We now proceed from a discussion of some of the basic building blocks of music: pitch, dissonance and timbre, and begin to pull these concepts together. In this article, John E. Peters proposes "to show that there exists morality in music and that it exists in degrees. This will be argued primarily from music being a language of emotions, and from the huge factor it plays in affecting our souls and forming our characters." Since music is an universal language, we ought to look more deeply into its purpose.
Because music’s purpose stems directly from its effects (which will become clearer later) we will therefore begin by looking at its purpose. Secondly it will be shown that there is morality in music and in degrees through the things that make up music, i.e. the physical causes. This is not meant to be a demonstrative explanation of morality in music but an attempt to find reasons for believing that there is and why. Nor is it meant to be a critique of rock music vs. classical music, but rather a searching for causes, reasons, and for truth.Searching for truth is the basis of this discussion. Although many may quibble about personal preference, the reality in the large is seen by collectively examining the effects of different kinds of music on people and on society.
The big picture is the comparison between the parts of the soul in man, and the parts of the state. Once Plato discovers that the justice in the soul is the same as that in the state (properly ordered parts), we can see how the role of music fits in. It helps order the parts. Since music is the language of emotions, and reason should rule the emotions (according to Plato), therefore reason should dictate what types of emotions (music) we listen to. By doing this there will be proper order of things in the soul and thus in the state as a whole. Thus it can be seen then, that Plato’s idea of the purpose of music is first and foremost education because of its moral qualities (i.e. its power to form men’s characters).Although this observation by Plato may seem at first too cut-and-dry, in the overall context of the effects of music on the person, it surprisingly does become a relevant and even necessary insight. For example, "When in church, music conducive to worship should be heard, arousing in us holy piety and love of God."
