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Who Was
Mozart?
Wolfgang Amadeus
Mozart was born on January 27, 1756 in Salzburg, Austria, and died a premature
death on December 5, 1971 as a 35-year old. His musical brilliance was seen
very early in his life when, as a four or five year old he wrote his first
composition Andante in C.
During his short
lifespan Mozart managed to compose 600 composition works. Many believe his
music to have been the pinnacle of concertante, symphonic, chamber, operatic,
choral and piano music.
Love him or
hate him, but Mozart has left a legacy that is still appreciated by music
lovers and students of music to-date. There is no doubt, even among his critics
that Mozart composed his best work shortly before his untimely death. The
Requiem is one of these pieces.
Joseph Haydn,
another classical composer well known and appreciated for his musical talents
wrote about Mozart: “posterity will not
see such a talent again in 100 years."
What is
interesting to note is that Mozart showed manic depressive tendencies
throughout his adult years. Perhaps it is this close encounter with madness
that enabled his extraordinary talents? Fact is, he was talented beyond his age
and time.
Inside The
Mozart Effect
The Mozart
Effect came about thanks to Dr. Alfred Tomatis' research. He analyzed the
effects of Mozart's music on children who suffer from communication and speech
disorders.
Thanks
to Dr. Tomatis' findings the term Mozart Effect was coined; in its basic
description it signifies the transformational power of music in education,
well-being and health.
Since the Mozart
Effect became known as a special method to deal with cognitive education for
small children and those who suffer from disorders such as dyslexia, autism,
ADD, mental disorders, listening disorders, injuries and physical disorders
much has been said and written about the term.
To-date the
academic world is torn between results of the research that has gone into the
Mozart Effect since its inception. While some researchers found it to be based
on truth, others dismissed it as hearsay after doing extensive testing
themselves. You'll learn more about either side of the argument within the scope
of this eBook to help you understand both sides.
Mozart's
distinctive Baroque music is used to soothe the mind, induce sleep and
relaxation, reduce depression, anxiety and stress, improve awareness and memory
and awaken the body.
 |
Research into the
music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart first took place during the late 1950s. Dr.
Tomatis had the idea to experiment with auditory stimulation in order to help
children with communication and speech problems.
What started out
as a simple experiment soon became so successful that by 1990 hundreds of
centers had been established. All of them aim to help children with Mozart's
Baroque music.
Thanks to the
high frequencies of the symphonies and violin concertos in the Maestro's music
it was possible to aid kids with problems related to autism, speech disorders
and dyslexia.
Shortly before the turn of the century the University of California
took up new studies to experiment with Mozart's music in order to further spacial
intelligence.
Why Mozart –
wouldn't any other classical
music do the same job?
It is clear to
all of Mozart's fans that he was a master of his art. During his short life
Mozart wrote over six hundred major compositions. He started out at the early
age of five. When Dr. Tomatis researched high-frequency music and its effect on
our well-being he soon singled out Mozart's works for further studies, hence
the Mozart Effect was coined.
It is also
widely believed and understood that Mozart's music is the most researched and
popular in the classical genre.
Can I use other classical music for
learning?
You certainly
can. As far as classical music goes you can experiment with different composers
to find the music that speaks to your heart. Depending on the intensity of the
music some compositions are better suited for relaxation while others are ideal
to raise your heartbeat.
Try the
following Baroque composers for a change; Handel, Bach and Correli.
What is the best way to use Baroque
music to improve productivity, creativity and study?
Everybody
responds different to the stimuli of music. While some people become hyper-responsive,
others fall asleep while listening to a concerto. People usually struggle to
concentrate when they are over-stimulated or extremely worn out and tired.
You'd be
surprised how classical Baroque music can activate your concentration levels
while helping you to soothe your brain and nerves. The easiest way to get into
a study mood is by switching off all distractions from your environment.
To
do this, invest into a good set of headphones and listen to Mozart or other
classical music while you study and learn.
 |
One of the
reasons the Mozart Effect has become so successful is because of the healing
attributes of sound. As you might or might not know, sound is a vibrational
field transformed into music, languages and tone.
