In Edvard Grieg’s “Morning Mood”, a well-recognized piece of classical music, a flute is the first instrument one hears. The beautiful whistle of the flute’s first note strikes a high A, played softly, and the softness continues as the flute travels down the scale, only to play a C and make its way, legato, back up to an A (Morning Mood: Peer Gynt No.1). As the piece continues, violins, cellos, oboes, and many other instruments are softly introduced to complement the flute’s high and quiet notes. It is only when the flute crescendos in the middle of the piece that the other instruments follow along. This continues Grieg’s trend, on this track, of forming the other instrument’s parts around the flute. Occasionally, the flute will soften and be replaced by another wind or string, but the trend of surrounding the main instrument with other pieces still continues. This soothing blend of the instruments is what causes the mind to remove stress when listening. I believe that music …show more content…
In a study titled ‘Music as an Aid For Postoperative Recovery in Adults’, performed on hospital patients, groups were subject to music therapy before, during, and after surgery. Across seven thousand patients, music decreased the patients’ stress and pain the majority of the time. Stress and pain levels even reduced during surgery (The Lancet). Music therapy involves other factors besides music, but simply attempting to boost one’s mood while listening to music can have a dramatic affect. Another experiment on the effects of music on stress was done by Yuna Ferguson and Kennon Sheldon. The two studied a person who listened to happy music for twelve minutes, while attempting to feel happier, and noticed the person felt a drastic change in positivity. One the other hand, a person listening to happy music without trying to change the way they felt noticed no change in emotion (Ferguson, and