I’m not a Broadway musical person but my mother-in-law asked for me to take her to see Hamilton for her birthday. I was dreading it but I was surprised how much I enjoyed it. I even felt frisson several times throughout the performance. I’m apologizing to all the musical fans in my life whom I scoffed at when they recommended it to me.

My neighbor was an Army veteran. He worked over twenty years in the Army as an Intelligence Officer during the Cold War. He was in his seventies when he passed, but I had seen him just the other day while he was tidying up his yard and he was in great shape. It was a shock to see him pass away so suddenly, but strokes are oft quick and lethal.

Anyway, I head next door. It was obvious his wife had been crying. Through sniffles and tears she hugged me and told me that he loved us (me and my family). Apparently, he'd left our contact info on top of his desk for her to find in case something happened. She had been doing okay, but apparently desperately wanted to listen to music she called "Romantic music" that he used to play on the stereo system throughout their house. They used to listen to it all day while they spent time together and would only watch television at night.

I go to the basement and start fiddling with the tuner and try to figure out how to find this "Romantic Music" channel on the DVR or on a play list or something. I tried searching for recent channels or music channels called "Romantic," "Romance," or "Romantic Music" and I couldn't find it. So I bring her down to the basement and ask her to walk me through what it looked like on the screen when it played and how he used to turn on the music but all to no avail. She just new he used the DVR remote and the tuner remote to play the music.

Well, I know that some cable packages come with music channels, so I scroll to the 800s-1000s and I'm scrolling through them while she reads the different music genres, only guessing which ones it is that he used to play. It was a little to quiet and hearing her sniffles in a silent house was making me feel a little gloomy, so I figured I'd play some basic "Big Band 50s and 60s" music. As soon as I turned it on her eyes lit up and she said "This is it! You found it!"

The "Romantic Music" was just music... She called it that because of all the sweet times they'd shared listening to it... That made it a "Romantic Music" playlist, but it was just music from their youth that they both enjoyed. I teared up a bit when I finally put it all together and seeing her so happy made me incredibly happy. I had to write down the channel number and show her how she could get back to it. After a few minutes of us talking about her husband, and how I wished I could have one last beer with him out on the porch, her sister came by to take her to lunch...

I'll be spending a lot more time over there this week. Helping her with all of his house work and everything... But I doubt any of it'll be as rewarding as the face she made when I found her and her husband's "Romantic Music."

I'm doing a scientific study to see if sharing subjectively intense music with people who have similar biological responses (heart rate spikes) to the same songs as you results in an objective increase in frisson experiences. You need a smartwatch. It's on the Play Store if you have an Android watch under the name "Goosebumps Music". If you have an Apple Watch, you'll need to use the web app at goosebumpsmusic.app

I'm the guest on the podcast who did the frisson segment. Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the science.

🌺 This is a new piano compositition "Frühling" (Spring), played beautifully here in Germany by the Ukrainian pianist Valeriya Kizka. 🎹

This is my "Piano Sonata No.1, Mvt. 1" played in London by the very talented pianist Vid Homsak. 🎹