Music and Healing: Why Mozart?

The Mozart Effect: What is it about?A few yearsMemory found that preschoolers who had
ago there was quite a bit in the newspaper andreceived eight months of music lessons scored 80
popular magazines about "The Mozart Effect."percent higher on object-assembly tasks than did
Many people believed that simply listening to theother youngsters who received no musical training.
music of Mozart would raise their I.Q. andThat means the music students had elevated
marketers went to work churning out CD's ofspatial temporal reasoning--the ability to think
Mozart's music for nearly every conceivableabstractly and to visualize physical forms and their
daytime and night-time task. As a professionalpossible variations, the higher-level cognition critical
musician and a musicologist, I had a little problemto mathematics and engineering.Music students
with that idea then and I still do. However, aftercontinue to outperform their non-arts peers on
talking with my friend Don Campbell, author ofthe SAT, according to the 1999 "Profiles of SAT
"The Mozart Effect" I believe that he did not tryand Achievement Test Takers" from The College
in any way to mislead the public into thinking thatBoard. Students with coursework in music study
it does. His definition of "the Mozart Effect" isappreciation scored 61 points higher on the verbal
simply the use of any music at all for any healingportion of the test and 42 points higher on the
purpose at all. That's a pretty widelymath portion than students with no coursework
encompassing concept. Because I did believe inor experience in the arts. Students in music
this I submitted two stories from my own musicperformance scored 53 points higher on the
medicine practice which he did subsequentlyverbal portion and 39 points higher on the math
incorporate into the book. Still, confusion existsportion than students with no arts
and I thought it might be helpful to elucidate a littleparticipation.Mean SAT Scores for Students with
bit on some of the original research.It is said thatCoursework or Experience in Music - 1999Music:
Albert Einstein was a mediocre student until heStudy or Appreciation
began playing the violin. "Before that, he had aVerbal: 538
hard time expressing what he knew," says HazelMath: 534Music Performance
Cheilek, orchestra director at Fairfax County'sVerbal: 530
Thomas Jefferson High School for Science andMath: 531No Coursework or Experience
Technology, a magnet school where more than aVerbal: 477
third of the students also play or sing in musicalMath: 492All of this to say "you be the judge"
ensembles. "Einstein said he got some of hisbut listening to Mozart certainly won't hurt you.
greatest inspirations while playing violin. It liberatedMy point always is that making music is preferable
his brain so that he could imagine." In the earlyto passive listening and that listening to live music
1700s, England's King George I also felt he wouldis always preferable to listening to recorded music.
make better decisions if he listened to goodMozart will not, repeat WILL NOT raise your I.Q.
music. Reportedly, Handel responded bybut it might help you organize your thoughts
composing his Water Music suites to be playedbetter before taking a standardized test. Dr.
while the king floated the Thames on his royalAlfred Tomatis, with whom Don Campbell and I
barge. Even Plato in ancient Greece believedhave both studied and who has researched the
studying music created a sense of order andhealing benefits of Mozart's music, recommends
harmony necessary for intelligent thought. Canthe Five Violin Concerti above all of Mozart's other
music really make us think better?In 1993,music for healing properties. Please feel free to
researchers at the University of California atwrite me with any questions you might have
Irvine discovered the so-called "Mozart Effect" -about Mozart or anything else related to music
that college students who listened to ten minutesand healing.Helping people to use music for Healing
of Mozart's Sonata for Two Pianos in D majorand Wellness, Dr. Alice Cash stresses the use of
K448 before taking an IQ test scored nine pointsmusic for health, learning, motivation, relaxation,
higher than when they had sat in silence orenergy building, or well-being. She is known
listened to relaxation tapes. Other studies haveinternationally for her work with music and
indicated that people retain information better ifpregnancy, surgery, addictions, and Alzheimer's
they hear classical or baroque music whiledisease. A concert pianist, musicologist, and
studying.The most profound effects take place inpsychotherapist, she has traveled around the
young children, while their brains literally areworld teaching, entertaining and bringing hope to
growing. This year, the same researchers atthousands of people with various conditions.Dr.
Irvine's Center for Neurobiology of Learning and