Music and Mind March 22nd, 2025 at 2:30PM Future Event Watch the video » Pan played the Flute, Orpheus the lyre, Jimi Hendrix the guitar, Mickey Hart the drums. Melody, whether harmony or dissonance, could soothe the brow, agitate the body, or link with the mystical. In the 6th century BCE Pythagoras, listening to the “music of the spheres”, uncovered the celestial mechanics and mathematics inherent to music. Music is rhythm as well as melody. Villagers and Tribes beat the drums, to summon attention and sound alerts across distance. Hart‘s Grateful Dead played to the fetal beat of his baby still in the womb. The question asked by scientists and mathematicians is whether the patterns and rational numbers underlying music are discovered or invented. While animals hear and respond to familiar and alien sounds, neuroscientists perceive attunement to “’the sympathetic chords” as particular to the human brain. We recognize cultures by their languages and music, while Beethoven’s Fifth, Ain’t Misbehavin’, Take Five give uncanny sense that some music patterns existed always as a feeling entry into Nature, as we murmur with water’s flows, whistle with the wind, and speak words that another being can understand as creating community. Language offers brain information, while shouts, cries, songs, tunes, beat and pace imprints personal and group messaging and meaning. Music calms, incites, serves or manipulates. It is of of earth, the planets, and the spheres. To answer Jimi: yes, of course, everyone is experienced! Participants: Jane Ira Bloom Saxophonist, Composer Soprano saxophonist/composer Jane Ira Bloom has been developing her unique voice on the soprano saxophone for over 45 years. She is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz. Winner of the Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition, the Downbeat International Critics Poll & Jazz Journalists Association Award for soprano saxophone, the Mary Lou Williams Award for lifetime… read more » Rosanne Cash Singer-songwriter, Author “One of the most ambitious and literary songwriters of her generation” (Rolling Stone), Rosanne Cash is America’s foremost musical woman of letters, a literate and incisive artist whose poignant and distinctive vocals turn every song into a revelatory tale. A singular artist at the peak of her interpretive powers, Cash has earned four Grammy awards—three… read more » Lydia Goehr Fred & Fannie Mack Professor of Humanities in the Department of Philosophy, Columbia University Author Lydia Goehr is Fred and Fannie Mack Professor of Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University. She is the author of The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music ; The Quest for Voice: Music, Politics, and the Limits of Philosophy; Elective Affinities: Musical Essays on the History of Aesthetic Theory; Red Sea-Red Square-Red Thread. A… read more » Joseph LeDoux Professor of Neural Science, New York University Joseph LeDoux is a Professor of Neural Science at New York University. His work, which has spanned the topics of emotion, memory, and consciousness, and their interaction in the brain. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received a numerous awards… read more » Joanne Loewy Director, Department of Music Therapy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Joanne Loewy DA, LCAT, MT-BC is the Director of the Department of Music Therapy, and a Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is a Founding Member of the International Association for Music and Medicine and is an MPI on two NIH funded studies on Pain and Music therapy in the stress measured… read more » David Silbersweig Chairman of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital Dr. David Silbersweig is chairman of psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he also co-directs the center for the neurosciences. He was an academic dean at Harvard Medical School, and is Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry there. Until 2008, Silbersweig was vice chair for research within the department of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he was director… read more »
Jane Ira Bloom Saxophonist, Composer Soprano saxophonist/composer Jane Ira Bloom has been developing her unique voice on the soprano saxophone for over 45 years. She is a pioneer in the use of live electronics and movement in jazz. Winner of the Guggenheim Fellowship for music composition, the Downbeat International Critics Poll & Jazz Journalists Association Award for soprano saxophone, the Mary Lou Williams Award for lifetime… read more »
Rosanne Cash Singer-songwriter, Author “One of the most ambitious and literary songwriters of her generation” (Rolling Stone), Rosanne Cash is America’s foremost musical woman of letters, a literate and incisive artist whose poignant and distinctive vocals turn every song into a revelatory tale. A singular artist at the peak of her interpretive powers, Cash has earned four Grammy awards—three… read more »
Lydia Goehr Fred & Fannie Mack Professor of Humanities in the Department of Philosophy, Columbia University Author Lydia Goehr is Fred and Fannie Mack Professor of Humanities in the Department of Philosophy at Columbia University. She is the author of The Imaginary Museum of Musical Works: An Essay in the Philosophy of Music ; The Quest for Voice: Music, Politics, and the Limits of Philosophy; Elective Affinities: Musical Essays on the History of Aesthetic Theory; Red Sea-Red Square-Red Thread. A… read more »
Joseph LeDoux Professor of Neural Science, New York University Joseph LeDoux is a Professor of Neural Science at New York University. His work, which has spanned the topics of emotion, memory, and consciousness, and their interaction in the brain. He is an elected member of the National Academy of Sciences and the American Academy of Arts and Sciences. He has received a numerous awards… read more »
Joanne Loewy Director, Department of Music Therapy, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Professor, Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai Joanne Loewy DA, LCAT, MT-BC is the Director of the Department of Music Therapy, and a Professor at Icahn School of Medicine at Mount Sinai. She is a Founding Member of the International Association for Music and Medicine and is an MPI on two NIH funded studies on Pain and Music therapy in the stress measured… read more »
David Silbersweig Chairman of Psychiatry, Brigham and Women's Hospital Dr. David Silbersweig is chairman of psychiatry at Brigham and Women’s Hospital in Boston, where he also co-directs the center for the neurosciences. He was an academic dean at Harvard Medical School, and is Stanley Cobb Professor of Psychiatry there. Until 2008, Silbersweig was vice chair for research within the department of psychiatry at Weill Cornell Medical College, where he was director… read more »