It is called "the language of emotions."

Since the earliest days of recorded history, man and his emotions have been affected by the sounds of music. And today, more than ever before, men and women alike are being affected emotionally as well as physiologically by the enormous variety of music ranging from Debbie Gibson to Bach to Ozzy Ozbourn to The Smiths.

Julian Thayer, assistant professor of psychology and a jazz musician, has been researching the relationship between moods and music for the past ten years.

"We're mainly interested in the emotional responses to music," Thayer said.

Thayer and his team -- consisting of graduate students Bruce Friedman and Sebastiaan Uijtdehaage (other-wise known as Bas), an arsenal of sophisticated machinery, and a Technics stereo -- have been working together to find out what characteristics of music elicit certain emotions.

Bas, who retired from a career as a flutist in the Netherlands over a year ago, began to study with Thayer after hearing Thayer speak on the subject in Amsterdam.

"I was very amazed that different music could produce different proccesses within your body," Bas said. "I'm finding this (research) most enjoyable."

This small band of researchers has found there are remarkably similar physiological and emotional responses to the exact same music regardless of the listener. The only difference they found was some people liked sad music and some did not. The same was true for brighter, happy music.

Soon after Thayer began his research, he did a film study using two different kinds of musical scores. He found the audiences reacted to the same movie in quite different ways depending on which music was played during the movie.

The researchers found very similar reactions to music of all sorts. High-pitched, fast tempo music will elicit the same responses among listeners regardless of the music's style, be it rock 'n roll or classical music.

Thayer said when music with these characteristics is played, the listener will usually experience such physiological effects as an increased heart rate and muscle tension.

"The facial muscles used for smiling will tense up whether the listener is actually smiling or not," Thayer said.

The same is true for softer tempo, lower-pitched music. Muscles tend to relax, heart rate decreases, and the listener often becomes more mellow, Thayer said.

Words do not usually play an important role in the effects caused by the music.

"People usually don't respond to words," Thayer said.

He also has found that responses tend to go across species. Similar to humans, dogs also respond positively when spoken to in high-pitched voices, regardless of what is said. The opposite response is observed when speaking to a dog with a very low, gruff voice.

Dan Yoder, assistant professor of music and head of the jazz department, said when he is composing music he "absolutely feels emotions."

Regarding his performing, Yoder says, "When there is more upbeat music, there is more noise and movement in the club. It's just the opposite with slower pieces."

Thayer and his assistants are finding music can be used clinically. It can be used to manipulate moods and, if necessary, can brighten one's day.

Listening to music which contradicts a present mood may lead to ill effects. These effects could be very small or actually be large enough to cause the listener to leave the room.