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Music : The Relationship Between Music And Music

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The relationship between music and mood has been studied as far back as ancient Greece. Since then, scientists and researchers have been using music in therapy in an attempt to change and explain emotions. While the beliefs behind the ability to change one’s mood have changed over the millennia, from the idea that the planets control human emotions to modern-day music therapy, it remains an accepted belief in psychological research that listening to music has an impact on the mood and emotion of the listener. Up until the Enlightenment, music was viewed as something to be studied using mathematics and science rather than enjoyed as an art form. Pythagoras, known best for his mathematical equations and studies of triangles, believed that the planets vibrated in the same frequencies as note harmonies in music. He referred to this as the “harmony of the spheres,” and used this theory to support his claim that heavenly bodies in motion produced a series of musical tones. Another theory of the ancient Greeks was the “ethos doctrine.” This claimed that all melodies had a special ethos, or characteristic spirit, which influenced mood. Aristotle, perhaps one of the best known Greek philosophers and scientists, believed that a person’s “very soul” could be altered by music. He argued that in terms of rhythms, "some fix the disposition, others occasion a change in it; some act more violently, others more liberally.” A final theory of music and mood is called the “Doctrine of the

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