscientist at McGill University, is interested in the sound of infant-directed speech (or 'motherese') and the way babies respond to the sounds in their mother's voice. Steven Mithen suggests motherese may be an evolutionary hangover as we also use it talking to animals. Daniel Levitin suggests that musical neuro-circuits in the brain are older than those involved in speech. Professor Adam Ockelford, Roehampton University, works with autistic children. One particular gifted child, Romy Smith, plays the piano, communicating musically as she doesn't speak. He suggests that early developmental musicality splits into language and music, but that for some children on the autism spectrum, music is a slightly easier path than language. Amanda Villepastour, of the British Forum for Ethnomusicology, talks of avoiding the presumption that primitive music emerges from primitive societies as all cultures have their own levels of complexity. Ian Cross suggests that a scientific approach to music needs to be done on global terms, removing Western bias, as most of the world's music is participatory, rather than presentational. Steven Mithen, looks at the way the musical sound of emotion within our voices can contradict the words we say. Steven Johnson, broadcaster and musicologist, points out that the emotional feeling in musical pieces is not always universal. Philip Ball, science writer and author, considers music that contradicts the idea of a sad minor and joyful major key and the responses of different cultures to it. Amanda Villepastour has studied the drum language of the Yoruba in West Africa, which uses a surrogate speech system with unspoken text based on indigenous praise poetry. Finally Robert Winston suggests music may be so powerful that we do not hear the same thing either in our brains or within our culture, and that this might make it to wide a subject for science to accommodate.

The science of music. 1/4.

Radio documentary presented by Professor Robert Winston looking at the evolutionary and developmental roots of music. In this episode he explores the logic, engineering and physics underlying musical sounds. Philip Ball, author of 'The Music Instinct', says we are seeking patterns, instinctively and emotionally, when we listen to music. In listening to Bach, Steven Johnson, musicologist, points out that whilst the listener enjoys the pattern, it is also emotionally expressive. Musical notes have a high mathematical significance and Professor Marcus du Sautoy, University of Oxford, talks about Pythagoras's theories of the mathematical relationship and ratios between notes. Neuroscientist, Daniel Levitin, mentions the octave frequency ratio of 2:1 and how neurons fire at 2:1 or 1:2. Robert Winston suggests Pythagorean ratios cannot always be applied to music logically and that our emotional perception often overrides them. To get the proportions we desire we slightly temper our listening (equal temperament). Saxophonist, John Harle, says we have become used to listening to music that is out of tune, with regard to Pythagoras's scale, and that our ear is so trained to equal temperament that properly scaled music now sounds out of key to us. Marcus du Sautoy talks about Bach's piece, 'The Well-Tempered Clavier'. Colin Lawson, director of the Royal College of Music, plays various period instruments like the shalamo to explore the sounds heard a few hundred years ago. The composer, performer and audience also play a part in how we hear sound. John Harle mentions the physics and physiology of performing and how different elements of sound are generated. Marcus du Sautoy suggests composers like mathematical structures in music as a setting to express emotion. Bach's 'Goldberg Variations' and 'The Art of Fugue' are considered due to their mathematical patterns and symmetry. Philip Ball, considers why sounds have emotional power, and says composers create expectations in sound and then manipulate this to provide tension and resolution. At Roehampton University, Adam Ockelford's work with autistic children has made him look at musical patterns and how we automatically or voluntarily hear them. Daniel Levitin looks at Beethoven's 'Moonlight Sonata' and shows how the performance of the notes is important in how we hear them. Schoenboeg's serial music developed in the early twentieth century is considered by Marcus du Sautoy and whether atonal music it makes it harder for the listener to know intuitively what's coming next. Adam Ockelford looks at serial music and cognition with autistic children, in particular Derek Paravicini, who 'corrected the mistakes' in a piece of atonal music by bringing tonality back into it, and wonders if we all do this to a degree. Finally, the programme points out that we divide our musical likes by genre but that science suggests we actually prefer patterns and respond to them instead.

The science of music. 2/4.

Radio documentary presented by Professor Robert Winston looking at the evolutionary and developmental roots of music. In this episode he considers music and the mind, and investigates what music does to people. Philip Ball, author of The Music Instinct, suggests that musical sound structures tap in to our emotions and provoke a response. Neuroimaging is starting to provide ways of understanding human brains and Professor Daniel Levitin, neuroscientist at McGill University, Montreal, talks about brain scanning using functional magnetic resonance imaging (FMRI). However, no single area in the brain is responsible for a cognitive response. Dr. Lauren Stewart, neuroscientist at Goldsmiths College, London, talks about the different brain processes involved in listening to music and about the types of scanning used. Ian Cross, director of the music and science programme at the University of Cambridge, suggests that the methodology of scanning doesn't accurately reproduce normal listening to music. By studying people with congenital amusia, a condition which causes no emotional response to music, Lauren Stewart, demonstrates that a normal musical response uses connections in the brain that those with congenital amusia do not appear to have. Stephen Johnson, musicologist, talks about composers' responses to their own work. Adam Ockelford, Roehampton University, points out that our emotional reaction to a sound happens almost instantly which is something advertisers pick up on. Professor, Eric Clarke, from the University of Oxford, is an expert on the psychology of music and the extent to which it can cause harm or psychological damage. Stephen Johnson is bipolar and talks about the influence of music in his life (particularly Sibelius's Symphony No. 4) and why he listened to pieces of emotionally intense music during times of personal turmoil. Robert Winston suggests there is also a physical side to music. Saxophonist and composer, John Harle, talks about the instrument, the monochord, and how he was recently helped physically with monochord vibration therapy. Adam Ockelford talks about the physical effects sound can have on us. Researchers in Australia have studied the effect of Baroque music on a group of dementia patients. Professor Kichu Nair, at the Newcastle School of Medicine, Australia, found that the music made the patients more aggressive. Adam Ockelford, says there is evidence to show that people prefer the music they liked aged 15 to 21, and that as they grow older this will often be their preferred music. Anxiety reduces with your preferred music, but can increase with other types of music. As such, music therapy could do with more rigorous testing as musical taste is very individual. Robert Winston, summarises that we not only have individual reactions to music, but even parts of our bodies have separate responses, and that techniques, like neuroimaging, still offer us very litte information on this area.

