The HBS hosts talk about music, mathematics, groove, and “altar calls.”

Dr. Charles Peterson takes the lead in this week’s discussion of the power of music in our lives. After a quick run-down of each co-host’s own musical likes and dislikes, the HBS gang jumps right into a consideration of the effect that music has on us both as individuals and collectively. Does music give us some singular insight into what it means to be human? What does music evoke within us? How does it seem to have the power to inspire, to sadden, to terrify, and to comfort? How can it be used to manipulate? Is music a key to understanding the order of the Universe? Is it a universal language? And, if music is a common “human” denominator, how do we explain people who have no rhythm, who are “tone-deaf,” or why our musical tastes vary so widely?

Check out the links below for examples of music mentioned in this episode (as well as ideas and thinkers mentioned in this episode!):

• Friedrich Nietzsche, The Case of Wagner (1888)
• Ralph Ellison, Shadow and Act (1964)
• CHARLES’ MUSICAL DISLIKES: Brian Eno, “Ambient 1: Music for Airports” (Full Album)
• CHARLES’ MUSICAL LIKES: Greatest Funk Songs (compilation)
• CHARLES’ MUSICAL LIKES: Aretha Franklin, “(You Make Me Feel Like) A Natural Woman,” (Live at the 2015 Kennedy Center Honors ceremony)
• RICK’S MUSICAL LIKES: Samara Joy, “Stardust”
• RICK’S MUSICAL LIKES: Dorothy Dandridge, “The Man I Love”
• RICK’S MUSICAL LIKES: Dean Martin, “Everybody Loves Somebody Sometime”
• RICK’S MUSICAL LIKES: Tony Bennett, “I Left My Heart in San Francisco”
• RICK’S MUSICAL LIKES: Anita O’Day, “Let’s Fall in Love”
• RICK’S MUSICAL LIKES: Crosby, Stills, Nash, and Young, “Carry On”
• RICK’S MUSICAL LIKES: Jefferson Starship, “Find Your Way Back”
• RICK’S MUSICAL LIKES: Jefferson Airplane, “Somebody To Love”
• LEIGH’S MUSICAL DISLIKES: frantic Celtic music and screamy speed metal
• LEIGH’S MUSICAL LIKES: For a comprehensive overview of Leigh’s musical tastes, check out her series at ReadMoreWriteMoreThinkMoreBeMore where she blogged her version of the #30DaySongChallenge for several years during the month of June. Here are the links to the 2011 list, the 2013 list, the 2014 list, the 2015 list, the 2016 list, and the 2018 list
• LEIGH’S MUSICAL LIKES: also check out the following- What is “roots music”?
• Alan S. Cowen, Xia Fang, Disa Sauter, and Dacher Keltner, “What music makes us feel: At least 13 dimensions organize subjective experiences associated with music across different cultures” (Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America Journal, January 2020)
• Trent Reznor And Atticus Ross – “The Social Network Soundtrack” [Full Album]
• Samuel A. Floyd, Jr., The Power of Black Music: Interpreting its History from Africa to the United States (1996)
• Sterling Stuckey, Slave Culture: Nationalist Theory and the Foundations of Black Culture (1987)
• Northern Ireland fans singing “Sweet Caroline” (EURO 2016)
• Mariusz Kozak, “How music and chants bring protesters together” (The Washington Post, 2020)
• Plato, “The Education of the Guardians” from Republic II and IV
• An explanation of consonant and dissonant harmonies
• Music and mathematics.
• Plato, Timaeus
• on Keppler’s “harmony of the spheres” and “musica universalis“
• Leonard Cohen, “Hallelujah”
• How Chords and Key Impact Emotion in Music
• Ibn Sina (Avicenna). “The Origin and Power of Music According to the 11^th Century Islamic Philosopher Ibn Sina”
• Steven Brown and Ulrik Volgsten, Eds., Music and Manipulation: On the Social Uses and Social Control of Music (2005)
• Daniel King, “12 Secrets of an Effective Altar Call” (Global Network of Evangelists, 2018)
• VIDEO: “Altar Call (Is Your All On The Altar) Medley – Bishop G.E. Patterson & Congregation”
• Lynda Randle, Michael English – “Pass Me Not, O Gentle Savior” (Live)
• Sister Act 2 (Finale) Lauryn Hill – “Joyful Joyful (Ft. Whoopi Goldberg)“
• Polish National Anthem
• Here is an example of Leigh’s love for 3 chords and a sad story