Humanities- Music Reflection Paper

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Humanities: Music Reflection Paper When thinking about the question (can music affect the listener?) many thoughts and notions come to my mind that can either refute or agree with this purposed question, but the opinion that I will explain in detail with clear and concise evidence within the body of this paper is that music does in fact affect the listener in many positive ways. People tend to listen to a genre/style of music based upon his/her mood or feelings at that very point and time, for example if I were to listen to a song from the genre of rap or R&B I would become in a more upbeat, happy mood if I already wasn’t feeling that way; but if I was listening to a Punk Rock or Country song I would probably be or become in an …show more content…
Since I have explained to the reader the 2 examples of songs that I have a positive, strong impact on my already instilled mood, I will now include the examples and notions of Aristotle that are included in the booklet entitled “Politics.” Within the given selection we were required to read that was translated from the writings of Aristotle, he talks about the different purposes that music encompasses for its listeners; education, purgation, and pleasure. When discussing music in the sense of pleasure, Aristotle (the scholar), includes the following statements that go along with my notions of how music does indeed affect the listener. For example he states, “Rhythm and melodies within a song supply imitations of anger and gentleness, and also of courage and temperance, and of all the qualities contrary to these, and of the other qualities character, which hardly fall short of the actual affections, as we know from our own experiences.” Another example of Aristotle’s notions that agree with my idea that music does in fact affect the listener goes as the following, “Since then the music is a pleasure, and virtue consists in rejoicing and loving and hating aright, there is clearly nothing which we are so much concerned to acquire and to cultivate as the power of forming right judgments, and of