Hypnosis used sound and musico-dramatic methods to effect previously unanticipated kinds of changes in body and psyche, showing a ‘sonic turn’ in this new kind of medicine. For Franz Anton Mesmer, musical techniques and instruments were essential elements of his theory and practice, not merely adjuncts, as previous research has tended to assume. The musical structures of the Classical style provided Mesmer with patterns for artificially inducing and regulating his patients’ crises, whose periodicity medicine previously considered fixed and unchangeable. Mesmer executed these therapeutic strategies using the recently invented glass harmonica. From the Marquis de Puységur to Jean-Martin Charcot, Mesmer's successors turned their attention to somnambulism and catalepsy, sleep-like states often induced by the sound of a tam-tam, an Asian gong new to Western music. The contrast between harmonica and tam-tam reflects the passage in musical techniques from modulating dramatic crises to obliterating consciousness itself. Even considered as suggestion, hypnosis followed processes of intensification and dramatization characteristic of Classical and Romantic music.

催眠使用声音和音乐戏剧的方法来影响以前意想不到的身体和心理变化，在这种新型医学中显示出“声音转向”。对于 Franz Anton Mesmer 来说，音乐技巧和乐器是他的理论和实践的基本要素，而不仅仅是之前的研究所假设的附属物。古典风格的音乐结构为 Mesmer 提供了人为诱导和调节患者危机的模式，其周期性医学以前认为是固定不变的。Mesmer 使用最近发明的玻璃口琴执行了这些治疗策略。从 Marquis de Puységur 到 Jean-Martin Charcot，Mesmer 的继任者将注意力转向了梦游症和僵直症，这种睡眠状态通常由 tam-tam 的声音引起，对西方音乐不熟悉的亚洲锣。口琴和 tam-tam 之间的对比反映了音乐技巧从调节戏剧危机到消除意识本身的过程。即使被视为暗示，催眠也遵循古典和浪漫主义音乐的强化和戏剧化过程。