Introduction: music and the senses

Why does music stir our desires and enliven our emotions? Beyond hearing, how does it relate to our other senses? What does the existence of music suggest about human nature? And what does music even mean? Wayne Koestenbaum hints at answers to some of these questions in relation to the experience of hearing – and seeing – opera: “A singer’s voice sets up vibrations and resonances in the human body” (2001, 42). Indeed, the idea of music as a physical system of waves and vibrational sensations has inspired thinkers for millennia, from Pythagoras to the composer Jean-Philippe Rameau and beyond. So, too, of course, has the notion that music links directly to human passions and perhaps even our morality. Koestenbaum continues: