Speaking from personal experience, I can feel physically when instruments, particularly treble in pitch, are out of tune.  I actually feel annoying vibrations in my back molars up to my ears.  When a dissonance is pleasantly resolved I feel the vibrations and pain dissipate.  My 7 year old son (who has almost perfect pitch) yells at my 5 year old (who can't hold a pitch) that when she sings it makes his ears itch.  I played the piano and sang in tune then out of tune to test my theory with my son.  When I sang out of tune he couldn't stand it and pulled on his ear lobes trying to scratch his ears.  What would he do listening to beginning band?  Sheesh!  Future percussionist perhaps?  So...my answer to your question is yes!

Yes, naturally and by research also. Music has direct impact on people and their psychology. It can be proved by both experiential observation and empirical research works. Good question.

Any one knows a good review article or book? I am also interested in.

I believe there's some interesting research about that at McGill university. Try to google it. 

this book is pretty interesting:

http://www.amazon.com/The-Secret-Life-Plants-Fascinating/dp/0060915870

although not specifically on sound

Hi, have a look at all these studies, these are all physiological functions that have been proved to be "influenced" by music or sound.

Bloodpressure (Binet-Courtier 1880, Foster-Gamble 1906, Hyde 1927)

Heart Rhythm and Pulse (Van Mourik 1973, Landreth,1974)

Breathing (Lovell Morgan 1942, Miles 1935, Willson 1977)

GSK Galvanic Skin Response (De Jong 1973)

Muscles (Schlaughter)

Stomach movement (Sears, Trenti)

Pain reduction (Gardner, Moore, Gabai)

Relaxation (Poch, Reardon, Bell)

Brain Waves (Wagner, Diamond)

Yes.

If music is a type of sound, and sound is a type of mechanical energy, then human audition is based in physiology.  Helmholtz wrote in the introduction to On the Sensations of Tone (1863) that "...the sensations of hearing belongs to natural science, and comes in the first place under physiological acoustics... it is precisely the physiological part in especial - the theory of the sensations of hearing - to which the theory of music must look for the foundations of its structures."  In humans, there is an undisputed link between music and emotions, which also have a physiological basis; see, for example, Aniruddh Patel's Music, Language and the Brain (2008).  Animals clearly perceive, produce and react to sound in many ways, though not necessarily in the same ways as humans (cf. Patel).  Ultrasonic standing waves may be used to "trap" or "levitate" small objects such as nanoparticles and bacteria; see "acoustic trapping" in  Evander and Laurell's Encyclopedia of Nanotechnology (2012).

Exposure to sound can damage hearing - clearly a physiological effect in humans and animals.  Extra-aural bioeffects are also the basis of acoustic weapons; see, for example, the sonic weapon link.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonic_weapon

I feel very uneasy when a trombonist plays tuba and bassoon parts loudly in the trombone pedal tone register!

All answers so far have been with reference to highly complex, automatized and (mostly) covertly expressed physiological state-changes in response to audible stimuli - e.g. emotional or perceptual kinds and those mediated by the hypothalamic/ pituitary/ autonomic nervous system.

Not yet mentioned are relatively less complex, involuntary overt reactions, such as starting in surprise in response to a sudden noise - or turning one's head in its direction before consciously perceiving it (both mediated by the inferior colliculi), or tapping one's foot to the beat of a march-tune.

Then there are the gamut of more complex voluntary responses to musical stimuli to be included - say, holding in working memory an aural image of a just-heard musical phrase, waiting with held breath for the choir conductor's signal to repeat it, and activating the muscular components involved in vocalizing it. 

No matter what category or species of response is in question, all are the expressings of teamed physiological state-changes. There could be no behaviour,  covert or otherwise, at any level of life - which itself implies  a complex balancing of component physiological states, without the responsiveness of certain components to presented stimuli, causing state-changes therein that trigger state-changes in other components that collaborate to restore the momentarily disturbed, original balanced state.

Thank you for your thoughts!

Maryann, I tried the same with my cat when I was little, and I am convinced that even she felt the difference between harmonious and disharmonious sounds. Kind of...

Speaking of percussionists: Evelyn Glennie is a good example for hearing with the whole body. She is a renowned percussionist - and she is deaf!

Felipe, thanks for the hint, there are indeed some quite interesting articles by the McGill University.

Tommaso, I heard about the book and read parts of it. This touches an important and crucial point concerning bio-physiological and biochemical effects of sound and music. I think, when trying to do serious research on the subject, one of the major problems is what you could call the esoteric aura encompassing this field. Esoteric people tend to think of modern science as being narrow minded and manipulated (especially in medicine and pharmacy) and scientists call everything that goes in the direction of "sound healing" esoteric (by probably not even understanding what that actually means) and avoid, it to maintain their credibility in the community (although from this point of view most of quantum physics would have to be called esoteric...). For example, Reinhard Kopiez (2011) suggests to consign research that examines the effects of sound on plants (Retallack, 1973) and animals to the realms of fantasy. But there actually is new evidence on that field, e.g. by Wang Bochu (search for "effect of sound stimulation"). So I think we need more serious bridge builders in the future.

Erica, F. Richard and Richard, thank you for your posts, that cover a wide range of very different, yet fundamentally connected phenomena. 

Currently I am particularly interested in effects that are completely unconscious. Some of Richard Moores references - like ultrasound and infrasound - point in that direction. The Infrasonic 17 Hz tone experiment of 2003 would be an example. Binaural Beats are another one.

I am curious if there is a way in which mechanical (sound) waves and electromagnetic waves (of the body) can interact. Reid (2006) proposes a Sonic Propagation of Electromagnetic Energy Components (SPEEC) with the possibility of therapeutic use. Kapteina and Zhang did research in that area, too.

And then there is the flourishing field of cell biology, that may yield some pretty interesting findings in the future. James K Gimzewski and Carlo Venture listened to cells in different states (making different noises). The finding launched an entirely new field Gimzewski calls "sonocytology."

And although there might be little to none proof for these aspects right now, it doesn't mean there aren't any. Absence of evidence is not evidence of absence.

When electromagnetic and mechanical systems interact there must be a transducer, somewhere.  Sound reception necessarily involves (typically vibratory) motion , so it is easy to imagine that electric and magnetic fields could be result according to Faraday's and Maxwell's laws.  Since the body also has electromagnetic properties (galvanic skin response, nerve impulses, etc.), these fields could easily induce small currents.  Who can say (yet) if some small current might affect your opinion about something?  Unfortunately, absence of evidence is also not evidence.

Finding a reliably reproducible effect of this kind would be very interesting, but it would need to be carefully verified.  Do you know of one?

One addition to Richard's reply - I have seen a little research into wind farms and there is a theory that the infrasound (up to 20Hz) is felt (i.e. perceived, but not heard by the ears) and it is this that causes problems for people. I can't find it now, but as sound is just air pressure waves and we are sensitive to pressure on our skin from 0Hz. So you might look into that sort of research for information on your question. There seems to be _some_ evidence that VLF pressure variation, perceived through the skin, can cause various problems including anxiety and nausea. There may be some military info on this also from using sound as a weapon etc.

Dominik, you might find some correlations in the field of Frequency Specific Microcurrent. These are 'sounds' / resonant frequencies applied for therapeutic purposes via simple skin electrodes. Only microamps of current, so very weak and often not even perceived. Widely used to speed wound healing, reduce pain, etc.

https://www.google.com/search?q=frequency+specific+microcurrent

https://www.frequencyspecific.com/faq

Dear Dominik,

I send you address of my article. You can find it,.

I hope it is useful.

regards,

Thrita. 2013 December; 2(4): 76-9.

Music Therapy Reduces the Intensity of Pain Among Patients With Cancer

, Nader Aghakhani

Sayadi

Perhaps following articles maybe of interest to you. 

Stochastic Resonance in Biology; How Noise Can Enhance Detection of Weak Signals and Help Improve Biological Information Processing by Peter Hanggi. A European Journal Chemical Physics and Physical Chemistry, CHEMPHYSCHEM 2002, 3, 285-290.

About Effects of Exercise and Stochastic Resonance on Neuroplasticity and Neuroprotection, Christian T. Haas & Dietmar Schmidtbleicher, Current results of strength Training Research, 2007

Signals and Noise in Complex Biological Systems, Johan Rung, Dissertation presented at Uppsala University, 2007.

Controlling Brain Cells with Sound Waves, Salk Institute, 2015. Stuart Ibsen, Ada Tong, Carolyn Schutt, Sadik Esener, Sreekanath H. Chalasani.

 Some stressful effects of sound depend on qualities of the it other than its absolute decibel value, the annoyance associated with sound may need to be considered in regard to health effects.

Thank you.

Also: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/280727612_2013-Munich_conferance_publication_in_journal-M3K21

Data 2013-Munich conferance publication in journal-M3K21

Hi Dominik, I don´t think it´s possible to influence the human body unless it´s through some kind of interaction but if you´re still interested on the subject, I´d love to chat with you about it.

Paul Swingle has done extensive work on what he calls "subthreshold harmonics" and proposes that there is a perceptual method dedicated to all stimuli that passes "under the radar". He has measured various physiological responses associated to being exposed to such unconscious stimuli in his clinic (he is a researcher and neurofeedback practitioner) and even created specific sound products based on this.

On the more "esoteric" side as you say, I´ve experienced sounds that are tuned to our energy system called Primasounds. The exact mathematical frequencies used in this particular musical scale were originally proposed by mathematician, philosopher and professor Arnold Keyserling of the Academy of Applied Art (Vienna, Austria) and taken further by Ralph Losey. Weather their theories about how mechanical input such as sound can resonate our biofield (chakras) are considered scientific enough or fantasy, their effects are profound, and it´d be quite easy to test those with deaf people for example.

There are schools of thought that might be considered even more fringe that suggest that sound is a carrier for subtle energy (such as intention to name just one possible example) and so, able to even affect people non-locally and even with no volume !

Thanks for such an interesting discussion and as I said, let me know if you´re up for a chat. This field is fascinating.

Here´s an article you might like to check.

It follows the research of Lu Yan Fan on infrasound emissions measured on the hands of Qigong masters, and suggests, looking at the relationship between infrasonic waves and emitted Qi, that both can directly affect human physiology through none of the known means of communication (without any conscious perception involved).

http://www.soundvitality.com/Research/5-Research-Study-Qigong-masters-and-the-Infratonic.pdf