‘We discover music wherever there are individuals,’ says the professor and musician Milton Mermikides close to the opening of this lecture at Gresham Faculty in London, through which he units out to make sense of why that’s the case. Taking the viewers on a journey that begins with a picture of a 30,000-year-old flute carved from a wooly mammoth tusk and ends with an audiovisual rendering of Eclipse (1973) by Pink Floyd, Mermikides traverses musicology, anthropology, psychology and neuroscience to element the myriad methods music triggers our primal instincts and prompts our feelings. Brimming with fascinating examples and transferring moments, Mermikides provides fascinating insights into the various issues humanity has realized about our love of music, and what stays a thriller.
