Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 1

Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music: A Phenomenological Study

on Bach’s “Air on Strings in G”
for Stress and Anxiety

Jose Maria G. Pelayo III, MASD, MusPsy

Music Psychology Center – MPC
Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines
April 28, 2020

Abstract

Fighting anxiety caused by the COVID 19 pandemic is essential to mental health

programs of every country in crisis. The Music Psychology Center – MPC, located in Angeles
City has utilized classical music, specifically Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Air on Strings in G”, for
individuals coping with stress and anxiety. Sixty nine (69) respondents were initially exposed to
the classical piece and majority had positive psychological benefits in coping with anxiety. This
phenomenological approach for investigating variables was significantly effective and more
research should be conducted on the positive psychological benefits of Bach’s music in anxiety
intervention programs.

Keywords: Classical Music, Anxiety, Stress, COVID 19, Music Psychology, Bach, Air on Strings
in G

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009
Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 2

BACKGROUND

Johann Sebastian Bach (1685-1750) wrote his four orchestral suites in Leipzig. The Third
Suite, in D major, was probably premiered at one of Bach’s Collegium Musicum concerts at
Zimmermann’s Coffee House in 1730 or 1731. A century and a half later, the German violinist
August Wilhelmj arranged the Suite’s second movement, a serenely floating Air, for solo violin
and strings (or keyboard). He transposed it down to C major, and marked the solo part “auf der
G-Saite” (on the G-string, as a passionately expressive tour-de-force), inadvertently giving it the
name it has endured popularly ever since. This was also reportedly the first work by Bach ever
recorded, and by a cellist – Aleksandr Verzhbilovich – in 1902. - Los Angeles Philharmonic
Association (2020)

Johann Sebastian Bach, (born March 21 [March 31, New Style], 1685, Eisenach,
Thuringia, Ernestine Saxon Duchies [Germany]—died July 28, 1750, Leipzig), composer of
the Baroque era, the most celebrated member of a large family of north German musicians.
Although he was admired by his contemporaries primarily as an outstanding harpsichordist,
organist, and expert on organ building, Bach is now generally regarded as one of the greatest
composers of all time and is celebrated as the creator of the Brandenburg Concertos, The Well-
Tempered Clavier, the Mass in B Minor, and numerous other masterpieces of church and
instrumental music. Appearing at a propitious moment in the history of music, Bach was able to
survey and bring together the principal styles, forms, and national traditions that had developed
during preceding generations and, by virtue of his synthesis, enrich them all.

J.S. Bach was the youngest child of Johann Ambrosius Bach and Elisabeth Lämmerhirt.
Ambrosius was a string player, employed by the town council and the ducal court of Eisenach.
Johann Sebastian started school in 1692 or 1693 and did well in spite of frequent absences. Of
his musical education at this time, nothing definite is known; however, he may have picked up
the rudiments of string playing from his father, and no doubt he attended the Georgenkirche,
where Johann Christoph Bach was organist until 1703.

By 1695 both his parents were dead, and he was looked after by his eldest brother, also
named Johann Christoph (1671–1721), organist at Ohrdruf. This Christoph had been a pupil of
the influential keyboard composer Johann Pachelbel, and he apparently gave Johann Sebastian
his first formal keyboard lessons. The young Bach again did well at school, and in 1700 his voice
secured him a place in a select choir of poor boys at the school at Michaelskirche, Lüneburg.

His voice must have broken soon after this, but he remained at Lüneburg for a time,
making himself generally useful. No doubt he studied in the school library, which had a large
and up-to-date collection of church music; he probably heard Georg Böhm, organist of the
Johanniskirche; and he visited Hamburg to hear the renowned organist and composer Johann
Adam Reinken at the Katharinenkirche, contriving also to hear the French orchestra maintained
by the duke of Celle.

He seems to have returned to Thuringia in the late summer of 1702. By this time he was
already a reasonably proficient organist. His experience at Lüneburg, if not at Ohrdruf, had
turned him away from the secular string-playing tradition of his immediate ancestors; thenceforth

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009
Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 3

he was chiefly, though not exclusively, a composer and performer of keyboard and sacred music.
The next few months are wrapped in mystery, but by March 4, 1703, he was a member of the
orchestra employed by Johann Ernst, duke of Weimar (and brother of Wilhelm Ernst, whose
service Bach entered in 1708). This post was a mere stopgap; he probably already had his eye on
the organ then being built at the Neue Kirche (New Church) in Arnstadt, for, when it was
finished, he helped to test it, and in August 1703 he was appointed organist—all this at age 18.
Arnstadt documents imply that he had been court organist at Weimar; this is incredible, though it
is likely enough that he had occasionally played there.

