POWER

Derek Scott
  Professor of Music at Salford University

Perhaps the most popular perception of music's power is as a force acting upon or representing emotions such as love, hate, fear, joy, and sadness. Because of its emotional impact, music also possesses a political power that can be exerted in the forging of national and social class identities. The British National Anthem offers a telling case study of such power. A subject frequently linked to politics is economy, and here again music exerts its might: it is currently worth over £3 billion to the UK economy. Yet, it should not be forgotten among such material considerations that many people value music above all for its intellectual, spiritual or moral power. At the same time, however, there has never been a consensus about whether music's spiritual power is greater than its morally corrupting power. Finally, a remarkable new insight into the healing power of music has come to light in the past three years, something that has been labeled the 'Mozart effect'. This lecture explores the power of music as it is exerted in each of these different domains.