Stravinsky's music caused madness..??

[Edvard Munch's Scream (1893), National Gallery, Oslo]

Have you felt so affected by a musical performance that you uncontrollably started to punch a person sitting next to you (Vanilla Ice concerts that you may have been forced to attend with your neice doesn't count). Here's a fascinating story about how primal we can be about sound.

RadioLab brings a gripping segment about how a concert hall full of people just went crazy over a new Stravinsky performance that perhaps the brains in 1913 couldn't process. You gotta listen to believe.

Click on the link below and fast forward to 7:39 (the segment before this is very interesting, too: how cultures around the world use the same melodic intonations when they say their versions of "goochie-goochie-goo" to their babies)

[from WNYC's website:] Science reporter Jonah Lehrer takes us on a tour through the ear as we try to understand how the brain makes sense of soundwaves and what happens when it can't. Which brings us to one particularly riotous example: the 1913 debut performance of Stravinsky's "Rite of Spring." Jonah suggests that the brain's attempt to tackle disonant sounds resulted in old ladies tackling each other. Disney might even show up for the brawl.




» Time Magazine profile on Stravinsky, by Philip Glass



» More on the "Rite of Spring" riot



» Articles by Jonah Lehrer for Seed Magazine




Listen to the entire show, it's one of my favorite shows out there.