Kaffeemusik: Music & Memory
Saturday, October 26, 2024 | 03:30 PM
Church of the Redeemer
When we “remember” a melody, it plays in our mind, it becomes newly alive. There is not a process of recalling, imagining, assembling, recategorizing, re-creating, as when one attempts to reconstruct or remember an event or a scene from the past. We recall one tone at a time and each tone entirely fills our consciousness, yet simultaneously relates it to the whole.
– Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia
This multimedia presentation investigates the mysterious ways in which music is processed and stored by the human brain. Interspersed with gorgeous music by the likes of Lasso, Allegri, Purcell, and Mozart, we’ll recount tales such as the legend of Wolfgang Mozart’s visit to the Sistine chapel, questionable neurological theories such as the “Mozart effect,” the mind-boggling memory of American slave piano sensation Blind Tom Wiggins, and heart-warming tales of Alzheimer's patients who remember music when they can remember almost nothing else.
Sharang Sharma, guest conductor
Lucas Harris, narrator
Luke Welch, piano