Organized sound expresses itself in the form of words, expressions,
ideas and feelings, whereas in a disorganized form sound becomes simple noise.
Most of us have
trouble to tolerate noise but since we all perceive sound to be different it is
also experienced with different emotions by us all.
This
is especially transparent in music; what might be the favorite song of your
teenage son could sound like a disorganized noise to you.
Due to its
soothing capabilities the Mozart Effect achieves healing in the sense that our
mind, body and spirit become one. Mozart's music is perceived by many as
harmonious, gentle, powerful and sad. It helps us to evoke feelings, puts us in
touch with our roots and connects us to our brain.
We feel more
energized, alive and inspired to deal with just about any situation. The
Baroque music of Mozart can also help to alleviate pain thanks to its healing
properties.
However, one should never see music to be the all-in-one solution to
healing because it is not.
A lot of factors
play into the equation when an attempt to heal with music is made; the
environment, your state of mind, your health are just a few to mention.
Can music
raise my I.Q. Levels?
Our
intelligence is measured in different ways. A lot of studies have been made
about the intelligence of humans and whether music can actually raise our I.Q.
or not.
Studies have
uncovered that if children are exposed to classical music from an early age it can help build their
neural pathways. Those pathways are directly responsible for spatial, memory
and language development. Other studies have shown students exposed to Mozart's
music prior to testing were able to score better marks than those who weren't.
 |
If you've been
researching the Mozart Effect for some time you've probably heard of Don
Campbell before. Born in Texas, Mr. Campbell studied classical music in Europe
during his high school years. As a student of legendary Jean Casadesus and
Nadia Boulanger at the Fountainebleu Conservatory in France Campbell began his
career as a music critic and teacher.
His passion for
music soon led Campbell to travels around the world to further his interest in
sound and healing. During his travels he researched and documented the role
music plays in our lives in regards to psychology, therapy, imagery
applications and more. Eventually he founded the Institute of Music, Health and
Education.
Don Campbell also
became a widely accepted and respected author of 23 books of which The
Mozart Effect® and the Mozart Effect®
for Children became his most popular.
He also
recorded a top-selling 16 Music for the
Mozart Effect® CD which dominated the classical charts for several years.
Sound Bites
- How Sounds Influence People
Music is a powerful tool, so much so that it is worth exploring
further to show you its true powers. The first thing you need to understand
about music is how any type of
music can influence your behavior.
While classical
music is soothing for most of us, rock music has been found to make us eat
faster and eat more by researchers at the John Hopkins University. Classical
music on the other hand makes us eat less and with more awareness.
 |
Mozart's music is
found to assist both the left and right hand side of our brain, helping us to
overcome the typical left brain dominance in our Western society.
Scientists
believe that when we listen to Mozart we enjoy an increased sense of intuition
and concentration. This is achieved by the music's ability to organize neuron
firing patterns in our cerebral cortex.
 |
Geogi Lozanov, a
Bulgarian psychotherapist has proven the fact that listening to slow Baroque
music will aid learning. His Suggestopedia
teaching method has been found to improve language studies by up to five
times faster than using conventional learning methods.
However, the
teachings of Lozanov are not limited to the study of languages. He has also
seen great results in other fields of studies.
Other music such as the soothing Gregorian Chant music has also be
found to improve concentration for students while learning.
Researchers have
long known that Baroque music with around 60 beats per minute can accelerate
learning. For decades scholars of all creed and age have taken advantage of
these findings and implemented Baroque music into their teaching programs.
Baroque music is said to enhance our memory – both short and long
term, and there is experimental evidence it helps to stimulate the growth of
plants while other types of music such as acid rock kills them.
What are
the psychological effects of Baroque music?
When
we listen to Baroque music our heartbeat slows down, our blood pressure
decreases, beta (fast) brain waves slow down by about six percent while alpha
brain waves (the slow kind) increase as much.
