A psychology of music : The influence of music on behavior / Charles M. Diserens, Harry Fine.

Format:

Book

Author/Creator:

Diserens, Charles Murdock, author.

Fine, Harry, author.

Series:

PsychBooks Collection

Language:

English

Subjects (All):

Music, Influence of.

Music--Psychological aspects.

Music.

Physical Description:

1 online resource (405 pages).

Other Title:

psychology of music

A psychology of music

Place of Publication:

Cincinnati : College of Music, 1939.

Summary:

"The present volume is a cooperative work representing the results of wide research conducted by the authors during a number of years. In 1926, one of them published a favorably received study of "The Influence of Music on Behavior." Meanwhile, the other writer had been carrying on researches of a somewhat similar character, and had organized the results of musical studies which have been carried out during the last decade. It occurred to them to combine their results in the form of a General Psychology of Music, conceived on a different plan than any hitherto followed by writers on this subject. It appears to the authors of this book that most similar works offer a limited conception of music, having been written primarily for musicians, students of music, physicists, critics and other special classes of readers. It is assumed that music is an art or technique more or less divorced from life, and that the psychology of music is limited to a study of responses--to its mere elements, or, a discussion of the abstract relationships between such elements. We think of music as no isolated abstract art--a mere element of culture--but as a form or phase of culture inextricably blended with its other phases. In short, music is a form of living, influencing and influenced by every other form of living. We have traced the influence of music on religious and economic life, on philosophy, morals, and medicine. These facts account for the great amount of sociological material incorporated in these pages. If musical stimuli have really played such a role in biological evolution as our analysis suggests, the general influence of music on the organism is a deductive fact requiring no further proof. It is, however, of interest chiefly as a background to studies of specific musical effects, the presence of which, if found by experiment on a few individuals, would still be a doubtful basis for a generalization in the absence of some general conditions for the appearance of musical effects. By organizing all the available series of data on musical influences, from ethnology, sociology, and culture history, as well as from experiment, we may derive a convergent proof of the influence of music on the organism, which will be more satisfactory than one based on any single series of data with its inherent limitations. Our purpose then is to study the influence of music on the organism. We approach music from the practical rather than from the aesthetic stand-point, regarding it as a necessity, a possible means of re-education and human reconstruction for all, rather than a mere subject of unproductive pleasure, or an object for criticism from the learned few. Our general method will be genetic as well as experimental"--Introduction. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2015 APA, all rights reserved).

Contents:

The origin of music

Animal auditors

Music in mythology and folklore

The music of magic and sorcery

Music and religion

Music and medicine

Music, melancholy and ecstasy

Music and daily tasks

Early experiments on the effects of music

Experiments pertaining to the influence of music on behavior

Contemporary experimental work on the psychology of music

General summary and conclusions.

Notes:

Description based on print version record.

Includes bibliographical references.