Henryk Gorecki, Three Pieces in the Old Style I, II and III

I've been thinking if there is an actual physiological reaction of comfort the body experiences towards sound and well, music. 

Physiologically I gather obvious things, the first, sound being a transitional element, not only because it's a wave but because it's processed and transformed within the body. From a wave intercepted by liquid, converted then from pressure to vibration, and finally translated to nervous stimuli within the brain.

"Music has often been referred to as the "language of the soul". Music can have a strong influence on the body as well as the emotion, since the vibrations of music can penetrate through our skin, ears, bones, and viscera to get to us (Steckler, 1998). For instance, certain vibrations calm us, while others energize us and some trigger our emotions and unleash a variety of response from crying to bursting with joy (Steckler, 1998). Furthermore, studies on the neurological effects of music indicates that at least three processes are stimulated (for review, see Bush, 1995): a. Music moves from the ears to the center of the brain and the limbic system, which governs the emotional responses of pain and pleasure as well as such involuntary processes as body temperature and blood pressure. b. Music may activate a flow of stored memories across the corpus callosum. As a result, the recall of association is greatly enhanced. c. Music can excite peptides, which release endorphins and produce a "natural high" and also serve as a natural deterrent to the experience of pain. In a logical sense, we are like musical organs and our physical bodies are like resonators in the sense that we are always responding to the vibrational patterns around us. For example, when resonators are in close contact with each other, and their energy patterns interact, they will eventually become synchronized with each other. Similar effect is observed when two pendulums are in close contact. This phenomena is known as entrainment, and it accounts for why our heartbeat and our breathing tend to synchronize with the beat of music we listen to (for review, see Merritt, S., 1996)." [Mai Yang]

Now, according to Sarah Godcher from the Berklee College of Music in regards to neurologist Ann Blood:
"A significant aspect of Blood's findings is that almost all of the brain's response to music takes place at the subcortical level, that is in nerve centers below the cerebral cortex, which is the region of the brain where abstract thought occurs. Our brains process music, therefore, without really thinking about it. 'It looks like the emotional part of music is getting at something more fundamental than cognition'."

So there's actually limbic, involuntary comfort in music. Comfort that comes from shutting down pain because peptides get all excited and the corpus callosum squeezes out all its memories for display. Good. 

Back to my clients (at the beach) and slowly unwrapping my new, shiny project.