This allows the
synchronization of both brain hemispheres. The resulting effect is also called alert relaxation. In this state of
conscience our body is more efficient and able to function on less output of
energy.
 |
Some people say
the type of music you listen to will either make you smart or dumb. I would
have to disagree with this narrow-minded view. It's just as misleading as
saying smart people wear Hugo Boss while dumb people wear high street fashion.
While much data
has been analyzed about the power of music there is no definite proof to say
music makes you dumb. What we can safely say though is that music certainly
influences our reactions to the environment.
A person who
listens to Rap music consistently is more aggressive than a person who favors
classical music. To say they are therefore dumber is simply a cheap argument.
 |
The Journal of the American Medical Association took
out a study during which expectant mothers were exposed to classical music in
labor. They found that those who did listen to this type of music didn't
require anaesthetics thanks to the release of endorphins. The study also found
that many mothers- to-be were distracted from their pain which also helped to
release anxiety.
Other studies uncovered that babies in the early stages of pregnancy
actually preferred the music of Vivaldi and Mozart to those of other composers.
On the contrary,
if pregnant women listened to rock their foetuses were found to be more
aggravated with plenty of kicking and increases in their heart rates.
 |
Since we are all
affected by sounds measures had to be put in place to study our perception to
sound. To measure psychosomatic changes, psychological changes, emotional
experience and the psychoacoustical characteristic of music researchers had to
develop different tests.
As you probably
realize by now, there is no universal defined knowledge that states music
triggers certain reactions in humans. Due to conflicting tests and the
complexity of music it is simply impossible to determine our reactions to it as
academically sound at this point in time.
One such study was made to measure our heart rate and blood pressure
while listening to music. As you can probably guess, the results were varied.
Some tests
indicated it is indeed possible to stimulate our heart with stimulating music
while decreasing it with sedative tunes. On the contrary
some
studies found it didn't matter whether we listened to upbeat or relaxing music;
the heart beat was increased on both counts.
Gerra, another
researcher found that exposure to techno music was responsible for systolic
blood pressure, stress and increased heart rate. On the other hand he
documented that classical music didn't change these parameters significantly.
Another aspect
many test groups seem to oversee is the fact that we are all governed by our
preferences and age. While an older gentleman might prefer classical music to
loud rock, a teenager might think the world of loud rock and feels empowered by
it. Some people even deem music to be emotionally arousing.
How to
Harness the Power of Mozart
An easy way to
harness the power of Mozart's Baroque music is through sleep learning. By now you have read a lot about conscious
learning with the help of classical music, but you can take this one step
further and use Mozart's works to program your brain while you sleep.
Sleep learning
has enabled thousands of students from around the world to learn faster through
the subconscious power of our brain during their sleep.
It has been scientifically proven that we are capable to absorb
complex information while we sleep. Learning material is played to us during
the sleep cycle, allowing us to learn with the help of our subconscious.
This is a very
powerful way to harness our own power. It can enable you to learn a foreign
language, improve your mental attitude and even undertake professional studies
for a degree.
Many
professionals involved in the studies of learning believe this to be a
stress-free way to learn.
On average a
human uses around five percent of the brain's capacity leaving 95 percent
unused and wasted.
As
a matter of fact, sleep learning is so powerful that one Hungarian student
managed to win a BBC contest in the UK by memorizing one thousand and
twenty-six English words in as little as six weeks thanks to sleep learning.
The Mozart Effect
could be tied in with sleep learning by combining the music of Mozart with
learning materials that are being played to the student at night.
A
secondary way to harness Mozart's music is to wind down one hour before bedtime
by listening to it and then use sleep learning techniques to study during
sleep.
Parents with
autistic children know too well of the frustrations experienced by the general
misconception about autistic children in our society. Many parents have seen
tremendous results by using the Mozart Effect on their autistic child, even so
there isn't an exact scientific explanation to prove the results without a
doubt.
Perhaps it is the
lack of proof that sees some people oppose the whole scenario as pokey.
Despite the opposition of the Mozart Effect theory a lot of parents
of autistic children have seen tremendous results with their kids after
exposing them to Mozart's music for a lengthy period of time each day; the kids
became more responsive to their direct environment and even made eye contact
with others
– an amazing accomplishment for autistic people.
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Others use the
Mozart Effect to improve the state of their harvest such as Tuscan winemaker
Carlo Cagnozzi who swears by the power of Mozart's music. He has believed into
the power of music ever since playing the accordion to his grapes some ten
years ago. When he learned about the Mozart Effect he started playing the
composer's music to his vines and never looked back. He says: "It ripens them faster," adding
that it also keeps away parasites and birds.
Can Mozart
help with aggressive kids?
The American
Psychological Society has published a report that stated research proved the
link between youth violence and violent media, including music.
I
think it safe to say that children model aggression from exposure to movies,
TV, music and games. Having said this, adults do too.
If someone is exposed to aggression for a lengthy period of time it
becomes second nature to them because they lose touch with reality.
If you are
dealing with an overly aggressive child it might be best to try and establish
some form of mutual respect. The first step in doing this is to try and
minimize their exposure to violence. You can do this by reducing their TV
watching time while increasing your family quality time.
It is a sad
state of our society to stick children in front of the TV to gain a few moments
of solitude. Those few moments soon become a few hours before becoming a habit
that will be hard to break.
Unless you treat your child with respect it will be hard to demand
the same in return. The best way to lead your children is by giving them:
Ø Fair discipline
Ø A harmonious
family environment
Ø Love
Ø Acceptance
Ø Your time
Ø Encouragement
Ø Respect
If
all of the above doesn't seem to turn your child from aggressive to loving,
then you should seek professional counseling.
It is pointless
to try and turn an aggravated child around with Mozart if the child can't stand
classical music to start with.
You are much better off trying to talk with your child
and meet it on its own emotional
level without getting carried away emotionally. Since you are the adult, you
need to demonstrate control.
Much like humans
respond to sounds so do animals, especially pets. While I'm not a scholar, much
less a psychologist I did experiment a little with my pet birds to see how they
reacted to Mozart's music or classical music in general, opposed to listening
to rap or rock.
What I found was
encouraging. My birds were found to be more calm and relaxed, even to the
extent of happily whistling a tune of sorts while listening to classical music
in general. On the contrary they showed some levels of aggression while being
exposed to rap or some rock music. Despite my own little experiment I'm aware
that those results are not conclusive. To be as such more detailed studies
would have to be made, recording in detail the progress of a wide range of pets
to see whether there is a common behavior in regards to the type of music they
listen to.
Mozart
Effect Studies
The earliest
records about the effects of music on the human brain were made in 1988. Gordon
Shaw, neurobiologist and a graduate student by the name of Xiaodan Leng tried
to model human brain activity on a computer at Irvine's University of
California.
During their
tests they found a connection between our nerve cells and other predisposed
cell groups. They then tested the output of our nerves with the input of music
to see whether there was a noticeable change. What they found was both
revolutionary and surprising; the rhythmic patterns sounded much like the
normal imprint they had recorded pre-music testing with strong characteristics
of new age, Baroque and Eastern music.
As a result of
their findings Shaw then hypothesized that it might be possible to understand
the brain's neural activity by trying to work it in reverse; observing how it
responded to the stimuli of music. He believed it might be possible the brain
would respond to patterns in music by activating a cluster of similar firing
patterns in the nerves.
On October 14, 1993 Shaw in conjunction with Katherine Ky and
Frances Rauscher published in Nature a
short summary of their experimental findings what they coined the “Mozart Effect.”
During their
experiment 36 Irvine students were separated into three groups:
·
Group A listened to a selection of Mozart's music
(Sonata in D major for Two Pianos, K488).
·
Group B listened to a "relaxation tape,"
·
and group C was to experience ten minutes of
silence.
After the
conclusion of this first part of the test all of the 36 students were exposed
to a spatial I.Q. test. The test involved the correct guessing of paper shapes
after they had been folded and cut.