Late in 1713 Bach had the opportunity of succeeding Friedrich Wilhelm Zachow at the
Liebfrauenkirche, Halle; but the duke raised his salary, and he stayed on at Weimar. On March 2,
1714, he became concertmaster, with the duty of composing a cantata every month. He became
friendly with a relative, Johann Gottfried Walther, a music lexicographer and composer who was
organist of the town church, and, like Walther, Bach took part in the musical activities at the
Gelbes Schloss (“Yellow Castle”), then occupied by Duke Wilhelm’s two nephews, Ernst
August and Johann Ernst, both of whom he taught. The latter was a talented composer who
wrote concerti in the Italian manner, some of which Bach arranged for keyboard instruments; the
boy died in 1715, in his 19th year.

Unfortunately, Bach’s development cannot be traced in detail during the vital years
1708–14, when his style underwent a profound change. There are too few datable works. From
the series of cantatas written in 1714–16, however, it is obvious that he had been decisively
influenced by the new styles and forms of the contemporary Italian opera and by
the innovations of such Italian concerto composers as Antonio Vivaldi. The results of this
encounter can be seen in such cantatas as No. 182, 199, and 61 in 1714, 31 and 161 in 1715, and
70 and 147 in 1716. His favourite forms appropriated from the Italians were those based on
refrain (ritornello) or da capo schemes in which wholesale repetition—literal or with
modifications—of entire sections of a piece permitted him to create coherent musical forms with
much larger dimensions than had hitherto been possible. These newly acquired techniques
henceforth governed a host of Bach’s arias and concerto movements, as well as many of his
larger fugues (especially the mature ones for organ), and profoundly affected his treatment of
chorales.

Among other works almost certainly composed at Weimar are most of the Orgelbüchlein
(Little Organ Book), all but the last of the so-called 18 “Great” chorale preludes, the earliest
organ trios, and most of the organ preludes and fugues. The “Great” Prelude and Fugue in G
Major for organ (BWV 541) was finally revised about 1715, and the Toccata and Fugue in F
Major (BWV 540) may have been played at Weissenfels.

On December 1, 1716, Johann Samuel Drese, musical director at Weimar, died. He was
then succeeded by his son, who was rather a nonentity. Bach presumably resented being thus
passed over, and in due course he accepted an appointment as musical director to Prince Leopold
of Köthen, which was confirmed in August 1717. Duke Wilhelm, however, refused to accept his
resignation—partly, perhaps, because of Bach’s friendship with the duke’s nephews, with whom
the duke was on the worst of terms. About September a contest between Bach and the famous
French organist Louis Marchand was arranged at Dresden. The exact circumstances are not

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009
Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 4

known, but Marchand avoided the contest by leaving Dresden a few hours before it should have
taken place. By implication, Bach won. Perhaps this emboldened him to renew his request for
permission to leave Weimar; at all events he did so but in such terms that the duke imprisoned
him for a month (November 6–December 2). A few days after his release, Bach moved
to Köthen, some 30 miles north of Halle.

There, as musical director, he was concerned chiefly with chamber and orchestral music.
Even though some of the works may have been composed earlier and revised later, it was at
Köthen that the sonatas for violin and clavier and for viola da gamba and clavier and the works
for unaccompanied violin and cello were put into something like their present form.

