What music gives you the 'tingles'?
Most of us have experienced it at one time or another; that moment when a piece of music just... gets you. As Radio 3's Tom Service describes it, it's 'that physical response to music... whether it’s a shiver down the spine, a warm romantic glow, or the hairs of your arms standing on end.'
This sensation has become known as 'the tingles', a phenomena observed by psychologists and studied by neuroscientists. As part of a Radio 3 partnership with Wellcome Collection in London - Why Music? - presenter Andrew McGregor, with composer and pianist Neil Brand, and psychologist Professor Lauren Stewart, is exploring this so-called 'Tingle Factor' in a programme on 27 September.
We asked them all to tell us what music gave them the 'tingles' for a BBC Music Playlist. Here is a selection of their choices.
A heavenly choir, a laser-like trumpet, and strange fruit
Among the works Andrew McGregor picks out are an uplifting moment from a choral masterpiece by Monterverdi, a powerful and enduring song which came to symbolise the brutality and racism of America's south, and Mahler in torment.
Duo seraphim, from Monterverdi's Vespers
It’s the moment when the two angels call across the heavens to one another, imitating and lifting each other’s lines… You feel as though you’ve been given a precious glimpse of eternity itself… and when the third angel joins them, well…
More about Monteverdi: Radio 3 Composer of the Week
Strange Fruit, sung by Billie Holiday
Even if you couldn’t make out the eerie horror of the words, there’s just something about the way Billie Holiday sings this that makes the hairs on the back of my neck stand up…
More about Strange Fruit: Radio 4 Soul Music
Adagio from Symphony No. 10, Gustav Mahler
Mahler in crisis, appearing to find consolation for a few moments in conventional romantic harmony, then losing his way as the strings meander uncertainly to a halt. Which is when Mahler body-slams us with two immense dissonances, built from bottom to top of the orchestra, linked by a laser-like trumpet burning into our brains. It’s terrifying: Mahler in torment, questioning his life, his music and his marriage, and ripping an opening into the musical world to come.
From art, to the movies
Professor Lauren Stewart works in the psychology department at Goldsmiths University in London. She describes how personal experiences can trigger this 'chill response'.
Beck: Everybody's gotta learn sometimes
I'd just moved to Boston and went to the cinema, alone, to watch Eternal Sunshine of the Spotless mind. I had a lump in my throat listening to this as the credits rolled.
Mussorgsky: Pictures at an Exhibition (saxophone solo)
I had to play it once in a school orchestra concert, so I have a chill response that isn't entirely positive as I was completely terrified. But it's a very haunting and beautiful solo.
A Firebird
Pianist and composer, Neil Brand chooses - among other works - the dramatic and awe-inspiring finale from Igor Stravinsky's The Firebird.
Stravinsky: The Firebird (extract)
An extract from Stravinsky's The Firebird.
The Tingle Factor Playlist
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Listen to the full list
Hear all of the music chosen by Andrew, Lauren and Neil and Radio 3 listeners.
The Tingle Factor is part of Why Music? and is presented by Andrew McGregor with Lauren Stewart and Neil Brand. It will be broadcast on Radio 3 on Sunday 27 September at 10.30 and available to listen online for 30 days.
