Wednesday, December 6, 2017

Thoughts on the Power of Music

By the power of music, I mean its power to affect the hearers, to raise various passions in the human mind.  Of this we have very surprising accounts in ancient history.  We are told, the ancient Greek musicians in particular were able to excite whatever passions they pleased: to inspire love or hate, joy or sorrow, hope or fear, courage, fury or despair; yea, to raise these one after another, and to vary the passion just according to the variation of the music.

John Wesley, Thoughts on the Power of Music, 1779, cited by John Makujina in, Measuring the Music, pg. 234

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