• Music & Emotion

    Who gets musical chills and why?

    Paper: Nusbaum, E.C. & Silva, P.J. (2010). Shivers and Timbres: Personality and the Experience of Chills from Music. Social Psychology and Personality Science. The online version of this article is available here.  Yesterday I was listening to a youtube version of Pavarotti singing Panis Angelicus with his father, recorded in their family church in Modena in 1978 (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C4mD_EJttQk) As the pair reach the final high note of the final phrase together, I get a little shiver down my spine: Wonderful. There is something about the song and their performance in particular that is so powerful for me that it sets off a physical reaction. What is that all about? Have you…