“Music alone with sudden charms can bind the wandering sense, and calm the troubled mind.” says William Congreve in his Hymn to Harmony. Centuries earlier, ancient Greek writings claimed that “musical training is a more potent instrument than any other, because rhythm and harmony find their way into the inward places of the soul.”
The truthfulness of that has been seen by some parents who have observed their teenagers becoming sullen and uncooperative after feeding on a steady diet of music. It was also seen during the 1930’s and 1940’s in Germany when the Nazis used stirring march music to help prepare large crowds to listen to Adolf Hitler’s mesmerizing speeches.
Unquestionably, music can affect minds and hearts and can be used to manipulate us either for good or for bad. For example, exposure of young children to certain types of music is believed to enhance their intellectual and emotional development.
Even when a person is sick, music can have unbelievable effect on him or her. For instance, the effect of music upon patients who have neurological diseases causing movement disorders is astonishing. Anthony Storr in his book ‘Music and the Mind’ cites the example of a female patient: “Frozen into immobility by disease, she would remain helplessly unable to move until she was able to recall tunes she had known in her youth. These would suddenly release her ability to move again.”
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