The Brandenburg Concertos were finished by March 24, 1721; in the sixth concerto—so
it has been suggested—Bach bore in mind the technical limitations of the prince, who played the
gamba. Bach played the viola by choice; he liked to be “in the middle of the harmony.” He also
wrote a few cantatas for the prince’s birthday and other such occasions; most of these seem to
have survived only in later versions, adapted to more generally useful words. And he found time
to compile pedagogical keyboard works: the Clavierbüchlein for W.F. Bach (begun January 22,
1720), some of the French Suites, the Inventions (1720), and the first book (1722) of Das
Wohltemperierte Klavier (The Well-Tempered Clavier, eventually consisting of two books, each
of 24 preludes and fugues in all keys and known as “the Forty-Eight”).
This remarkable collection systematically explores both the potentials of a newly
established tuning procedure—which, for the first time in the history of keyboard music, made
all the keys equally usable—and the possibilities for musical organization afforded by the system
of “functional tonality,” a kind of musical syntax consolidated in the music of the Italian
concerto composers of the preceding generation and a system that was to prevail for the next 200
years. At the same time, The Well-Tempered Clavier is a compendium of the most popular forms
and styles of the era: dance types, arias, motets, concerti, etc., presented within the unified aspect
of a single compositional technique—the rigorously logical and venerable fugue.
Maria Barbara Bach died unexpectedly and was buried on July 7, 1720. About
November, Bach visited Hamburg; his wife’s death may have unsettled him and led him to
inquire after a vacant post at the Jacobikirche. Nothing came of this, but he played at the
Katharinenkirke in the presence of Reinken. After hearing Bach improvise variations on a
chorale tune, the old man said, “I thought this art was dead; but I see it still lives in you.”

On December 3, 1721, Bach married Anna Magdalena Wilcken, daughter of a trumpeter

at Weissenfels. Apart from his first wife’s death, these first four years at Köthen were probably
the happiest of Bach’s life. He was on the best terms with the prince, who was genuinely
musical; and in 1730 Bach said that he had expected to end his days there. But the prince married
on December 11, 1721, and conditions deteriorated. The princess—described by Bach as
“an amusa” (that is to say, opposed to the muses)—required so much of her husband’s attention
that Bach began to feel neglected. He also had to think of the education of his elder sons, born in
1710 and 1714, and he probably began to think of moving to Leipzig as soon as the cantorate fell
vacant with the death of Johann Kuhnau on June 5, 1722. Bach applied in December, but the
post—already turned down by Bach’s friend, Georg Philipp Telemann—was offered to another
prominent composer of the day, Christoph Graupner, the musical director at Darmstadt. As the

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009
Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 5

latter was not sure that he would be able to accept, Bach gave a trial performance (Cantata No.
22, Jesu nahm zu sich die Zwölfe [Jesus Called unto Him the Twelve]) on February 7, 1723; and,
when Graupner withdrew (April 9), Bach was so deeply committed to Leipzig that, although the
princess had died on April 4, he applied for permission to leave Köthen. This he obtained on
April 13, and on May 13 he was sworn in at Leipzig. He was appointed honorary musical
director at Köthen, and both he and Anna were employed there from time to time until the prince
died, on November 19, 1728.

In 1726, after he had completed the bulk of his cantata production, Bach began to publish
the clavier Partitas singly, with a collected edition in 1731, perhaps with the intention of
attracting recognition beyond Leipzig and thus securing a more amenable appointment
elsewhere. The second part of the Clavierübung, containing the Concerto in the Italian Style and
the French Overture (Partita) in B Minor, appeared in 1735. The third part, consisting of
the Organ Mass with the Prelude and Fugue [“St. Anne”] in E-flat Major (BWV 552), appeared
in 1739. From c. 1729 to 1736 Bach was honorary musical director to Weissenfels; and, from
1729 to 1737 and again from 1739 for a year or two, he directed the Leipzig Collegium
Musicum. For these concerts, he adapted some of his earlier concerti as harpsichord concerti,
thus becoming one of the first composers—if not the very first—of concerti for keyboard
instrument and orchestra, just as he was one of the first to use the harpsichordist’s right hand as a
true melodic part in chamber music. These are just two of several respects in which the basically
conservative and traditional Bach was a significant innovator as well.

Of Bach’s last illness little is known except that it lasted several months and prevented
him from finishing The Art of the Fugue. His constitution was undermined by two unsuccessful
eye operations performed by John Taylor, the itinerant English quack who numbered Handel
among his other failures; and Bach died on July 28, 1750, at Leipzig. His employers proceeded
with relief to appoint a successor; Burgomaster Stieglitz remarked, “The school needs a cantor,
not a musical director—though certainly he ought to understand music.” Anna Magdalena was
left badly off. For some reason, her stepsons did nothing to help her, and her own sons were too
young to do so. She died on February 27, 1760, and was given a pauper’s funeral.

