Why Do We Like Music?

Forty years ago, Bill Weiss, a student at Columbia University, went to see James Galway, a virtuoso Irish flutist, perform at the 92nd Street Y. Weiss had recently earned an A in a required musical-humanities course, and he thought that at the show he might finally feel moved by great music—an experience that had, until then, evaded him. His seat was in the front row. “I got to see the look of intensity in his eyes,” Weiss told me. “I got to see every bead of sweat that was cascading down his face. I could see that he was completely at one with the music.” He waited to experience some comparable upwelling of emotion, but it never came. Although he could appreciate Galway’s talent and passion, he felt nothing.