Classical music, as much appreciated as viewed with distrust. Let’s find out together what benefits listening to classical music compositions entails.

BACKGROUND

Although it is little appreciated due to the difficult understanding and due to the “excessive” duration of the works, symphonies and sonatas, classical music has significant therapeutic benefits for the body. Having become the object of study by numerous scholars, this musical genre differs widely from the music that we could consider general or – better to say – commercial to which we are used to listening.

MOZART EFFECT

Physicists such as Gordon Shaw and Frances Rauscher have devised what is the Mozart effect. This study conceived evidence of how symphonies composed by Wolfgang A. Mozart are able to calm a person’s spirits, accompanying the heartbeat to slow down. Additionally, his music works on the brain by releasing dopamine which most likely improves cognitive performance; increases concentration and attention.

In this regard, it could be very useful to let a pregnant woman listen to Mozart’s pieces. Further research even claims that Beethoven’s music is a valid method to support plant growth.

BENEFITS

What other benefits does classical music bring to the body? Listening to classical music before bedtime allows the individual to sleep better. Furthermore, listening to pieces, or tempos, in Adagio, Cantabile, or Chopin’s Nocturnes reduce cortisol levels and increase the relaxation phase.

In addition, listening to classical music has been found to improve productivity in doing one’s work. Used in working contexts, it allows workers to operate more harmoniously and efficiently.

THAT EXTRA GEAR

But how does this music differ from the “typical” music we usually hear? We will not go into highlighting all the evolutionary aspects of music even though we have treatises and bibliographic sources that I can affirm that Greek music can also be an “awakening for the body”, as well as Gregorian chant or Baroque music that embraces famous authors such as Bach , Handel, Scarlatti, Vivaldi and many others, but we will focus on the historical period that goes from the second half of the 18th century to the end of the 19th century.

In these two centuries, the most famous currents include the post-baroque, classicism and romanticism. Music was a tool for entertaining the public at court, in salons and in theatres. The musical pieces were commissioned by the noble figures of the time. Atri were employed as masters of hats, considered the sacredness of music in the period of the modern age and in the contemporary age.

And it is in this period that music broadens those horizons limited by counterpoint and the meager number of elements grouped together for the performance of a symphony. The number of instrumentalists in the orchestra increases considerably in concerts (musical composition form) and symphonies. The harmonies used become more complex and fill that feeling of emptiness that the hearing creates, now dissatisfied with the kind of music used to hearing for years. Innovation that initially was not appreciated by all.

Thanks also to the manufacturing of certain instruments, such as the piano, music has no longer granted limits to the powerful levels of sound with the music of Chopin, Rachmaninov or Tchaikovsky. In conjunction with the improvements from the sound point of view, the harmonic side also undergoes slight but notable variations.

Gradually we move further and further away from tonal harmony which at first arouses no small perplexity in the minds of critics but immediately gaining notoriety in the great Italian theaters thanks to the works of Verdi, Rossini and Puccini.

CONCLUSIONS

Classical music has a repertoire without equal. The choice is countless and despite the means we have today to choose what to listen to, people limit themselves to moving on to the next song after just 30 seconds, dissatisfied with the harmony it creates paradoxically on a vinyl record that has been listened to thousands of times given the difficulty in affording a large discography of genres from every historical period.

For the less experienced in the sector who do not know which music to approach in order to verify a positive change of mood and a regeneration for the body, we recommend listening to Chopin’s nocturnes; Mozart’s Concerto (K. 488); Rachmaninov’s preludes and Symphony No. 6 by Beethoven.
Happy listening!