Anxiety is a reaction that comes naturally to people in certain situations, and the toll it takes is not only emotional: general physical health is affected as well. That makes the question of how to settle an anxious mind a practical one, and the effect of music on anxiety has been studied. Research into which musical qualities help a listener relax has pointed to a small set of features.

Adele's Someone Like You, a very successful song, deals with loss, yet many listeners find that its slow tempo and restrained accompaniment leave them calm and reflective. I Giorni, a piano piece by Ludovico Einaudi, turns on repeated short ideas and an even tempo, which call up a dreamlike condition with moments of brightness in it. In Paradisum, which comes from Gabriel Fauré's Requiem, sets a choir against organ accompaniment and creates a sense of serenity.

Hypnotic repeated ideas also run through Anouar Ibrahem's Stopover at Djibouti, a world jazz piece that can come close to feeling meditative. Wilma's Theme by Stefan Nilsson sounds oddly familiar, and its straightforward melody and harmonies give the listener somewhere safe to come to rest.

Some background on several of these composers follows. Warlock, who had been a music critic before he wrote music himself, was noted for an unconventional way of living, and he died in 1930 at the age of 36. Einaudi, from Italy, plays the piano and composes, and he has produced many soundtracks for films. Fauré, a French composer, was very popular during his own lifetime, although he became deaf in his later years. Ibrahem, who comes from Tunisia, plays the oud, a stringed instrument used in Arab music, and has been widely praised for his innovation in bringing Arab classical music together with folk music and jazz. Nilsson, from Sweden, composes and plays the piano, and his reputation at home is strong.