Musical catharsis: how does a person experience music?

I remembered a funny episode: a colleague had to speak at advanced training courses for school teachers. The teachers ordered a more than specific topic – an algorithm for musical influence on the listener.

I don’t know how she, poor thing, got out! After all, what kind of algorithm is there – a continuous “stream of consciousness”! Is it really possible to record emotions in a strictly defined sequence, when one “floats” onto another, rushes to displace, and then the next one is already on the way…

But learning music is a must!

The Greeks believed that one should only teach counting, writing, take care of physical education, and also develop aesthetically, thanks to music. Rhetoric and logic became among the main subjects a little later, there is nothing to say about the rest.

So, music. It is tempting to talk only about instrumental music, but to do so is to artificially impoverish yourself and potential readers of this material. That’s why we’ll take the whole complex together.

Enough is enough, I can’t do this anymore!

Only fragments of treatises have survived from the famous ancient Greek encyclopedist Aristotle. It can be difficult to get an idea of ​​the whole from them. For example, the term “catharsis”, which later entered aesthetics, psychology, and psychoanalysis by S. Freud, has about one and a half thousand interpretations. And yet, most researchers agree that Aristotle meant a strong emotional shock from what he heard, saw or read. A person becomes acutely aware of the impossibility of continuing to passively float with the flow of life, and the need for change arises. In essence, the person receives a kind of “motivational kick”. Isn’t that how the youth of the perestroika era went wild as soon as they heard the sounds of the song? Viktor Tsoi “Our hearts require change”, although the song itself was written before perestroika:

Isn’t that how your heart rate quickens and you are filled with full-fledged, healthy patriotism, listening to the duet of Lyudmila Zykina and Julian with the song “Mother and son“:

Songs are like hundred-year-old wine

By the way, a sociological survey was conducted where respondents were asked: whose female and male voices are capable of having a healing, cleansing effect, relieving pain and suffering, awakening the best memories in the soul? The answers turned out to be quite predictable. They chose Valery Obodzinsky and Anna German. The first was unique not only in his vocal abilities, but also in that he sang with an open voice – a rarity on the modern stage; many performers “cover” their voices.

Anna German’s voice is clear, crystal, angelic, taking us away from worldly vanities somewhere to a higher and ideal world:

“Bolero” composer Maurice Ravel is recognized as masculine, erotic, offensive music.

You are filled with dedication and courage when you listen “Holy War” performed by G. Alexandrov’s choir:

And watch the clip of a modern original performer – Igor Rasteryaev “Russian Road”. Exactly the clip! And then singing a song with an accordion will no longer seem frivolous or frivolous to anyone: