Music is good to the melancholy

In his Ethics, (as an example of how one thing can be good, bad or indifferent depending on the situation) Spinoza wrote that

music is good to the melancholy, bad to the mourner, and neither good nor bad to the deaf.

I would imagine that those who work in this old kauri villa in Grey Lynn, which I pass most days on my way to work, would disagree with Spinoza. This is a service for children and young persons with mainly developmental problems, ranging from the mild to the extreme, and including physical, intellectual and psychological/emotional. Their aim is to free up the person by the use of music and the innate response to music.

The closest I have been to this sort of therapy over the years is that one of my brother's daughters is a music therapist. The house is black from when in a previous incarnation it was a photography business.

Of the pictures I took while on my morning run today, I chose this because it carries a message of hope for children who have little hope and are often excluded. With the help of this, and similar services, such children often rejoin their age peers. I also chose it because I was taken with the reflections in the windows from the dawn sky behind me at that point in my circuit. The moon is a counterpoint, and the apartment building behind (with views less dramatic than I am fortunate to have) has its brilliant white altered by the effect of the sunrise.

When seeking a quote for this photo. I also found one from The Bard, which I liked. In Act V of the Merchant of Venice are these words

The man that hath no music in himself,
Nor is not mov'd with concord of sweet sounds,
Is fit for treason, stratagems, and spoils;
The motions of his spirit are dull as night,
And his affections dark as Erebus.

I find that when melancholy hits a person her or his soul can lose the ability to respond to music, and that can deepen the melancholy. Exposure to music is likely to benefit adults as well as the young. A pity that there are no resources for this.