Unfinished as it was, The Art of the Fugue was published in 1751. It attracted little
attention and was reissued in 1752 with a laudatory preface by Friedrich Wilhelm Marpurg, a
well-known Berlin musician who later became director of the royal lottery. In spite of Marpurg
and of some appreciative remarks by Johann Mattheson, the influential Hamburg critic and
composer, only about 30 copies had been sold by 1756, when Emanuel Bach offered the plates
for sale. As far as is known, they were sold for scrap.

Emanuel Bach and the organist-composer Johann Friedrich Agricola (a pupil of

Sebastian’s) wrote an obituary; Mizler added a few closing words and published the result in the
journal of his society (1754). There is an English translation of it in The Bach Reader. Though
incomplete and inaccurate, the obituary is of very great importance as a firsthand source of
information.

Bach appears to have been a good husband and father. Indeed, he was the father of 20
children, only 10 of whom survived to maturity. There is amusing evidence of a certain

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009
Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 6

thriftiness—a necessary virtue, for he was never more than moderately well off and he delighted
in hospitality. Living as he did at a time when music was beginning to be regarded as no
occupation for a gentleman, he occasionally had to stand up for his rights both as a man and as a
musician; he was then obstinate in the extreme. But no sympathetic employer had any trouble
with Bach, and with his professional brethren he was modest and friendly. He was also a good
teacher and from his Mühlhausen days onward was never without pupils.

For about 50 years after Bach’s death, his music was neglected. This was only natural; in
the days of Haydn and Mozart, no one could be expected to take much interest in a composer
who had been considered old-fashioned even in his lifetime—especially since his music was not
readily available, and half of it (the church cantatas) was fast becoming useless as a result of
changes in religious thought.

At the same time, musicians of the late 18th century were neither so ignorant of Bach’s
music nor so insensitive to its influence as some modern authors have suggested. Emanuel
Bach’s debt to his father was considerable, and Bach exercised a profound and acknowledged
influence directly on Haydn, Mozart, and Beethoven. - Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc. (2020)
LITERATURE REVIEW

One large study of 20,000 people showed music changes mood and the changes in mood
were very uniform. A large number of people listened to classical music by various composers
from various musical periods and were asked how the music made them feel. Another study
showed that the effects of mood varied from person to person depending on their musicality.
Non-musical people enjoy music rarely and when they do, the enjoyment is slight, while semi-
musical people enjoy music quite often and when they do, it is enjoyable to them, while musical
people enjoy music rarely, due to discriminating tastes, but when they do, it is with the greatest
intensity.

“The objective of Music Psychology is to create neural changes in the brain that
stimulates improvement of psychological and behavioral functions of individuals suffering
from mental health problems.” – Pelayo (2019)

An eight month study was conducted by Frances H. Rauscher of the University of

California at Irvine, in which 19 preschoolers, ranging in age from three to five, received weekly
keyboard and daily singing lessons while another 15 preschoolers received no musical training at
all. At the start, middle and end of the study, the subjects were tested on five spatial reasoning
tasks. After only 4 months, scores on the test to assemble a puzzle to form a picture improved
dramatically for the group with the musical training, while the control group didn't, even though
both groups started out with the same scores. It can be understood that this kind of
improvement may not be substantial enough to alter the way people are fundamentally taught,
but its results cannot be ignored. Rauscher explains, "Music instruction can improve a child's
spatial intelligence for a long time, perhaps permanently".

It is universally understood that people strive to learn to become wiser and more
informed about the world around them. The more people learn, the more powerful they can
become. It is the speed at which people learn that separates the geniuses from the average people
from the learning disabled. Geniuses don't run into problems while learning, because they learn

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009
Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 7

