Oliver Sacks Tribute

Like the rest of the world, we at iLs are saddened by the death of Oliver Sacks last week. A modern-day Renaissance Man, he contributed much to our understanding of the brain and sensory perception with his empathic and compelling accounts of his patients.

As a tribute to him, we’d like to honor his respect for the power of music to evoke emotions. The following quote needs no further commentary, but we thought you might enjoy three short videos that beautifully demonstrate his point.

“Music, uniquely among the arts, is both completely abstract and profoundly emotional. It has no power to represent anything particular or external, but it has a unique power to express inner states or feelings. Music can pierce the heart directly; it needs no mediation.”

– Oliver Sacks, Musicophilia: Tales of Music and the Brain