EFFECT OF MUSIC.

Otago Daily Times, Issue 20292, 28 December 1927, Page 14

EFFECT OF MUSIC.

“ ABSOLUTE NECESSITY.” THE MAN IN THE STREET. Although music rarely affects two people in the same manner, to all, in different ways, writes Dr Leigh Henry, 8.A.. Mns.B., Ph.D,, in the Daily Chronicle, London, it acts as a tonic and rejuvenator. It divests the work-cramped individual of the artificiality of strained attitudes and self-conscious habits acquired in the routine of everyday life. Psychologists and sane sociologists are more emphatic than ever as to the necessity of providing the people with mental ns well as physical relaxation. In this respect the Americans arc far ahead of us in realising the curative effects of music, and in many of the larger offices employees arc provided with listening-in rooms, or have special hours allotted them, offering a complete and absolute relief from the tension of work. This innovation has resulted not only in greater efficiency, but also in the employees taking a greater interest in their work, instead of, as hitherto, regarding it merely as a means of obtaining a livelihood. One has only to compare the atmosphere of public conveyances—tube, tram, omnibus, or train —with that of a concert hall, and the effect music has on the average person will be scon at once. Hero one is struck by the dreary masklike faces around one. AH these are types of the dehumanising effect of modern life, pursuing their everyday practical occupations by rote, with ns much expediency as possible, standardised into machine-like figures having little or no other interest to bestow on the things about or within them as they pass on their way. Their minds “ live shop ” as ranch as the conversation of most of them consists mainly in talking “ shop.” This unrelieved preoccupation gives their faces such stiff tension and nervous, strained peculiarities. WHEN THE MUSIC BEGINS. But lure the same people to a concert hall or to some such environment, and watch the gradual change that passes over their faces. At first they are self-con-scious, and adopt poses individual to them in the company of other people, but once the music begins their stiffness disappears, and their faces take on an altogether new expression—an expression of interest, absorption in the music, and an intensity that reveals a reawakening to life around and within them. I know of an old professor who, when perplexed by some deep problem, will, in this way, put aside his books and go off to a concert. The mental and physical relief afforded by the music enables him to return to the struggle with renewed energy. For it must not be forgotten that the mind can be rendered as useless by strain as can the muscles of the body. When returning home tired and weary after a day’s arduous work, most of us have felt sometimes that angry desire to kick up a row, cither by quarrelling or being rowdy. These oiitbunsts are the result of pen't-up emotion seeking outlet in the sensation of noisemaking. Only by finding such vent can some at times obtain relief. Music has been termed organised noise,” and for many it provides a saner emotional valve, through singing, playing, or going to musical entertainments. But it was only a temporary, not a permanent relief. Atrophied emotion seeks more acute excitement, but the effect of this, worn off, leaves empty dissatisfaction and consequent nervous wreckage, as in the case of drugs. The thousands, for instance, who accumulate outside local public houses of an evening do so, not because they have a particular fondness for drink but because the atmosphere in which they find themselves a ffords a relief from th e monotony of everyday practical life. Unfortunately, they merely substitute empty sensation for emotional experience, and this, worn off, only leaves increased dissatisfaction—i.c., a racking headache in the morning. BOTTLE I)-UI’ EMOTIONS. Tile complexities that civilisation has brought in its train, although introduced by man, have made him their slave. Man to-day might bo described as a. cog in a mammoth machine, which, as it revolves, consumes an ever-increasing amount of human energy. He is confined and narrowed down to a job, which, in time, becomes merely mechanical. And the more commerce and industry expands, the more does his work become confined and specialised. The whole hosts of capacities in his nature are deprived of any function or expression. His emotions are bottled, and his feelings unduly repressed in the humdrum of every day. And such capacities, deprived of normal outlet, resort to sensationalism, which leads in the end fo dangerous perversities. The splitting of the atom, if ever this feat of science is accomplished, will involve ns in still further complications, for immediately there will be a general reduction of our daily work. How shall we employ the extra hours left on our hands? It is obvious flint esthetic occupations must tie invented t< take its place, and that very soon, otherwise the blind pressure of bottled emotion and feeling will find an outlet in senseless riot and sensational dissipation. That way lies anarchy. Tor music is not merely an expedient. In make existence possible, but an absolute necessity. It is on,, of the most powerful nourishments of mind and spirit, which, in any sanely healthy community, require ustenance as much as the body.