Mozart, Bach and the Pinoy
Mozart, Bach and the Pinoy
Posted 11:08pm (Mla time) Jan 25, 2005
By Michael Tan
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A13 of the January 26, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
FRIENDS ask, with sympathy and concern, how I've been able to do my columns, teach, raise Alunsina and do the usual thousand other little tasks while nursing a fractured foot and a broken heart. I smile sadly, and then answer with courage: "Mozart."
No, Mozart isn't a new dog or lover (a canine being preferable these days). I'm referring to classical music in general, my mention of Mozart coming from the growing body of literature around the "Mozart effect" or alleged benefits of classical music for everything from an infant's mental development to boosting egg production in chickens.
I can attest to that with life the last two weeks. I'd get up in the morning asking why the sun had to rise but when I stumble into my study, switch on my satellite radio and as music streams in from a classical station, everything seems so much more manageable. No miraculous effects of course-I know some of my recent columns have sort of plodded along-but I really believe classical music does help.
I'm better today, thank you, and thought I should pay homage to Bach and Beethoven by doing an overview of studies around classical music.
Mozart and Einstein
Let's start with the Mozart effect, a term coined back in 1993 when researchers reported that college students listening to a particular Mozart piece (Sonata for two pianos in D major, K448) performed better in tests for spatial temporal intelligence. After that, researchers began doing all kinds of studies on the effects of Mozart's music with all kinds of claims about beneficial effects for people suffering all kinds of health problems, from Alzheimer's to epilepsy.
The most publicized ones are those around the use of Mozart's music by pregnant mothers. The result? These days, you get all kinds of tapes and CDs in music stores, including local ones, offering classical music and claiming these will help fetuses as well as babies to develop their spatial-temporal abilities. The "Baby Einstein" products, which claim music can help stimulate a child's intellectual development, have separate Mozart, Bach and Beethoven CDs. The Mozart effect has become a generic term for classical music in general since the studies suggest Schubert and Bach have beneficial effects similar to that of Mozart.
I wish I had more space to describe the tests here (sample: getting rats to run around a mazeway while listening to Mozart 12 hours a day over two months!) but let me just say the tests aren't all that conclusive. One Harvard study, for example, with 714 subjects, concluded that the benefit of Mozart was more of "enjoyment arousal"-an improvement of listeners' mood-rather than a direct improvement of brain function.
No matter. The tests do show some effects on the brain and the effects may be due to a particular pattern in the music. Music with sequences that repeat regularly every 20 to 30 seconds seem to elicit the best responses from the brain, maybe because sleep wave patterns also occur in 30-second cycles.
Compositions by Bach and Mozart seem to have such sequences. Another classical composer, Philip Glass, has a completely different pattern, and doesn't seem to elicit the Mozart effect. On the other hand, a particular piece from New Age composer Yanni, "Acroyali/Standing in Motion," seems to bring out the Mozart effect as well.
Eggs and milk
So, should we play classical music to infants and children? I'll confess I do get these CDs, but more to counter the constant blaring of rap and hard rock from radio and television. The studies on music and the brain do suggest, not surprisingly, that "slow" music (less than 100 beats a minute) seems to be generally more beneficial to animals (including us) than fast music (more than 120 beats a minute).
One New Scientist article had the headline, "Dogs prefer Bach to Britney," where dogs were exposed to music from Britney Spears, Robbie Williams, Bob Marley and a classical CD that included Grieg, Vivaldi and Beethoven. Oh, for additional comparison, they also had Metallica, a recording of human conversation and a tape that was silent. The dogs responded by becoming noiser (Metallica) or more calm (Bach). Pop music had effects no different from the silent tape.
Another New Scientist article, "Moosic to their ears," reported on milk production in cows. Beethoven seemed to stimulate lactation while the Beatles had the opposite effect.
Chickens, too, seem to boost egg production listening to classical music, although an increase was found, too, for Pink Floyd.
Okay, okay, so we aren't chickens or cows. But hey, there's also an Israeli study looking at fast music and its effect on driving. Yes, you guessed it, fast music, especially played loud, seemed to induce drivers to take more risks (which presumably mean more accidents). Note that this was not a specific study on classical music, but generally we'd say rock music has a faster tempo than classical pieces. And I do find that I get more easily agitated if I'm driving with rock music...or even particularly powerful opera music.
Filipinos and classical music
One of my biggest frustrations in the Philippines is the difficulty getting good classical music-dzFE, the one and only classical station, has reduced its hours, and the music stores...ask the clerks for "classical" and they point to Frank Sinatra.
I hear Filipinos dismissing classical music as "elitist" or "Western," which is a shame because for all our claims of being a very musical people, we do miss out on very fine music. Not just the Mozart effect and the cow's milk or whatever, but even a chance to participate in the global classical music scene. South Korea, Japan, China and even Singapore now have classical music performers recognized globally. To Imelda Marcos' credit, her support of training for young classical artists did produce Cecile Licad. These days, the support has been negligible.
Don't forget classical music includes chorale pieces and that's a niche we could fill, some of our choirs and chorale groups having won numerous international awards. But again, without government support, the appreciation for classical music will remain limited.
Sure it takes more, much more than classical music to raise a child or do an Inquirer column or nurse a shattered heart (thanks, Justine), but we do miss out on so much by not promoting classical music enough. I do appreciate the Beatles (not having to produce milk) and Paolo Santos and good acoustic music, but what we seem to favor is really atrocious music, the barrage of rap and Sex Bombs. I wouldn't be surprised if some researcher finds, eventually, that music like that is contributing to the dumbing down of the Filipino.
