Why Music? The Key to Memory

Live from Wellcome Collection as part of Why Music? The Key to Memory, a weekend of events, concerts and discussions exploring music's unique capacity to be remembered. Matthew Sweet is joined by pianist and film music authority Neil Brand for a live programme exploring the importance of memory on the working of music for film. Matthew and Neil discuss and illustrate how musical recollection informs a viewer's reading of a film; how it can heighten emotional response; how at times it can even suggest psychological depths to narrative and character that run counter to our perception of the image. They explore the 'Casablanca' effect and consider the interesting and novel ways in which our received or instinctive repertory of musical sounds, offers a collective cultural reference with the ability to evoke mood, setting, empathy and humour.