The result was astounding; the students who had listened to Mozart's
music (group A) were averaging a 8-9 point increase in their intelligence
quotient compared to the other two groups.
Despite
the success the actual I.Q. increase was short-lived, lasting only around ten
minutes.
This first test into the Mozart Effect stirred up enough interest in
the academic world to prompt further testing to be done.
When a test was concluded at the University of Auckland in 1994 by Kerkin, Stough, Mangan and Bates no
conclusive results could be found to prove the Mozart Effect.
It is to be noted that the I.Q. test used in
the Auckland experiment was from the Advanced
Progressive Matrices of Raven while Rauscher had used the Standford -Binet Intelligence Scale.
A third test was
done in 1994 by Monseth and Kenealy during which the test subjects were exposed
to the Stanford-Binet I.Q. test
parameters. However, none of them showed any notable differences after having
been exposed to disco music, silence and Mozart (by equal thirds.)
In 1995 the
original Mozart Effect testing crew were once again exposing 79 test students
to the same I.Q test.
The only difference to the original separation of the
three groups was to
expose
the previous “silence” group to composer Philip Glass' music. Again the
“Mozart” group showed increased I.Q. ratings.
Further testing
also uncovered that people who listened to dance music didn't improve their
I.Q.
Many consequential I.Q. tests were done in the years after and
several of them didn't see any spatial I.Q. increase after test results were
established.
Then in 1996 and
1997 two separate studies were performed at Ursinus College in Collegeville,
Pennsylvania. Lead by Taylor and Rideout further evidence to the effectiveness
of the Mozart Effect was established.
Taylor and
Rideout also recorded measured changes in the brain wave activity of the test
students, indicating there was a direct connection between Mozart's music and a
person's I.Q. score. Once again, the increase in the test subjects intelligence
was only temporary.
What The
Skeptics Say
Despite all the
advocates of the Mozart Effect there always has been and will be those that
oppose the effect. In 1998 Christopher Chabris, a then graduate student at
Harvard University questioned the Mozart Effect studies of the previous five
years. He conducted his own research during which he examined sixteen of the
Mozart Effect studies.
His conclusion
showed that listening to Mozart wasn't making people smarter.
Sceptics like Eric Seigel and Lois Hetland had to admit that there
was some kernel of truth to the Mozart Effect after having done some extensive testing to prove it all wrong.
In
1999 Kenneth Steele of Appalachian State University took out the most recent
Mozart Effect studies with Melissa Crook and Karen Bass.
After extensive
testing the Rauscher et al. original test with the Philip Glass switch in the
third group they found that group C showed the biggest number of correct
answers out of the lot, which failed to support the original Mozart Effect
experiment.
Is It
Really Just Hype – The Science Behind It All
As scientists
gain more and more knowledge about our neurological capabilities we can learn
to appreciate the immense, undiscovered powers that lie in the human brain.
Many
begin to understand that we have barely touched the “nerve” (pun intended) of the subject matter and many theories are
being put forth in regards to how music effects the brain in various ways.
 |
It is known to
us that our ability to percept music takes place in the right hemisphere of the
brain. It is the same hemisphere able to perform long term sequencing
operations and spatial cogitation.
Roederer
even went as far as saying: "Musical
perception does involve the analysis of spatial excitation patterns along the
auditory receptor organ."
A neurologist at
the University of Illinois, John Hughes evaluated hundreds of music
compositions and found that sequences with repeat triggers after every 20-30 seconds,
such as Mozart's music, showed the strongest brain responses in test subjects.
This is
partially due to the brain's natural cycles.
Hughes tested his
theory on a group of severely epileptic patients, many of them experiencing
seizures close to the comatose point. Out of 36 test subjects 29 showed measurable success after listening to the
music of Mozart; with less severe and fewer
seizures.
Interestingly
the same group was also exposed to Glass' compositions among others, showing no
improvement.