so fast. It is everyone else that could really use help. One solid way to increase the speed at
which people learn is with music. People learn through music and their minds grow faster
because of it. Some music, when implemented properly, can have positive effects on learning
and attitude. Music is a powerful thing, and when we understand its significance, it can bring
dramatic changes both positive and negative into our lives.
Music and the arts are what make life worth living and without them, people lose hold of
their culture and diversity. The ideal way to learn in the future would be to fully incorporate
music into the curriculum of every school. If every school supported and encouraged their
students to freely pursue music with the culture of music in their everyday lives, people would
become much more efficient in their learning and would become much better students on the
whole. Music is a power too great for man to comprehend at this point but through further study
man can learn how to better harness its power to use it to its full potential. - Pelayo (2019)
Previous work on the use of background music suggests conflicting results in various
psychological, behavioral, and educational measures. This quasi-experiment examined the effect
of integrating classical background music during a lecture on stress, anxiety, and knowledge. A
total of 42 nursing students participated this study. We utilized independent sample t-test and
multivariate analysis of variance to examine the effect of classical background music. Our
findings suggest that the presence or absence of classical background music do not affect stress,
anxiety, and knowledge scores (Λ = 0.999 F(3, 78) = 0.029, p = 0.993). We provided literature to
explain the non-significant result. Although classical music failed to establish a significant
influence on the dependent variables, classical background music during lecture hours can be
considered a non-threatening stimulus. We recommend follow up studies regarding the role of
classical background music in regulating attention control of nursing students during lecture
hours. - Macabasag, R. (2017)
Psychological and spiritual effects of music on people have been revealed by various
studies and still continue to be investigated. The sound which has existed since the first
formation of the universe; and music and music therapy which are as old as the history of
mankind have constituted one of the treatment methods widely investigated at hospitals and
universities. In the daily lives of people, anxiety, stress, well-being and similar phenomena
clearly remain in the foreground. The current study is an experimental study designed to
determine the effect of listening to classical music on anxiety and well-being. The sampling of
the study is comprised of senior students in an education faculty. A total of 15 students (7
females and 8 males) participated in the current study. The data were collected with the State-
Trait Anxiety Scale and the Psychological Well-being Scale. In the analysis of the data, Paired
Sample t-Test was used. The findings of the current study have revealed that while listening to
classical music for a 60-day period (listening to classical music ever day according to a music
listening schedule) did not have any significant effect on the students’ State Anxiety scores, it led
to a statistically significant effect on their Trait Anxiety and Psychological Well-being scores
(t=3,451 P<0.002). When the pre-test and post-test Psychological Well-being mean scores were
compared, no significant difference was found for the sub-dimension of “autonomy”, significant
differences in favour of post-test scores were found for the sub-dimensions of “positive relations
with others”, “environmental mastery”, “personal growth”, “purpose in life”, and “self-
acceptance”. - Osmanoğlu & Yilmaz (2019)

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009
Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 8

Neurologist Dr. Michael Schneck found that classical music helps relieve anxiety. More
and more studies are finding that music helps lower cortisol levels, which are associated with
stress. A post by Lottoland on how music is good for your health, states that it also increases
blood flow by 26%, laughter by 16% and relaxation by 11%. Indeed, research published
in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice studied 180 patients and found that listening to
natural sounds, classical Turkish or Western music helped reduced anxiety by lowering cortisol
levels, blood pressure and heart rate. While they all led to positive attributes, the classical
Turkish music proved to be the most effective in stress and anxiety relief. Music is universal.
Classical music especially promotes this universality through emotive instrumentals. Even if the
piece does involve a foreign language, the instrumentals work to convey the feeling of the song.

That being said, music is also a great way to counter loneliness and isolation. For one,
music allows you to connect with others who share the same taste as you. Going to watch an
opera or a concert is a unique bonding experience that’s beneficial to your mental health. Aside
from it being an opportunity to form relationships with others, it’s also one of the best ways to
listen to classical music. Live music, even in unlikely places like the 1931 Art Deco movie
palace Le Chateau, provides an acoustic experience you won’t get listening to recordings. Live
music connects you directly to the musicians, and is a great way to spend an evening in town. -
La Scena Musicale (2019)

Over the past few decades, there have been numerous studies on the brain’s reaction to
classical music, and we’ve shared the most relevant, interesting, and surprising here, some of
which may motivate you to become a classical aficionado yourself.

1. Emotional expression in music and speech affect the brain similarly.

Music is a very strong form of emotional communication across all cultures, but why?
Research may have the answer. Studies show that music, including classical arrangements, has
the ability to send chills down your spine or make your heart swell with joy through its use of
different musical modes. For example, in Western music, the major mode is associated with
excited, happy emotions, the minor with sad emotions. Similar results were found in other
cultures around the world despite differences in the emotions that these cultures associate with
the varying modes. The reason these musical modes have the ability to convey so much emotion
is because they imitate the tonal characteristics of emotion in the voice, tapping into our innate
communicative abilities and our cultural associations alike.