The science of music. 3/4.

Tapestries on the wall depict battle. The seat immediately facing the viewer is empty but for a book. The lettering connects the tones of music with the harmony of celestial movements

A group of musicians; representing the sense of hearing. Engraving by A. Bosse, c. 1650.

Radio documentary presented by Professor Robert Winston looking at the evolutionary and developmental roots of music. In this episode he looks at performance and what happens when we make music. He goes to the Royal College of Music, with violinist Tasmin Little, to see the College's new performance simulator. The research looks at the physical changes that take place in the autonomic nervous system during performance as well as at pre-performance nerves. Robert Winston suggests that when we perform we're making something new happen, which could be why we're drawn to live music. Clarinettist, Colin Lawson talks about how he likes to play the same piece differently each night, which involves an element of risk. Eric Clark, music psychologist at the University of Oxford, considers the differences between making and listening to music, suggesting that making music with other people brings together cognitive, emotional, motor and social skills. Ian Cross, director of the music and science programme at the University of Cambridge, talks about the hypothesis of hypofrontality, where parts of the frontal lobe can shut down and a state of flow is experienced in which an instrument seems to play itself. Psychologist, Vicky Williamson, has looked at ways in which musicians remember their repertoire and how they use the same techniques as memory experts modified for remembering music with a multi-dimensional memory code. Robert Winston talks about perfect, or absolute, pitch and Professor Daniel Levitin, neuroscientist at McGill University, Montreal, continues this. His view is that we all start out with perfect pitch but don't necessarily use or need it. Philip Ball, author of 'The Music Instinct', also speaks about perfect pitch. Professor Adam Ockelford, Roehampton University, works with the autistic and musically gifted child, Romy. Through his research he has been able to put the obsessiveness of gifted musicians in a new light. Robert Winston and Adam Ockelford talk about whether there is a genetic basis for pursuing music. Lauren Stewart, Goldsmiths College, London, has used brain scanning to record changes in the brain as it becomes musically literate. In studies she has been able to isolate which part of the brain was responsible for decoding music notation and found that the superior parietal cortex was changed in response to 3 months of music lessons. Returning to the performance simulator at the start of the programme, one of the students, Douglas Harrison, discusses what it feels like to use it.

The science of music. 4/4.

xv, 262 pages : illustrations, music ; 20 cm

The music of the spheres : music, science, and the natural order of the universe / Jamie James.

208 pages : illustrations (chiefly colour) ; 23 cm

Science, she loves me / edited by Mary Anne Moser ; foreword by Jay Ingram.

Occasional paper (Durham Thomas Harriot Seminar)

Occasional paper / Durham Thomas Harriot Seminar

Musical models in natural philosophy in the time of Thomas Harriot / by Penelope Gouk.

The first in a three-part series in which scientists and musicians discuss the relationship between music and the movements of the planets.

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Heavenly harmonies. Pt. 2, The Renaissance and the Baroque.

The science of music. 1/4.

The science of music. 2/4.

The science of music. 3/4.

A group of musicians; representing the sense of hearing. Engraving by A. Bosse, c. 1650.

The science of music. 4/4.

The music of the spheres : music, science, and the natural order of the universe / Jamie James.

Science, she loves me / edited by Mary Anne Moser ; foreword by Jay Ingram.

Musical models in natural philosophy in the time of Thomas Harriot / by Penelope Gouk.

Heavenly harmonies. Pt. 1, Classical Greece to the Renaissance.

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Wellcome collection

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More filters

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Heavenly harmonies. Pt. 2, The Renaissance and the Baroque.

The science of music. 1/4.

The science of music. 2/4.

The science of music. 3/4.

A group of musicians; representing the sense of hearing. Engraving by A. Bosse, c. 1650.

The science of music. 4/4.

The music of the spheres : music, science, and the natural order of the universe / Jamie James.

Science, she loves me / edited by Mary Anne Moser ; foreword by Jay Ingram.

Musical models in natural philosophy in the time of Thomas Harriot / by Penelope Gouk.

Heavenly harmonies. Pt. 1, Classical Greece to the Renaissance.

Stay in the know

Wellcome collectionWellcome Collection

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Wellcome collection