Depression

First Things First: This Is Not Your Fault and It Can Be Treated

The first step to overcoming the devastating effects of depression is to see it as a disease, not a personal failing. Like other chronic diseases, depression wreaks havoc on the person who suffers as well as on her or his friends and family. The social costs are also huge: Depression is a leading cause of disability worldwide. However, there is a lot of positive news about depression treatment.

How Exercise May Boost Your Mood

Exercise seems to be particularly important for some people. In a 2007 study in the journal Psychosomatic Medicine, depressed people who were engaged in an exercise program recovered about as well as people who took medication. Both groups did better than a third group that got only a placebo.

What kind of exercise will lift your mood?
While regular exercise may be as effective for mild or moderate depression as antidepressants, there is a big catch, one that triathlete Peatick has figured out: It has to be intense, for at least 30 minutes, according to Madhukar Trivedi, MD, professor of psychiatry and head of the Mood Disorders Research Program and Clinic at University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center in Dallas. He has authored several studies that show regular exercise can reduce depressive symptoms—in one case by up to 47%.

Exercise is good, but is it an antidepressant?
No one doubts that exercise is beneficial to general health and well-being, but Ken Robbins, MD, clinical professor of psychiatry at the University of Wisconsin–Madison, isn't convinced that it can help anyone with moderate or severe depression.

He recently reviewed all of the exercise and depression studies, and concluded that while working out regularly is a great idea, it is hard for most people to comply with it. "Also, there are a ridiculous number of variables here. We don't know if it was the socialization, the light, or just getting these people out of the house that helped.

"Nonetheless, of the few things that someone with depression can do besides antidepressants and therapy, this is something we can tell them to try."

Music History

The field of music history, sometimes called historical musicology, is the highly diverse subfield of the broader discipline of musicology that studies the composition, performance, reception, and criticism of music over time. Historical studies of music are for example concerned with a composer's life and works, the developments of styles and genres (such as baroque concertos), the social function of music for a particular group of people (such as music at the court), or the modes of performance at a particular place and time (such as the performance forces of Johann Sebastian Bach's choir in Leipzig).

In theory, "music history" could refer to the study of the history of any type or genre of music (e.g., the history of Indian music or the history of rock). In practice, these research topics are nearly always categorized as part of ethnomusicology or cultural studies, whether or not they are ethnographically based.

The methods of music history include source studies (esp. manuscript studies), paleography, philology (especially textual criticism), style criticism, historiography (the choice of historical method), musical analysis, and iconography. The application of musical analysis to further these goals is often a part of music history, though pure analysis or the development of new tools of music analysis is more likely to be seen in the field of music theory. (For a more detailed discussion of the methods see the section on "Research in Music History" below)

Some of the intellectual products of music historians include editions of musical works, biography of composers and other musicians, studies of the relationship between words and music, and the reflections upon the place of music in society.

History of scholarship on Western music

Before 1800

The first studies of musical history date back to the middle of the 18th century. G.B. Martini published a three volume history titled Storia della musica (History of Music) between 1757 and 1781. Martin Gerbert published a two volume history of sacred music titled De cantu de musica sacra in 1774. Gerbert followed this work with a three volume work Scriptores ecclesiastici de musica sacra containing significant writings on sacred music from the third century AD onwards in 1784.

1800-1950

Historical musicology began as a discipline in the nineteenth century focusing on the contributions of earlier composers. Samuel Wesley played an important role in the revival of interest in Johann Sebastian Bach through performing, lecturing on and editing his works. Felix Mendelssohn similarly played a critical role in the revival of Bach but as the founder of the Felix Mendelssohn College of Music and Theatre. Historical musicological scholarship led to the publication of GesellschaftGeorge Frideric Handel as well as Bach. editions of

In the twentieth century, the work of Johannes Wolf and others developed studies in Medieval music and early Renaissance music. Wolf's writings on the history of musical notation are considered to be particularly notable by musicologists. Historical musicology has played a critical role in renewed interest in Baroque music as well as medieval and Renaissance music. In particular, the authentic performance movement owes much to historical musicological scholarship.

Towards the middle of the twentieth century, musicology (and its largest subfield of historical musicology) expanded significantly as a field of study. Concurrently the number of musicological and music journals increased to create further outlets for the publication of research. The domination of German language scholarship ebbed as significant journals sprang up throughout the West, especially America.