Culturology

UDC 781.2

Meshcheriakov Ivan

 independent expert

 UK, London

https://doi.org/10.25313/2524-2695-2022-12-02-13

MUSICAL AND SOUND EFFECTS ON HUMAN HEALTH

Summary. Music has always claimed a special role in society. Music and medical centers treated people for melancholy, nervous disorders, diseases of the cardiovascular system. Music is a special form of culture that has its own meaning, a set of images, mechanisms of influence on a person and society. In our article, we will consider why, affecting all the structural and semantic foundations of society and personality, music has a specific effect on the psychophysiological state of a person. Because of this, music acts as a biological and an anthropological constant, which transforms it into a sense-forming element of the ecological existence of the individual.

Key words: music, society, culture, psychophysiological state of a person, individual. 

Concerning the importance of our article it should be stated that many people listening to music of various styles and genres do not even think about its impact on their psyche and behavior. It should not be taken into consideration to what extent this influence manifests itself, what kind of character it has, what it can lead to, but with great confidence we can say that this influence is somehow a fact.

The positive influence of music for people was distinguished a long time ago, when it was just beginning to emerge. Its presence in every culture makes it clear that it is of fundamental importance. It stimulates the brain, which is why Pythagoras conducted classes with students under pleasant musical accompaniment. Aristotle said that the influence of music on the psyche is so strong that it can be used to form a special personality.

Music is a powerful source of energy that affects the emotional world of a person, awakening everything beautiful in him, making him cleaner and kinder. Immortal works of the great Mozart composers, Beethoven, Schubert, Tchaikovsky are able to activate the energy processes of the body and direct them to its physical recovery [4, с. 171].

Music interacts closely with human health, maintaining, strengthening or destroying its optimal state. Numerous studies confirm that a person is a «sounding microcosm» and each direction of music performs a certain role in its tuning for inclusion in the forms of life activity. Because of this, music acts as a biological and anthropological constant, which transforms it into a sense-forming element of the ecological existence of the individual.

Furthermore, every decade music becomes faster and more aggressive. If earlier foxtrot and step were considered dance music, and then twist, then disco and Eurodance appeared later. A little later, electronic music was widely developed. This gave us new rhythms of 140, 150, 160 beats per minute and more. But it is known that the human body is not designed to live in these rhythms constantly. We pay for such progress with serious failures in the central nervous system, sleep disorders, depression and increased irritability [3, с. 163].

Thus, by influencing a person’s feelings and thinking, music evokes images of real life in his mind, promotes their experience and comprehension. It influences a person’s worldview, directs and changes it.

In the perception of music, the main role belongs to emotions as a specific reaction of the listener, causing either spiritual satisfaction or dissatisfaction, therefore, when listening to music, a person has positive or negative emotions of a certain strength, reflecting his specific state. In the theory of aesthetics, it is called aesthetic experience. More complex pieces of music can awaken several different emotions.

The experience of the work is individual for each person and has different emotional shades. The same piece of music often affects people in different ways. In many ways, it depends on a person’s readiness to perceive music, on the level of development of his auditory experience, aesthetic taste, and general culture.

The active nature of a person finds expression in motor reactions to a musical composition that sounds. Inventing movements to music, a person concretizes a musical image, making it understandable primarily to himself [2, p. 11].

Choosing movements, first of all, it is necessary to listen to the nature of the music. To do this, it is necessary to clearly emphasize with your performance the change in the nature of the music that conveys different images, to find expressive intonations, performing colors that make the image accessible to perception. Only in this case can we talk about the fusion of movements with the nature of music and about their expressiveness.

It is noteworthy that classical music has the most comprehensive influence on a person. It is about the influence of classical music on a person that they say the most. Scientists attribute a miraculous effect to classical works.

Unlike classical music, doctors do not recommend listening to rap, hard rock and heavy metal bands for a long time. This is evidenced by research conducted recently by Melbourne scientists. Hard rock is often the cause of unconscious aggression, rap also awakens negative emotions, and heavy metal can even cause mental disorders [1, p. 94].

As for other genres: blues, jazz and reggae can bring you out of a depressive state; music in pop styles can cheer someone up, and spoil someone; muscle and nervous tension will relieve melodic rock, and heavy rock, on the contrary, will put you into a stupor. To understand what effect music of a particular genre has on you, you should just observe your emotions and feelings.

Admittedly folk music has a positive effect on a person. It perfectly calms down, as if returning people to their historical roots. Ethnic music cleanses the space from negative influences and opens energy centers, saturates the human biofield with energy and normalizes life flows [5, p. 24].

Some experts are convinced that not only the genre, rhythm and tonality of the work matter, but also what kind of musical instrument the melody was played on. The sound of a single musical instrument affects a certain organ of the human body. For example, stringed instruments (violin, guitar, harp and cello) have a healing effect on the work of the cardiovascular system. In addition, the sound of strings causes a person to feel gratitude, compassion and sacrifice.

Playing the piano and piano harmonizes the psyche, cleanses the thyroid gland, normalizes the work of the genitourinary system. Organ sounds normalize energy flows in the spine and stimulate brain activity. Wind instruments purify the bronchi and improve the functioning of the respiratory system, as well as have a positive effect on blood circulation. In turn, percussion instruments treat the liver and circulatory system.

As a consequence, we can state that different styles of music have an impact on the human body, in particular on blood pressure and pulse. As a final point the influence of music on the human body is huge, everything in the world is made of sounds. But music acquires magical power only when a person purposefully resorts to it in order to improve his psycho-emotional state.

References

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