Music as a Stress Reliever

Musical theatre started in the fifteenth century, in Greece. They incorporated music and dance into their performances, which many were comedy based. Slowly, music and dance was integrated into Roman theatre as well. In the 1700-1800’s, Opera became a popular musical entertainment to the British, French and Germans. They enjoyed ballad operas which included popular tunes at the time with comedy or sentimental plays, such as John Gay’s “The Beggar’s Opera” performed in 1728 (http://www.odl.ox.ac.uk/balladoperas/what.php) Many of these opera’s were mimicked and comic operas with original scores and many romantic plot based plays. Many believe that musical theatre is a descended of Operas, however Operas are actually spoofs of Greek musicals as the artists in the Renaissance Times were trying to bring out Greek music that faded over many years.

Following the developing of social sciences, everybody has started to get concerned about the issue if music is good for healthy body and mental recently. This phenomenon makes the music therapy becomes popular. Music therapy is defined as “ the therapeutic use of music as to reduce anxiety, improve cognitive functioning, promote physical rehabilitation, or enhance interpersonal communication that typically involves listening to music, singing, playing musical instruments, or composing music “ in the Merriam-Webster.com. In other words, through the activity of music people can improve physical or psychological disease that achieves cure and health.

Billy Joel said, “I think music in itself is healing. It's an explosive expression of humanity. It's something we are all touched by. No matter what culture we're from, everyone loves music” (Music Quotes). Whether we realize it or not, music affects our lives greatly. The only thing for us to question is how. How does music impact your life and the lives of others? What does music do for us? People of all ages benefit emotionally, physically, and academically from music.

“The American Music Therapy Association (AMTA) defines music therapy as ‘an established health profession in which music is used within a therapeutic relationship to address physical, emotional, cognitive, and social needs of individuals’” (Barnett & Shale, 2013, p.48). Music Therapy (MT) is shown to be able to help people with many different kinds of mental health problems such as anxiety, stress, and minor cases of depression. There have been many studies done showing that MT is an effective form of therapy that can improve someone’s overall Quality Of Life (QOL). MT is known as an alternative technique therapy. It is often used instead of, or along with, medication to produce a result in the patience who need it. MT involves all aspects of the music process, including listening to, writing, singing, and analyzing music. Overall MT addresses physical and emotional problems and is used to enhance the life and health of the patient. This review is simply to inform readers of the effects music and MT has on mental health, specifically:

In a study done by Jennifer L. Lilley, Crystal D. Oberle, and Jon G. Thompson, Jr. at Texas State University, they tested the effects of grade consequences and music on test anxiety and performance. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effects of the participants grades if there were consequences and how music effects the participates anxiety and their test performances. There were previous works cited on how people improve their spatial cognitive task performances after listening to Mozart (Ho, Mason, & Spence, 2007). They also included studies where there were no benefits to people’s spatial cognitive task performances after listening to Mozart (Hui, 2006).

The Golden Age began the tradition of transforming classic literature into musical theater. During the 1950s, directors and collaborators took a central role in integrating movement and dance fully into musical theater productions. Many productions emphasized the storytelling power of dance. West Side Story (1957), a musical where dance held an integral part in, was a retelling of Romeo and Juliet to modern-day New York City. Guys and Dolls (1950), My Fair Lady (1956), The Music Man (1957), and Gypsy (1959) were all very influential and successful musicals of that time. The 1950s ended with Roger and Hammerstein’s last hit, The Sound of Music, and with its extremely successful film version, it became one of the most popular musicals in history.

Due to the extensive procedures surrounding treatment, patients often experience a variety of physical and psychological symptoms and side effects that negatively impact their quality of life and ability to cope with and manage an illness. Providing a choice of music during a receptive music therapy session may not only distract the patient from negative affective states, but also may provide a sense of autonomy and control over a patient 's immediate environment. The purpose of the essay was to determine whether receptive music therapy can improve two general dimensions of emotional experience and pain in a single session for patients. The guiding research question was: Will participants experience improved positive affect following a music therapy session? In my opinion ,I think the answer is yes. music therapy definitely have a positive effect on patients.

