The Emotional Appeal in Instrumental Music

Extract

The statement that music is the most emotional of the Arts will not be denied by any one. While the other arts awaken ideas, which in their turn act on the feelings, music acts inversely. It affects, in the first instance, the emotions, creating dispositions which we translate by the vague terms joy, sadness, tenderness, serenity, tranquillity, &c. (cf. Ribot, “Psychology of the Emotions,” p. 103).