Posted 11:08pm (Mla time) Jan 25, 2005
By Michael Tan
Inquirer News Service
Editor's Note: Published on page A13 of the January 26, 2005 issue of the Philippine Daily Inquirer
FRIENDS ask, with sympathy and concern, how I've been able to do my columns, teach, raise Alunsina and do the usual thousand other little tasks while nursing a fractured foot and a broken heart. I smile sadly, and then answer with courage: "Mozart."
No, Mozart isn't a new dog or lover (a canine being preferable these days). I'm referring to classical music in general, my mention of Mozart coming from the growing body of literature around the "Mozart effect" or alleged benefits of classical music for everything from an infant's mental development to boosting egg production in chickens.
I can attest to that with life the last two weeks. I'd get up in the morning asking why the sun had to rise but when I stumble into my study, switch on my satellite radio and as music streams in from a classical station, everything seems so much more manageable. No miraculous effects of course-I know some of my recent columns have sort of plodded along-but I really believe classical music does help.
I'm better today, thank you, and thought I should pay homage to Bach and Beethoven by doing an overview of studies around classical music.
Mozart and Einstein
Let's start with the Mozart effect, a term coined back in 1993 when researchers reported that college students listening to a particular Mozart piece (Sonata for two pianos in D major, K448) performed better in tests for spatial temporal intelligence. After that, researchers began doing all kinds of studies on the effects of Mozart's music with all kinds of claims about beneficial effects for people suffering all kinds of health problems, from Alzheimer's to epilepsy.
The most publicized ones are those around the use of Mozart's music by pregnant mothers. The result? These days, you get all kinds of tapes and CDs in music stores, including local ones, offering classical music and claiming these will help fetuses as well as babies to develop their spatial-temporal abilities. The "Baby Einstein" products, which claim music can help stimulate a child's intellectual development, have separate Mozart, Bach and Beethoven CDs. The Mozart effect has become a generic term for classical music in general since the studies suggest Schubert and Bach have beneficial effects similar to that of Mozart.
I wish I had more space to describe the tests here (sample: getting rats to run around a mazeway while listening to Mozart 12 hours a day over two months!) but let me just say the tests aren't all that conclusive. One Harvard study, for example, with 714 subjects, concluded that the benefit of Mozart was more of "enjoyment arousal"-an improvement of listeners' mood-rather than a direct improvement of brain function.
No matter. The tests do show some effects on the brain and the effects may be due to a particular pattern in the music. Music with sequences that repeat regularly every 20 to 30 seconds seem to elicit the best responses from the brain, maybe because sleep wave patterns also occur in 30-second cycles.
Compositions by Bach and Mozart seem to have such sequences. Another classical composer, Philip Glass, has a completely different pattern, and doesn't seem to elicit the Mozart effect. On the other hand, a particular piece from New Age composer Yanni, "Acroyali/Standing in Motion," seems to bring out the Mozart effect as well.
Eggs and milk
So, should we play classical music to infants and children? I'll confess I do get these CDs, but more to counter the constant blaring of rap and hard rock from radio and television. The studies on music and the brain do suggest, not surprisingly, that "slow" music (less than 100 beats a minute) seems to be generally more beneficial to animals (including us) than fast music (more than 120 beats a minute).
One New Scientist article had the headline, "Dogs prefer Bach to Britney," where dogs were exposed to music from Britney Spears, Robbie Williams, Bob Marley and a classical CD that included Grieg, Vivaldi and Beethoven. Oh, for additional comparison, they also had Metallica, a recording of human conversation and a tape that was silent. The dogs responded by becoming noiser (Metallica) or more calm (Bach). Pop music had effects no different from the silent tape.
Another New Scientist article, "Moosic to their ears," reported on milk production in cows. Beethoven seemed to stimulate lactation while the Beatles had the opposite effect.
Chickens, too, seem to boost egg production listening to classical music, although an increase was found, too, for Pink Floyd.
Okay, okay, so we aren't chickens or cows. But hey, there's also an Israeli study looking at fast music and its effect on driving. Yes, you guessed it, fast music, especially played loud, seemed to induce drivers to take more risks (which presumably mean more accidents). Note that this was not a specific study on classical music, but generally we'd say rock music has a faster tempo than classical pieces. And I do find that I get more easily agitated if I'm driving with rock music...or even particularly powerful opera music.
Filipinos and classical music
One of my biggest frustrations in the Philippines is the difficulty getting good classical music-dzFE, the one and only classical station, has reduced its hours, and the music stores...ask the clerks for "classical" and they point to Frank Sinatra.
I hear Filipinos dismissing classical music as "elitist" or "Western," which is a shame because for all our claims of being a very musical people, we do miss out on very fine music. Not just the Mozart effect and the cow's milk or whatever, but even a chance to participate in the global classical music scene. South Korea, Japan, China and even Singapore now have classical music performers recognized globally. To Imelda Marcos' credit, her support of training for young classical artists did produce Cecile Licad. These days, the support has been negligible.
Don't forget classical music includes chorale pieces and that's a niche we could fill, some of our choirs and chorale groups having won numerous international awards. But again, without government support, the appreciation for classical music will remain limited.
Sure it takes more, much more than classical music to raise a child or do an Inquirer column or nurse a shattered heart (thanks, Justine), but we do miss out on so much by not promoting classical music enough. I do appreciate the Beatles (not having to produce milk) and Paolo Santos and good acoustic music, but what we seem to favor is really atrocious music, the barrage of rap and Sex Bombs. I wouldn't be surprised if some researcher finds, eventually, that music like that is contributing to the dumbing down of the Filipino.
posted by Dante at 5:09 PM
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