Therapeutic use of music is also extremely effective at reducing the everyday aches and pains that humans experience. Slow and methodical music slows the brain waves and helps the muscles in our body to relax, reducing muscle pain (Coleman). A significant amount of today’s population also experiences depression in some shape way or form and music therapy has been proven to be one of the most successful ways to help patients cope with depression. “Individual music therapy combined with standard care is extremely effective for lowering [depression] among working age people,” says Professor Christian Gold at the University of British Columbia (Paddock). “Music therapy is so effective because it allows patients to express their feelings in a safe way,” mentions Elizabeth Fawcett (MT-BC) (Peach). Hospital patients experienced consistently shorter and more pleasant stays when undergoing music therapy along with traditional treatment (Meyer).

“Acting is behaving truthfully under imaginary circumstances” said by Stanford Meisner. Theatre is an area of arts where you can be free from reality and imagine the impossible. Some of my favorite things about theatre are, the people that are involved, how helpful theatre is and how helpful everyone is, then my last thing is how much fun we have. One of my top favorite things about theatre is the people that are involved within it. Every person has a different personalities, that put together makes a new and neat experience. Theatre is an important part of my life and I enjoy every minute, while I’m there.

The music was played very often as a normal routine. People considered it a must to know how to play an instrument, sing, or be involved somehow with music in this age of time. Instruments in the 1600’s were able to make any type of music; the amazing part was no matter how many instruments you used it would always sound pure and the same. Another unique thing about the music and culture in the 1600’s is that it was also healthy for the body. During the Elizabethan Era the people would gather together to dance and dance for hours, their stamina must have been incredible. Music was use to entertain most people. Before the music became a big part in people life during the Elizabethan Era theatre played a really big part during this time. It

Since the days of the ancient Greeks, music has been an integral part of drama and theatre. Many composers wrote music to accompany plays, and sometimes the music became more well-known than the play it was written for … It

Ancient Greek Theater is the first historical record of “drama,” which is the Greek term meaning “to do” or “to act.” Beginning in the 5th century BC, Greek Theater developed into an art that is still used today. During the golden age of the Athenians plays were created, plays that are considered among the greatest works of world drama. Today there are thousands of well-known plays and films based on the re-make of ancient drama.

The impact of music on positive psychology and emotion is a well known fact. Music has an extraordinary ability to change people’s emotions. In humans, music has the ability to invoke emotions of sadness, happiness and even fear. The purpose of this study was to investigate the casual relationship between music practice and participation on the emotions and well-being of male and female adults. The hypotheses for this study were as follows; Hypothesis 1: Music practice and participation has an emotional impact on individuals under study; Hypothesis 2: Preference of more music genres is positively correlated with higher levels of happiness among the population under study; Hypothesis 3: Preference of more music genres is positively correlated with emotional response among the population under study. Results of the study indicated that both age groups had a positive emotional response to music.

Music is one of the greatest human creations (DeNora, 2000). It plays an integral role in human society worldwide irrelevant of race, gender, age, wealth or well-being (Kemper & Danhauer, 2005). Indeed according to Batt-Rawden (2010), playing different music in diverse situations can introduce listeners to the desired and relevant atmosphere. In most circumstances, music is played to entertain people, but it can also form part of an accompaniment in sad situations. Music is often the fulcrum that influences the listener by creating a unique ambience and atmosphere (Bernatzky, Presh, Anderson, & Panksepp, 2011). Chamorro-Premuzic and Furnham, (2007) adds that music can be a medium to enhance communication,

Media takes all forms of shapes, from video games to music it influences people daily because we are always surrounded by it. Music especially impacts individuals because in a lot of ways it can say what we want to say in times when we as individuals cannot say it. In those times we lean on music to help us understand the hardship we are going through, or as a mechanism to face our feelings or to block them out. Interpersonal violence which is defined as an individual using power over another in the form of violence whether that be emotional, physical, or sexual. With the many forms of interpersonal violence it’s apparent that it has been expressed in the form of music for quite a while, and sometimes not always in a preventative way. By