2. Classical music can help reduce pain and anxiety.

Certain medical procedures aren’t especially pleasant to undergo, leaving patients feeling
uncomfortable and anxious. Music, research suggests, can be a helpful remedy. Researchers at
Duke Cancer Institute found that wearing noise-canceling headphones playing classical music (in
this case concertos by Bach) reduced the pain and anxiety of a prostate biopsy. Generally, the
procedure causes a spike in diastolic blood pressure as the result of stress and anxiety, but in the
men who listened to the music, there was no such spike. Additionally, those who wore
headphones reported significantly less pain associated with the procedure. Researchers believe
that this method will be an inexpensive way to help make this and other medical procedures less

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009
Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 9

frightening for patients by altering their mental and physical responses to them through use of
classical music.

3. Classical music can lower blood pressure.

Whether you choose Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart, classical music can have a marked
effect on your stress levels and in turn your blood pressure. A University of San Diego study
compared changes in blood pressure in individuals who were asked to listen to classical, jazz, or
pop selections. Those who listened to classical music had significantly lower systolic blood
pressure levels after the experiment when compared to participants who heard no music at all or
were assigned to other musical styles.

4. Classical music can heighten and arouse emotions.

Tolstoy once said, “Music is the shorthand of emotion,” and research is showing that
he just might be right, especially with regard to classical music. A study done at Southern
Methodist University in 2001 asked students to relay the most significant event or experience
in their lives while listening to either silence or classical music in the background.
Researchers found that the classical music affected not only the emotional response and the
kinds of emotional language used, but also affected the topics participants chose to disclose,
promoted greater expression, and actually caused an increase in the pleasure participants got
from listening to classical music. This research is not only interesting from an academic
standpoint but could also have real-world applications for therapists and counselors who need
to get patients to relax, disclose experiences, and get in touch with troubling emotions. –
therapyinbarcelona (2011)

METHODOLOGY
This study utilized a phenomenological approach that identified the psychological
benefits of classical music, specifically by Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Air on Strings in G”, to
sixty nine (69) respondents suffering from anxiety due to the Covid 19 pandemic lockdown
condition. The study lasted for 25 days, using Bach’s music as the primary intervention for their
anxiety. The respondents were advised to listen to this musical piece and contemplate on their
emotional state. The respondents were also instructed to write down whatever the music elicited
without a structured template. The musical piece was always the first intervention method in all
of the respondents. They were briefed thoroughly to be as detailed as possible, but still retain
their freedom of expression while listening to this particular music. Bach’s “Air on Strings in G”
was their initial introduction before any other empirical based classical music was introduced
based on their unique stress qualities.
Furthermore, the respondents had freedom in playing back the musical piece as many
times as they want while they mindfully ingest and meditate on whatever emotions, ideas, and
feelings they were experiencing and expressed in writing down in a list, narrate a story,
impressions of the musical piece, effects and emotions they felt, poems, drawings and sketches,
and all that they can utilize to illustrate while listening to Bach’s music.

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009
Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 10

The respondents were instructed by conversations over the cellular phone and take a
picture of their final work then sending all of the written, sketched and drawn data through the
internet. Purposive convenience sampling was employed during this study, since respondents
were all accepted due to stress and anxiety caused during the Covid 19 lockdown situation. The
study started March 30, 2020, a few days after the lockdown in Pampanga, Philippines.
All gathered data was examined and analyzed with reference to Bach’s “Air on Strings in
G”. Discussions over the cellular phone were also conducted from there on, as the musical piece
was suggested to be the first thing they listen to in the morning as soon as they wake up. During
this period, daily conversations were encoded on the progress of the psychological effects of the
musical piece in relation to their stress and anxiety.
However, not all sixty nine (69) respondents were given a chance to talk on a daily basis,
the study was able to collect significant responses that were carefully evaluated and analyzed in
order to monitor the psychological effects of Bach’s music on their anxiety during this period.

RESULTS AND DISCUSSION

Majority of the respondents felt calming effects of Bach’s “Air on Strings in G” in their
initial intervention. As they listen to it more, the positive effects significantly increased as they
reported to have been coping with their anxiety in their daily activities. They were able to do the
daily activities, step by step, improving day by day, in which they could not execute before their
exposure to Bach’s music.

On the other hand, a few have cited that Bach’s “Air on Strings in G” had limited effects
on their coping with anxiety, when listening to the piece they would feel the psychological
effects of calmness, peace of mind, serenity and security, it only lasted for a while after they
have listened to the music. Their anxiety would come back as thoughts of threat and insecurities
slowly emerge again right after to their exposure to the classical piece.