Similar
improvements were found by Julene Johnson at the University of California while
testing Alzheimer's disease patients. Many showed drastic
improvement
after a 10-minute Mozart session with parts of the Stanford- Binet Intelligence Scale.
In a combined
study to measure the impact of the Mozart Effect with MRI (magnetic resonance
imaging) both Mark Bodner and fellow neurologist Gordon Shaw (co-researcher of
the Mozart Effect) found that all styles used in the test (Mozart, 30s pop
music and Beethoven) activated the auditory cortex. The auditory cortex is the
place where your brain processes sounds.
They
also found that Mozart's music was the only one to stimulate other areas of the
brain to activate fine motor coordination processes. This could explain
improved spatial reasoning.
 |
The University of
Fribourg in Switzerland conducted an interesting test to prove that the Mozart
Effect also had the capabilities to improve the psychological effect in humans.
A study was conducted to test a group of children by giving them
increased music education while decreasing their studies of mathematics and
language.
It is interesting
to note that this subject group performed no worse at math tests than those who
had been exposed to increased math studies.
While these tests measure the impact of music on our perception,
intelligence and ability to absorb new information there is no concluding proof
that states music effects are thoroughly understood at this point in time.
Tests
with early babies and foetuses during pregnancy have shown that we perceive
music (especially classical music) as a sensory experience.
Therefore the brain gets excited, triggering “happy feelings.”
What we do know
about sensory stimulation is that if the brain is deprived of it for long
periods of time our neural pathways shrink and eventually disappear.
Studies on the
subject of sensory deprivation have shown that we can experience a loss of
I.Q., a loss of memory and even changes to our personality.
In Conclusion
There is no doubt
that the Mozart Effect has created a stir in the academic world as well as in
the eyes of the general public. Whether you have been exposed to the Mozart
Effect through academic studies or by reading Don Campbell's Mozart books it is
safe to say that a lot of people lucky enough to have been exposed to the
subject, because of personal illness, disease or ailments had the chance to
better their circumstances.
If this was made
possible by sheer coincidence or through the help of Mozart's music will never
be known for certain until we learn more about the human brain and its hard
wiring.
Much
can be said for all the claims that support the theory and just as much can be
said against them. In the end your beliefs are or will be founded on your
experience with the music of Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart.
To be fair I
think it is safe to say that classical music has its merits in regards to
calming the listener. I have yet to hear of a person who demonstrated
aggressive behavior after listening to classical music.
For most of us it
is a soothing, relaxing experience allowing us to daydream, learn and relax all
at once. Having said this, there are plenty of people who can't stand listening
to classical music. To say it would be relaxing for them would be a lie.
A lot of
non-academic people perceive Mozart's music as a quality experience during
which we can chill out, forget about our everyday worries and simply relax.
Here are some
ideas how you can enjoy the Mozart Effect (or any classical music) to help
soothe your busy mind. Whether you do this daily or a couple of times a week
doesn't matter.
What does matter is the experience of the sensory sensations while
listening to classical music:
·
Play it softly during your sleep.
·
Soak in a hot bath while listening to one of
Mozart's compositions.
·
Buy an mp3 player
and take Mozart to the beach, while you walk, while you work out at the gym or
even during your lunch break at work.
·
Listen to classical music before you go to sleep
each night.
·
Meditate with classical music.
·
Indulge in a massage with Mozart played softly in
the background.
·
Turn up the volume while laying on the couch,
totally immersing yourself into the
melodies of Mozart's works.
For all it's
worth, the Mozart Effect needs to be explored further, even if you are simply
going to increase your exposure to classical music to calm the mind. I think
unless you are an academic looking to further your studies into the subject you
should enjoy Mozart for what Mozart is – a true genius at his craft and one of
the best composers to ever have lived on this planet.
With that said,
it's time for Mozart’s Sonata for Two Pianos in D Major, K. 448 to wrap up this
eBook. I hope you enjoyed learning more about the Mozart Effect and if you are
new to Mozart's music, I encourage you to explore it some more.
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