“Is there music that can make us understand what depression and anxiety feel like?” writes Mark Rice-Oxley in Sunday’s (7/15) Guardian (U.K.). “Keaton Henson thinks so—and he’s going to try to prove it. On 20 July, a string orchestra [the Britten Sinfonia] will perform the songwriter’s latest work, Six Lethargies, at the Barbican in London. Some audience members will be hooked up to finger sensors monitoring electrodermal activity and autonomic nervous reaction. The data produced will control the lighting system. The possibilities for feedback are almost endless. ‘If I write about how it feels to me, will you feel it, too?’ Henson asks. ‘If you do, then it proves it is not a mental health issue, it’s a physical health issue.’ … Henson … spent months composing the work in his flat while feeling deeply unwell…. He also [met] with cognitive neuroscientists … to understand more about how music affects us. Henson came to understand some peculiar things…. ‘It turns out that a sad note is a sad note, whatever the culture,’ he says. ‘A rhythm makes us feel at one—we dance around campfires or in clubs, our heart rates sync up. It has bonding power.’ ”
Posted July 17, 2018