Moreover, despite of the short term effects o their psychological well-being, the study
still considers the significant benefits of Johann Sebastian Bach’s “Air on Strings in G”. As
recorded in this phenomenological approach, the positive psychological effects of Bach’s music
were still evident however short it may last. Out of the sixty nine (69) respondents, ten (10) of
them indicate this short term effect of Bach’s music. As they finished listening to the musical
piece, negative thoughts arise again and they had to listen to the music more often compared than
the other respondents who just listen every morning. Considering this phenomena, further studies
should be conducted to supplement and strengthen the intervention for their coping with anxiety.
The study will continue to investigate and determine alternative approaches and methods in
terms of classical music to be useful for positive psychological effects in coping with stress and
anxiety on the respondents.

As cited in the literature review, “One large study of 20,000 people showed music
changes mood and the changes in mood were very uniform. A large number of people listened to
classical music by various composers from various musical periods and were asked how the
music made them feel. Another study showed that the effects of mood varied from person to
person depending on their musicality. Non-musical people enjoy music rarely and when they do,

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009
Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 11

the enjoyment is slight, while semi-musical people enjoy music quite often and when they do, it
is enjoyable to them, while musical people enjoy music rarely, due to discriminating tastes, but
when they do, it is with the greatest intensity.” - Pelayo (2019) and furthermore, “Whether you
choose Bach, Beethoven, or Mozart, classical music can have a marked effect on your stress
levels and in turn your blood pressure. A University of San Diego study compared changes in
blood pressure in individuals who were asked to listen to classical, jazz, or pop selections. Those
who listened to classical music had significantly lower systolic blood pressure levels after the
experiment when compared to participants who heard no music at all or were assigned to other
musical styles.” - therapyinbarcelona (2011)

To conclude, “Neurologist Dr. Michael Schneck found that classical music helps relieve
anxiety. More and more studies are finding that music helps lower cortisol levels, which are
associated with stress. A post by Lottoland on how music is good for your health, states that it
also increases blood flow by 26%, laughter by 16% and relaxation by 11%. Indeed, research
published in Complementary Therapies in Clinical Practice studied 180 patients and found that
listening to natural sounds, classical Turkish or Western music helped reduced anxiety by
lowering cortisol levels, blood pressure and heart rate. While they all led to positive attributes,
the classical Turkish music proved to be the most effective in stress and anxiety relief. Music is
universal. Classical music especially promotes this universality through emotive instrumentals.
Even if the piece does involve a foreign language, the instrumentals work to convey the feeling
of the song. That being said, music is also a great way to counter loneliness and isolation.” - La
Scena Musicale (2019).

Recommendations for further studies on the psychological benefits of Johann Sebastian

Bach’s “Air on Strings in G” should be conducted, and this phenomenological study should
continue to all sixty nine (69) respondents in order to identify and determine factors and
variables that may be beneficial for coping with stress and anxiety. Music Psychology Center –
MPC is the first I Pampanga, Philippines that has the capability to conduct phenomenological
studies regarding music psychology and their significant psychological benefits to individuals
coping with stress and anxiety.

“Once you realize that music transcends entertainment, that is the only time you
could fathom the accurate utilization of certain types of music to specific mental or
cognitive functioning and enhancement” – Pelayo (2019) iorbitnews.com

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009
Fighting COVID 19 Anxiety with Music 12

References
Macabasag, R. (2017) “Effects of Classical Background Music on Stress, Anxiety, and
Knowledge of Filipino Baccalaureate Nursing Students”
Osmanoğlu, E. & Yilmaz, H. (2019) “The Effect of Classical Music on Anxiety and Well-Being
of University Students”
Pelayo, J. M. G. III (2019) “The Mozart Effect Phenomenon on Social Learning Behavior”

Pelayo, J.M.G. III (2019) “Music Psychology Center (MPC) – Pioneer in Angeles City,
Philippines” www.iorbitnews.com
©2020 Encyclopedia Britannica, Inc.
© 2019 La Scena Musicale
© 2020 Los Angeles Philharmonic Association. All Rights Reserved. www.laphil.com
© 2011 therapyinbarcelona. All rights reserved. info@therapyinbarcelona.com

Music Psychology Center – MPC musicpsychologycenter@gmail.com

Angeles City, Pampanga, Philippines 2009